There aren’t that many companies shipping Linux laptops, and often it’s either at the entry-level of the market with Arm-based Pine64 PineBook or PineBook Pro, or at the higher-end with products such as Dell XPS 13 developer edition or System76 Linux laptops. If you’d like something in between, you could install Ubuntu on a laptop yourself, but drivers are not always working, and sometimes when the laptop is confirmed to work, the manufacturer may decide to completely redesign the hardware. Star Lite Mk III Linux laptop may be an interesting alternative, as the Intel Pentium N5000 Gemini Lake laptop is up for pre-order for $427 US and up with delivery scheduled to start in September. Specifications: SoC – Intel Pentium N5000 quad-core Gemini Lake processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.7 GHz (Turbo) with 4MB cache, Intel UHD 605 graphics @ 200/750 MHz; 6W TDP System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 @ […]
Rock Pi E SBC Comes with WiFi, Bluetooth, Two Ethernet Ports, and Optional PoE
Radxa has launched several Rockchip boards from the higher-end Rock Pi N10 (RK3399Pro) and Rock Pi 4 (RK3399) SBC’s, to the low-end and tiny Rock Pi S powered by an RK3308 Cortex-A35 processor. The company has now launched Rock Pi E single board computer equipped with the popular Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and designed for router & gateway application with two Ethernet ports, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) also comes as an option. Rock Pi E specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz System Memory – 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB DDR3 Storage – MicroSD card slot up to 128GB, eMMC module support ( 16GB / 32GB / 64GB / 128GB) Video & Audio – 3.5mm AV output jack (Not 100% sure whether composite video is supported) Connectivity 1x Gigabit Ethernet port with PoE support via an additional HAT 10/100M Ethernet Wireless […]
ODROID-N2 Plus SBC Gets Amlogic S922X Rev. C Processor Clocked at up to 2.4 GHz
Announced in February 2019, ODROID-N2 Amlogic S922X SBC launched the following month with 2GB to 4GB RAM, HDMI 2.0 output, Gigabit Ethernet, multiple USB 3.0 ports with pricing starting at $63 making very good value for an hexa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor. The company has now announced an upgraded with ODROID-N2 Plus SBC featuring Amlogic S922X Rev.C bringing the Cortex-A73 big core maximum clock frequency from 1.8 GHz to 2.2GHz. But Hardkernel also found out they could overclock the processor up to 2.4 GHz in all 300 boards they have delivered a 33% boost over the original ODROID-N2 board. The Cortex-A53 cores are also a bit faster up to 2.0 GHz. ODROID-N2+ specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X Rev.C hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Arm Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.2/2.4GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 cores @ 2.0GHz, Arm Mali-G52 GPU @ 846MHz; 12nm manufacturing process System Memory – 2GB or 4GB […]
Pinephone “Community Edition: PostmarketOS” Launched with 3GB RAM, 32GB Flash, USB-C Hub
After PinePhone “BraveHeart Edition” with any OS pre-installed introduced at the end of last year, Pine64 launched PinePhone “Community Edition: UBports” with Ubuntu Touch last April, and now the company is taking pre-orders for Pinephone “Community Edition: PostmarketOS with Convergence Package”. Besides using a different operating system, the new PinePhone also got a hardware upgrade with 3GB RAM and 32GB flash instead of the 2GB/16GB configuration from earlier models. Due to the changes and the addition of a USB-C dock for convergence, the price has also gone up from $149.99 to $199.99 with shipping scheduled to start at the end of August. If you don’t need the extra memory, storage, and convergence package, you can still pre-order PinePhone with postmarketOS for $149.99. PinePhone “Community Edition: PostmarketOS with Convergence Package” specifications: SoC – Allwinner A64 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz with Arm Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 3GB […]
Brume-W Pocket-Sized Wireless Gateway Runs OpenWrt or Ubuntu (Crowdfunding)
GL.iNet Brume-W (GL-MV1000W) is a “pocket-sized wireless gateway for edge computing” that supports high-speed VPN up to 280Mbps with WireGuard, AdGuard ad-blocking software (AdGuard), and Tor. The device features three Gigabit Ethernet ports and built-in 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 connectivity, but it also supports Alfa AWUS036AC and AWUS036ACS USB WiFf USB dongles for users wanting dual-band WiFi 5 (AC) networking. The router ships with OpenWrt pre-installed, but also supports Ubuntu. Brume-W specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA 88F3720 (aka ARMADA 3720) dual-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.0 GHz with packet processor/network accelerator System Memory – 1GB DDR4 Storage – 16MB NOR flash and 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot up to 256GB Connectivity 3x Gigabit Ethernet ports (1x WAN + 2x LAN) Built-in 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 300 Mbps with external WiFi antennas Support for external 802.11ac WiFI 5 USB dongles USB – 1x USB host port, 1x USB-C […]
Ignitial Tukhla High-End Open Source Hardware NXP i.MX 8QuadMax SBC in the Works
[Update: The European company that initiated the project is Ignitial based in the west of France. So while we refer to the board as Olimex Tukhla in the post, it will be offered as Ignitial Tukhla once it becomes available] Most open-source hardware Arm Linux SBCs are optimized for cost, and there are few higher-end boards with extensive connectivity designed for professionals. Beagleboard X15 would be one of the rare examples currently available on the market, but it was launched five years ago. One European company noticed the void in this market and asked Olimex to develop a high-end open-source Linux board with a well-documented processor. They ruled out RK3399, and instead went Olimex Tukhla SBC will be powered by NXP i.MX 8QuadMax, the top processor of i.MX 8 family with two Cortex-A72 cores, four Cortex-A53 cores, and two real-time Cortex-M4F cores. As you can see from the screenshot above, […]
Ingenic X2000 IoT Application Processor Combines 32-bit MIPS Xburst 2 Cores with Xburst 0 Real-time Core
In Arm’s world, heterogeneous processors are pretty common, with for example big.LITTLE / dynamIQ application processors mixing powerful Cortex-A7x cores with power-efficient Cortex-A5x cores., or “industrial” processor such NXP i.MX 8M family with Cortex-A53 application cores combined with Cortex-M4F real-time core. Maybe I did not follow enough, but I hadn’t really seen anything equivalent in MIPS world, except if we count Ingenic T31 with RISC-V and MIPS cores. That is until today where I was informed about documents related to Ingenic X2000 IoT application processor with two 32-bit MIPS Xburst 2 core, one MIPS Xburst 0 real-time cores, as well as up to 256MB RAM built-into the SoC. Ingenic X2000 specifications: CPU Core – Dual XBurst 2, MIPS ISA based, frequency up to 1.5 GHz with 32KB L1 x2 Cache, 512KB L2 Cache, 32KB SRAM, FPU,128bit SIMD MCU Core – XBurst 0 MIPS core @ 300MHz for security and real-time […]
NanoPi NEO3 Headless SBC Launched for $20 and up
Last month, we found out FriendlyELEC was working on NanoPi NEO3, a tiny SBC powered by Rockchip RK3328 processor and made for headless applications and networked storage thanks to Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 ports, as well as a 26-pin GPIO header. At the time, the board was still been finalized, but the company has now started to take orders for $20 and up depending on options which include a cute white enclosure.. Here’s a quick reminder of NanoPi NEO3 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor with Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB or 2GB DDR4 Storage – MicroSD Slot for system boot and storage Video Output – N/A Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet with unique MAC via RTL8211E PHY USB – 1x USB3.0 Type-A port, 2x USB2.0 on 2.54mm 8-pin header Expansion – 26-pin header with I2C, UART, SPI, I2S, GPIO Debugging – 3-pin header for […]