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

July 21, 2021July 21, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Vecow EAC-2000 fanless embedded system is powered by NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX

Vecow EAC-2000 fanless embedded-system-NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX

Vecow Vecow EAC-2000 series fanless embedded system features NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX module for the deployment of AI vision and industrial applications including traffic vision, intelligent surveillance, auto optical inspection, Smart Factory, AMR/AGV, and other AIoT/Industry 4.0 applications. The computer comes with up to four Fakra-Z connectors to connect GMSL cameras, as well as four Gigabit Ethernet ports, two of which with PoE+ support, takes 9V to 50V wide range DC input, and can operate in a wide temperature range from -25°C to 70°C. Two models part of Vecow EAC-2000 embedded system family are currently offered with the following specifications: System-on-Module – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX with CPU – 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARM v8.2 64-bit CPU GPU -384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores DL Accelerator -2x NVDLA Engines System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4x DRAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Storage – M.2 Key M Socket (2280) for SSD, […]

July 20, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

CanLite ESP32 board for CAN Bus hacking support up to two high-side switches

Voltlog’s CanLite is not the first ESP32 CAN bus board we’ve covered here at CNX Software, having written about Olimex ESP32-EVB and CAN32 boards a few years ago. But the open-source hardware, compact CanLite board offers an alternative for CAN bus hacking with a built-in automotive-grade DC-DC converter as well as an optional two-channel high-side automotive-grade switches capable of switching up to 6A per channel. CANLite key features and specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32D module with Espressif ESP32-D0WD dual-core Tensilica processor, 4MB SPI flash, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n up to 150 Mbps, Bluetooth 4.2 LE Terminal block for CAN Bus (ISO 11898-2 standard) up to 1Mbps via SN65HVD231 CAN transceiver. Output – High-side switching of the VBAT input up to 6A. (only if the option is purchased during checkout). Programming – 6-pin JST-SH VoltLink pin header Power Supply – 12V/0.5A via terminal block Dimensions – TBD The ESP32 CANLite board supports […]

July 20, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

QNAP TVS-675 NAS features Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-U6580 x86 processor

QNAP has been trying something different in several in their new NAS recently. Last month, we covered QMiroPlus-201W that combines an Arm router and Intel NAS into one device, and now the company has announced another x86 NAS, but not based on Intel or AMD processor, but instead Zhaoxin’s 2.5 GHz eight-core KaiXian KX-U6580 processor. QNAP TVS-675 NAS comes with 8GB RAM by default, six drive bays for hard drives or SSD’s, two M.2 2280 slots for SATA or NVMe storage, as well as two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots for networking, storage, or other expansion cards. The NAS also features 2.5GbE wired connectivity and an HDMI 2.0 to connect a display. QNAP TVS-675 specifications: SoC – Zhaoxin KX-U6580 8-core/-thread 64-bit x86 processor @ 2.5GHz with FPU, AES-NI accelerator, 8MB L2 cache, ZhaoXin C-960 Graphics; 16nm process System Memory – 8 GB DDR4 single-channel; upgradable to up to 64GB dual-channel memory […]

July 20, 2021July 20, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

PandaZhu – ESP32 powered 3D Printer controller board supports Marlin 2.0 & ESP3D WebUI

PandaZhu ESP32 3D Printer controller board

Around two years ago, we noted beta Marlin 2.0 support for ESP32 and some initiatives to create ESP32 powered 3D printer controller boards with built-in WiFi connectivity. Now Marlin 2.0 firmware officially supports ESP32 boards such as FYSETC E4, E4d@BOX, or MRR ESPA. Another ESP32 based 3D printer controller board has now been brought to my attention. PandaZhu supports up to eight motor drivers, up to three heaters, up to three thermistors, one external LCD display, and on the software-side, the board is compatible with Marlin 2.0 as well as ESP3D WebUI. PandaZhu board’s specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32 based on Espressif ESP32 dual-core Xtensa processor @ 240MHz with 520 KB SRAM, plus 4MB flash Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n up to 150 Mbps, Bluetooth 4.2 3D printer peripherals Up to 8x motor drivers Up to 3x heaters Up to 3x thermistors with 30°C to 250°C range, BLTouch auto-leveling sensor with a […]

