CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 13, 2021April 12, 2021 by Sponsored Post - Comments Off

AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 series on COM Express Compact (Sponsored)

conga-TCV2 AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 COM Express

8 cores for heterogeneous edge computing Tasks at the embedded edge are getting more and more complex. Supporting up to 8 cores and 16 threads, the recently-launched AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processors are paving the way for x86-based embedded designs with unprecedented compute density and performance per watt. congatec is offering the new Zen 2 based processor generation, which complements V1000 processor technology with 6- and 8-core versions, on COM Express Compact modules. As the trend towards more IIoT connectivity and digitization continues, embedded systems must handle a growing number of tasks. Additional tasks include the collection of application data that needs to be transcoded, and sometimes analyzed locally using artificial intelligence (AI). In parallel, data must be exchanged with customers’ enterprise clouds and other OEM apps, and this communication must be highly secure, because new pay-per-use models turn the devices, machines, and systems into an OEM revenue source that needs to be safeguarded. Ideally, embedded systems are therefore constantly […]

April 15, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

The Tiniest Raspberry Pi RP2040 Boards – Tiny 2020 & Adafruit QT Py RP2040

The Raspberry Pi Pico officially board for RP2040 MCU has a lot of free space on the PCB. So when third parties made their own board they either added features like camera, display, and sensors as found on like on Arducam Pico4ML board, while others “cut the fat” to the minimum. Some of the tiniest Raspberry Pi RP2040 boards are Pimoroni Tiny 2020 & Adafruit QT Py RP2040, both of which come with the dual-core Cortex-M0+ MCU, a USB-C port, two buttons, some I/O ports, and not much else. Tiny 2020 Pimoroni Tiny 2020 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ [email protected] up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM Storage – 8MB QSPI flash USB – USB Type-C port for power, data, and programming I/Os – 2x 8-pin castellated and through holes for 12 I/Os pins including 4x analog inputs, SPI, I2C, UART, 5V, 3.3V, and GND Debugging – 3-pin SWD interface Misc – Boot and Reset buttons, user-programmable […]

RK3566 & RK3568 processors to get Linux mainline support soon

Rockchip RK3566 & RK3568 processors were just officially announced at the end of the year, and soon followed with announcements of related such as Core-3568J AI Core system-on-module, some Android 11 TV boxes, Station P2 mini PC, and RK3566/RK3568 development boards. But it did not take long, as RK3566/RK3568 are about the get support for mainline Linux, with engineers from Collabora and Rockchip having recently committed preliminary support for RK356x platforms, notably using Pine64 Quartz64 SBC for testing. The most recent commits target power management, networking, and the PCI host controller. It’s not clear when code will be merged to mainline, but Collabora said “Pine64 Quartz64 SBC out-of-the-box support is right around the corner” in a recent tweet. In any case, it’s good news there’s active development for mainline Linux on the new Rockchip processors, as that means it will be possible to run the latest version of Linux on RK3566 & RK3568 without having to rely on an often […]

April 14, 2021April 14, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Perf-V Beetle board features GAP8 multi-core RISC-V AI MCU

GreenWaves Technologies introduced the GAP8 low-power RISC-V IoT processor optimized for artificial intelligence applications in 2018. The multi-core (8+1) RISC-V processor is especially suitable for image and audio algorithms including convolutional neural network (CNN) inference. The same year, the company launched the GAPUINO development kit that sold and (still sells) for $229 with QVGA camera and a multisensor board with four microphones, an STMicro VL53 Time of flight sensor, an IR sensor, a pressure sensor, a light sensor, a temperature & humidity sensor, and a 6-axis accelerometer/gyroscope. But there’s now a much more affordable solution to evaluate GAP8 multi-core RISC-V MCU with PerfXLab Perf-V Beetle board. Perf-V Beetle board specifications: MCU – GAP8 IoT Application Processor with 8x RISC-V compute cores, 1x RISC-V fabric controller core delivering up to 200 MOPS at 1mW and >8 GOPS at a few tens of mW System Memory – 64 Mbit SPI SRAM (LY68L6400SLIT) Storage – 128 Mbit SPI flash (WS25Q128FVSIG) Audio – 4x […]

