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

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Feather-Sized Evo M51 Board Combines Atmel SAMD51 MCU with Intel MAX 10 FPGA

Arduino unveiled its first FPGA board around two years ago with MKR Vidor 4000 combining an Intel Cyclone FPGA with Microchip SAMD21 Cortex-M0+ MCU in a form factor similar to Arduino Zero. But in case you are looking for an even smaller Arduino compatible FPGA board, Alorium Technology’s Evo M51 might be exactly what you are after. The Adafruit Feather-sized board is equipped with an Atmel SAMD51 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller coupled with an Intel MAX 10 FPGA. Evo M51 specifications: MCU – Microchip (Atmel) SAMD51 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller clocked at 120 MHz with 512KB flash, 192 KB SRAM FPGA – Intel MAX 10 (10M25) FPGA with 25K LEs, 675Kbit block memory Storage – 2MB external flash USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming I/O Digital 55x Total Digital I/O – 21x through-hole/castellated vias, 34x additional castellated-only 6x digital pins shared with analog pins 3.3V Inputs, 3.3V Outputs […]

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Software Update Brings Subscription based Functions-on-Demand to BMW Cars

BMW Digital personalization functions on demand

Cars are getting smarter and safer, and autonomous driving looks promising but may take longer than expected, as many shortcomings still have to be worked out. In any case, that means most new cars will be connected to the Internet in the future, especially with the launch of 5G and V2X solutions. This will bring benefits and new business models, as BMW showcased at the recent BMW Connected Car Beta Days 2020. BMW lists a long list of new advantages of an upcoming software upgrade with improved BWM maps, connected parking to help you find parking space, connected charging to “make mobility more sustainable and innovative”, BMW Digital Key that turns an iPhone into a secure digital vehicle key, wireless support of Google’s Android Auto, and the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant has received some improvement with the virtual character now turns towards the person talking and can distinguish between addressing […]

July 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Upcoming SAVVY-V Open Source RISC-V Cluster Board Supports 10GbE via Microsemi PolarFire 64-bit RISC-V SoC

SAVVY-V Open Source-PolarFire RISC-V SOC FPGA Board

RISC-V based PolarFire SoC FPGA by Microsemi may be coming up in the third quarter of this year, but Ali Uzel has been sharing a few details about SAVVY-V advanced open-source RISC-V cluster board made by FOSOH-V (Flexible Open SOurce Hardware for RISC-V) community of developers. It’s powered by Microsemi Polarfire RISC-V SoC MPFS250T with four 64-bit RISC-V cores, a smaller RV64IMAC monitor core, and FPGA fabric that allows 10GbE via SFP+ cages, and exposes six USB Type-C ports. The solution is called a cluster board since up to six SAVVY-V boards can be stacked via a PC/104+ connector and interfaced via the USB-C ports. SAVVY-V cluster board preliminary features and specifications: SoC – Microsemi Polarfire RISC-V SoC MPFS250T with a quad-core 64-bit RV64IMAFDC (RV64GC) processor @ up to 667 MHz, a RV64IMAC monitor core, and FPGA fabric with 250K logic elements; 3.0 CoreMarks/MHz, 2.0 DMIPs/MHz; Also compatible with MPFS160T, […]

July 4, 2020July 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Interview – NXP Linux BSP and Timesys Vigiles Maintenance Service & Security Updates

I’ve been interviewing Ed White, Manager of NXP’s Professional Support and Engineering Services, and Akshay Bhat, Director of Engineering, Security Solutions at Timesys by email to find out more about NXP Linux BSP development process, and how Timesys can help to keep it updated and secure with its Vigiles service. Q1. CNX Software readers recently discussed NXP Linux BSP update status. One person specifically noted Linux 4.14.98 used in the BSP was well over a year old, and there were various opinions about the topic, including one person suggesting NXP only provides a stable BSP and it was the ultimate responsibility of the customer to merge Linux security patchsets. Could you explain the typical development process for NXP Linux BSP, and why the company chose not to update the patchsets regularly? Answer: The kernel strategy for NXP’s i.MX family BSPs closely follows the annual cadence of kernel.org’s LTS kernel selection. […]

