Processors Category - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Radxa NIO 5A credit card-sized Mediatek Genio 520 SBC showcased at Computex 2025

Radxa NIO 5A is an upcoming Mediatek Genio 520 SBC in credit card/Raspberry Pi form factor that should offer a more affordable entry into the MediaTek Genio family than Radxa Nio 12L equipped with a powerful Mediatek Genio 1200 SoC. There’s no public information on the web about it, but I was sent some photos of the board from Mediatek’s booth at Computex 2025, and we know it’s powered by the Genio 520 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 SoC with a 10 TOPS AI accelerator and comes with “large memory and high-capacity storage”. Let’s see if we can derive more detailed specs from the photos and other public information about the SoC. Radxa NIO 5A specifications (preliminary): SoC – Mediatek Genio 520 (MT8371) CPU – Octa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A78 up to 2.2 GHz (Commercial) or 2.0 GHz (Industrial) 6x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz (Commercial) or 1.8 GHz (Industrial) GPU […]

May 20, 2025May 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Chipsee 15.6-inch industrial Panel PC review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and first boot to Raspberry Pi OS

Chipsee PPC-CM5-156 review: Raspberry Pi CM5 industrial panel PC

I’ve just received a review sample of Chipsee PPC-CM5-156 15.6-inch industrial panel PC that was recently added to the Raspberry Pi CM5-based Chipsee panel PCs family we covered in February with 7-inch and 10-inch models. I’ll do a two-part review starting by listing the specifications, doing an unboxing and a teardown, and booting the system in the first part, before doing further testing with Raspberry Pi OS and most interfaces and features in the second part. Chipsee PPC-CM5-156 specifications SoM – Raspberry Pi CM5 or CM5 Lite with Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A76 SoC, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB RAM, optional 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash Storage MicroSD card slot M.2 M-Key 2230/2242/2260/2280 (PCIe Gen2 x1) socket for NVMe SSD Display – 15.6-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, 10-point capacitive touchscreen with 1mm armored glass, 400 cd/m2 brightness Video Output – HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60 Audio 3.5mm audio out […]

May 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Huawei Matebook Pro is the first laptop sold with HarmonyOS operating system

Huawei Matebook Pro (HAD-W24 / HAD-W32) resembles a typical laptop with a 14.2-inch display, 24GB to 32GB RAM, and 1TB or 2TB SSD storage. What’s less common is that the processor is not named, and the laptop is the first to run Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system. Those two are due to Western countries’ sanctions against the Chinese company. Huawei used to sell Intel-based laptops with Windows and Android smartphones, but they’ve not made hardware based on US technology for a while. As software support would eventually run out, they had to work on an alternative named HarmonyOS, which has been used on smartwatches, smartphones, and tablets for a while, but the Matebook Pro is the first computer sold with the new OS. While we don’t know the processor used, reports mention the Kirin X90 10-core (4+4+2) / 20-thread Arm SoC as an “Apple Silicon” solution. MateBook Pro specifications: SoC – […]

May 19, 2025May 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

1GHz Renesas RZ/A3M Cortex-A55 MPU embeds 128MB on-chip DDR3L for HMI applications

Renesas RZ/A3M is an Arm Cortex-A55 microprocessor (MPU) clocked at up to 1.0 GHz with 128MB on-chip DDR3L for cost-effective, yet advanced HMI applications with up to 1280×800 resolution. The RZ/A3M is similar to its predecessor, the Renesas RZ-A3UL, but it integrates 128MB on-chip RAM in a single System-in-Package (SiP), supports both MIPI DSI and parallel display interfaces, and adds a 2D graphics accelerator for smoother user interfaces. Renesas RZ/A3M specifications: CPU – Single-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.0 GHz GPU – 2D drawing engine Memory 128KB on-chip SRAM with ECC Built-in 128MB DDR3L-1600 SDRAM (16-bit bus width) Storage SPI Multi I/O Bus Controller× 1 channel (4-bit Double data rate) Boot from Serial NAND or Serial NOR flash SD card host interface Display I/F – 4-lane MIPI DSI or Digital parallel output up to 1280×800 resolution @ 60 Hz Audio – Serial sound interface (SSI/I2S) USB – 1x USB […]

May 19, 2025 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

Waveshare RA4M1-Zero mini development board features secure boot, firmware encryption, and castellated design

