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) - 1 Comment on Xcrhom T4S WiFi outdoor smart socket features power meter function, Tasmota open-source firmware

Xcrhom T4S WiFi outdoor smart socket features power meter function, Tasmota open-source firmware

Xcrhom T4S Tasmota outdoor wifi smart socket

ESPHome is the favorite open-source firmware of Smart Home devices, but Tasmota is another option that’s been available for many years. We’ve just seen fewer products based on Tasmota (previously Sonoff-Tasmota) in recent years, but it recently showed up on a credit card-sized quad relay board, and I’ve just come across Maker Go’s Xcrhom T4S WiFi Outdoor Smart Socket that also ships with Tasmota firmware and sells on AliExpress for $24.88 shipped. The Xcrhom T4S exposes two sockets with dust and rainproof covers to be used safely outdoors, integrates a power meter, and the Tasmota firmware enables MQTT support, Home Assistant compatibility, and support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Xcrhom T4S specifications: Two EU sockets Max load – 3680W in total (16A x 230V) Rated Current – Up to 16A in total Power Input – 100 to 240V AC 50Hz Wireless – 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4; Tx power […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Bapaco is a mechanical keyboard PC with an ultra-wide 12.3-inch touchscreen display (Crowdfunding)

Bapaco is a mechanical keyboard PC with an ultra-wide 12.3-inch touchscreen display (Crowdfunding)

Bapaco mechanical keyboard PC with integrated touchscreen display

Made by Shenzhen SIDIQIAO Technology, the Bapaco is a mechanical keyboard PC powered by an Intel Core i5-1235U 10-core Alder Lake SoC and equipped with a 12.3-inch ultra-wide touchscreen display with 1920×720 resolution. The keyboard PC is offered as a barebone model without memory or storage but supports up to 32GB RAM, an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD, and/or an M.2 2242 SATA 3.0 SSD.  It also features an HDMI output to connect an extra display, WiFi 6 connectivity, a few USB ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack and stereo speakers. Bapaco specifications: SoC – Intel Core i5-1235U CPU – 10-core/12-thread hybrid Alder Lake U-Series processor with 2x Performance cores @ 1.3/4.4GHz, 8x Efficient cores @ 0.9/3.3GHz Cache – 12 MB Intel Smart Cache GPU – 80EU Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.2 GHz BPB: 15W System Memory – Up to 32GB DDR4 3200MT/s SO-DIMM single-channel memory Storage M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on exo software – A distributed LLM solution running on a cluster of computers, smartphones, or SBCs

exo software – A distributed LLM solution running on a cluster of computers, smartphones, or SBCs

Exo software distributed LLM solution

You’d typically need hardware with a large amount of memory and bandwidth and multiple GPUs, if you want to run the latest large language models (LLMs), such as DeepSeek R1 with 671 billion parameters. But such hardware is not affordable or even available to most people, and the Exo software works around that as a distributed LLM solution working on a cluster of computers with or without NVIDIA GPUs, smartphones, and/or single board computers like Raspberry Pi boards. In some ways, exo works like distcc when compiling C programs over a build farm, but targets AI workloads such as LLMs instead. Key features of Exo software: Support for LLaMA (MLX and tinygrad), Mistral, LlaVA, Qwen, and Deepseek. Dynamic Model Partitioning – The solution splits up models based on the current network topology and device resources available in order to run larger models than you would be able to on any […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on ADLINK OSM-MTK510 – An OSM Size-L module with MediaTek Genio 510 AI SoC, up to 8GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash

ADLINK OSM-MTK510 – An OSM Size-L module with MediaTek Genio 510 AI SoC, up to 8GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash

OSM-MTK510

ADLINK OSM-MTK510 is an OSM Size-L compliant module powered by a MediaTek Genio 510 hexa-core Arm Cortex-A78/A55 SoC with a 3.2 TOPS AI accelerator and equipped with up to 8GB LPDDR4 and 128GB eMMC flash. The OSM module supports HDMI 2.0, MIPI DSI, and eDP display interfaces, up to 30MP cameras, and I/O options such as gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and PCIe Gen2 x1. The OSM-MTK512 is available in either commercial or industrial (-40°C to 85°C) temperature grades and the company offers at least a 10-year lifecycle for long-term use. ADLINK OSM-MTK510 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 510 (MT8370) CPU – Hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU VPU for visual processing Encoding up to 4Kp30 with H.265/HEVC or H.264 Decoding up to 4Kp60, AV1, VP9, HEVC, H.264 codecs supported AI […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Wall-mountable Intel N100 mini PC features three HDMI outputs, three USB ports, GbE and WiFi 6 connectivity

