2023 Year in review – Top 10 posts, statistics, and what to expect in 2024

CNX Software Happy New Year 2024

It’s the last day and last article of the year, so we will look at some highlights of 2023, some traffic statistics on the CNX Software website, and speculate what interesting developments may happen in 2024. Looking back at 2023 The semiconductor shortage that had happened since 2020 started to fade away in early 2023, and supplies for most electronics components and devices seem to be adequate at this time, so that was a bright spot this year, and hopefully, it will stay that way in 2024 despite geopolitical tensions. We did not have any super exciting new Arm application processors from Rockchip, Amlogic, or Allwinner announced this year, although the Amlogic S928X penta-core Cortex-A76/A55 CPU started to show up in some 8K TV boxes. The launch of the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC with a Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A76 processor was probably the main highlight for Arm on this side […]

TQ MBa8MP-RAS314 i.MX 8M Plus single board computer targets industrial, medical, and transportation applications

MBa8M-RAS314

TQ has recently introduced a single board computer (SBC) called MBa8MP-RAS314. This industrial SBC is built on the TQMa8MPxL embedded module powered by the i.MX 8M Plus Arm Cortex-A53 processor developed by NXP and incorporates all the interfaces of the processor. The MBa8MP-RAS314 single board computer (SBC) finds many applications across various industries due to its features and versatility. In the medical field, it can be found in equipment for sleep monitoring, HMI eye laser systems, dialysis system control, and patient monitoring. In transportation, it can be used for in-vehicle diagnostics and acts as a gateway. Its capabilities extend to industrial automation, where it contributes to optical inspection systems, soft PLCs, programmable control, machine control, and maintenance systems. Specifications: CPU/Processor NXP i.MX 8M Plus Quad 8 ML/AI NXP i.MX 8M Plus Quad 6 Video NXP i.MX 8M Plus Quad 4 Lite Memory/Storage LPDDR4-SDRAM: Up to 8 GB Quad SPI NOR: […]

Arduino Portenta X8 achieves EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) compliance

Foundries.io has successfully integrated its security software with the Arduino Portenta X8, creating the first system-on-module (SoM) compliant with the European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

Foundries.io, in collaboration with Arduino, has integrated its security software into the Portenta X8, making it the first system-on-module (SoM) to achieve CRA Compliance with the European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). Last year, we covered the Portenta X8, Arduino’s first board with an Arm processor running Linux with expansion capabilities with add-ons such as the Portenta HAT Carrier Board, and you’ll find more details about the hardware in those posts. This new EU’s CRA specifies minimum security for all IoT devices in Europe from 2025. This includes: Establish standards for secure products with digital elements throughout the EU. Require manufacturers to focus on security at every stage of a product’s life. Increase user awareness of a product’s cybersecurity features. Demand that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) quickly address vulnerabilities in devices already in use. All these rules will be applicable for the full lifespan of the devices. Under the upcoming […]

Robustel introduces EG5101 and EG5200 Debian 11 industrial IoT gateways with 4G LTE cellular connectivity

Robustel EG5101 EG5200 Debian 11 industrial gateways

Robustel introduced the EG5101 and EG5200 industrial IoT gateways running Debian 11 a few weeks ago, both with 4G LTE cellular connectivity, but the NXP i.MX 6ULL-based EG5101 has a more compact design, while the NXP i.MX 8M Plus-powered EG5200 provides more I/Os and resources. Expanding the earlier EG5100, EG5120, and LG5100 models from the company, the two edge computing gateways target Industry 4.0 and smart infrastructure applications and enable real-time analytics at the edge with lower latency than running workloads in the cloud. Robustel EG5101 and EG5200 SoC/Memory/Storage EG5101 NXP i.MX 6ULL Cortex-A7 32-bit processor @ 792 MHz 512MB to 1024MB DDR3 8GB eMMC flash EG5200 NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core Cortex-A53 64-bit processor @ 1.6 GHz with 2.3 TOPS NPU 4GB DDR4 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card socket Connectivity EG5101 1x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port 4G LTE with 1x SMA-K antenna connector, 2x Mini SIM (2FF) EG5200 5x […]

