Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” released with Linux 6.8, up to 12 years of support

Ubuntu 24.04 release

Canonical has just released Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” distribution a little over two years after Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish” was released. The new version of the operating system comes with the recent Linux 6.8 kernel, GNOME 46, and a range of updates and new features we’ll discuss in this post. As a long-term support release, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS gets a 12-year commitment for security maintenance and support, with five years of free security maintenance on the main Ubuntu repository, and Ubuntu Pro extending that commitment to 10 years on both the main and universe repositories (also free for individuals and small companies with up to 5 devices). This can be extended a further 2-year, or 12 years in total, for Ubuntu Pro subscribers who purchase the Legacy Support add-on. Canonical explains the Linux 6.8 kernel brings improved syscall performance, nested KVM support on ppc64el, and access to the […]

Firefly AIBOX-1684X compact AI Box delivers 32 TOPS for large language models, image generation, video analytics, and more

SOPHON BM1684X AI Box

Firefly AIBOX-1684X is a compact AI Box based on SOPHON BM1684X octa-core Arm Cortex-53 processor with a 32 TOPS AI accelerator suitable for large language models (LLM) such as Llama 2, Stable Diffusion image generation solution, and traditional CNN and RNN neural network architectures. Firefly had already released several designs based on the SOPHON BM1684X AI processor with the full-featured Firefly EC-A1684XJD4 FD Edge AI computer and the AIO-1684XQ motherboard, but the AIBOX-1684X AI Box offers the same level of performance, just without as many interfaces, in a compact enclosure measuring just 90.6 x 84.4 x 48.5 mm. AIBOX-1684X AI box specifications: SoC – SOPHGO SOPHON BM1684X CPU – Octa-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 2.3 GHz TPU – Up to 32TOPS (INT8), 16 TFLOPS (FP16/BF16), 2 TFLOPS (FP32) VPU Up to 32-channel H.265/H.264 1080p25 video decoding Up to 32-channel 1080p25 HD video processing (decoding + AI analysis) Up […]

Ronetix launches NXP i.MX93 SoMs in SMARC and OSM-L form factors

RNX iMX93 SMARC

Austrian embedded equipment manufacturer, Ronetix, has released two i.MX93 system-on-modules (SoMs): the RNX-iMX93-OSM that follows the Open Standard Module (OSM) form factor, and the RNX-iMX93-SMARC compliant with the SMARC 2.1 (smart mobility architecture) standard. Ronetix i.MX93 SoMs are powered by the NXP i.MX93 processor featuring a 64-bit dual-core Arm Cortex-A55 application processor running at 1.7GHz and a Cortex-M33 core running at 250MHz for low-latency and real-time tasks. The SoC supports up to 2GB LPDDR4 RAM and 512GB eMMC storage, and the integrated Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU offers up to 0.5 TOPS of computing power for machine vision applications and intelligent energy management (IEM). Applicable for industrial automation and IoT, the SoMs also feature two CAN and Ethernet interfaces to aid high-speed data transfer. Other hardware featuring the i.MX93 that we have covered recently include the ADLINK OSM-IMX93, MaaXBoard OSM93, and Ka-Ro Electronics’ QS93. The RNX-iMX93-SMARC system-on-module comes in 82 x 50mm […]

ASRock SBC-262M-WT 3.5-inch motherboard features up to Intel Atom X7433RE Amston Lake processor

Amston Lake 3.5-inch motherboard

ASRock Industrial SBC-262M-WT is a 3.5-inch SBC motherboard powered by the latest Intel Atom x7433RE quad-core Amston Lake embedded processor with support for up to 48GB DDR5-4800 memory, triple 4K display outputs, two Ethernet ports, including one with 2.5Gbps Ethernet and Intel TSN/TCC. The motherboard also takes SATA 3.0 and M.2 Key M NVMe storage, offers multiple USB interfaces, supports WiFi and/or  4G LTE or 5G cellular connectivity via M.2 modules and SIM card socket, and provides industrial features such as a wide -40 to 85°C operating temperature range and a wide 9V to 36V DC voltage input range that make it suitable for smart retail, smart cities, and embedded industrial environments. ASRock Industrial SBC-262M-WT 3.5-inch motherboard specifications: SoC – Intel Amston Lake Processors up to Atom X7433RE quad-core processor clocked up to 3.4GHz with Intel UHD Graphics; 9W TDP System Memory – Up to 48GB single-channel DDR5 4800 MHz […]

