MNT Pocket Reform 7-inch modular mini laptop takes a range of Arm (and FPGA) modules

MNT Pocket Reform

MNT Pocket Reform is an open-source hardware mini laptop with a 7-inch Full HD display, an ortholinear mechanical keyboard, and trackball, that follows the path of its older and bigger sibling:  the MNT Reform 2 laptop initially launched with an NXP i.MX 8M quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 module. The new laptop will not only support a similar “NXP i.MX 8M Plus” module but also a range of other Arm modules namely an NXP Layerscape LS1028A module with up to 16GB RAM, the Raspberry Pi CM4 module via an adapter, Pine64 SOQuartz (RK3566, up to 8GB RAM), as well as based on AMD Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA for industrial use. MNT Pocket Reform specifications: Available system-on-modules Standard: NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.8GHz with 4 or 8 GB DDR4, Vivante GC7000UL GPU, 2.3 TOPS NPU NXP Layerscape LS1028A dual-core Arm Cortex-A72 with 8 or 16GB DDR4, Vivante GC7000UL GPU Raspberry […]

Arm Linux IoT gateway ships with up to 8GB RAM, offers dual GbE, 4G LTE, WiFi 6, BLE 5.3, GNSS connectivity

Compulab IOT-GATE-IMX8PLUS

Compulab IOT-GATE-IMX8PLUS is a new Arm Linux IoT gateway powered by NXP i.MX 8M Plus SoC with up to 8GB RAM, 128GB storage, and plenty of connectivity options with dual Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 LE, and 4G LTE connectivity, as well as GNNS support and RS485/RS232 interfaces. The new IoT gateway builds upon theArm SystemReady IR certified IOT-GATE-IMX8 industrial gateway, but offers more RAM and storage, a 2.8 TOPS AI accelerator (in the NXP processor), improved connectivity, as well as a DVI-D port for video output. Compulab IOT-GATE-IMX8PLUS specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX8M Plus Quad or Quad-lite quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with Arm Cortex-M7 real-time core @ 800 MHz, Vivante GC7000UL 3D GPU, Vivante GC520L 2D GPU,  1080p H.265/H.264 video decoder & encoder, HiFi 4 DSP,  2.3 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU) System Memory – 1GB to 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16GB to […]

Sipeed Lichee RV Dock Pro RISC-V SBC adds MIPI/RGB LCD connector, dual MIC, and BL702 JTAG+UART debugger

Sipeed Lichee RV Dock Pro Allwinner D1 RISC-V Development Board

Sipeed has launched the Lichee RV Dock Pro kit for the company’s Lichee RV Allwinner D1 RISC-V module that builds on the earlier Lichee RV Dock carrier board and adds a MIPI/RGB LCD connector, two built-in microphones, as well as an on-board JTAG+UART debugger based on Bouffalo Lab BL702 microcontroller. Lichee RV Dock Pro specifications (preliminary) which changes in bold or strikethrough: Supported system-on-module (SoM) – Lichee RV module with Allwinner D1 RISC-V processor @ 1 GHz, 512MB DDR3, MicroSD card slot, and USB Type-C OTG port Storage – Optional SPI flash Display interfaces HDMI port up to 4Kp30 MIPI LCD/RGB interface for up to 720p30 display Audio – 3W power amplifier, 2x analog microphone, support for 6-mic array via expansion Connectivity – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 via Realtek RTL8723 wireless module with ceramic antenna, IPEX antenna connector USB – 1x USB Type-A port adding to the USB-C OTG […]

BeagleBone AI-64 SBC features TI TDA4VM Cortex-A72/R5F SoC with 8 TOPS AI accelerator

BeagleBone AI-64

BeagleBone AI-64 is a single board computer (SBC) powered by a Texas Instruments TDA4VM dual-core Cortex-A72 + hexa-core Cortex-R5F processor which also embeds an 8 TOPS AI accelerator, plus three DSP, as well as plenty of I/Os that makes it ideal for advanced AI industrial applications. It follows the BeagleBone-AI SBC launched in 2019, but with much higher specs including a 64-bit Arm processor, 4GB RAM, three USB 3.0 ports, an M.2 E-Key socket with PCIe, USB and SDIO, plus the usual expansion headers that keep compatibility with existing BeagleBone cape add-on boards.   BeagleBone AI-64 specifications compared to BeagleBone-AI and BeagleBone Black boards: Another notable change is that a mini DisplayPort has now replaced the micro HDMI port found in earlier boards. The TDA4VM SoC comes with many co-processors, so it will be interesting to see how well those are supported in the software. BeagleBoard.org provides Debian 11.3 with […]