OpenMV CAM RT1062 camera for machine vision is programmable with MicroPython

OpenMV CAM RT1062

Following the success of the OpenMV Cam H7 and the original OpenMV VGA Camera, OpenMV recently launched the OpenMV CAM RT1062 powered by NXP’s RT1060 processor. This new camera module integrates a range of features, including a high-speed USB-C (480Mbps) interface, an accelerometer, and a LiPo connector for portability. Similar to its predecessor, this camera module also features a removable camera system, and it is built around the OV5640 image sensor which is more powerful in terms of resolution and versatility. However, the previous Omnivision OV7725 sensor, used in the OpenMV Cam H7 has a far superior frame rate and low-light performance. OpenMV provides a Generic Python Interface Library for USB and WiFi Comms and an Arduino Interface Library for I2C, SPI, CAN, and UART Comms which can be used to interface your OpenMV Cam to other systems. To program the board, you can use MicroPython 3 with OpenMV IDE, […]

Giveaway Week 2023 winners announced!

CNX Software Giveaway Week 2023 Prizes

CNX Software’s Giveaway Week 2023 is now over and we’re ready to announce the winners. We offered some of the review samples we tested (or not) in the last year, and like the last two years, we were also joined by RAKwireless who offered two IoT development kits. All items given away are shown in the photo below, minus some accessories, and if you count more than seven you’d be right, as some are kits with multiple items like the GL.iNet GL-S200 Thread Border router which comes with three development boards, and more importantly, we also organized Giveaway Week on CNX Software Thailand for the second year running. We had seven winners on CNX Software: VOIPAC iMX8M industrial development kit – Kraingsak, Thailand TBS7901 mini PCIe DVB-S2X/S2 module  – Frank, Singapore RAKWireless WisBlock IoT Starter Kit – Andy, Russia GL.iNet GL-S200 Thread Border router kit – Augustin, Argentina WCH CH583M-R0-1v1 […]

Toradex Titan Evaluation Kit features NXP i.MX 95 AI processor for IoT, industrial, and automotive applications

Toradex TITAN NXP i.MX 95 evaluation kit EVK

Toradex Titan Evaluation Kit features the NXP i.MX 95 Cortex-A55/M33/M7 heterogenous AI processor introduced at the beginning of the year with an NXP eIQ Neutron Neural Network Accelerator (NPU) for automotive, industrial, and IoT applications. The design is comprised of a carrier board and a SO-DIMM system-on-module with the NXP i.MX 95 SoC, up to 16GB LPPDR5 memory, up to 128GB eMMC flash storage, a WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless module, a gigabit Ethernet controller, a PMIC, and a few other components. The carrier board also comes with 10GbE and Gigabit Ethernet ports, HDMI video output, a few USB ports, and various expansion connectors and headers. Toradex Titan evaluation kit specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 95 with Up to 6x Arm Cortex-A55 application cores clocked at 2.0 GHz with 32K I-cache and D-cache, 64KB L2 cache, and 512KB L3 cache 1x Arm Cortex-M7 real-time core clocked at 800 MHz […]

Giveaway Week 2023 – VOIPAC iMX8M industrial development kit

VOIPAC IMX8M Industrial Development Kit Review

The 10th edition of CNX Software giveaway week is on! We’ll have seven items to give away this time around: six items that I will send myself from my review samples and one from a company that will offer one of its own IoT development kits… We’ll start this year’s giveaway week with the VOIPAC iMX8M industrial development kit equipped with an “iMX8M Industrial Pro” system-on-module powered by an NXP i.MX 8M quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, fitted with 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, and a WiFi and Bluetooth module. The VOIPAC iMX8M industrial development kit is quite a feature-rich development board whose main purpose is to evaluate the company’s system-on-module for integration into final products. I tested it last summer showing how to get started with the Yocto BSP by building the image from scratch, booting from the eMMC flash or a microSD card, and testing several features such as networking, […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case