Operating Systems Category - CNX Software

May 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Radxa NIO 5A credit card-sized Mediatek Genio 520 SBC showcased at Computex 2025

Radxa NIO 5A is an upcoming Mediatek Genio 520 SBC in credit card/Raspberry Pi form factor that should offer a more affordable entry into the MediaTek Genio family than Radxa Nio 12L equipped with a powerful Mediatek Genio 1200 SoC. There’s no public information on the web about it, but I was sent some photos of the board from Mediatek’s booth at Computex 2025, and we know it’s powered by the Genio 520 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 SoC with a 10 TOPS AI accelerator and comes with “large memory and high-capacity storage”. Let’s see if we can derive more detailed specs from the photos and other public information about the SoC. Radxa NIO 5A specifications (preliminary): SoC – Mediatek Genio 520 (MT8371) CPU – Octa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A78 up to 2.2 GHz (Commercial) or 2.0 GHz (Industrial) 6x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz (Commercial) or 1.8 GHz (Industrial) GPU […]

May 20, 2025May 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Chipsee 15.6-inch industrial Panel PC review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and first boot to Raspberry Pi OS

Chipsee PPC-CM5-156 review: Raspberry Pi CM5 industrial panel PC

I’ve just received a review sample of Chipsee PPC-CM5-156 15.6-inch industrial panel PC that was recently added to the Raspberry Pi CM5-based Chipsee panel PCs family we covered in February with 7-inch and 10-inch models. I’ll do a two-part review starting by listing the specifications, doing an unboxing and a teardown, and booting the system in the first part, before doing further testing with Raspberry Pi OS and most interfaces and features in the second part. Chipsee PPC-CM5-156 specifications SoM – Raspberry Pi CM5 or CM5 Lite with Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A76 SoC, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB RAM, optional 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash Storage MicroSD card slot M.2 M-Key 2230/2242/2260/2280 (PCIe Gen2 x1) socket for NVMe SSD Display – 15.6-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, 10-point capacitive touchscreen with 1mm armored glass, 400 cd/m2 brightness Video Output – HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60 Audio 3.5mm audio out […]

May 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Huawei Matebook Pro is the first laptop sold with HarmonyOS operating system

Huawei Matebook Pro (HAD-W24 / HAD-W32) resembles a typical laptop with a 14.2-inch display, 24GB to 32GB RAM, and 1TB or 2TB SSD storage. What’s less common is that the processor is not named, and the laptop is the first to run Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system. Those two are due to Western countries’ sanctions against the Chinese company. Huawei used to sell Intel-based laptops with Windows and Android smartphones, but they’ve not made hardware based on US technology for a while. As software support would eventually run out, they had to work on an alternative named HarmonyOS, which has been used on smartwatches, smartphones, and tablets for a while, but the Matebook Pro is the first computer sold with the new OS. While we don’t know the processor used, reports mention the Kirin X90 10-core (4+4+2) / 20-thread Arm SoC as an “Apple Silicon” solution. MateBook Pro specifications: SoC – […]

May 19, 2025May 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

1GHz Renesas RZ/A3M Cortex-A55 MPU embeds 128MB on-chip DDR3L for HMI applications

Renesas RZ/A3M is an Arm Cortex-A55 microprocessor (MPU) clocked at up to 1.0 GHz with 128MB on-chip DDR3L for cost-effective, yet advanced HMI applications with up to 1280×800 resolution. The RZ/A3M is similar to its predecessor, the Renesas RZ-A3UL, but it integrates 128MB on-chip RAM in a single System-in-Package (SiP), supports both MIPI DSI and parallel display interfaces, and adds a 2D graphics accelerator for smoother user interfaces. Renesas RZ/A3M specifications: CPU – Single-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.0 GHz GPU – 2D drawing engine Memory 128KB on-chip SRAM with ECC Built-in 128MB DDR3L-1600 SDRAM (16-bit bus width) Storage SPI Multi I/O Bus Controller× 1 channel (4-bit Double data rate) Boot from Serial NAND or Serial NOR flash SD card host interface Display I/F – 4-lane MIPI DSI or Digital parallel output up to 1280×800 resolution @ 60 Hz Audio – Serial sound interface (SSI/I2S) USB – 1x USB […]

