Author: Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Microchip SAMA7G54 is a single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor for low power AI camera & audio applications

Microchip SAMA7G54 is a single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor for low power AI camera & audio applications

SAMA7G54 evaluation kit

Microchip has just announced the 1 GHz SAMA7G54 single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor (MPU) with MIPI CSI-2 and parallel camera interfaces, as well as up to four I2S, one SPDIF transmitter and receiver, and a 4-stereo channel audio sample rate converter. The company specifically launched a single-core processor to offer a lower power solution for AI camera and audio solutions, and the chip is coupled with the MCP16502 power management IC that has been optimized to provide the best power/performance ratio for the SAMA7G54. Microchip SAMA7G54 specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-A7 based MPU @ up to 1GHz with 256KB L2 cache Memory – DDR2/DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR2/LPDDR3 up to 533MHz Storage – Quad SPI, Octal SPI, 3x SD/eMMC Camera I/F – MIPI CSI-2 (2-lane up to 1.5 Gbps each) and 12-bit parallel camera Up to 8 Mpixel @ 30 fps Audio – Up to 4x I2S, PDM, SPDIF (Rx/Tx), 4 stereo channel ASRC Networking […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on DongShanPi One – A SigmaStar SSD202D system-on-module with a mini PCIe edge connector for GPIO, Ethernet…

DongShanPi One – A SigmaStar SSD202D system-on-module with a mini PCIe edge connector for GPIO, Ethernet…

DongShanPi One baseboard

DongShanPi One system-on-module features SigmaStar SSD202D Arm Cortex-A7 processor with 128MB on-chip RAM, a 128MB NAND SPI flash and a microSD card slot, an LCD interface, two USB Type-C ports, and a mini PCIe edge connector that exposes interfaces like Ethernet, USB, and GPIOs when connected to a baseboard. I noticed the module in Linux 5.18 changelog yesterday together with the Miyoo game console, with support being added by dgp (Daniel Palmer), a frequent commenter on CNX Software, who also happen to maintain the linux-chenxing community. The DongShanPi One is optionally offered with a baseboard equipped with an RJ45 port, four USB ports, an IR receiver, and plenty of GPIO headers for expansion. DongShanPi One specifications: SoC – SigmaStar SSD202D dual-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with 128MB on-chip DDR3, H264/H265 decoding, and MJPG encoding Storage – 128MB SPI NAND flash  and microSD card Display I/F – 50-pin FPC RGB888 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Digi IX30 is a cellular router for Industry 4.0, public safety, harsh environments

Digi IX30 is a cellular router for Industry 4.0, public safety, harsh environments

Digi IX30

Digi IX30 is a 4G LTE cellular router for industry 4.0 designed for distribution and automation, remote machines and sensor monitoring in industries such as oil and gas production, water utilities, smart cities, and outdoor signage. The Digi IX30 is a rugged device able to operate in harsh environments, and the US model supports FirstNet nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety in the event of an emergency (e.g. terrorist attack). The network is designed for first responders, city services, and infrastructure, as well as drilling and gas wells, Internet-connected irrigation systems, waste disposal, and septic tank services among others. A future version will also support the Anterix Band 8 (900 MHz) for critical infrastructure/mission-critical private LTE networks. Digi IX30 specifications: SoC, memory, storage – No information, except the processor is running Linux.  Connectivity Ethernet – 2x 10/100M Fast Ethernet ports Cellular options FirstNet capable LTE Advanced Cat 7 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on CherryUSB – A lightweight USB device/host stack for embedded systems

CherryUSB – A lightweight USB device/host stack for embedded systems

CherryUSB USB stack for embedded systems

CherryUSB is a lightweight open-source USB device/host stack for embedded systems with one or more USB interfaces. The stack implements various class drivers such as CDC, HID, MSC, audio, video, and so on. It’s apparently part of Boufallo Lab SDK (e.g. for BL702 MCU), and has been ported and tested with WCH CH32V307 RISC-V MCU, STMicro STM32F4, and Nuvoton NUC442 Cortex-M4 microcontroller, as well as a two Arm Cortex-M3 microcontrollers I’ve never heard of: EastSoft ES32F3 and MindMotion MM32L3xx. CherryUSB device stack highlights: Support for USB2.0 full and high speed Endpoint irq callback USB classes support Composite Device Communication Device Class (CDC) Human Interface Device (HID) including “Custom HID” Mass Storage Class (MSC) USB VIDEO Class (UVC1.0,UVC1.5) USB AUDIO Class (UAC1.0, UAC2.0) Device Firmware Upgrade CLASS (DFU) MIDI CLASS (MIDI) Test and Measurement CLASS (TMC) Vendor class Remote NDIS (RNDIS) support Support WINUSB 1.0,WINUSB 2.0 with BOS (Binary Device Object […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on MediaTek Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 to power WiFi 7 access points and clients

