Beelink SER4 Review – Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04, and “overclocking” AMD Ryzen 7 4800U SoC

Beelink SER4 review

Beelink has released the SER4 which is the latest in their ‘SER’ mini PC series and it features a Zen 2 AMD mobile processor. Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu and dabbled with ‘overclocking’. Beelink SER4 Hardware Overview The Beelink SER4 physically consists of a 126 x 113 x 40mm (4.96 x 4.45 x 1.57 inches) square metal case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses AMD’s 7 nm Zen 2 Ryzen 7 4800U Renoir processor which is an eight-core 16-thread 1.8 GHz mobile processor boosting to 4.2 GHz with Radeon Graphics. The front panel has an illuminated power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C USB 3.1 port with Alternate Mode, dual USB 3.1 ports, and a reset pin-hole ‘CLR CMOS’.  The rear panel includes a gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 3.1 port and a USB 2.0 port, […]

How to Install dnsmasq caching DNS server in Ubuntu

cnx-software.com DNS server dnsmasq

As you may have noticed in recent days, my domain registrar (HostFast) suspended cnx-software.com domain for what I believe are dubious reasons, meaning the site was inaccessible to the outside world and myself. I cannot do much about the latter and I’m held hostage to what the domain registrar’s will, but I was able to access my own website with my domain name after installing a DNS server through dnsmasq on my Ubuntu 20.04 laptop. Edit: most of the steps below are actually not needed in Ubuntu 20.04, since you could just edit /etc/hosts (step 4). I’ll just leave the instructions below in case somebody needs to install dnsmasq. Here are the steps I followed. Install dnsmasq

This did not work at first since systemd-resolved is already installed, so I disabled it by following instructions on askubuntu:

I then added name servers to /etc/dnsmasq.conf:

and cnx-software.com IP […]

Hardkernel launches ODROID-M1 Rockchip RK3568B2 SBC

ODROID-M1

It’s been a while since we have seen new hardware from Hardkernel, but the Korean company has just launched the ODROID-M1 SBC powered by Rockchip RK3568 with up to 8GB RAM. The single board computer is cooled with a large heatsink placed underneath, supports SATA and NVMe storage, offers HDMI and MIPI DSI video output, Gigabit Ethernet networking, as well as two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 ports, an RTC backup battery, and a 40-pin GPIO header. ODROID-M1 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568B2 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator System Memory – 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage 16MB SPI flash preinstalled with Petitboot MicroSD card socket eMMC module socket Native SATA 3.0 port + SATA power (5V only) tested up to around 500 MB/s M.2 NVMe M-Key socket (2-lane PCIe 3.0) for M.2 SSDs tested up to around […]

Higole F7G Plus Review – An affordable rugged tablet tested with Ubuntu 20.04 & Windows 11

Higole F7G Plus rugged tablet review

Ruggedized industrial-use PCs are typically expensive so it is refreshing to see Higole F7G Plus, an Intel Gemini Lake Refresh tablet, being offered at an affordable price. Higole kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at functionality and performance running on Ubuntu and also its Windows performance. Hardware Overview The Higole F7G Plus is a 10.1 inch IPS touch screen rugged industrial fanless tablet that uses Intel’s 14 nm Gemini Lake Refresh N4120 processor which is a quad-core 4-thread 1.10 GHz Celeron processor boosting to 2.60 GHz with Intel’s UHD Graphics. Designwise, meeting the MIL-STD-810G standard which is the de facto ‘ruggedized’ standard for consumer products and covers whether the device can work in a broad range of environmental conditions including surviving dropping, is evidenced by the thick protective shell around the tablet. To ensure its IP67 Certification for waterproofing each of the ports are covered by detachable rubber […]

NVIDIA launches Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit, Orin NX modules, and Isaac Nova Orin AMR platform

NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit

NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin module was first introduced in November 2021, but the company has now officially launched the Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit, andunveiled the lower cost Orin NX modules still with 70 TOPS or more, and the Isaac Nova Orin AMR (autonomous mobile robot) reference platform. NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit Jetson Orin AGX developer kit specifications: Jetson AGX Orin module with CPU – 12-core Arm Cortex-A78AE v8.2 64-bit processor with 3MB L2 + 6MB L3 cache GPU / AI accelerators NVIDIA Ampere architecture with 2048 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 64 Tensor Cores @ 1.3 GHz DL Accelerator – 2x NVDLA v2.0 Vision Accelerator – PVA v2.0 (Programmable Vision Accelerator) AI Performance – Up to 275 TOPS (INT8) @ 60W Video Encode – 2x 4K60 | 4x 4K30 | 8x 1080p60 | 16x 1080p30 (H.265) Video Decode – 1x 8K30 | 3x 4K60 | 7x 4K30 | […]

OnLogic announces Factor 201 Raspberry Pi CM4 industrial PC, Factor 202 controller coming soon

Onlogic Factor 201

OnLogic has announced the launch of the Factor 201, a compact fanless industrial PC based on Raspberry Pi CM4 (Compute Module 4) for Edge IoT applications, and is working on the Factor 202 industrial controller with onboard digital and analog I/Os (DIO & AIO), as well as a capacitive touchscreen. OnLogic Factor 201 Specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Arm Cortex-A72 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz, up to 8GB LPDDR4 RAM, up to 32GB eMMC flash Additional storage – Optional M.2 SATA SSD (See Expansion section) Video Output – HDMI port up to 4Kp60 Networking 2x Gigabit Ethernet LAN (Optional PoE PD Input) via Realtek RTL8153 controller Optional WiFi/Bluetooth module on Raspberry Pi CM4 module + 3x antenna holes Optional 4G LTE wireless module via M.2 socket USB – 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB-C management port Serial – […]

BIVROST Lite5 mini-STX motherboard takes up to 96GB RAM for machine vision applications

BIVROST Lite5

BIVROST, a manufacturer of solutions in the field of image analysis and live video streaming, has just introduced the Lite5 mini-STX motherboard powered by an Intel Core Coffee Lake processor, and targeting machine vision, digital signage, security, video streaming, and other edge computing applications. The board is fitted with Advantech SOM-5899 COM Express Basic Type 6 module that supports up to 96GB DDR4 ECC memory, while the carrier board offers two Gigabit Ethernet ports, twelve USB interfaces, dual HDMI 2.0 video output, plus five M.2 expansion sockets. BIVROST Lite5 specifications: SoC Intel i7-8850H 6-core/12-thread processor @ up to 2.6 GHz / 4.3 GHz (Turbo) with 9MB cache, 24 EU Intel UHD 630 graphics; 45W TDP Intel i5-8400H 4-core/8-thread processor @ 2.5 GHz / 4.2 GHz (Turbo) with 8MB cache, 24 EU Intel UHD 630 graphics; 45W TDP Some Xeon processors are also available upon request System Memory – Up to […]

$249 Rockchip RK3588 8K mini PC comes with up to 16GB RAM

Mekotronics R58X RK3588 mini PC

Mekotronics R58X is an embedded mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 processor with 16GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 8K capable HDMI and DisplayPort video output ports, HDMI input, M.2 NVMe storage, and more. This is yet another announcement of Rockchip RK3588 hardware following ROCK5 Pico-ITX SBC, Firefly ITX-3588J mini-ITX motherboard,  and Mixtile Blade 3 server board among others. Melotronix R58X may have different use cases, as it is suitable as an IoT gateway, an industrial PC, an edge computing platform, a video analytics server, digital signage, a vehicle control unit, and other embedded applications. Mekotronics R58X mini PC/SBC 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 – Up to 16GB LPDDR4x Storage eMMC 5.1 flash 2x SATA 3.0 connectors + SATA power […]