UDOO X86 II SBC Combines Intel Braswell SoC with Microchip ATMega32U4 “Arduino” MCU

UDOO x86 II

UDOO X86 development board was first introduced in a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 with a quad-core Intel Braswell processor coupled with an Arduino 101 compatible Intel Curie module for real-time I/O processing. Early July of next year (2019) the Intel processor and module seems to be going so well and have a bright future together with UDOO X86 board and accessories becoming broadly available. But life can be cruel at times, and Intel announced their plan to discontinue Intel Curie and other IoT projects just a few weeks later with the last shipment scheduled for July 2018. SECO, the company behind UDOO, could only order so much stock of Intel Curie module, so they had to design an alternative, and here we are with UDOO X86 II SBC offering many of the same features but replacing Intel Curie module by a Microchip ATmega32U4 MCU compatible with Arduino Leonardo.   Two […]

PineTime Smartwatch Specifications Released, Availability Scheduled for H1 2020

PineTime Charging Cradle & Heart Monitor

A couple of weeks ago, we covered PineTime smartwatch for PinePhone Linux smartphone that should be launched next year for around $25. At the time we had limited information from a Tweet as well as information provided by TL Lim, founder of Pine64 community, such as the watch would be based on Nordic Semi nRF52832 or nRF52840 multi-protocol WiSoC.  But we now have much more details about specs and other details can be found in the Wiki. PineTime specifications: SoC (undecided, one or the other. See differences between nRF52832 and nRF52840 for details) Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 64 MHz with 512KB Flash, 64KB SRAM, Bluetooth 5 (no long range) Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU with 1MB flash, 256KB flash, Bluetooth 5 (long range), 802.15.4 (e.g. for Zigbee), Arm Trustzone, etc… Storage – 8MB SPI NOR Flash (final product may use 16MB flash instead) Display – 1.3″ […]

Geniatech SOM3399 RK3399 SoM Complies with 96Boards System-on-Module Specification

CBD96-3399

96boards System-on-Module specification was introduced last April together with their first SOM-CA (2x board-to-board connectors) and SOM-CB (4x board-to-board connectors), namely TB-96AI & TB-96AIoT modules powered by respectively AI capable Rockchip RK1808 and RK3399Pro processors that would fit into a compatible baseboard. Those started to ship early this summer, and there’s now a new module that complies with 96Boards SoM specification courtesy of Geniatech SOM3399 powered by a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor without the extra NPU / AI accelerator found in the aforementioned modules. Geniatech SOM3399 Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 dual-core Cortex-A72 up to 1.8GHz, quad-core Cortex-A53 up to 1.4GHz,  Mali-T860 MP4 GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0, OpenCL1.2, DirectX11.1 System Memory –  2GB LPDDR4 (4GB as option) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (16, 32, and 64GB as option) Board-to-board connector – 4x 100-pin high-speed connectors (X1, X2, X3, and X4 as defined by the spec) with USB 3.0, […]

AAEON BOXER-8310AI Rugged Fanless Mini PC Combines Apollo Lake Processor & Myriad X VPU for AI Edge Applications

AAEON BOXER-8310AI rugged fanless mini PC

We’ve covered several of AAEON rugged mini PCs part of BOXER-8100 family powered by an NVIDIA Tegra X2 processor and targetting AI Edge applications. The company has now introduced three new AI embedded computers for the same AI edge applications but using Intel processors together with Intel/Movidius Myriad X VPU (Vision Processing Unit) for AI acceleration. The three models are BOXER-8310AI, BOXER-8320AI, and the upcoming BOXER-8330AI based on respectively Intel Celeron/Pentium Apollo Lake processor, Intel Core i3 7th gen processor, and an Intel Core i3/77 or Xeon processor. I’ll focus on the Apollo Lake model in this post to introduce AAEON BOXER-8300AI family of rugged mini PCs. BOXER-8310AI specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Pentium N4200 quad-core Apollo Lake processor Intel® Celeron N3350 dual-core Apollo Lake processor System Memory –  1x DDR3L SODIMM slot supporting up to 8GB RAM @ 1867 MHz Storage Device – mSATA socket AI Module […]

Beelink GT-King Pro Android TV Box Features Amlogic S922X-H Processor with Dolby and DTS Licenses

Amlogic offers variants of their processors depending on whether they come with Dolby and/or DTS licenses. For example, we’ve recently seen Amlogic S922XJ with Dolby license only for the upcoming MINIX NEO N22XJ TV box. Beelink has used another variant, namely Amlogic S922X-H, with both Dolby and DTS licenses in their GT-King Pro TV box as an upgrade to their Beelink GT-King TV box which Karl reviewed a few weeks ago. Beelink GT-King Pro specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X-H hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Arm Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.21 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 cores @ 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G52MP6 GPU; 12nm manufacturing process System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 75 Hz Video – AVE-10 engine with 4K UHD H.265/VP9/AVS2 video decoding up to 60 fps, Dolby Vision, Advanced HDR10, […]

Piper Computer Kit 2 is a DIY Raspberry Pi 3 Computer for Kids’ Education

Piper Computer 2

Kids can easily build theirs own computer and then learn more about electronics and programming thanks to Piper Computer Kit 2. The kit is based on Raspberry Pi 3 SBC, a 9″ display, a power bank, and all bits and pieces required for assembly. There’s also a 16GB microSD with the OS and the company’s PiperCode software to learn the basics of programming. The complete kit comes with the following items: SBC – Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Storage – 16GB MicroSD card Display – 9″ 1024 x 600 LCD display with HDMI cable Audio – Integrated speaker 25+ laser-etched wooden and acrylic pieces 50+ hardware pieces 20+ electronic components Battery – 7,800 mAh rechargeable battery/power bank Phillips-head screwdriver 8 square foot laminated blueprint USB Mouse This is whay it looks like after around two hours of assembly time. Kids can then start playing Raspberry Pi Edition Mineccraft and some […]

Samsung Exynos 9611 SoC Targets AI Powered Smartphones with a Pro-grade Camera

Samsung Exynos 9611

Silicon vendors are all launching new mobile processors with “advanced AI capabilities”, and Samsung has just announced another one of those processors with Exynos 9611 that upgrades on Exynos 9610 introduced last year. The company claims “the Exynos 9611 mobile processor brings intelligent performance for the next-generation experiences from artificial intelligent applications to pro-grade camera”, but I’m actually unable to find any differences between the two processors, except the Cortex-A53 cluster’s  maximum frequency has been boosted to 1.7 GHz instead of 1.6 GHz, and possibly support for 64MP single cameras. Exynos 9611 key features and specifications: CPU – Up to 2.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A73 cluster and up to 1.7GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 cluster. GPU – Mali-G72 MP3 Memory – LPDDR4x Storage – UFS 2.1, eMMC 5.1 Display – Up to WQXGA (2560×1600) Camera – 24MP single camera (up to 64MP),  16+16MP dual camera Video – 4K UHD 120fps encoding and decoding with […]

$118 BeagleBone-AI SBC is Made for AI Edge Applications

BeagleBone-AI

The BeagleBoard.org Foundation introduced BeagleBone-AI SBC at Embedded World 2019 last February. The board is specifically designed for artificial intelligence workloads at the edge thanks to Texas Instruments AM5729 dual-core Cortex-A15 processor that embeds a dual-core C66x DSP, and 4 EVE (Embedded Vision Engine) cores. The BeagleBone Black compatible board was not available at the time,  but the Foundation has now formally launched the board, and you can buy BeagleBone-AI for $118 and up with heatsink and antenna on sites such as Mouser, OKdo, or Newark. BeagleBone-AI full specifications have now been published: SoC – TI Sitara AM5729 with Dual-core Cortex-A15 processor @ 1.5 GHz 2x dual-core PRUs 2x Cortex-M4 real-time cores dual core C66x VLIW DSP 4x EVEs 2.5MB of on-chip L3 RAM VA-HD subsystem with support for 4K at 15fps H.264 encode/decode and other codecs at 1080p60 Vivante GC320 2D graphics accelerator Dual-Core PowerVR SGX544 3D GPU System […]

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