We’ve seen a fair amount of AMD Ryzen Embedded boards over the last few months including 3.5″ Ryzen Embedded SBC‘s such as Kontron SBC-VR1000 and IBASE Technology IB918, as well as larger boards such as SAPPHIRE FS-FP5R 5×5 motherboard. The most compact Ryzen Embedded board we covered so far must have been the upcoming Sapphire NP-FP5 based on Ryzen R1305G processor with a 4″x4″ (10.16 x 10.16 cm) form factor. But DFI GHF51 1.8″ SBC takes the crown of the smallest Ryzen Embedded SBC, with the business card / Raspberry Pi sized board measuring just 84 x 55 mm, and featuring an AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000-series processor combined with up to 8GB RAM. DFI GHF51 specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 Series with Radeon Vega 3 GPU; 12W CPU System Memory – 2GB/4GB/8GB single-channel DDR4 3200MHz Storage 1x 16GB/32GB/64GB eMMC flash 64Mbit SPI Flash for BIOS (supports UEFI boot […]
2.5-inch Pico-ITX SBC Offers LVDS, HDMI & DisplayPort Video Interfaces, Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Today I learned that Pico-ITX boards were also called 2.5-inch boards since they are about the size of a 2.5-inch SATA drive. Kontron pITX-APL V2.0 is one such 2.5-inch Pico-ITX SBC powered by an Intel Atom E39XX or Celeron Apollo Lake processor. The board can drive three independent displays via its 24-bit LVDS interface, HDMI and mini DisplayPort 1.2 output, comes with two Gigabit Ethernet ports and support for 4G LTE connectivity via M.2 slot and SIM card socket. Those features make it suitable for a wide range of applications including industrial client applications, kiosk, infotainment, digital signage, and POS systems. Kontron pITX-APL V2.0 specifications: Apollo Lake SoC variants Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad-core processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with 18EU Intel HD graphics; 12W TDP Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad-core processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with 12EU Intel HD graphics; 9.5W TDP Intel Atom x5-E3930 dual-core processor @ up […]
FriendlyELEC SOM-RK3399V2 CPU Module Gets 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Upgrade
Last year, FriendlyELEC launched SOM-RK3399 system-on-module (SoM) powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor combined with 2GB DDR3 memory, 16to 64GB flash, and a built-in WiFi 5 module. Contrary to most SoM’s on the market, SOM-RK3399 could work in standalone mode thanks to two USB-C ports, although it could also be integrated into a carrier board to create a complete development board with more ports and interfaces. The company has now introduced an update with SOM-RK3399V2 CPU module with 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, as well as a small change in the layout for the LED’s and buttons, but the rest of the features remain the same. The company also appears to have changed the way they handle cooling with SOM-RK3399V2 shipping with a heatsink, while SOM-RK3399 cooling was handled by a heatsink + cooling connected to the carrier board. SOM-RK3399V2 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores […]
Android 10 on Xiaomi Mi A2 (Lite) or When Firmware Updates Go Wrong
I’ve been using Xiaomi Mi A2 smartphone since December 2018. At the time, it shipped with Android 8.0, but I soon got an update to Android 8.1, and later to Android 9.0. I’m quite satisfied with the phone as it receives (almost) monthly security updates, works reasonably faster, features a decent camera, and overall does the job. The biggest complaint I have so far is about storage. It comes with 32GB eMMC flash and no MicroSD card slot, and it’s constantly full, so I have to clear the cache often, and sometimes I need to uninstall an app and reinstall it in order to install an update. Sometimes in January, I got a notification about Android 10 updates, but since I was out of space, I only installed it late February after some serious storage cleaning… The update went smoothly, and after some adjustment to the settings I was back […]
Thundercomm Announces Qualcomm based Modules for Smart Speakers, LTE IoT, Smart Retail, and 5G Applications
