CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 by Sponsored Post - Comments Off

NextDFM software detects PCB design problems before manufacturing (Sponsored)

Shenzhen Huaqiu Electronics Co., Ltd, better known as NextPCB, is a PCB manufacturer with multiple factories in China, and that has been around for over 15 years. During this time, the company dealt with thousands of engineering problems of PCB leading to higher prices and delayed schedules. So to help its customers, the company has developed NextDFM software to detect common PCB design problems, and ultimately help engineers to build low-cost and high-efficiency PCB projects. DFM stands for “Design For Manufacturability”, glad you asked. NextPCB is a free download that’s available for Windows only for now, but the company is also working on Linux and Mac OS versions that will be released in the future. The software supports generic Gerber files as well as PCB layout files from EDA programs such as Altium, Pads, and Protel99SE. Once your file is loaded in the program you’d be able to run the simulator to see what the top and bottom sides of […]

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Rockchip RV1109 SBC’s provide access control solutions with optional 4G LTE connectivity

We’ve been writing about Rockchip RV1109 and RV1126 AI camera SoC’s in recent days, as well as evaluation boards and modules, plus some complete solutions such as Firefly dual-lens AI camera modules. Shenzhen-based JWIPC, a company specifically in embedded PCs and motherboards, has designed three SBC’s powered by Rockchip RV1109 processor especially designed for access control, leverage the face detection capabilities of the Rockchip processor. The three access control boards are: R19S – Standard 100x72mm Pico-ITX board with industrial grade materials, support for wide temperature, hardware watchdog, and “rich peripheral interface”. R19F- Same as R19S, but with a mini PCIe socket for a 4G LTE module, plus a SIM card slot R19N – Similar to R19S with a narrower 100x60mm design JWIPC R19 boards share most of the same hardware key features and specifications: SoC – Rockchip RV1109 dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.5 GHz, plus RISC-V MCU @ 400 MHz, 2D graphics engine, 1.2 TOPS NPU, 5MP H.264 and H.265 […]

4K AV1 Android TV dongles surface with Amlogic S905Y4 Cortex-A35 processor

Amlogic S905X4 is a quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC for 4K TV boxes and set-top boxes with H.265, H.264, VP9, and AV1 hardware video decoding. The silicon vendor usually provides a lower cost version of the processor for dongles without Ethernet, but keeping most of the same features, as we’ve seen in the past with S905X2 and S905Y2 processors for instance. S905X4 has now its own cost-down version with S905Y4 for Android TV (certified) dongles relying on WiFi for connectivity, but instead of keeping Cortex-A55 cores, the processor features four low-power Cortex-A35 cores. We do not have the full details about S905Y4 processor just yet, but it has start to show in dongles from SEI Robotics and SDMC that appears idendical. SDMC DV6071Z / SEI Robotics SEI450 TV dongle specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A35 processor with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR (4GB optional) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (16GB optional) Video & Audio Output – […]

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Arrow DECA Max 10 FPGA development board offered for $37 (Promo)

Arrow DECA evaluation board, featuring Altera’s MAX 10 FPGA and Enpirion power solutions, was launched in March 2015 and sold for around $169 at the time. Time has passed with Intel purchasing Altera FPGA business later that year, and the price of the board dropped to $65 as listed on Intel website. But now Arrow is offered the DECA FPGA for just $37, and you can also get fast free shipping if you’re a member of ArrowPerks loyalty program. Arrow DECA development board specifications: FPGA – Intel MAX 10 (10M50DAF484C6G) device with 50K logic elements, 1,638 Kbit block memory, 5,888 Kbits user flash memory, 4x PLLs System memory – 512MB DDR3 SDRAM (16-bit data bus) Storage – 64MB QSPI Flash, MicroSD card socket Video Output – HDMI v1.4 including 3D video support Audio – 24-bit audio CODEC with line-in, line-out jacks Camera – MIPI connect for camera module Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45) USB – 1x mini USB 2.0 port […]

