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

February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Google Summer of Code 2020 Mentoring Organizations Announced

Every year Google organizes the Summer of Code inviting students to work on open-source projects and even get paid for it. The company first select mentoring organizations, before accepting applications from students. Google has now announced the 200 organizations/projects that have been selected for Summer of Code 2020. Many projects are higher-level software development such as web development or desktop programs development but there are also projects closer to the hardware-side of things with operating systems and multimedia projects. Some interesting organization and/or projects part of the audio / graphics / video / multimedia category include: apertus Association developing AXIOM open-source hardware camera FFmpeg multimedia framework to decode, encode, transcode, de/mux, stream, filter & play audio and video stream found in many projects OpenCV Open Source Computer Vision Library for computer vision and deep learning applications. XOrg foundation for X Window System and related projects such as Mesa, DRI, Wayland, […]

February 23, 2020February 23, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Toradex Launches New Verdin Arm SoM Family Starting with iMX8M Mini/Nano Modules

So far, Toradex had two Arm-based system-on-module families with the smaller, lower-power Colibri and more powerful Apalis modules. The Colibri form factor was first defined in 2005, and the company is still maintaining it, but since then new interfaces have emerged, so Toradex has now designed a new low-power module family called Verdin. Toradex Verdin modules offer more I/Os with a 260-pin edge connector, include a battery-ready design with a wide input voltage range (3.3 to 5V), low power 1.8V IOs, the ability to easily extend power management to carrier board peripherals, and off-the-shelf thermal solutions. The modules are also tested for EMC, shock and vibration tolerance, and “Toradex Direct Breakout” is said to simplify signal routing on carrier boards as high speed, impedance critical signals are routed from the source IC to the edge connector on the Verdin module in such a ways to limit complexity on the carrier […]

February 22, 2020April 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ADLINK Industrial-Pi (I-Pi) SMARC Development Kit Features Rockchip PX30 SoC

ADLINK Technology has just announced the Industrial-Pi (I-Pi) SMARC Development Kit to help engineers quickly design prototypes for industrial applications using peripherals and sensors. The I-Pi SMARC development kit is comprised of a baseboard, LEC-PX30 SMARC-compliant Rockchip PX30 system-on-module, an acrylic case, a 12V/2A power supply, USB cable, and a 32GB MicroSD card. The company promotes the kit as “an industrial-ready substitute for Arduino and Raspberry Pi (RPi) platforms that are commonly used for prototyping but cannot typically be ‘dropped’ into an industrial solution as-is“. LEC-PX30 SMARC System-on-Module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip PX30 Quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 CPU with TrustZone technology, ARMv8 Cryptography Extensions, Mali-G31 GPU System Memory – 1GB or 2GB DDR3L at 1066/1333 MHz Storage – 8, 16, 32 or 64 GB eMMC flash Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet from SoC, 10/100M Ethernet via LAN9514 USB 2.0 Ethernet controller Video Decoding – H.264 up to 1080p60, H.265/HEVC up to 1080p60, […]

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Barracuda App Server for ESP32 Let You Easily Develop Lua Apps via Your Web Browser

We covered Real Time Logic’s open-source lightweight Minnow Server for microcontrollers last year, and now the company has released another project: Barracuda App Server for ESP32. This project is more complex and requires an ESP32 board with PSRAM to run such as boards based on ESP32-WROVER module with 4 to 8MB PSRAM. The Barracuda App server (BAS) comes with a Lua VM, and in complement with the LSP App Manager that facilitates active development on the ESP32 by providing a web interface. The Barracuda App Server runs on top of FreeRTOS real-time operating system part of Espressif free ESP-IDF development environment. The company provides instructions to build BAS from source, as well as the LSP (Lua Server Pages ) App Manager that links to the binary-only BAS library. The Linux version of the ESP-IDF is recommended, so in Windows, you should install the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” first. The source […]

