Cool Pi CM5 evaluation board features Rockchip RK3588/RK3588J system-on-module

Cool Pi CM5 SBC

Cool Pi CM5 is a system-on-module based on Rockchip RK3588 or RK3588J (industrial temperature range) octa-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 processor with up to 32GB RAM, 256GB eMMC flash, offered with a development board with dual GbE, two 8K HDMI 2.1 ports, a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot, M.2 NVMe and SATA storage, and more… At the end of last year, we wrote about the Cool Pi 4 as a much faster alternative to Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, and the company has now launched a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and Radxa CM5 alternative with the Cool Pi CM5 MXM 3.0 system-on-module that they offer along with a feature-rich evaluation board (EVB). Cool Pi CM5 EVB specifications: System-on-Module SoC – Rockchip RK3588(J) octa-core processor with 4x Cortex‑A76  cores @ up to 2.4GHz, 4x Cortex‑A55 core @ 1.8GHz Arm Mali-G610 MP4 “Odin” GPU Video decoder – 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC, 4Kp60 […]

Cytron CM4 Maker Board review – Part 2: NVMe SSD, RTC, Buzzer, Grove modules, ChatGPT…

Cytron CM4 Maker board Review

We’ve already checked out Cytron’s CM4 Maker Board kit with a Raspberry Pi CM4 system-on-module and booted the system with the included 32GB “MAKERDISK” Class 10 microSD card preloaded Raspberry Pi OS in the first part of the review. For the second part of the CM4 Maker review, I’ve mostly used the 128GB NVMe SSD provided by the company and played with other features of the board including the RTC, the buzzer, some Seeed Studio grove modules, and even got help from ChatGPT for one of the Python programs I used. Booting Cytron CM4 Maker Board with the “MAKERDISK” NVMe SSD I connected several Grove modules with GPIO and I2C interfaces, a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3, an Ethernet cable, two RF dongles for a wireless keyboard and mouse, an HDMI cable to a monitor, and finally inserted the provided 5V/3.5A USB-C power adapter. The MAKERDISK SSD comes with Raspberry […]

PineTab-V RISC-V tablet devkit is based on StarFive JH7110 SoC, PineTab2 design

Pinetab2 RISC-V motherboard

The PineTab-V is a RISC-V tablet, or rather a tablet development kit, based on StarFive JH7110 quad-core RISC-V SoC, and with the same design as the upcoming Arm-based PineTab2 tablet that’s scheduled to launch on April 11. Pine64 just launched the Star64 single board computer to help with software development on Linux-capable RISC-V hardware, and they took the opportunity to lay out a tablet board based on the same JH7110 to replace the Rockchip RK3566 board found in the PineTab2, so eventually, a working sample should look like that… PineTab-V preliminary specifications: SoC – StarFive JH7110 with CPU – Quad-core 64-bit RISC-V (SiFive U74 – RV64GC) processor @ up to 1.5 GHz GPU – Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU @ up to 600 MHz supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan 1.2 VPU 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 video decoder 1080p30 H.265 video encoder System & Storage Option 1 – 4GB LPDDR4, 64GB eMMC flash […]

M5Stack CM4Stack – A tiny Raspberry Pi CM4 Linux computer with an integrated 2-inch display

CM4Stack mini PC Raspberry Pi CM4

M5Stack CM4Stack is a tiny Arm Linux mini PC based on Raspberry Pi CM4 that measures 59 x 44 x 46mm and integrates a 2-inch touchscreen display for information and control, as well as the usual ports you’d expect from a mini PC such as HDMI, USB 3.2 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and so on. We’ve previously written about M5Stack Core and Atom controllers based on ESP32 microcontrollers, an optional 2.0-inch display, and a few GPIOs. The company has now decided to provide a similar solution with a jump in performance and interfaces with the CM4Stack development kit. CM4Stack specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 (CM4104032) with SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.5 GHz System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC flash Wireless module with 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 Integrated display – 2.0-inch LCD with ST7789V2 controller, touchscreen function Video Output – HDMI […]