January 25, 2021January 25, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Firefly dual-lens AI camera module comes with Rockchip RV1109 or RV1126 processor

We’ve very recently written about Rockchip RV1126 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor designed AI cameras thanks to a 2.0 TOPS AI accelerator together with its little dual-core brother: RV1109. We’ve also found some RV1109 and RV1126 evaluation boards, but prices were in the hundreds of dollars. It was then brought to our attention than the upcoming MAIX-III board would feature RV1126 at a more affordable cost, but it turns out there’s no need to wait as Firefly has just launched a dual-lens AI camera module based on either Rockchip RV1109 or RV1126 for under $100 with respectively CAM-C1109S2U and CAM-C1126S2U models. Both version of the modules have the same specifications except for the processor: SoC (one or the other) RV1109 SoC with CPU – Dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.5 GHz + RISC-V MCU @ 400 MHz GPU – 2D graphics engine NPU – 1.2 TOPS with support for INT8/ INT16 VPU Encoder – H.264/H.265 up to 2,688 x 1,520 @ 30 fps […]

January 25, 2021January 25, 2021 by Sponsored Post - Comments Off

Edge computing boards with new Intel Atom x6000E processors (Elkhart Lake) – Sponsored

A highly reliable performance boost for the edge The new Intel Atom® x6000E Series, Intel Celeron®, and Pentium® N & J processors (code name Elkhart Lake) impress with twice the graphics speed of their predecessors and 50% more multi-thread performance on up to 4 cores. congatec is now making these processors available on the 2.5-inch Pico-ITX form factor, leveraging their industrial quality for the most reliable performance boost possible. With growing digitization and the IoT trend, even the smallest edge computers are expected to meet high-reliability requirements today. Start-ups, makers, and spin-offs from big industrial companies increasingly deploy them in massively distributed applications to implement their new business models and IoT-supported services. They all face a similar challenge: Their apps are approaching market-readiness but their hardware platforms, which often originate from the maker board scene, lack reliability since they were not designed for large series and harsh environments. Industrial edge computing designs, however, must provide highly reliable 24/7 service over […]

Pipo W12 Arm Windows 10 Laptop finally launched for $422 and up

Pipo showcased a Snadragon 850 powered 2-in-1 laptop in fall 2019, and said it expected it to sell for around $400. But it appears it took quite longer than expected to launch the Arm Windows 10 laptop, and only now can we see PiPo W12 laptop sold on Aliexpress for around $422 and up plus shipping. The 2-in-1 laptop comes with a 12.3-inch touchscreen display, 4GB or 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, as well as WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and 4G LTE connectivity. Pipo W12 specifications have changed a little bit since the first announcement, notably the display resolution, and we’ve got a few more details: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 octa-core Kryo 385 Arm cores clocked @ up to 2.96 GHz with Adreno 630 Visual Processing Subsystem, Hexagon 685 DSP System Memory – 4GB or 8GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 256GB flash storage, MicroSD card slot Display – 12.3″ IPS display with 2888×1920 resolution, 10-point touch Audio – 3.5mm audio […]

January 24, 2021January 25, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 36 Comments

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico using MicroPython and C

Raspberry Pi Pico board was just launched last Thursday, but thanks to Cytron I received a sample a few hours after the announcement, and I’ve now had time to play with the board using MicroPython and C programming language. I went to the official documentation to get started, but I had to look around to achieve what I wanted to do, namely blinking some LEDs, so I’ll document my experience with my own getting started guide for Raspberry Pi Pico using a computer running Ubuntu 20.04 operating system. The instructions will be similar for Windows and Mac OS. Preparing the hardware In theory, we could just get started with the board alone, but since I got some headers with my board, I also took the opportunity to try out Pine64 Pinecil soldering iron powered by MINIX NEO P2 USB-C power supply. The soldering iron worked great for about one minute, and then I started to have problems with soldering… Looking […]