May 19, 2025May 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Boardcon LGA3576 – A Rockchip RK3576 LGA system-on-module with UFS storage and LPDDR5 memory

Boardcon has just introduced the LGA3576 system-on-module with a 330-pad LGA design powered by Rockchip RK3576 AI SoC and the Idea3576 single board computer (SBC) based on the module. The 6TOPS AI-capable system-on-module ships with up to 8GB LPDDR5, integrates 32GB to 512GB UFS storage, while an RK806S-5 PMIC takes care of power management, and all I/Os such as HDMI, PCIe, Ethernet, and GPIO signals are exposed through LGA pads. Boardcon LGA3576 – A Rockchip RK3576 LGA system-on-module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU Octa-core CPU with 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz Single-core Cortex-M0 real-time core GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.0, and Vulkan 1.1 NPU – 6 TOPS (INT8) AI accelerator with support for INT4/INT8/INT16/BF16/TF32 mixed operations. VPU Video Decoder H.265, VP9, AV1, and AVS2 up to 8Kp30 or 4Kp120 H.264/AVC up […]

May 16, 2025May 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

PitFusion thermal imager for Raspberry Pi combines Melexis MLX90640 sensor and RGB camera (Crowdfunding)

IVMECH Mechatronics’ PitFusion is a thermal imager designed for the Raspberry Pi based on a Melexis MLX90640 32×24 thermal sensor and an Adafruit 0V5647 RGB sensor comparable to the Raspberry Pi Camera Module v1.3. The kit enables users to capture thermal and visible images simultaneously, and can be useful for automation, robotics, security (human/pet motion detection), non-contact temperature measurement, and environmental monitoring applications. PiFusion specifications: Thermal Sensor – Adafruit LX90640 with 32 x 24 pixel array Camera Sensor – Adafruit 0V5647 comparable to the RPi Camera Module v1.3 with 2592 x 1944 resolution Temperature Range – -40°C to 300°C Frame Rate – Up to 32 Hz (thermal), 30 fps (camera) Spectral Range – 8 µm to 14 µm (optimal for human body and object detection) Host Interfaces – I2C for thermal sensor, CSI for camera) Dimensions – 40 x 30 x 10 mm Weight – 15 grams IVMECH says the […]

May 16, 2025May 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

TexHoo QN15 – A sub $100 mini PC with Intel Processor N150 CPU

Once entry-level Intel processors have been on the market for long enough, we often start to see systems sell for under $100. The TexHoo QN15 mini PC is offered with a recent Intel Processor N150 Twin Lake CPU for just around $100 in its barebone configuration with WiFi 5, but no RAM, and no storage. The mini PC supports DDR4 memory and NVMe and SATA storage, and offers two 4K-capable HDMI ports, gigabit Ethernet, a M.2 socket for WiFi and Bluetooth, and five USB ports with two USB 3.2, two USB 2.0, and a USB Type-C port. TexHoo QN15 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N150 quad-core Twin Lake processor @ up to 3.6 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics @ 1.0 GHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – SO-DIMM socket for DDR4-2666/32000 up to 32GB Storage M.2 2280 socket for SATA or NVMe SSD 2.5-inch SATA bay (proprietary SATA […]

May 15, 2025May 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ZimaBoard 2 micro server review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and ZimaOS interface

We’ve just received a review sample of the ZimaBoard 2 micro server and mini PC powered by an Intel Processor N150 “Twin Lake” CPU. The system features two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports, two SATA III ports, two USB 3.1 ports, and a miniDP video port supporting 4K resolution. IceWhale Technology provided us with the ZimaBoard 2 model 832 prototype with 8GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash preloaded with the ZimaOS operating system for review. In this article, we will unbox the device and its accessories, perform a teardown, and boot the micro server with the pre-installed ZimaOS and check the web dashboard. In the second part of the review, we will test ZimaOS in more detail, run some benchmarks since it’s our first Twin Lake mini PC, install an Ubuntu virtual machine, test the SATA ports and PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and more. ZimaBoard 2 unboxing We received a package […]