Pine64 Star64 SBC with StarFive JH7110 RISC-V SoC with GPU to launch for $69.99 and up

Pine64 RISC-V Linux single board computer

Pine64 Star64 is a single board computer (SBC) powered by StarFive JH7110 quad-core 64-bit RISC-V processor equipped with an Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU, and in a form factor similar to the earlier Pine64 model A boards such as the Quartz64 Model A. The Star64 SBC ships with either 4GB or 8GB of RAM, an HDMI 2.0 video output connector, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, USB 3.0 ports, a PCIe slot, and a GPIO header for expansion. Star64 specifications: SoC – StarFive JH7110 with CPU – Quad-core 64-bit RISC-V (SiFive U74 – RV64GC) processor @ up to 1.5 GHz GPU – Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU @ up to 600 MHz supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan 1.2 VPU 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 video decoder 1080p30 H.265 video encoder System Memory – 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – MicroSD card slot, eMMC flash module socket up to 128GB, 128Mbit […]

SOPHON BM1684/BM1684X Edge AI computer delivers up to 32 TOPS, decodes up to 32 Full HD videos simultaneously

Sophon BM1684 BM1684X Edge AI computer

Firefly EC-A1684JD4 FD and EC-A1684XJD4 FD are nearly identical Edge AI embedded computers based on respectively SOPHON BM1684 and BM1684X Arm AI SoC delivering up to 32 TOPS of AI inference, and capable of decoding up to 32 H.265/H.264 Full HD videos simultaneously for video analytics applications. The BM1684(X) SoCs are equipped with eight Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz to run Linux, and the systems come with up to 16GB RAM, 128GB flash, two Gigabit Ethernet ports to receive the video streams, one HDMI output up to 1080p30 for monitoring,  as well as RS232 and RS485 DB9 connectors, and a few USB ports. Firefly EC-A1684JD4 FD and EC-A1684XJD4 FD specifications: SoC – SOPHGO SOPHON BM1684/BM1684X CPU – Octa-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 2.3GHz TPU BM1684 64 NPU arithmetic units with each NPU containing 16 EU arithmetic units, or 1,024 EU in total Up to 17.6 TOPS (INT8), […]

iKOOLCORE R1 review – A quad 2.5GbE mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04, Proxmox

iKOOLCORE R1 review

When I first saw the iKOOLCORE R1 I was fascinated that a mini PC of similar size to the smallest fully functional ones available (think Chuwi LarkBox, GMK NucBox or ECS LIVA Q Series) could be equipped with four 2.5 gigabit Ethernet (2.5GbE) ports. I approached iKOOLCORE who kindly provided an R1 for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 and dabbled with using hypervisors on this mini PC through Proxmox virtual environment. iKOOLCORE R1 specifications iKOOLCORE list the R1 specifications on their website as: Of note are the ‘EC, FCC, RoHS’ certifications indicating both European conformity and approval for use in the US. Technically ‘EC’ refers to an ‘EC declaration of conformity’ which is not a certificate, however, the ‘EC declaration of conformity’ is called a ‘CE statement’ or ‘CE certificate’ which is why you often see this abbreviated as ‘CE’. The rest […]

Rockchip RK3588 embedded PCs support PoE, 4G LTE, 10GbE, 2.5-inch SATA HDD, and more

Mekotronics R58X-Pro embedded PC

Mekotronics R58X-Pro and R58X-HDD Rockchip RK3588 embedded PCs are updates to the company’s earlier R58X and R58X-4G mini PCs with features such as built-in PoE module, 4G LTE module, optional 10GbE M.2 PCIe 3.0 module, and a microSD card slot. The R58X-HDD also adds a 2.5-inch SATA bay for HDD or SSD, and the R58X-Pro implements a volume knob and a front panel display. Both R58X-Pro and R58X-HDD embedded PCs still come with up to 16GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, support dual 8K video output through HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, feature one HDMI 2.0 video input, two GbE ports, RS485 and RS232 interfaces, a few USB ports and more. Mekotronics R58X-Pro/R58X-HDD specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, a 6TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, or […]