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Synaptics Astra platform takes SL1620, SL1640, or SL1680 Arm CPU module for Edge AI applications

Synaptics has unveiled its new Astra platform with a range of SoC and a development kit for edge AI applications. These new processors and a supporting development kit are built to provide out-of-the-box AI capabilities for IoT devices, reducing reliance on cloud-based AI. This new Synaptics Astra Platform is built around three main SoCs. The SL1680 is built for multi-modal IoT applications and features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 CPU, dedicated 7.9 TOPS NPU, and 4K video. The SL1640 is a cost and power-optimized SoC with a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU and 1.6+ TOPS NPU. Finally, the SL1620 is a graphics and AI accelerator with a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU and dual-core Imagination BXE-2-32 GPU but does not feature an NPU. The development kit features a module design where the new swappable compute modules allow flexible configurations. The devkit will support open Yocto Linux distribution and Synaptics AI toolkit for quick AI integration. […]

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Synaptics SYN43711 WiFi 6E & Bluetooth 5.3 chipset targets IoT devices, video streaming, robotics

Synaptics SYN43711 is a new WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 “SoC” designed for “IoT applications” such as high-end home appliances with video streaming capabilities, surveillance cameras, robots, and other secure smart consumer, industrial, and enterprise systems. It’s a more cost-effective version of the company’s SYN4382 SoC that supports 1,200 Mbps 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 connectivity. Designed for small form factor devices, the new SYN43711 tri-band chipset supports 600 Mbps WiFI 6E, Wi-Fi Sensing (human presence detection), and Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio for multiple concurrent Bluetooth connections and audio streams, including Auracast audio sharing. SYN43711 key features and specifications: Wireless Tri-band (2.4, 5, 6 GHz) Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6, 6E up to 600 Mbps (1×1 antenna arrangement) Bluetooth 5.3 LE with LE Audio support Integrated PAs and LNAs (external PA and LNA optional) with high transmit (Tx) power level and receive (Rx) sensitivity Synaptics Smart Co-Ex […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Synaptics SYN4382 SoC supports Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 connectivity

Synaptics SYN4382 is a triple combo SoC with Wi-Fi 5/6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) radios, and manufactured with a 16nm process to lower power consumption for IoT and multimedia applications. The chip can deliver up to 1,200 Mbps WiFi throughput, supports dual-band (RSDB) 2.4 and 5 or 6/6E GHz operation to combine the links at different frequencies, as well as features such as LE Audio for multiple concurrent audio streams in a multi-device environment. Synaptics SYN4382 key features: Wireless Triband 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) with 1200 Mbps throughput, RSDB, and support for legacy 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio,  Channel Sounding (HADM = High Accuracy Distance Measurement) for accurate positioning 802.15.4 radio for Thread and Zigbee Matter interoperability Smart Co-Ex for coexistence in the 2.4 GHz band Multipoint external coexistence interface for LTE, GPS On-chip power amplifiers (PAs) and low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) with support for external PAs […]

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Synaptics Introduces VideoSmart BG5CT 4K HDR Multimedia Video Processor for Set-Top Boxes

Marvell used to design Media SoCs running Android TV such as ARMADA 1500 Ultra (aka BG4CT). That part of Marvell business has very recently been sold to Synaptics, which has just unveiled VideoSmart BG5CT multimedia SoC with 4K “Advanced” HDR video processing for the set-top-box market. The BG5CT is said to be pin-to-pin compatible with BG4CT Android TV SoC, features a quad core ARM CPU @ 1.6 GHz with 15K DMIPS, an Imagination PowerVR Series8XE GE8310 GPU, and a security engine enabling secure boot, Trusted Rendering Path, full TrustZone, and video watermarking carrier-grade security making it suitable for Pay TV operators and set-top-box manufacturers. Synaptics’ Qdeo video processing technology adds 4K “Advanced HDR” – including HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, and Technicolor HDR, among user video processing technology. The company did not provide that many details, but BG5CT appears to mostly add HDR support compared to BG4CT, and replace Vivante GC7000 GPU by […]