February 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

u-Blox Launches JODY-W3 WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.1 Module for Automotive Applications

u‑blox has just launched JODY-W3 wireless module which the company claims to be the first automotive-grade WiFi 6 module. Apart from supporting 802.11ax WiFi with 2×2 MIMO, the module also comes with dual-mode Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity. WiFi 6 will be used for applications demanding higher bitrates such as ultra‑HD video infotainment streaming and screen mirroring, wireless back‑up cameras and cloud connectivity as well as vehicle systems maintenance and diagnostics. Bluetooth 5.1 will be used for keyless entry systems and other applications leveraging direction-finding and the longer range offered by the latest version of Bluetooth. JODY-W3 module specifications: Connectivity Dual-band 802.11ac WiFI 5 and 802.11ax WiFI 6 with 2×2 MIMO support, WPA3 security Bluetooth 5.1 Classic and Low Energy; HCI profile Antennas JODY-W374 variant – 2x antenna pins for separate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi external antennas JODY-W377 variant – 2x antenna pins for Wi-Fi and one antenna pin for Bluetooth external antennas […]

February 20, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Google Releases Android 11 Developer Preview – What’s New?

I’ve only just upgraded my Xiaomi Mi A2 phone to Android 10 earlier this week, but Google is already preparing for the next version of the mobile operating system, and the company has already released the first developer preview for Android 11 OS. Enhancements for foldables and 5G, call-screening APIs, new media & camera capabilities, and machine learning are some of the improvements brought to Android 11 so far. Some of Android 11 highlights include: Updates of existing connectivity APIs to take advantage of improved 5G speeds. Dynamic meteredness API to check whether the connection is unmetered in order to offer higher resolution or quality for users who don’t need to pay extra for data Bandwidth estimator API to check the downstream/upstream bandwidth without having to poll the network. Pinhole and waterfall screen support – Pinhole screens are the ones with a round opening for the camera, and waterfall […]

February 20, 2020February 20, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 5G Modem to Deliver up to 7.5 Gbps Download Speeds in 2021

While 5G networks are ramping, most people don’t have coverage, let alone a 5G capable smartphone or laptop, but after Snapdragon X50 and Snapdragon X55, Qualcomm has just unveiled its third-generation 5G modem with Snapdragon X60. The new 5G modem is said to feature the world’s first 5-nanometer 5G baseband and the first 5G modem-RF system to support spectrum aggregation across all key 5G bands, namely mmWave and sub-6 using frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD). Snapdragon X60 key features: Cellular Technology 5G NR – 5G TDD, SA (standalone), 5G FDD, NSA (non-standalone) LTE – LTE FDD, LTE TDD including CBRS support, LAA, LTE Broadcast WCDMA (DB-DC-HSDPA, DC-HSUPA), TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE 5G Spectrum – mmWave-sub6 carrier aggregation, sub-6 carrier aggregation (FDD-TDD, FDD-FDD, TDD-TDD), Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), mmWave, sub-6 GHz mWave specs – 800 MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO sub-6 GHz spec -: 200 […]

February 19, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

GIGABYTE Unveils Four BRIX Comet Lake-U mini PC’s

Intel unveiled Intel Comet Lake processors last summer with two sub-family namely the 15W Comet Lake-U processors and the lower power 7W Comet Lake-Y processors. We’ve found the latter in products such as OneMix 3 Pro mini laptop, and the former in some System76 Linux laptops. But so far, I had not really paid attention to Comet Lake mini PCs. There have been a few announcements at CES 2020 with Asus “Mini PC PN62“, ECS Liva Z3 Plus, ZOTAC MI662 nano and a few others all based on Intel Comet Lake-U processors. GIGABYTE has also unveiled four Comet Lake mini PC’s with the following key features and specifications: SoC BRIX BRi3H-10110 – Intel Core i3-10110U dual-core/quad-thread processor @ 2.1/4.2 GHz (Turbo) with 23EU Intel UHD Graphics; 15W TDP BRIX BRi5H-10210 – Intel Core i5-10210U quad-core/octa-thread processor @ 1.6/4.2 GHz (Turbo) with 24EU Intel UHD Graphics; 15W TDP BRIX BRi7H-10510 – […]