Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.9 on lkml: Ok, so I’ll be honest – I had hoped for quite a bit fewer changes this last week, but at the same time there doesn’t really seem to be anything particularly scary in here. It’s just more commits and more lines changed than I would have wished for. The bulk of this is the networking fixes that I already mentioned as being pending in the rc8 release notes last weekend. In fact, about half the patch (and probably more of the number of commits) is from the networking stuff (both drivers and elsewhere). Outside of that, the most visible thing is a reinstatement of the fbdev amba-clcd driver – that’s a noticeable patch, but it’s basically just mainly a revert. The rest is really really tiny (mostly some other minor driver updates, but some filesystem and architecture fixes […]
Enabling AV1 Hardware Video Decoding in Windows 10
AOMedia AV1 royalty-free video codec delivers up to 50% better compression than H.264 and up to 20% better than VP9 for the same video content, so streaming companies like Netflix and YouTube enabled the codec a while ago. When I play a YouTube video in Chrome in Ubuntu 20.04 and check the stats for nerds info, it will usually show the video is played with “av01.0” codec which refers to AV1, but it’s played with software video decoding using libraries like Dav1d leveraging SIMD instructions. But ideally, you’d want hardware video decoding for lower power consumption for increased battery life, and potentially smoother videos. One good news is that Microsoft has recently announced support for AV1 GPU-accelerated hardware video decoding in Windows 10. The less good news is that support will be limited to recent and fairly powerful GPUs. So for instance, if you own mini PCs with older Intel […]
Renesas Launches RA6M4 Cortex-M33 Microcontrollers for Secure IoT Applications
Arm Cortex-M33 core with Arm Trustzone security was first unveiled in 2016, and since then several silicon vendors introduced secure Cortex-M33 microcontrollers with, for instance, Nordic nRF91 LTE-IoT SoC, STMicro STM32L5 MCU family, or NXP LPC551x/S1x. Renesas has now added one more alternative with RA6M4 Cortex-M33 microcontroller family clocked at up to 200 MHz with increased performance and security compared to their earlier Cortex-M4 RA6 microcontrollers clocked at 120 Mhz. Key features for RA6M4 microcontrollers: MCU Core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 200 MHz with TrustZone technology Memory – 256 KB RAM include 64KB ECC RAM Storage – 512-1024 embedded flash, QuadSPI, and OctaSPI memory interface Networking – Ethernet controller with DMA USB – USB 2.0 Full Speed and CAN Other Peripherals Capacitive touch sensing unit SCI (UART, Simple SPI, Simple I2C), and SPI/ I2C multi-master interface SDHI and SSI (Serial Sound Interface) Security Renesas’ Secure Crypto Engine supporting multiple symmetric […]
Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU19EG MPSoC Devkit Offers HDMI 2.0, 10GbE, High-Speed Transceivers
iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G35D is a development kit powered by Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU19EG Arm Cortex-A53 and FPGA MPSoC coupled with 4GB DDR4 RAM with ECC for the processing system (PS) & 4GB dual-channel DDR4 RAM for the programmable logic (PL). The board is equipped with HDMI 2.0 output/input ports supporting 4Kp60 UHD resolutions, a 10GbE SFP+ cage, FMC+, FMC, FireFly, and QSFP connectors for high-speed transceivers, and more. iW-RainboW-G35D specifications: iW-RainboW-G35M SoM Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ZCU19EG MPSOC (-1 speed) with four Cortex-A53 cores @ 1200 MHz, dual-core Arm Cortex-R5 MPCore up to 600MHz, FPGA fabric with 1,143K logic cells, and Arm Mali-400 MP2 GPU (lower-end ZCU17EG and ZCU11EG MPSoC are also available) System Memory 4GB DDR4 RAM for PS 4GB Dual DDR4 RAM for PL Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash (for boot code) Transceivers PS-GTR Transceivers x 4 @ 6Gbps PL-GTH Transceivers x 32 @ 16.3Gbps PL-GTY Transceivers x 16 […]
Vecow SPC-6000 Fanless Embedded PC is Powered by an Atom x6425RE Elkhart Lake Processor
Since the official launch of the Elkhart Lake processor family last month, we’ve covered a Pico-ITX SBC, a 3.5-inch SBC, and several CoM’s following SMARC, Q7, COM Express, and other system-on-module standards. So far, we had not found any Elkhart Lake mini PCs, but Vecow SPC-6000 fanless embedded PC powered by an Intel Atom x6425RE processor is one of the first such solutions offered from the market, and supports 2.5 Gbps Ethernet with TSN support. Vecow SPC-6000 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x6425RE quad-core Elkhart Lake processor @ 1.90 GHz with 1.5MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD graphics; 12W TDP System Memory – Up to 32GB DDR4 3200MHz via a single SO-DIMM socket Storage – 1x M.2 Key M Socket (2280, PCIe x2), and 1x SATA III (6Gbps) Video Output DVI-I up to 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz DisplayPort up to 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz Audio Realtek ALC892, 5.1 Channel […]
Teracube 2e is a user-serviceable, sustainable phone with a 4-year “premium care warranty”
Most smartphones have limited software support, but in my experience with Xiaomi smartphones part of Android One, the hardware tends to fail even earlier than the 18 to 24-month support window for such phones. It’s also close to impossible to repair those by yourself. So it would be nice to have a phone with a longer warranty, software support, and that the user can service himself. If it was made of recycled materials, it would be a bonus too. That’s exactly what Teracube 2e phone provides with recycled materials, a fully biodegradable case, and a 4-year “premium care warranty” for hardware repairs, and since it runs Android 10 stock, you’d get 3-years of Android and security updates. Teracube 2 phone is also meant to be affordable going for $99 and up on Indiegogo with the following specifications: SoC – Mediatek Helio A25 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.8GHz with IMG PowerVR […]
Kontron Introduces Tiger Lake 3U VPX Computer Blade and COM Express Type 6 Module
Intel launched several new embedded processors last month including the brand new Elkhart Lake family and some additional Tiger Lake UP3 processors designed for the IoT edge market. There’ve been several products announced with the new processors, but here are more with Kontron introducing two new Tiger Lake embedded hardware with COMe-cTL6 COM Express Compact Type 6 module and VX3060 3U VPX computer blade. As shown in the collage above, a 3.5-inch SBC is also in the works, but while we do not have the full details yet, the company expect the board to comes with SATA 3.0, M.2 socket, 2.5 GbE LAN, as well as four DP channels driving up to four independent 4Kp60 displays. VX3060 3U VPX computer blade Key features for both “3E” and “XG” variants: SoC – Intel quad-core Tiger Lake UP3 processor up to 2.5 GHz with up to 96EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics – […]
NVIDIA Jetson Nano 2GB Developer Kit Launched for $54 and up
NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer kit was introduced in March 2019 for $99. With a quad-core Cortex-A57 processor, a 128-core Maxwell GPU, and 4GB LPPDR4 RAM, it’s a great low-cost AI platform as we wrote in our Jetson Nano getting started guide where we show how to perform inferences on still images and an RTSP video stream. The company has now gone further in providing an affordable AI computer for developers with the launch of NVIDIA Jetson Nano 2GB Developer Kit with similar features except for the 2GB RAM, and pricing starting at $54 without a wireless adapter or $59 with 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 USB dongle. Pre-orders are open on sites like Amazon or Seeed Studio and shipping is scheduled to start at the end of the month. If we look at the photo above, there are very few differences against the $99 version, and indeed most of Jetson Nano 2GB […]