FOSDEM 2026 will take place on January 31-February 1, with thousands of developers meeting in Brussels to discuss open-source software & hardware projects. The free-to-attend “Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting” gets more traction every year, and in 2026, there will be at least 1,113 speakers, 1,016 events, 70 tracks, and potentially close to 10,000 attendees. As usual, I’ll create a virtual schedule with sessions most relevant to the topics covered on CNX Software from the “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “Open Hardware and CAD/CAM” devrooms, but also other devrooms, including “RISC-V”, “Robotics and simulation”, and “FOSS on Mobile”, among others. I’m aware some of the talks overlap by a couple of minutes or so… FOSDEM 2026 Day 1 – Saturday, January 31 10:40 – 11:15 – RISC-V Vector optimisations in FFmpeg by Rémi Denis-Courmont FFmpeg is the most versatile multimedia codec and format support library, and was […]
SpacemiT K3 “16-core” RISC-V SoC system information and (early) benchmarks
SpacemiT K3 is an upcoming RVA23-compliant 64-bit RISC-V processor based on X100 cores clocked at up to 2.5 GHz. So far, we had limited information, but SpacemiT gave remote access to one SpacemiT K3-powered server to Sander, and he was kind enough to share some system information and early benchmarks.
Let’s start with system information reported by inxi utility:
MUSE Book laptop review – Testing an octa-core RISC-V Linux laptop in 2026
SpacemiT sent me a sample of the MUSE Book RISC-V Linux laptop for review. It’s based on the SpacemiT K1/M1 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V SoC, ships with up to 16 GB of RAM, eMMC flash and/or NVMe SSD, and features a 14.1-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, WiFi 6 connectivity, a few USB ports, and more. I won’t go through all the hardware specifications since Leo already did that when he wrote about the MUSE Book Laptop in April 2024, along with a teardown, and additional details about the SpacemiT K1/M1 SoC. I’ll still do an unboxing and quickly check the hardware, but I’ll focus on the software part to show the progress with Bianbu OS 2.3 (Ubuntu 24.04-based) on RISC-V hardware, as I just did for the low-end StarFive JH7110S-based VisionFive 2 Lite SBC. It’s quite a long review, so if you are short on time, you can jump directly […]
Year 2025 in Review, CNX Software stats, and looking ahead to 2026
Time for the last post of 2025, as the year is almost over. I’ll look back at key developments and notable products launched in 2025, share some CNX Software website traffic statistics, and look ahead to 2026. Year 2025 in Review After 22 product releases in 2024, Raspberry Pi calmed down a little bit in 2025, and the highlights of the year included the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard, the 5-inch variant of the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2, and a Raspberry Pi 5 1GB RAM. What didn’t quite stop were the accessories from third parties for Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico boards. The most exciting Arm SoC release of 2025 was probably the 12-core CIX P1 Armv9 SoC found in Radxa Orion O6 SBC, MINISFORUM MS-R1 Arm mini PC, and Orange Pi 6 Plus board, but while performance was fine, it was overhyped in 2024, and software […]
Bit-Brick Cluster K1 – A 4-slot RISC-V cluster board for SpacemiT K1-based SSOM-K1 system-on-module
Bit-Brick Cluster K1 is a cluster board designed to mount up to four SSOM-K1 system-on-modules powered by a SpacemiT K1 octa-core RISC-V processor. The board targets developers, researchers, and system integrators working on edge computing, AI workloads, and high-performance embedded applications. The Cluster K1 relies on an onboard Gigabit Ethernet switch chip to interconnect four core boards, giving each board an independent network port for fast and stable inter-node communication with automatic IP assignment. Other key features include USB 3.0/2.0 ports, HDMI output (master slot only), a USB Type-C debug port, an M.2 M-Key slot for storage expansion, a 3-pin fan power header, and dedicated power, reset, and download buttons. The SSOM-K1 system-on-module features a K1 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V CPU with vector extension and AI acceleration up to 2 TOPS. It ships with up to 8GB dual-channel LPDDR4X memory, up to 64GB eMMC flash, and offers dual Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 1.4 […]
Linux 6.18 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.18 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), which will likely become the next LTS kernel [update: it’s now official]: So I’ll have to admit that I’d have been happier with slightly less bugfixing noise in this last week of the release, but while there’s a few more fixes than I would hope for, there was nothing that made me feel like this needs more time to cook. So 6.18 is tagged and pushed out. Most of the last-minute fixes are minor fixes to drivers, with some random noise elsewhere (bluetooth, ceph, afs..). Nothing strikes me as standing out, but hey, there’s a shortlog appended if you want to see the details. And this obviously means that the merge window will open tomorrow, and I already have three dozen pull requests pending. Thanks. And as I already mentioned a couple of […]
Banana Pi BPI-CM6 – A SpacemiT K1 RISC-V system-on-module compatible with Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5 carrier boards
Banana Pi BPI-CM6 system-on-module (SoM) is powered by a SpacemiT K1 octa-core RISC-V processor and compatible with most carrier boards for the Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM5 modules. It ships with 8GB LPDDR4 and 16GB eMMC flash by default, a Gigabit Ethernet PHY, and a WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.1 wireless module. It exposes most interfaces through three 100-pin board-to-board connectors with HDMI 1.4, MIPI DSI, three MIPI CSI, five PCIe 2.1 lanes, USB 3.2/2.0 interfaces, and more. While it can work with Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5 carrier boards using two of the B2B connectors, the company also designed the BPI-CM6 IO carrier board to make full use of all the interfaces, especially the PCIe lanes. Banana Bi BPI-CM6 SoM Let’s check the module itself first. Banana Pi BPI-CM6 specifications: SoC – SpacemIT K1 CPU – 8-core X60 RISC-V (RV64GCVB) processor @ 1.6 GHz (roughly Cortex-A55 equivalent) GPU – Imagination IMG […]
Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 – International deals, coupons, and events
Like every year since 2014, I’ll list a few international deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025, as many CNX Software readers cannot benefit from promotions on Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, which will take place from November 20 to December 1. I’ve gathered various deals, discount coupon codes, and events from relevant manufacturers of single board computers, MCU development boards, mini PCs, Smart Home devices, and DIY products, as well as popular online stores, including AliExpress, Banggood, and others. AliExpress Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 event AliExpress sales event for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 has just started and will last until December 3, 2025 (although I can see until November 29 and December 4 in some places). You can use some of the coupons on the screenshot above, or some alternative coupon codes for the US and some other countries (excluding DE, RU, […]

