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

November 2, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Pantahub Enables Seamless, Remote Linux Firmware Updates Over-the-Air

Let’s say you’re running Raspbian on your Raspberry Pi 4 board, but would like to check out the latest Ubuntu 19.10 for the board. What would you normally have to do? After downloading the firmware and turning off your Raspberry Pi 4, you’d normally need physical access to your Raspberry Pi 4 to remove the MicroSD card, insert it into your computer and start balenaEtcher or other utility to flash the image. Once it’s done remove the MicroSD card from your PC and insert it back into the Raspberry Pi SBC, before booting it up. That’s fine for experimentation, but time-consuming if you had to do this for multiple boards that may be placed in various locations. That’s where Pantacor’s PantaHub, PantaVisor, and PVR utility come in. Pantahub is a web dashboard used for registration, to monitor your devices, and documentation, Pantavisor is an Alpine Linux based device init system […]

November 1, 2019November 1, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Intel Introduces Celeron 5205U & Pentium Gold 6405U Lower Cost Comet Lake-U Processors

Intel officially launched the 10th Generation Comet Lake processor family at the end of September with a choice of Core i3, i5, and i7 processors with 15W TDP (Comet Lake-U) or 4.5~5.5W TDP (Comet Lake-Y) which we’ve so far found in some laptops including some running Linux, and Windows mini laptops among other devices. Intel has now quietly added two new SKU’s to their 15W Comet Lake-U with respectively Intel Celeron 5205U dual-core processor and Pentium Gold 6405U dual-core/quad-thread processor which will come at a lower price than their Core i3/i5/i7 siblings. We’ll find the two new processors at the top of the comparison table below together with previously launched Comet Lake-U processors. SKU Cores / Threads Cache TDP/ UP TDP Base Freq (GHz) 1C Turbo (GHz) AC Turbo (GHz) GPU Freq (MHz) Memory support Celeron 5205U 2/2 2MB 15W 1.9 N/A N/A 900 LPDDR3 2133 /DDR4 2400 Pentium Gold […]

October 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

F(x)tec Pro1 Android Smartphone Comes with a Sliding Keyboard

Phones with a sliding keyboard used to be pretty common several years ago, but they all be disappeared in recent times. If you don’t like the software keyboard on the touchscreen and find carrying a Bluetooth keyboard cumbersome, I have good news for you. F(x)tec Pro1 smartphone with fairly decent specifications (Snapdragon 835, 6″ display, 6GB RAM, 128 GB storage) has launched for $699 with a sliding keyboard. F(x)tec Pro1 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (MSM8998) octa-core Kryo 280 processor with 4x higher performance cores @ 2.45 GHz, 4x low-power cores @ 1.9 GHz, Adreno 540 GPU System Memory – 6GB LPDDR4 Storage – 128GB flash, MicroSD card up to 2TB Display – 5.99-” 2160 x 1080 (FHD+) AMOLED display with curved edges; Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Camera 8MP Front-facing camera 12MP + 5 MP rear cameras with dual colour, dual-LED flash Video Capture up to 4K @ 30fps […]

October 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Olimex OSHW Allwinner S3 IP Camera Board in the Works – Feedback & Suggestions Welcomed

Allwinner S3 Arm Cortex-A7 processor is designed for dual-camera systems and embeds 128MB RAM. It looks to be an evolution of the older Allwinner V3s chip that came with 64MB RAM and is software-compatible with the older camera SoC. We reported about the new processor and an Allwinner S3 development board last year, but Olimex has started working on an open-source hardware IP camera board based on the processor and is asking for feedback from customers and the community at large. Preliminary specifications: SoC – Allwinner S3 Cortex-A7 @ 1.2GHz with 128MB DDR3 RAM at 1333 MHz Storage -MicroSD card slot, configuration EEPROM, optional NAND/eMMC/SPI Flash on socket Camera I/F MIPI camera connector with RPi pinout Parallel CSI camera connector Display – LCD connector for LCD-OLinuXino 4.3″ to 15.6″ displays Audio – Audio in and out via 3.5mm audio jacks Connectivity Fast Ethernet with PoE option WiFi / BT module with […]

October 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

MINIX NEO T5 Google Android TV Certified Media Hub Launched for $85

MINIX has been pretty busy in the last few months with the launch of their NEO J50C-4 (64GB) and NEO G41V-4 mini PCs, and the company has now just officially launched MINIX NEO T5, their first Google Android TV certified media hub for $84.90 on Aliexpress or Amazon. MINIX NEO T5 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X2 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash, microSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.1 output up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10+ support Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, optical S/PDIF, HDMI digital audio; Dolby Digital support; Dolby TrueHD / Atmos and DTS-HD pass-through is also supported Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi 5 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2 USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x USB 3.0 port Power Supply – 5V/2A NEO T5 ships with an IR remote […]

October 30, 2019October 30, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n Nano IoT Fanless Mini PC is Powered by an Intel Whiskey Lake Processor

We’ve been covering mini PCs for several years, but I’ve just noticed we never wrote about Lenovo mini PCs probably as they were no that small, and higher price points. But today, I’ve come across Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n Nano IoT, a fanless mini PC powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron 4205U or Core i3-8145U Whiskey Lake processor. The mini PC also comes with 4GB DDR4, a 256GB SSD, DisplayPort video output, Gigabit Ethernet, several USB ports, two COM ports, and more. Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n Nano IoT specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron 4205U dual-core Whiskey Lake processor @ 1.80 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 610; 15W TDP Intel Core i3-8145U dual-core / four-thread Whiskey Lake processor @ 2.10 GHz (base) / 3.90 GHz (turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 620; 15W TDP Memory – Up to 4GB DDR4 (on-board) Storage – 256GB or 512GB M.2 SSD Video Output – […]

October 30, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

inCharge 6 All-in-One Charging Cable Supports USB-C, USB-A, Lightning, and Micro USB (Crowdfunding)

You probably own a few battery-powered devices, maybe one or two phones, a camera, Bluetooth headset, etc…, and each requires a different cable. It’s also easy to forget bringing the right cable, and once your device runs out of battery you’re out of luck. inCharge 6 universal charging cable aims to solve this first world problem by offering a single cable that supports devices charged through USB Type-C, Lightning or Micro USB port, and small enough to hook to your keyring so you never forget it. Alternatively, the company also offers a 1.5-meter version of the cable. The cable takes power from USB type-A or type-C power supply, and output to USB type-C, Lightning or Micro USB with the latter two available through the same connector. The cable also allows you to charge a device from another device, and transfer data between the two (Charge & Sync) as illustrated below. […]

October 29, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Lixil AI-based Toilet Analyzes Shape & Size of Feces with Camera and LEDs

Earlier this year, we wrote about machine learning & image processing in embedded systems using pasta type classification as an example. Lixil Group, a Japanese company manufacturing housing equipment, is working on a concept using similar technology, but instead of classifying pasta, they implemented the technology into an AI-based toilet that checks the shape and size of feces of people living in elderly facilities. Lixil’s toilet was unveiled at the 46th International Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition (HCR 2019) in Tokyo at the end of last month. The system relies on a camera and two LED’s placed on the back of the seat, which turn on when the user sits on the seat. Once the job is done, images of the feces are taken automatically and classified into seven categories as specified by the Bristol stool chart. Classification happens within a few seconds, and results can be check by staff […]