Kodi 20 “Nexus” Alpha 1 gets AV1 hardware decoding, DietPi 8.5 released

Kodi 20 Nexus

I’ll combine two unrelated short news about software releases for TV boxes, Raspberry Pi, and other SBCs: Kodi 20 “Nexus” Alpha 1 media center, and DietPi 8.5 lightweight Debian-based image for SBC’s. Kodi 20 “Nexus” Alpha 1 The first alpha release of Kodi 20 “Nexus” is out with one highlight being support for AV1 hardware video decoding in Android and x86 (VAAPI) platforms with AV1-capable GPU or VPU. Other notable changes include: FFMPEG upgraded to version 4.4 Plenty of subtitle related changes: Added Steam Deck built-in controller support Initial support for M1 native including native windowing/input handling Pipewire support in Linux Various PVR improvements including in terms of performance when a large number of channels is displayed You’ll find more details in the announcement. The RetroPlayer project based on Kodi, but adding some game-related features, has also released some test images based on Kodi 20. Note that since it’s an […]

Armbian 22.05 release adds support for Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS, Radxa Zero & Rock 3A, DevTerm A06

Armbian 22.05

The latest release of Armbian, version 22.05, is now out with hundreds of Linux kernel and user space-related bug fixes, a focus on stabilizing existing platforms, while still adding four new boards with Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS (RK3328), Radxa Zero (Amlogic S905Y2), Radxa Rock 3A (RK3568), and DevTerm A06 (RK3399). The community also added two new maintainers for ESPRESSObin and Radxa Rock Pi 4 (Model A) SBCs which should mean the images for those boards will be tested more regularly and potential issues fixed more quickly. You may want to read the more detailed changelog to see if any changes may impact the board(s) you are using. The new Armbian 22.05 release succeeds Armbian 22.02 outed on February 28, 2022. If you’d like to upgrade simply run those two commands on your existing installation:

For new installation, browse the list of supported boards, select the Debian/Ubuntu image you’d […]

Quartz64 Model B SBC with 4GB RAM is now available for $59.99

buy Quartz64 Model B

While it may be hard to buy a Raspberry Pi these days, there are various alternatives with the Raspberry Pi 3/4 form factor, including Pine64’s Quartz64 Model B SBC powered by a Rockchip RK3566 processor that has just launched for $59.99 with 4GB RAM. The Quartz64 Model B is a smaller version of the Quartz64 Model A launched earlier this year, that comes with HDMI 2.0a and MIPI DSI display interfaces, a MIPI CSI camera interface, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, as well as several USB 2.0/3.0 ports, and of course, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible GPIO header. Quartz64 Model B specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor up to 1.8 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU for AI acceleration System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage 128 Mbit SPI Flash optional eMMC module from 16GB up to […]

Lichee RV-86 RISC-V Linux 4-inch panel targets home automation, HMI applications

Lichee RV-86 Panel

When Sipeed first introduced the Lichee RV module with Allwinner D1 RISC-V SoC last November, they also teased the Lichee RV-86, an “86 Box” with a 4-inch 480×480 touchscreen display, an XR829 WiFi and Bluetooth module, Ethernet (via USB), two microphones, a GPIO header, and support for WAFT (WebAssembly Framework for Things). I’ve just noticed the Lichee RV-86 has been for sale for several months, so it may be interesting to have a closer look, and now there’s also an option to get a 720×720 touchscreen display. Lichee RV-86 specifications: SoM – Sipeed Lichee RV Nezha compute module with Allwinner D1 RISC-V processor @ 1 GHz, 512MB or 1GB DDR3, microSD card slot, and USB Type-C OTG port Display 4-inch 480×480 IPS capacitive touch screen OR 4-inch 720×720 IPS capacitive touch screen It is also possible to connect an 8-inch 1280*800 IPS capacitive touch screen to the board Audio – […]