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Synaptics Natural ID USB Dongle Brings Fingerprint Authentication to Older Laptops and Computers

Many new smartphones features a fingerprint scanner, and some computers such as Kangaroo Mobile Desktop also include one, but you’ll soon be able to add a USB dongle to your existing notebook thanks to Synaptics USB dongle reference design featuring the company’s Natural ID secure fingerprint authentication module. The dongle will allow secure authentication with a single touch of a finger, and be compatible with Windows Hello and Microsoft Passport. So I’m not sure the press release claim that it will work “on any notebook PC” is valid if you use Linux or an older Windows operating system that is not Windows 10. The solutions is also FIDO Certified (Fast IDentity Online), so it will be compatible with other certified software, services, and devices. The company is now showcasing the solution at Computex 2016.  USB dongles will sample in Q3 2016, with mass production scheduled for Q4 2016. But if […]

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Banana Pi BPI-CM5 Pro – A Rockchip RK3576-powered Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with up to 16GB RAM, 128GB flash, a 6 TOPS NPU

Banana Pi BPI-CM5 Pro, also called ArmSoM-CM5, is a Rockchip RK3576 system-on-module electrically and mechanically compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM4 while offering up to 16GB LPDDR5 memory, 128GB eMMC flash, and a 6 TOPS AI accelerator embedded into the RK3576 SoC. It comes with a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless module, a PMIC for power management, and two 100-pin connectors mostly compatible with the pinout of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. ArmSoM also provides a CM5-IO carrier board to make use of the extra USB 3.0 and PCIe interfaces, and the company told CNX Software they tested the module successfully with the official Raspberry Pi CM4 IO board. Banana Pi BPI-CM5 Pro specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU – 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.0, […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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Bluetooth 6.0 features accurate two-way ranging using Channel Sounding, latency reduction, improved scanning efficiency, and more

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has just announced the release of the Bluetooth 6.0 Core Specification with features and feature enhancements that include Bluetooth Channel Sounding for two-way ranging between BLE devices, decision-based advertising filtering and monitoring advertisers to improve device scanning efficiency, an enhancement to the Isochronous Adaptation Layer (ISOAL) for lower latency and higher reliability, the LL extended feature set, and a frame space update for throughput optimization. Bluetooth 5.4 was released as a minor update mostly adding electronic shelf label (ESL) support in February 2023, or about 18 months ago, but Bluetooth 6.0 is a major update with the most notable feature being Bluetooth Channel Sounding to enable two-way ranging between two Bluetooth LE devices. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about “Bluetooth Channel Sounding” for distance measurements as it was implemented in WiFi 7/6 and Bluetooth 5.4 chipsets such as Synaptics SYN4382 and Broadcom […]

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Banana Pi BPI-M6 SBC features SenaryTech SN3680 quad-core Cortex-A73 AI processor

Banana Pi BPI-M6 is a credit-card single board computer based on SenaryTech SN3680 SoC comprised of a quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 processor, an Arm Cortex-M3 real-time core, an Imagination GE9920 GPU, and an NPU delivering up to 6.75 TOPS. The board ships with 4GB LPDDR4 RAM and 16GB eMMC flash. Its layout is fairly similar to the one of the Raspberry Pi 4 with four USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, a 40-pin GPIO header, a USB Type-C port for power, and two micro HDMI ports. However, only one of those is for HDMI output, as the second is for HDMI input, and there’s also an M.2 Key-E socket for expansion. Banana Pi BPI-M6 specifications: SoC – SenaryTech SN3680 (also known as Synaptics VS680) with CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 processor up to 2.1GHz MCU – Arm Cortex-M3 real-time security core @ 250MHz GPU – Imagination PowerVR Series9XE GE9920 GPU VPU – 4Kp60 […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC