Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 10, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

NXP introduces IW693 Wi-Fi 6E SoC with 2×2 MIMO for industrial IoT and Smart Home applications

NXP has unveiled the IW693 Wi-Fi 6E (and Bluetooth) SoC with 2×2 MIMO for industrial IoT and Smart Home applications, offering a higher-end option to the company’s IW612 tri-radio solution, but which omits an 802.15.4 radio. The IW693 supports concurrent dual Wi-Fi (CDW) and Bluetooth/Bluetooth Low Energy operation in four modes: Mode 1: CDW 2×2 Wi-Fi 6/6E 5-7 GHz (802.11ax) + 1×1 Wi-Fi 6 2.4 GHz (802.11ax) Mode 2: CDW 1×1 Wi-Fi 6/6E 5-7 GHz (802.11ax) + 1×1 Wi-Fi 6 2.4 GHz (802.11ax) Mode 3: 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 2.4 GHz (802.11ax) Mode 4: 2×2 Wi-Fi 6/6E 5-7 GHz (802.11ax) NXP IW693 specifications: Wi-Fi features 2×2 Wi-Fi 6/6E and 1×1 Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz concurrent dual wireless mode (mode 1) 2×2 radio 40 MHz channel for 2.4 GHz (RF paths 2A/2B) 1024 QAM (MCS11), up to 80 MHz channel for 5-7 GHz (RF paths 5A/5B) 1×1 radio 20 MHz channel for 2.4 […]

July 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

PANZER-LITE93 Ubuntu 24.04 Box PC puts FRDM-IMX93 development board into a 3D printed case

MayQueen Technologies PANZER-LITE93 is an NXP i.MX 93-powered box PC running a customized Ubuntu 24.04 LTS distribution with LXQt desktop environment and NPU libraries to leverage the built-in Arm Ethos-U65 micro NPU. The board itself is not actually anything new, and the company has been quite transparent about it, telling us by email that we’d “immediately recognize that it’s based on the FRDM-IMX93” development board. What they bring here is a 3D printed case, software support which we’ve been told is different than official NXP support, and we’ve been told the main goal was to create a lightweight box PC. PANZER-LITE93 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 93 CPU Up to 2x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 1.7 GHz 2x Arm Cortex-M33 up to 250 MHz GPU – PXP 2D GPU with blending/composition, resize, color space conversion NPU – Arm Ethos-U65 NPU @ 1 GHz up to 0.5 TOPS Memory – 640 […]

July 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Ubuntu 25.10 release to mandate RVA23 profile, obsoleting most RISC-V hardware

RISC-V is an open architecture standard that provides flexibility, and chip designers can add or remove instructions as they please to match their application requirements. That’s all great until complex software designed to run on multiple platforms is involved. That’s why for Linux and Android support, the RVA (RISC-V Application) profiles were created, so that every RISC-V SoC designed for those systems meets some minimal requirements and shared instructions, to which you would also add more if needed, as long as they don’t break the standard. The RISC-V association ratified the latest RVA23 profile for 64-bit RISC-V in October 2024, which notably mandates support for the vector and hypervisor extensions. OMGUbuntu also reports that Canonical has decided to raise the required RISC-V ISA profile family to RVA23, or more exactly RVA23U64, from RVA20 for the upcoming Ubuntu 25.10 release. In other words, going forward, Ubuntu will only be supported on […]

July 8, 2025July 10, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

RP2350-PiZero – An RP2350 board with Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, mini HDMI, 16MB flash

Waveshare RP2350-PiZero is an update of the RP2040-PiZero, keeping the Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, but replacing the RP2040 MCU with the more powerful RP2350 dual-core Cortex-M33/RISC-V microcontroller. The RP2350-PiZero still comes with 16MB flash, a mini HDMI/DVI connector, two USB Type-C ports, a microSD card slot, and a 40-pin GPIO header. It supports 5V power input via USB-C, as well as LiPo batteries via a 2-pin connector and a charging circuit. RP2350-PiZero specifications: MCU – Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350B CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz with Arm Trustzone, Secure boot OR Dual-core RISC-V Hazard3 @ 150 MHz Either two cores can be used. Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM Package – QFN-80 Memory – PSRAM chip footprint (7) Storage 16MB SPI flash MicroSD card slot Video – Mini HDMI port that can output DVI signals USB 1x USB Type-C port (3) for data using PIO-USB host/device implementation […]