BIGTREETECH Pi 2 SBC and CB2 module for 3D printers now feature Rockchip RK3566 SoC with Gigabit Ethernet

BIGTREETECH Pi 2 and the BIGTREETECH CB2 Compute Modules

BIGTREETECH recently announced the release of the BIGTREETECH Pi 2 SBC and BIGTREETECH CB2 SoM, both powered by the Rockchip RK3566 SoC. These new modules are direct upgrades from the BIGTREETECH Pi v1.2 and BIGTREETECH CB1, which we covered and reviewed in our previous posts. Specially designed for 3D printers, these new modules have a similar form factor to that of a Raspberry Pi and the RPI CM4 module, and come with a set of upgraded features including support for GbE Ethernet, dual-band WiFi, up to 32GB of LPDDR4 RAM, eMMC storage, HDMI, USB, and more. BIGTREETECH Pi 2 Specifications SoC – Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali G52-2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0 NPU – 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator VPU – 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoding, 1080p100f H.265/H.264 video encoding System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 (Customizable – 1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB) […]

The Open Home Foundation will manage Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy among over 240 open-source Smart Home projects

Open Home Foundation

The Open Home Foundation is a non-profit organization that will manage over 240 Smart Home projects, standards, drivers, and libraries including  Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy, Piper, and Improv Wi-Fi with the goal of “fight[ing] for the fundamental principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes”. The non-profit was introduced during the “State of the Open Home 2024” (see video embedded at the end of this article) with Nabu Casa – the for-profit company behind Home Assistant – transferring all their projects to the new entity, and the Open Home Foundation will also help with the development of critical external projects such as Z-Wave JS, WLED, Rhasspy, and Zigbee2MQTT. The foundation further explains the goal of teaming multiple projects together in a stronger structure: We’ve done this to create a bulwark against surveillance capitalism, the risk of buyout, and open-source projects becoming abandonware. To an extent, this protection extends even […]

Testing ntttcp as an iperf3 alternative in Windows 11 (and Linux)

ntttcp vs iperf3 testbed

ntttcp (Windows NT Test TCP) is a network benchmarking utility similar to iperf3 that works in both Windows and Linux written and recommended by Microsoft over iperf3, so we’ll test the alternative in this mini review. iperf3 is a utility of choice for our reviews of single board computers and mini PCs running either Windows or Linux, but we’ve noticed that while Ethernet (up to 2.5GbE) usually performs just as well in Windows and Linux, WiFi is generally much faster in Ubuntu 22.04 than in Windows 11. So when XDA developers noticed a post by Microsoft saying iperf3 should not be used on Windows 11, it caught my attention. Microsoft explains iperf3 should not be used in Windows for three main reasons: The maintainer of iperf – ESnet (Energy Sciences Network) – says “iperf3 is not officially supported on Windows, but iperf2 is. We recommend you use iperf2. Some people […]

Rockchip RK3588’s NPU open-source driver performs object detection at 30 FPS

Rockchip RK3588 open source NPU driver

Tomeu Vizoso has been working on an open-source driver for NPU (Neural Processing Unit) found in Rockchip RK3588 SoC in the last couple of months, and the project has nicely progressed with object detection working fine at 30 fps using the SSDLite MobileDet model and just one of the three cores from the AI accelerator. Many recent processors include AI accelerators that work with closed-source drivers, but we had already seen reverse-engineering works on the Allwinner V831’s NPU a few years ago, and earlier this year, we noted that Tomeu Vizoso released the Etvaniv open-source driver that works on Amlogic A311D’s Vivante NPU. Tomeu has now also started working on porting his Teflon TensorFlow Lite driver to the Rockchip RK3588 NPU which is closely based on NVIDIA’s NVDLA open-source IP. He started his work in March leveraging the reverse-engineering work already done by Pierre-Hugues Husson and Jasbir Matharu and was […]

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