April 14, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

The Axon platform offers WiFi & LoRa IoT messaging in a compact form factor (Crowdfunding)

Qortex (Amine Mehdi Mansouri) has developed the WiFi & LoRa IoT messaging platform to allow devices to communicate wirelessly via serial messages. The solution also includes a wireless serial port and 4 digital outputs. The tiny Axon board is based on ESP8266 WiFi SoC and can be augmented with a LoRa module for a longer range, and the solution integrates with the Axon cloud for data visualization in the cloud. There’s also a HAT expansion board for Raspberry Pi compatibility. Axon board specifications: Wireless module – ESP12-S ESP8266 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 module USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming via CP2102 Expansion – 2x 6-pin header with GPIOs, UART, 5V, 3.3V, and GND Misc – Status LED, Reset button, USB/MCU (UART) selection switch Power Supply 5V input via USB-C port 3.3V/600mA LDO PTC fuse, reverse polarity protection, ESD protection Dimensions – 30 x 25 mm The board can be programmed with Python (MicroPython?), plot graphics with Matlab, […]

April 14, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Check LoRaWAN deployments on the go with WisGate Developer Base USB dongle

RAKWireless just had their “Big Tech Bloom” event services they announced many new LPWAN products ranging from WisDM fleet management system, OpenWrt based Wisgate OS, new industrial LoRaWAN gateways like WisGate Edge Lite 2, their first STM32WL module, as well as 9 new modules for WisBlock modular IoT platform with MIC, e-Paper display, GPS, an ESP32 based WisBlock core, etc… But today, I’ll have a look at the new $99 WisGate Developer Base, a USB dongle that connects to a laptop for LoRaWAN networks evaluation, for example, to check the coverage before installing a new gateway. Alternatively, it could also be used to add LoRaWAN gateway capability to existing embedded hardware like routers or industrial PCs. Two variants of the WisGate Developer Base are available – RAK7271 & RAK7371 – with the following specifications: Concentrator modules RAK7271 – RAK2287 SX1302 based mini PCIe concentrator module RAK7371 – RAK5146 SX1303 based mini PCIe concentrator module (New) 8 uplink channels and 1 […]

A first look at Allwinner D1 Linux RISC-V SBC and Processor

Last year, we reported that Allwinner was working on an Alibaba XuanTie C906 based RISC-V processor that would be found in low-cost Linux capable single board computers selling for as low as $12. The good news is that we won’t have to wait much longer as Allwinner D1 RISC-V processor is slated for an announcement next week, and a business card-sized SBC, also made by Allwinner, will become available in May. Some of the information is already available to developers in China, and CNX Software managed to obtain information about the Linux RISC-V SBC and Allwinner D1 processor. Allwinner D1 development board Let’s check out the board first which comes with the following specifications: SoC – Allwinner D1 single-core XuanTie C906 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 1.0 GHz with HiFi4 DSP, G2D 2D graphics accelerators Memory – 1GB DDR3 memory Storage – 256MB SPI NAND flash, MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4 port up to 4Kp30, MIPI DSI & […]

April 13, 2021April 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Arducam Pico4ML Board – TinyML on Raspberry Pi RP2040 with QVGA Camera & Display

A few months ago, ArduCAM demonstrated person detection on Raspberry Pi Pico with Arducam camera using TensorFlow Lite, and later we noted more work was being performed to bring machine learning to RP2040 platforms, notably with the development of Arducam Pico4ML board with a built-in camera and display. At the time, i..e last month, all we had were some renders of the board, but now Arducam Pico4ML pre-orders have launched for $49.99 on UCTRONICS and Tindie stores. Shipping is scheduled to start at the end of the month, so let’s have a closer look. Arducam Pico4ML TinyML devkit specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ MCU with 264 KB of embedded SRAM Storage – 2MB SPI flash Display – 0.96-inch LCD SPI Display (ST7735) with 160 x 80 resolution Camera – HiMax HM01B0 QVGA camera (320×240 @ 60fps) Audio – Built-in microphone Sensor – IDK ICM-20948 9-axis IMU (gyroscope, accelerometer, compass) Expansion – 2x 20-pin headers that follows Raspberry […]