July 8, 2025July 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

NanoPi R76S dual 2.5GbE SBC and router supports up to 16GB LPDDR5, M.2 WiFi module, HDMI 2.0 video output

We just wrote about the NanoPi R3S LTS dual gigabit Ethernet SBC and router with HDMI output and a speaker connector last week, but FriendlyELEC is back again with the similar NanoPi R76S equipped with two 2.5GbE ports, HDMI video output, an M.2 socket for a WiFi/Bluetooth SDIO module, and a more powerful Rockchip RK3576 octa-core SoC coupled with up to 16GB LPDDR5. Like its predecessors, the NanoPi R76S is offered as a bare board or with a metal enclosure. It comes with a 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot, a USB 3.0 port for storage or wireless expansion, a USB-C port for power, a small 8-pin GPIO FPC connector, and a few buttons and LEDs. NanoPi R76S specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU – Octa-core CPU with 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores at 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL […]

July 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

ThinkNode M1/M2 Review – Getting started with Meshtastic

I’ve been writing about Meshtastic firmware and hardware since 2020, but I never had the opportunity to test it myself. This has now changed as Elecrow sent us the ThinkNode M1 and ThinkNode M2 Meshtastic nodes for review. Both rely on Semtech SX162x radios, but the M1 is based on a Nordic Semi nRF52840 Bluetooth MCU with a 1.54-inch E-Ink display and GPS, and the smaller M2 is based on an ESP32-S3 chip and a 1.3-inch OLED but lacks a built-in GPS module. Since I’ve never used Meshtastic before, this “review” will be more like a Getting Started Guide from a beginner’s perspective. After an unboxing and a teardown, I’ll test messaging, GPS sharing, and the range I can get in a suburban environment in Thailand. ThinkNode M1/M2 unboxing Both packages look similar, with a plastic case and a white cover. The ThinkNode M1’s main features include a high-gain antenna, […]

July 7, 2025July 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Allwinner A527, T527, and A733 datasheets, user manuals, and Linux SDK released

Allwinner Tina A527 T527 A733 documentation

The datasheets, user manuals, and Linux SDK for the Allwinner A527, T527, and A733 SoCs, found in some SBCs like the Avaota A1, Radxa Cubie A5E, Orange Pi 4A, and upcoming Cubie A7A, are now available on Gitlab without any NDA requirements. Allwinner SoCs used to be some of the most popular processors for SBCs in the years 2012 to 2015 due to their feature set, low cost, and support by the sunxi-linux community. Since then, interest has plummeted due to a lack of interest in open-source software by Allwinner management and the constant release of new low-cost “Cortex-A7” SoC, and Rockchip RK3566 or RK3588 are now preferred on non-Raspberry Pi SBCs. But we first heard Allwinner say they planned to work on mainline Linux support for the Allwinner A527/T527 at the Orange Pi Developer Conference in March 2024. This was further confirmed by Radxa with the Cubie A5E launch […]

July 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

GamerCard is a gift card-sized, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W-powered handheld console with a 4-inch color display

GameCard Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W gift card handheld console

Grant Sinclair’s GamerCard is a handheld console based on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a 4-inch color IPS display offered in an ultrathin design that’s about the size of a typical retail gift card. It joins other Raspberry Pi-based handheld terminals like the BeepBerry, ShaRPiKeebo, or DevTerm, but it’s more of a consumer device and offers by far the slimmest design at just 6mm thick. Being described as a “Grab & Go Raspberry Pi Gaming” platform, it’s mainly designed as a portable gaming console, but since it’s based on Raspberry Pi hardware, you could also use it as a battery-powered Linux terminal connected to a USB keyboard and mouse, and it also offers expansion capabilities through a Qwiic connector. GamerCard specifications: SBC – Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (soldered on mainboard) – Based on Raspberry Pi RP3A0 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 SiP with 512 MB SDRAM, Bluetooth 4.2 and […]