Wall-mountable Intel N100 mini PC features three HDMI outputs, three USB ports, GbE and WiFi 6 connectivity

Wall mountable Intel N100 mini PC

Mekotronics R58-N100 is an Intel Processor N100 mini PC whose main differentiating feature is its metal enclosure with four holes suitable for direct wall mounting. The computer supports DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and M.2 MVMe SSD storage. It also features three 4K-capable HDMI video outputs, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, three USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Mekotronics R58-N100 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 CPU – Quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) GPU – 24EU Intel HD graphics @ 750 MHz Cache – 6MB cache TDP – 6W System Memory – 8GB or 16GB DDR5 Storage – 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB M.2 MVMe SSD Video Output – 3x HDMI 2.0 ports up to 4Kp60; up to at least 3x independent displays supported Audio – 3.5mm headphone+mic jack, digital audio output via HDMI Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on GEEKOM A6 Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 tested on an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC

GEEKOM A6 Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 tested on an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC

review GEEKOM A6 Ubuntu 24.04

We’ve already checked out the hardware of the GEEKOM A6 mini PC with an unboxing and teardown in the first part of the review, and thoroughly tested the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC in Windows 11 Pro in the second part, so it’s now time to report our experience with Ubuntu 24.04 Linux on the mid-range mini PC. We’ve gone through features testing, system benchmarks, storage (SSD and USB) performance tests, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 network evaluation, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback, a stress test to check out the cooling ability of the mini PC, and finally fan noise and power consumption measurements. Ubuntu 24.04 installation and system information Since we wanted to install Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS alongside Windows 11 Pro, we resized the partition by roughly half. But since the C: drive was “BitLocker Encrypted”, we knew Ubuntu installation wouldn’t be successful that way, so we went to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on ODROID-H3 and H4 SBCs get NetCard 3 card with four 5Gbps Ethernet ports

ODROID-H3 and H4 SBCs get NetCard 3 card with four 5Gbps Ethernet ports

Netcard 3 on ODROID-H4 SBC

Hardkernl NetCard 3 is an expansion card with four 5Gbps Ethernet ports designed for the ODROID-H3 and ODROID-H4 SBCs and adding to the two 2.5GbE ports on the Intel Jasper Lake and Alder Lake-N single board computers. It follows the H2 Net Card with four 2.5GbE ports introduced in 2021 for the ODROID-H2, and tested by Ian with the ODROID-H3+ SBC in 2023. Hardkernel ended up selling more than expected, so they designed the Netcard 3 with 5GbE ports as an upgrade. It remains to be seen whether 5Gbps networking will be as popular as 2.5GbE or users will prefer moving to 10GbE hardware instead… NetCard 3 specifications: 4x 5Gbps Ethernet ports via RealTek RTL8126 5GbE controllers. M.2 edge connector with PCIe Gen3 x4 signaling Cooling with a long heatsink on RTL8126 controllers Compatible with ODROID-H3/H3+ and ODROID-H4/H4+ only, and not earlier ODROID-H2/H2+ boards You may need to flash a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on WeAct MSPM0G3507 development board features Texas Instruments MSPM0G3507SRHBR Cortex-M0+ mixed-signal MCU

WeAct MSPM0G3507 development board features Texas Instruments MSPM0G3507SRHBR Cortex-M0+ mixed-signal MCU

WeAct MSPM0G3507

WeAct MSPM0G3507 is a BluePill-like development board equipped with Texas Instruments’ 80 MHz MSPM0G3507SRHBR Arm Cortex-M0+ mixed-signal MCU with 128KB flash and 32KB SRAM. The board features a USB-C port for power and programming, two buttons for Reset and BSL (Bootstrap Loader), a 4-pin SWD port for debugging, and two 18-pin headers for GPIOs, CAN Bus, ADC, DAC, I2C, UART, and other interfaces. The MSPM0G350x microcontroller also comes with a math accelerator for DIV, SQRT, MAC, and TRIG computations which could prove useful for control control and signal processing. WeAct MSPM0G3507 specifications: MCU – Texas Instruments MSPM0G3507 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller at 80 MHz with 128KB flash, 32KB SRAM, 2x 4Msps ADC, DAC, 3x COMP, 2x OPA, CAN FD, MATHACL math accelerator USB – USB-C port for power and programming via CH340X USB to TTL chip Expansion – 2x 18-pin with power signals, I2C, SPI, GPIOs, ADC inputs, DAC, CAN Bus, […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC