GEEKOM XT12 Pro review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on an Intel Core i9-12900H mini PC

GEEKOM XT12 Pro Ubuntu 24.04 review

We’ve already looked at GEEKOM XT12 Pro specifications and hardware design in the first part of the review and followed up by reviewing the Intel Core i9-12900 mini PC with Windows 11 Pro in the second part. We’ve now had time to review the GEEKOM XT12 Pro mini PC with the just-released Ubuntu 24.04 operating system to evaluate the compatibility and performance in Linux. In this third and final part of the review, we’ll test features in detail, evaluate performance with benchmarks, test storage and network capabilities, check YouTube video playback at 4K and 8K resolution, perform a stress test to check the cooling solution and provide numbers for fan noise and power consumption of the GEEKOM XT12 Pro mini PC. Ubuntu 24.04 installation and system information We’ve resized the Windows 11 by half in order to install Ubuntu 24.04 in dual boot configuration. After that, we inserted a USB […]

Muse Book laptop features SpacemiT K1 octa-core RISC-V AI processor, up to 16GB RAM

Muse Book RISC-V laptop with SpacemiT K1 SoC

SpacemiT, a chip design company from China with RISC-V as its core technology, recently unveiled the Muse Book laptop based on the K1 octa-core RISC-V chip. Unlike our daily laptops, it has many interesting unique features and is mainly sold to hardware engineers and DIY enthusiasts. This Muse Book runs the Bianbu OS operating system based on the Debian distribution and optimized to run on the SpacemiT K1 octa-core RISC-V SoC. Let’s first take a look at its external interfaces. On the left side of the laptop, there are two USB Type-C interfaces, a USB 3.0 Type-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD card slot, and a reset pinhole. The 8-pin header on the right side of the laptop is quite interesting, and SpacemiT hopes the Muse Book can become one of the most convenient hardware development platforms for RISC-V.  In addition to the power pins, users will find […]

M5Stack CoreMP135 – A Linux-powered industrial controller based on STM32MP135 Cortex-A7 MPU

M5Stack CoreMP135 industrial control host

M5Stack CoreMP135 is an industrial control host powered by the STM32MP135DAE7 Arm Cortex-A7 core microprocessor running at 1GHz, equipped with up to 512MB DDR3L SDRAM memory, and loaded with high-performance interfaces such as two Gigabit Ethernet ports, three USB ports, two CAN FD interfaces, two Grove interfaces, and an “HD” video output. An integrated PWR485 communication board bundles a 9V to 24V power input and an RS485 interface. The device also features a microSD card slot for storage, a small IPS capacitive touch screen, and a 1W speaker for human-machine interaction. The CoreMP135 is designed for low-power consumption and uses an Allwinner AXP2101 chip for power management. It supports scheduled wake-up and sleep with an integrated real-time clock (BM8563 module). The device runs Linux and comes with a microSD card loaded with the Debian operating system, simplifying setup and allowing usage out of the box. A DIN rail base plate […]

Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 mini PC comparison – Features, Benchmarks, and Price

Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 Mini PC

The Raspberry Pi 5 Arm SBC is now powerful enough to challenge some Intel systems in terms of performance, while Intel has made the Intel Alder Lake-N family, notably the Intel Processor N100, inexpensive and efficient enough to challenge Arm systems when it comes to price, form factor, and power consumption. So we’ll try to match the Raspberry Pi 5 to typical Intel processor N100 mini PCs with a comparison of features/specifications, performance (benchmarks), and pricing with different use cases. That’s something I’ve been wanting to look into for a while but I was busy with reviews and other obligations (Hello, Mr. Taxman!), and this weekend I had some spare time to carry on the comparison. Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 mini PC specifications I’ll start by comparing the specifications of a Raspberry Pi 5 against the ones for typical Intel Processor N100-based mini PCs also mentioning optional features […]

Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 is a low-cost dual-Core Arm Cortex-A35 microprocessor for industrial edge applications

