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

January 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit-B01 Gets an Extra Camera Connector

Launched in March 2019, NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kit offered an AI development platform for an affordable $99. The kit is comprised of Jetson Nano module and a carrier board, and the version I received last November ended with “A02”. Jetson Nano developer kit is now getting updated with B01 carrier board that adds an extra MIPI CSI connector and other few changes, including compatibility with NVIDIA Jetson Nano production module (with eMMC flash instead of MicroSD card). Jetson Nano developer kit-B01 specifications: B01 Jetson Nano CPU Module 128-core Maxwell GPU Quad-core Arm A57 processor @ 1.43 GHz System Memory – 4GB 64-bit LPDDR4 @ 25.6 GB/s Storage – microSD card slot Video Encode – 4K @ 30 | 4x 1080p @ 30 | 9x 720p @ 30 (H.264/H.265) Video Decode – 4K @ 60 | 2x 4K @ 30 | 8x 1080p @ 30 | 18x 720p @ 30 […]

January 16, 2020January 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

NanoPi R2S Dual Gigabit Ethernet SBC & Router is Powered by Rockchip RK3328 SoC

FriendlyElec launched NanoPi R1S router with two Ethernet ports based on either Allwinner H3 or H5 processor coupled with 512MB RAM last November. Both ports are “Gigabit” Ethernet port, but one is implemented via a USB 2.0 to Ethernet controller with a maximum bandwidth of around 330 Mbps. If you’d like to get two Gigabit Ethernet reaching close to 1 Gbps each, and your target application would benefit from a bit more memory, the company is now working on NanoPi R2S based on Rockchip RK3328 processor with 1GB DDR4 memory, one Ethernet port using the GMAC from the chip, and one Ethernet port relying one a USB 3.0 to Ethernet controller. The rest of NanoPi R2S specifications are pretty similar to the earlier board except WiFi is also gone: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz with Arm Mali-450MP2 System Memory – 1GB DDR4 RAM Storage – MicroSD […]

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Krescue for Khadas VIM Boards Enables Backup/Restore of eMMC flash, Access to the Terminal, and More

Sometimes things go wrong, and you need a way to recover your system, either by restoring a backup or accessing your system to check it out and hopefully fix the issue. Krescue is a minimal firmware image (21MB compressed) for Khadas VIM boards designed to do just that, and more. Some of the highlights of Krescue firmware image include: Full eMMC flash dump/backup to Micro SD card, USB, or LAN host. Restore the compressed dump (.img.gz) into an eMMC on the same device or another device Rescue shell for expert users. Shell access via UART, USB network, and Web browser You’ll find Krescue for Khadas VIM1, VIM2, VIM3 and VIM3L on Khadas website which can be flashed to a MicroSD card using balenaEtcher. You can then insert the card into your board, and boot into maskROM mode to access the menu above, and control it with the IR remote control […]

January 16, 2020February 22, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Snekboard Controls LEGO Power Functions with CircuitPython or Snek Programming Languages (Crowdfunding)

LEGO has provided robotics kit for years, and LEGO blocks and accessories in general are great to build all sort of projects, so it’s not surprising third-parties have come up with LEGO-compatible boards and accessories for makers which include DFRobot BOSON kits, STEMTera smart breadboard, Brixo LEGO blocks with built-in electronics, and more. Snekboard is another option with the Microchip SAMD21 board designed to work with LEGO Power Functions motors and switches are programmable with MicroPyhon based CircuitPython or Snek programming languages. Snekboard hardware specifications: Microcontroller – Microchip SAMD21G18A Arm Cortex-M0 MCU with 256 KB flash and 32 KB RAM. Storage – 2MB SPI flash USB – 1x Micro USB port for power and programming Motor Control – 4x TI DRV8800 DC motor drivers tp provide up to 2.8A for LEGO motors and servos I/O- 8x GPIOs (3.3V) Misc – 2x RGB LEDs, 1x blue LED Power Supply 5V via […]

January 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Ingenic X1830 IoT Processor Features a 32-bit MIPS Core, 128MB DDR2 RAM