Based in California in the US, Thundercomm Technology Co., Ltd. (aka Thundercomm) is a provider of IoT products & technologies for OEM/ODMs, enterprises and developers. The company introduced several Qualcomm based “TurboX Systems-on-Module” for smart speakers, LPWAN IoT devices with NB-IoT and LTE Cat M1 connectivity, smart retail applications, and 5G powered devices. TurboX C404 and C405 SOMs for Smart Speakers and Soundbars Key features and specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon C404 / C405 with CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @, 1.4 GHz GPU (C405 Only) – Qualcomm Adreno 306 GPU @ 600 MHz DSP -2x Hexagon QDSP6 v66 – Low Power Audio Subsystem & Audio Compute DSP System Memory & Storage – 1GB LPDDR3 + 8GB eMMC flash in eMCP package; SD card signals Connectivity 2×2 MIMO WiFI 5 802.11 a/b/g/ac + Bluetooth 5.0 + FM via WCN3999 Gigabit Ethernet (RGMII) Display Interfaces (C405 Only) 4-lane MIPI DSI port […]
SECO Unveils 3.5″ Ryzen Embedded SBC, Docker-Compatible EDGEHOG OS Linux Distribution
After IBase IB918, here’s another 3.5″ Ryzen Embedded SBC courtesy of SECO SBC-C90 equipped with a choice of Ryzen Embedded V1000 or R1000-series processor, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and four DisplayPort++ ports. Separately from the hardware announcement, SECO has launched a Yocto-based, Docker-compatible Linux distribution called EDGEHOG OS and supporting containers, OTA updates, and remote management. SECO SBC-C90 SBC Specifications: SoC (one or the other) AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 family: Ryzen Embedded V1807B quad-core/octa-thread @ 3.35GHz (3.8 Boost) with AMD Radeon Vega 11 Graphics; TDP 35-54W Ryzen Embedded V1756B quad-core/octa-thread @ 3.25GHz (3.6 Boost) with AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics; TDP 35-54W Ryzen Embedded V1605B quad-core/octa-thread @ 2.0GHz (3.6 Boost) with AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics; TDP 12-25W Ryzen Embedded V1202B dual-core/quad-thread @ 2.3GHz (3.2 Boost) with AMD Radeon Vega 3 graphics; TDP 12-25W AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 family: Ryzen Embedded R1606G dual-core/dual-thread @ 2.6GHz (3.5 Boost) with AMD Radeon Vega […]
FreeNAS Operating System Becomes TrueNAS CORE
So far, iXsystems managed two FreeBSD based operating systems for network access storage (NAS): devices: FreeNAS an open-source version supported by the community, and TrueNAS with more enterprise-grade features and commercial support working on the company’s hardware of the same name (TrueNAS flash-powered arrays). Even though lots of the code was shared, the company found out that maintaining both projects separately negatively affected the development efficiency and quality of the software since they had to maintain two build processes, two QA processes, and two sets of documentation. The situation is illustrated in the diagram above, but the company has decided to work on improving the development process, and FreeNAS and TrueNAS will share the same build, QA processor, documentation and even release starting with TrueNAS 12. That means there will be a single binary with two versions: TrueNAS CORE previously known as FreeNAS, without the need for license keys, and […]
Raspberry Pi or UP Board based Linutop Runs Digital Signage or Web Kiosk Software
Linutop is a French company offering software and hardware solutions for digital signage and secure web kiosks, and this morning we received an email about Linutop OS now working on Raspberry Pi 4 board. Linutop OS is a Xubuntu (x86) or Raspbian (Arm) based OS using XFCE desktop environment, and shipping with the company’s Linutop Kiosk program used to setup a web kiosk or a digital signage player controlled via Linutop TV Digital Signage CMS (Cloud or self-hosted). The kiosk/DS software and the content management system (CMS) are not open-source, but there are free demo versions. If you want to install the full version it will cost you 79 Euros, and a self-hosted license for the CMS goes for 196 Euros. The company also offers Arm and x86 digital signage players based on Raspberry Pi or UP Board SBCs. Linutop XS/XS3 Linutop XS is based on a Raspberry Pi 2 […]