CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 21, 2019July 20, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - No Comments

UniSoC Successfully Tested their IVY510 5G Modem in Collaboration with Huawei

UniSoC Communications has announced the completion of testing on its IVY510 5G modem. The testing was performed in partnership with Huawei and finished up in July 2019. The IVY brand platform offers compatibility with IoT products and services and is already being used as a cutting-edge option in some devices. The testing had been performed under the auspices of IMT 2020, the regulatory body in the worldwide telecom industry. In the tests, the IVY510 reached download speeds of 1.38 Gbps at CAICT’s MTNet Lab. The IVY510 was announced in February of this year at MWC. It is a multimode 2G/3G/4G/5G modem, that meets the 3GPP R15 standard, supports Sub-6GHz 5G spectrum and has a channel bandwidth of 100 MHz. Offering high performance, deeply integrated, low power 5G platform, supporting both SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone) network arrangements. The ability to move through different network formations allows the IVY510 to grow through and along with 5G deployment stages. IMT 2020 International …

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July 20, 2019July 20, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Orange Pi Zero-LTS Allwinner H2+ SBC Gets More Efficient and Cooler

Orange Pi Zero is a cool little Arm Linux board based on Allwinner H2+ processor for headless applications requiring WiFi and/or Ethernet that was first launched in November 2016 for $7 and up. It was not launched without controversy, as first users had various issues with the Allwinner XR819 WiFi module, but I had no such problem when I made an Orange Pi Zero Google Assistant smart speaker. Nevertheless, Shenzhen Xunlong Software is about to launch a newer version of the board – Orange Pi Zero-LTS -, with the same specifications, but improvements in the design in order to reduce power consumption, and lower the board’s temperature. As the name implies, the company will commit to long term support (i.e. long term availability) for the board, but they did not tell me for how many years. Orange Pi Zero-LTS v1.5 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H2+ quad-core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU @ 600 MHz System Memory …

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July 19, 2019July 19, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Olimex ESP32-ADF Board is Made for Smart Speakers, Internet Radios, VoIP Phones, and More

We’ve already covered several (smart) audio boards based on ESP32 WiSoC, including the Espressif’s own ESP32-LyraTD-MSC Audio Mic HDK, as well as third party boards such as TTGO TAudio or Seeed Studio ESP32-A1S all compatible with the company’s ESP-ADF (Audio Development Framework) compatible with Baidu DuerOS, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Olimex ESP32-ADF adds another ESP32 audio option, and AFAIK the first one that is open source hardware, with two speakers, and a dual-microphone that enable projects such as Alexa smart speaker, internet radio receiver, or SiP VoIP phone. Olimex ESP32-ADF specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-WROVER-B with 8MB PSRAM, 4MB Flash, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 LE Audio Stereo microphones Stereo 2x3W speakers with amplifier Audio output jack Display – UEXT connector for optional 2.8″ LCD display USB – 1x micro USB port for power supply and programming Misc – IR receiver, 4x touch buttons, 3x tactile buttons Build-in programmer Power Supply 5V/1A via DC jack On-board charger and LiPo …

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July 19, 2019July 19, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Amlogic S905X2 vs S905X3 – Features Comparison

Despite Arm claiming Cortex-A55 core would bring some performance improvements, we’ve recently seen actual Amlogic S905X3 benchmarks show the performance compared to Amlogic S905X2 Arm Cortex-A53 is almost identical (3% improvement for S905X3 CPU, 9% for the GPU). So Amlogic S905X3 TV box processor must differentiate itself from its predecessor by its additional features, and while we published the detailed specifications of Amlogic S905X3 processor a few months ago, we did not provide a side-by-side comparison table just yet. So here’s one courtesy of SDMC (with some corrections). SoC Amlogic S905X2 Amlogic S905X3 CPU 4x Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.80 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A55 @ 1.91 GHz Neural Network Accelerator N/A Optional 1.2 TOPS NNA GPU Mali-G31 MP2 with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0, and OpenCL 2.0 Always-on MCU Cortex-M3 & Cortex-M4 (Optional ) Cortex-M3 & Cortex-M4 DDR DDR3-2133 /DDR3L-2133 / DDR4-2666 /LPDDR3-2133 /LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM up to 4G DDR3-2133 /DDR3L-2133 / DDR4-3200 /LPDDR3-2133 / LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM up to 4G Video Decoding H.265, …

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July 19, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - No Comments

Icarus IoT Board Features nRF9160 GPS + NB-IoT SiP in Adafruit Feather Form Factor

The new Icarus IoT board from Actinius, uses the Nordic nRF9160 SiP, a powerful yet low power system in a package designed for use with GPS and LTE-M & NB-IoT cellular data, also found in Ruuvi node which we covered a few months ago. The board’s purpose is for mobility and ease of project tracking anywhere, and can be found in application scenarios such as fleet management and security, cargo tracking, or asset monitoring, and many more. The board has power inputs for solar panel, USB or LiPo/Li-Ion Battery, which widens the boards mobile nature, and on-site, in-the-field capability. Since the form factor follows Adafruit Feather, the Icarus board benefits of additional component options for prototyping and DIY electronics projects. The nRF9160, by Nordic Semiconductor, is a SiP (System in a Package) that carries an extensive line of embedded software and hardware. As we had reported the nRF9160 SiP low-power IoT solution consists of a global multimode LTE-M/NB IoT modem, …

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July 19, 2019July 19, 2019 by Ayo Ayibiowu - 2 Comments

MikroTik is Launching a new set of LoRa products this summer

MikroTik, the Latvian network equipment manufacturer, is reportedly launching a new set of IoT LoRa devices this summer. MikroTik who has been traditionally known for its wireless technologies, especially products related to wireless networking like routers, switches, antennas, and others, is going full fledged in support of LoRa network, the promising LPWAN technology for IoT applications. MikroTik announced a new LoRa based Gateway product in Vienna back in March 2019 during the MUM Europe MikroTik User Meetings. It was a combination of a wAP 2GHz outdoor AP with a LoRaWAN card inbuilt inside and will work just like every other LoRa gateways out there. The gateway is expected to support both public and private network server. According to MikroTik, they promised to cut down the high-end prices of LoRa gateway: We will undercut that price be a very very big difference, so our LoRa gateway will much much more affordable than any existing LoRa gateway. For this summer, MikroTik is expected …

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July 18, 2019July 18, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

MYIR Announces Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC SoM and Development Board

MYIR Technology has been selling Xilinx Zynq-7000 FPGA + Arm systems-on-module since 2016, but the Chinese company has now announced new modules based on the more powerful Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC with Arm Cortex-A53 cores, Arm Cortex-R5 cores, and Ultrascale FPGA fabric, as well as a corresponding development board. MYC-CZU3EG Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC CPU Module CPU module specifications: Mechanical Parameters MPSoC – Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ XCZU3EG-1SFVC784E (ZU3EG, 784 Pin Package) MPSoC with quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz, dual-core Cortex-R5 processor @ 600 MHz, Arm Mali-400MP2 GPU, and 16nm FinFET+ FPGA fabric (154K logic cells, 7.6 Mb memory, 728 DSP slices) System Memory – 4GB DDR4 @ 2,400MHz Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash, 128MB QSPI Flash On-module chips Gigabit Ethernet PHY USB PHY Intel Power Module Clock Generator 2x Samtec 0.5mm pitch 160-pin high-speed headers bringing out Networking – Gigabit Ethernet USB – USB 2.0 interface 4x PS GTR transceivers along with 2 GTR reference clock inputs 4x PL GTH …

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July 18, 2019July 18, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - 5 Comments

Emtrion emSBC-Argon Features STM32MP1 Dual Cortex-A7 / M4 Processor

The latest board to use the STM32MP1 dual Cortex-A7 and the Cortex-M4 processor is the Emtrion emSBC-Argon, which adds to SBC’s such as the PanGu Board. The emSBC-Argon, is a powerful yet reasonably priced SBC that is feature-rich and out-of-the-box ready. The low-power needs of the board enable it to run real-time processing. Protocols such as PROFINET, EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP are all available and ready to run real-time processes and communication applications. Key Features: STM32MP157AAC processor from STMicroelectronics Arm Dual Cortex-A7 @ 650MHz – 2470 DMIPS Arm Cortex-M4 @ 200MHz – 250 DMIPS Co-processor: ARM Neon, FPU, and 3D GPU Operating system: Linux or Android Virtualization capable (Jailhouse) Up to 512 MB DDR3L SDRAM 8GByte (up to 64 GB) eMMC Flash Up to 8 MB of QSPI-NOR-Flash 2x FD-CAN 2.0 Dimensions: 104.5 x 77.5 mm The emSBC-Argon is capable of virtualization using Jailhouse, for those real-time functions that require breaking down into software “cells” for higher-order functionality. The SBC supports …

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