July 3, 2020July 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 27 Comments

New Tech Vocabulary for 2020 Could Break Software Compatibility

2020 has been an interesting year with plenty of disruption to most people lives, and political changes. Now it appears some of those changes will affect technology, and by that, I mean things like changes to datasheets and even source code. I’ve been seen a lot of talks about slave/master terminology on Twitter, blogs, and CNET is now reporting Twitter Engineer will remove racially charged technical terms from the source code and interface. Whether you are a veteran or just graduated last year, you may have to learn a new set of vocabulary to understand datasheets and code. Twitter’s senior management is allegedly backing the effort for the changes. This goes beyond racially charged terms, but if it’s the world we’re going to live in so be it. Some changes in the datasheet may not be a big issue, except for the initial confusion, but it may become problematic when […]

July 3, 2020July 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Advantech UNO-220 is an Industrial RS232/RS485 Gateway Kit for Raspberry Pi 4

RS232 & RS485 Raspberry Pi 4 Gateway Kit

While Raspberry Pi SBCs are mostly designed for the education market, they find their way in various devices, even in the industrial market with products such as ModBerry M500 industrial computer, Compulab IOT-GATE-RPi industrial IoT computer, BB-400 Neuron Edge industrial controller, and many others. All those offer RS-232 and RS-485 ports besides other interfaces typically found in industrial applications like isolated inputs, CAN buses, and more. There’s now yet another option with Advantech UNO-200 industrial gateway kit for Raspberry Pi 4 board with RS232/RS485 header and RTC battery. Advantech UNO-220 specifications: Compatible SBC – Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with dual micro HDMI outputs, audio jack, as well as USB and Ethernet ports accessible through the enclosure I/O Interfaces GPIO – Input (GPI) 0-3: VIH: 2~5V VIL: 0 ~ 0.8V; Output (GPO) 0-3: 0 ~ 5V Serial Ports – 5-pin terminal block for RS232/485, automatic direction control, 300 ~ 115.2kbps […]

July 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Using Google Coral mPCIe Card into a Compact Marvell Octeon TX Linux SBC

Google Coral mPCIe connected to Gateworks Newport GW5903 SBC

Google launched Coral mPCIe and M.2 cards at the very beginning of the year. The cards integrate the company’s 4 TOPS Edge TPU used for low power edge AI applications to bring the solutions to boards with mPCIe or M.2 sockets. Those are just hardware sockets that are optionally connected to USB, PCIe, I2C, etc… so you have to make sure the socket on your board exposes PCIe Gen2 x1. If you worry about compatibility, it’s good to get a board that’s known to work, and one of those is Gateworks Newport GW6903 SBC that offers two mPCIe sockets and features Marvell Octeon TX dual or quad-core Armv8 processor coupled with up to 4GB RAM. Besides the mini PCIe Coral card and Newport SBC, you’ll also need a Linux host and optionally a USB webcam for inference. The rest of the instructions are explained in the Wiki with the following […]

July 2, 2020July 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Energy Harvesting Makes Energy Autonomous NB-IoT V2 Platform Maintenance Free

LPWAN wireless protocols like LoRaWAN, Sigfox, and NB-IoT enable long-range transfers of small amounts of data at very low power for a battery life of up to 10 years. But there’s still a need to replace the battery from time to time increasing maintenance costs. HiSilicon and Nowi have partnered to design and launch the Energy Autonomous NB-IoT V2 Platform, a sensor hub that can transmit via NB-IoT without the need to change or recharge batteries manually through its energy harvesting capabilities. Energy Autonomous NB-IoT V2 Platform key features and specifications: LPWAN module – Quectel BC95 module based on HiSilicon Hi2115 NB-IoT chip Max transmissions per day Up to 3 transmissions per day in indoor conditions Up to 6 transmissions per day in outdoor conditions Power Management Nowi NH2 (MH2D02564) energy harvesting power management IC Can operate with a range of photovoltaic (multiple) cells Dimensions – 5.5 x 3.5cm The […]