July 19, 2021July 19, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

AMD Athlon 300U powered AM02 Mini PC goes for $240 and up

It’s not that easy to find a relatively low-cost AMD mini PC, and there are more choices on Intel’s side. Most models around $250-$300 are barebone without memory or storage, but AM02 mini PC may be an interesting option as the AMD Athlon 300U powered computer sells for about $240 plus shipping with 8GB RAM and a 128GB SSD, which looks to be an even better option than the Maxtang MTN-FP50 mini PC we reported on last June. All AM02 models ship with Windows 10 by default, but you may be able to ask the seller to install Linux instead (TBC), and support up to 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Note that the seller apparently made a mistake with the 16GB/256GB model, as it is sold for just $232.89, instead of $332.89. It might still be worth a try 🙂 AM02 specifications: SoC – AMD Athlon 300U dual-core/quad-thread processor @ […]

July 19, 2021July 20, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 51 Comments

ROCK 3A SBC brings M.2 slots for NVMe SSD, WiFi 6 to Raspberry Pi form factor

Radxa ROCK 3A is a single board computer powered by Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor that closely follows Raspberry Pi 3 Model B form factor like the early Rock Pi 4 SBC, but with a twist. By switching from a Rockchip RK3399 to a Rockchip RK3568, the board loses some CPU and GPU performance, but gains extra I/Os with enabled the company to add an additional M.2 slot with PCIe to ROCK 3A board, meaning it’s now possible to attach one NVMe SSD and another M.2 module like a WiFi 6 M.2 card. ROCK 3A preliminary specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex A55 processor at up to 2GHz, with Mali G52 GPU, 0.8TOPS NPU System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, 8GB LPDDR4 3200MT/s, up to 1560MHz Storage Pluggable eMMC module MicroSD card slot M.2 M key socket for NVMe with PCIe 3.0 x2 lanes 4MB SPI flash with support for […]

July 18, 2021July 19, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Linux 5.0 shown to boot on ESP32 processor

ESP32 IoT processor supports up to 8MB PSRAM which makes it just enough to run a minimal version of Linux. There’s little practical application for it, but it may be fun to try, and one developer apparently managed to boot Linux 5.0.0 on a board with an ESP32 dual-core Xtensa processor connected to 8MB PSRAM and a 2MB SPI flash. The shortened boot log above shown the bootloader output with ESP32-D0WD dual-core Xtensa processor eventually booting Linux 5.0.0. But the boot process is somewhat convoluted as the bootloader jumps to “Juice Vm” described as a “small RISC-V virtual machine” which then calls OpenSBI RISC-V Open Source Supervisor Binary Interface which loads the Linux kernel and a small file system. The full boot log and binary images were shared on a Reddit thread and Whycan with the latter in Chinese. The total image size is around 1.5 MB that almost entirely […]

July 17, 2021September 16, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

The first Arm SystemReady IR certified platforms – NXP i.MX 8M Mini EVK & Compulab IOT-GATE-IMX8 gateway

A few months ago, we noted SolidRun HoneyComb LX2K became a certified Arm SystemReady ES platform. SystemReady is a certification program by Arm that ensures systems just work with generic operating systems like in the x86 world. When we looked at the details of the program in the article, we noted there were different categories including SystemReady ES for embedded servers and SystemReady IR for IoT Edge applications. The first SystemReady IR platform – NXP i.MX 8 Mini evaluation kit Arm has just announced the first SystemReady IR platform had just been certified. That device is the NXP i.MX 8M Mini EVK, and that means that anyone that uses the i.MX 8M family of devices with the associated Board Support Package (BSP) can build platforms that will pass the same certification process and boot compliant Linux distributions with minimal integration effort. We can see more details about the certifications on Arm developer’s website. NXP i.MX 8M Mini EVK achieved certification with NXP 2021 Q2 pre-release ﬁrmware, version LF […]