MediaTek Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 to power WiFi 7 access points and clients

MediaTek Filogic 880

I first heard about WiFi 7 (802.11be) when MediaTek demonstrated some unknown Filogic solutions to customers, but few details were known at the time. The company has now formally announced the Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 WiFi 7 solutions designed for access points and clients respectively. MediaTek Filogic 880 for WiFi 7 access points, gateways, and routers Filogic 880 specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 application processor @ up to 1.8 GHz (about 30K DMIPS performance) AI accelerator – Advanced NPU (previously called “packet accelerator” or “off-load engine” :)) with HW NAT/IPv6 acceleration, QoS acceleration, (EIP-197) crypto engine for accelerating IPSec, SSL/TLS, DTLS (CAPWAP), SRTP and MACsec, etc… System Memory – Up to 8GB 32-bit DDR3/DDR4 3200 Storage – SPI NOR flash, SPI NAND flash, eMMC flash Networking Wired 2x 10 Gbps Ethernet 1x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet 4x 1 Gbps Ethernet Wireless Wi-Fi 7 technologies such as 4096-QAM, 320MHz, MRU, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Linux 5.18 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.18 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.18 release arm risc-v mips

Linux 5.18 is out! Linus Torvalds has just announced the release on lkml: No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the 5.18 release right on schedule. That obviously means that the merge window for 5.19 will open tomorrow, and I already have a few pull requests pending. Thank you everybody. I’d still like people to run boring old plain 5.18 just to check, before we start with the excitement of all the new features for the merge window. The full shortlog for the last week is below, and nothing really odd stands out. The diffstat looks a bit funny – unusually we have parsic architecture patches being a big part of it due to some last-minute cache flushing fixes, but that is probably more indicative of everything else being pretty small. So outside of the parisc fixes, there’s random driver updates (mellanox mlx5 stands out, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Linux hardware video encoding on Amlogic A311D2 processor

Linux hardware video encoding on Amlogic A311D2 processor

amlogic a311d2 h265 hardware video encoding sample

I’ve spent a bit more time with Ubuntu 22.04 on Khadas VIM4 Amogic A311D2 SBC, and while the performance is generally good features like 3D graphics acceleration and hardware video decoding are missing. But I was pleased to see a Linux hardware video encoding section in the Wiki, as it’s not something we often see supported early on. So I’ve given it a try… First, we need to make a video in NV12 pixel format that’s commonly outputted from cameras. I downloaded a 45-second 1080p H.264 sample video from Linaro, and converted it with ffmpeg:

I did this on my laptop. As a raw video, it’s pretty big with 3.3GB of storage used for a 45-second video:

Now let’s try to encode the video to H.264 on Khadas VIM4 board using aml_enc_test hardware video encoding sample:

The output explains the parameters used. There are some error messages, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Clicker 4 for TMPM4K board targets motor control with Toshiba M4K microcontroller

Clicker 4 for TMPM4K board targets motor control with Toshiba M4K microcontroller

Clicker 4 for TMPM4K

Toshiba and Mikroelektronika have launched the Clicker 4 for TMPM4K development board equipped with Toshiba M4K Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller for motor control, as well as four mikroBUS sockets for MikroE Click expansion boards. The Clicker 4 for TMPM4K board is also fitted with an on-board CMSIS-DAP compliant Debug Unit based on Toshiba’s TMPM067 MCU, extension connectors, JTAG/SWD debug ports, LED indicators and push buttons, and works best with Clicker 4 Inverter Shield with six MOSFETs for motor driving, a 48V switching power supply, and a 5V regulated power source that can power the M4K board. Clicker 4 for TMPM4K specifications: MCU – Toshiba TMPM4KNFYAFG 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller @ up to 160 MHz with 256KB code flash, 32KB data flash, 24KB SRAM, as well as Vector Engine (A-VE+), Encoder and Programmable Motor Driver (PMD) for brushless DC motors Expansion 4x mikroBUS sockets for adding Click board 40x connection pads with […]