RA4M1 Zero Mini Development Board versions

Waveshare RA4M1-Zero is a mini development board built around the Renesas RA4M1 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 MCU running at 48MHz. The MCU also features 256KB of flash memory, 32KB of SRAM, 8KB of EEPROM, and a built-in Floating Point Unit (FPU). Hardware peripherals include a 14-bit ADC, a 12-bit DAC, a CAN bus controller, an onboard USB 2.0 interface, and WS2812 RGB LED. The MCU also supports firmware encryption, secure boot, and tamper-proof security features to ensure application safety. Its small size (23.5 x 18mm) and castellated module design make it suitable for space-constrained applications, including IoT devices, industrial control systems, secure embedded systems, and compact sensor nodes. RA4M1-Zero mini development board specifications: MCU – Renesas RA4M1 (R7FA4M1AB3CFM) as found in the Arduino UNO R4 CPU 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F @ 48MHz Memory – 32KB SRAM Storage – 256KB Flash, 8KB EEPROM USB – USB 2.0 device interface via USB Type-C connector […]

May 19, 2025May 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Boardcon LGA3576 – A Rockchip RK3576 LGA system-on-module with UFS storage and LPDDR5 memory

Boardcon has just introduced the LGA3576 system-on-module with a 330-pad LGA design powered by Rockchip RK3576 AI SoC and the Idea3576 single board computer (SBC) based on the module. The 6TOPS AI-capable system-on-module ships with up to 8GB LPDDR5, integrates 32GB to 512GB UFS storage, while an RK806S-5 PMIC takes care of power management, and all I/Os such as HDMI, PCIe, Ethernet, and GPIO signals are exposed through LGA pads. Boardcon LGA3576 – A Rockchip RK3576 LGA system-on-module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU Octa-core CPU with 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz Single-core Cortex-M0 real-time core GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.0, and Vulkan 1.1 NPU – 6 TOPS (INT8) AI accelerator with support for INT4/INT8/INT16/BF16/TF32 mixed operations. VPU Video Decoder H.265, VP9, AV1, and AVS2 up to 8Kp30 or 4Kp120 H.264/AVC up […]

May 18, 2025May 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

M5Stack Tab5 Review – Part 2: Getting started with ESP32-P4 firmware development using the ESP-IDF Framework and Arduino IDE

In the first part of the review, we checked out the hardware of the M5Stack Tab5 ESP32-P4 IoT development kit and tried the demo firmware, whose user interface allows the user to quickly experiment with the camera, microphone, speaker, WiFi, power consumption, GPIOs, RS485, and more. Since there’s no user application for the Tab5 at this stage, I decided to look into software development resources for the ESP32-P4 devkit in the second part of the review. I’ll first follow the instructions to build the demo firmware from source using the ESP-IDF framework, then analyze key aspects of the source and make some small modifications. After that, I’ll have a look at ESP32-P4 Arduino support via M5Unified and M5GFX library. ESP-IDF 5.4.1 installation and ESP32-P4 Hello World program The first step is to get the ESP-IDF 5.4.1 and configure ESP32-P4 following the instructions on the Espressif website, before testing it with […]

May 17, 2025May 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Rutronik Adapter Board RAB7 Sensor Fusion Arduino shield features seven sensors from Bosch, Infineon, and Sensirion

Rutronik RAB7 Adapter Board Sensor Fusion

Rutronik Adapter Board RAB7 is an open-source hardware Arduino shield designed for AI-powered Sensor Fusion with seven environmental and inertial sensors from Bosch, Infineon, and Sensirion. The shield is designed to be used in conjunction with an Arduino-compatible board to process and analyze the data, and it can be useful for building automation, professional kitchens, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning), and Smart Agriculture. Rutronik Adapter Board RAB7 specifications: Sensors Infineon XENSIV DPS368XTSA1 digital barometric pressure sensor Bosch BMP585 digital pressure sensor Sensirion SGP41-D-R4 indoor air quality sensor for VOC measurement found in projects like Air Lab, Airgradient One, and SparkFun “Indoor Air Quality Combo Sensor”, among others Bosch BME690 low-power digital gas, pressure, temperature and humidity sensor with AI Bosch BMI323 – 6-axis intelligent low-power inertial measurement unit (IMU) Sensirion SHT41-AD1B-R2 high-precision, low-power relative humidity and temperature sensor Bosch BMM350 3-axis magnetic sensor for 9-axis absolute orientation for navigation Host […]