Ingenic is a silicon vendor based in Beijing, China and known for its MIPS Xburst processors such as JZ4780 dual-core SoC or T10 video processor. It’s been a while (a few years) since we last covered new processors from the company, but it appears the company launched another MIPS SoC for IoT applications last year. Meet Ingenic X1830 processor. X1830 specifications: CPU – MIPS32 XBurst-1 core @ up to 1.5 GHz with SIMD engine, 32KB instruction cache, 32KB data cache, 128KB unified L2 cache Memory – 128MB DDR2 in package Storage I/F – 2x SD/eMMC controllers, and Quad SPI (QSPI) VPU H264 Encoder up to 1080p80 or 1560×1600 resolution JPEG compressing/decompressing up to 70Mega-pixels per second ISP 12-bit RAW or up to 24-bit RGB Max input resolution 2688×2048 @20fps, 1080p @60fps,720p @120fps 2-D and 3-D noise reduction filter, advanced demosaic, color processing, lens shading, defog, glare, static/dynamic defect pixel… Image […]

January 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

OpenWrt 19.07 Released with WPA3 Security, a Faster LuCI web interface

OpenWrt is a popular Linux operating system targeting embedded devices, usually routers (but not only), and serves as a complete replacement for the vendor-supplied firmware on supported devices. The developers released OpenWrt 19.07 on January 6, to succeed OpenWrt 18.06 the previous stable release. The new version brings various improvements including WPA3 support, client-side rendering of the LuCI web interface for faster rendering or a lower-load on the router, and introduces the ath79 target for MIPS routers with device tree support. While WPA3 WiFi security is part of OpenWrt 19.07, it is not enabled by default because the necessary packages hostapd-openssl (access point), wpa-supplicant-openssl (station support only) and wpad-openssl (AP + station) take a fair amount of space, and won’t fit on devices with 8MB flash or less. Another reason for not enabling WPA3 is that many existing client devices will never support WPA3, and some client devices that support […]

January 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

iWave Systems Launches NXP i.MX 8QuadMax / i.MX 8QuadPlus SBC

NXP i.MX 8 series family offers plenty of options from the i.MX 8X Cortex-A35 processor to i.MX 8QuadMax octa-core processor with two Arm Cortex-A72, four Arm Cortex-A53, and two Arm Cortex-M4F cores. We already covered plenty of i.MX 8 hardware on CNX Software, including a fair amount of i.MX 8QuadMax systems-on-module such as Toradex Apalis iMX8, iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G27M SMARC 2.0 SoM, Advantech ROM-7720 Qseven 2.1 computer-on-module, and others. But for some unknown reasons, there haven’t been that many i.MX 8QuadMax single board computer, and AFAICR we only wrote about Seco SBC-C43 board so far. But there’s now another option thanks to iWave Systems iW-Rainbow-G27S Pico-ITX SBC equipped with a choice of i.MX 8QuadMax or i.MX 8QuadPlus processor and up to 8GB RAM. iW-Rainbow-G27S specifications: SoC (one or the other)— NXP i.MX8 with VPU and HiFi4 DSP: NXP i.MX 8QuadMax with 2x Cortex-A72 cores, 4x Cortex-A53 cores, 2x Cortex-M4F real-time […]

January 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

MediaTek Helio G70 & Helio G70T Processors Targets Mainstream Gaming Smartphones

Announced last summer, MediaTek Helio G90 & Helio G90T processors are specifically designed for gaming on smartphones and ideals for titles such as Fornite, PUBG, or KOG. Both are higher processors with Arm Cortex-A76/A55 cores coupled with an Arm Mali-G76 3EEMC4, but MediaTek has now announced two more cost-effective processors with Helio G70 & Helio G70T SoCs aimed at mid-range/mainstream gaming smartphones. MediaTek Helio G70 specifications: Processor – 2x Arm Cortex-A75 @ 2GHz, 6x Arm Cortex-A55 @ 1.7GHz with “large L3 cache” GPU – Arm Mali-G52 2EEMC2 up to 820MHz Memory – Up to 8GB LPDDR4x @ 1800MHz Storage – eMMC 5.1 flash Display – Up to 2520 x 1080 resolution Video Decode – H.264, H.265 / HEVC, VP-9 up to 2K @ 30 fps, 1080p @ 60 fps Encode – H.264, H.265 / HEVC up to 2K @ 30 fps, 1080p @ 60 fps Camera ISP support 16MP+16MP, or […]