NuMaker IoT-MA35D0-A1 Dev Board

The Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 series is a cost-effective, dual-core Arm Cortex-A35 MPU designed specifically for edge IoT applications. The specifications of this MPU are very similar to the Nuvoton MA35H0, and it looks more like a low-power low-cost version of the NuMicro MA35D1. The MPU features integrated, stacked DDR SDRAM options (128MB or 256MB) to reduce PCB complexity and BOM costs. It also offers some security options with Arm TrustZone, secure boot, cryptographic accelerators, and a True Random Number Generator, making it ideal for industrial applications. The MPU also offers various peripherals and connectivity options including 2x Fast Ethernet (IEEE 1588 v2) interfaces, high-speed USB, SD3.0/eMMC, three CAN FD, eleven UART, and more. Additionally, the MA35D0 MPU supports touchscreens and a TFT LCD controller with resolutions up to 1280×800. Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 Series specifications: CPU Sub-system  2x Arm Cortex-A35 cores running at up to 650 MHz L1 Cache – 32 Kbytes instruction […]

QNAP TS-216G 2-bay NAS features a quad-core Arm processor with NPU for image sorting and searching

QNAP TS-216G

QNAP TS-216G 2-bay NAS features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor with an NPU for AI-powered photo management, 4GB RAM, 2.5GbE and GbE networking ports, two hot-swappable 3.5-inch SATA bay, and a few USB ports. It looks to be an update to the Rockchip RK3566-powered QNAP TS-133/TS-223 with more memory (4GB vs 2GB) and more advanced networking capability (2.5GbE+GbE vs GbE only), while still keeping the object and face recognition capabilities. QNAP TS-216G specifications: SoC – Unnamed but likely Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 clocked at up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Mali-G52 Neural Processing Unit (NPU) Hardware-accelerated Transcoding Encryption Engine System Memory – 4 GB RAM Storage 4 GB eMMC flash (dual boot OS protection) 2x 3.5-inch SATA III bay also supporting 2.5-inch SATA SSDs; hot-swappable Networking 2.5GbE RJ45 jack Gigabit Ethernet jack Wake-on-LAN (WoL) and Jumbo Frame support Number of Concurrent Connections (CIFS) – Up to 200 USB […]

Synaptics Astra platform takes SL1620, SL1640, or SL1680 Arm CPU module for Edge AI applications

Astra Machina Foundation Series Dev Board

Synaptics has unveiled its new Astra platform with a range of SoC and a development kit for edge AI applications. These new processors and a supporting development kit are built to provide out-of-the-box AI capabilities for IoT devices, reducing reliance on cloud-based AI. This new Synaptics Astra Platform is built around three main SoCs. The SL1680 is built for multi-modal IoT applications and features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 CPU, dedicated 7.9 TOPS NPU, and 4K video. The SL1640 is a cost and power-optimized SoC with a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU and 1.6+ TOPS NPU. Finally, the SL1620 is a graphics and AI accelerator with a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU and dual-core Imagination BXE-2-32 GPU but does not feature an NPU. The development kit features a module design where the new swappable compute modules allow flexible configurations. The devkit will support open Yocto Linux distribution and Synaptics AI toolkit for quick AI integration. […]

Azulle Access Pro Intel N100 PC stick ships with Windows 11, Linux, or Zoom

Azulle Access Pro Alder Lake PC Stick

Azulle Access Pro is a PC stick based on an Intel N100 quad-core Alder Lake” processor with up to 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, and a male HDMI port which is offered with Windows 11 Pro, Linux, or “Zoom” operating systems (more on that below). The mini PC also provides a microSD card slot, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 with an external antenna, USB 3.0 Type-A and Type-C ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack. We’ve written about pocket-sized mini PCs based on Alder Lake-N processors before, for instance, the MeLe PCG02 Pro N100 or the slightly wider MeLe Quieter4C, but the Azulle model is different since it comes with a male HDMI connector which would allow users to connect it directly into a TV or monitor without a cable. Azulle Access Pro specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) […]

Exit mobile version