FriendlyELEC NanoPi M4 is a Rockchip RK3399 single board computer that follows Raspberry Pi 3 form factor, and was launched in a year ago for $65 with 2GB RAM, and $95 with 4GB RAM. Raspberry Pi 4 introduction brought some more competition, and helped the prices drop to $50 and $75 respectively. But now the company has launched a revision 2 of the board, NanoPi M4V2 that replaces LPDDR3 memory with faster LPDDR4 memory, adds power & recovery buttons, and the audio jack now also support microphone input. It’s only available with 4GB LPDDR4 memory, and the price is lower at $70. The rest of the specifications are mostly identical: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5GHz, a Mali-T864 GPU with support OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC, and a VPU with 4K VP9 and […]
Up2Stream Pro HiFi Audio Receiver Board Streams Audio over WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, or USB
Last December, we wrote about Up2Stream WiFi audio module designed for people wanting to build their own DIY wireless speakers. The module is based on MediaTek MT7688AN MIPS processor with 64MB DDR2 and 16MB flash storage The module also comes with a small baseboard allowing for an easier connection to speakers. The company has now introduced Up2Stream Pro model based on the same module, but with a baseboard adding more features including Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB, and audio jacks. Up2Stream Pro key features and specifications: Audio Output – 3.5mm AUX jack and I2S header Input – 3.5mm AUX-in SNR: 91db THD: 0.03% Sample rate – 24bit up to 192kHz FLAC, Wav, and APE codec supported, but NOT SBC, APT-X, APT-X HD, or LDAC. Multiroom & Multizone support EQ control Connectivity – Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth 5.0 Streaming Protocols – Airplay, DLNA, UPnP, Spotify Connect Compatible Services – Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Qobuz, […]
Intel NUC 8 Rugged Fanless NUC is Powered by an Intel Celeron N3350 Processor
Most Intel NUCs are cooled with a fan, and so far if you wanted a fanless NUC you had to purchase a third party enclosure. But Intel has been working on a new model named either “Chaco Canyon” NUC or Intel NUC 8 Rugged that’s both fanless and rugged. The fanless NUC is powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron N3350 Apolo Lake processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and a 64GB eMMC flash both of which are soldered to the board. You can add to storage thanks to an M.2 2280 slot with support for NVMe or SATA SSD’s. Intel NUC 8 Rugged specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core processor clocked at 1.1 GHz / 2.4 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 500; 6W TDP System Memory – Dual-channel 4GB RAM soldered-down Storage – 64GB eMMC flash soldered-down, M.2 2280 key M slot for PCIe x4 NVME or SATA SSD […]
PIS2 DIY Handheld PS2 Game Console Uses Raspberry Pi 2 SBC as SMB Server
It’s a Handheld PS2 Game Console The PIS2 is a handheld PS2 game console that has the chopped-up insides of PS2 game system stuffed into a small console, along with a display, controllers and a Raspberry Pi 2 to access the games from the Ethernet to load directly to the hardware. Sony has officially discontinued all handheld PSs as of March 2019, so these DIY consoles are popping up regularly. This one is quite an accomplishment. It Took a Long Time The creator of the PIS2, a hacker named Darkwing, started work on the unit in 2013. He stopped for some time, then started documenting his work on the system in 2017. The ambitious first design specs looked like this PS2 scph-79002 5.6″ Dalian Good Display and VGA chip Genius MaxFire Blaze 2 controller 11.1V 6200mAh made of 6 ncr18650a cells Texas instrument ptn78020 switching regulator IBM Lenovo 05K5494 Laptop […]
NXP i.MX RT106F & RT106A/L Cortex-M7 Processors Target Offline Face Recognition & Smart Audio Applications
NXP i.MX RT crossover processors combine real-time capabilities of microcontrollers with the performance of application processors thanks to an Arm Cortex-M7 core clocked at 528 MHz and more. The performance is indeed impressive as shown by Teensy 4.0 benchmarks, but so far NXP i.MX RT processor targeted general purpose applications. The company has now introduced three new crossover processors designed for AI applications. NXP i.MX RT106F is designed for offline face recognition and expression Identification, while RT106L and RT106A are made for local and cloud-based embedded voice applications. NXP i.MX RT106F Processor Highlights of the processor: CPU – Arm Cortex-M7 @ 600 MHz (3020 CoreMark/1284 DMIPS) Memory – 1 MB On-Chip SRAM plus up to 512 KB configurable as Tightly Coupled Memory (TCM) External memory interface options – NAND, eMMC, QuadSPI NOR Flash, and Parallel NOR Flash Real-time, low-latency response as low as 20 ns Industry’s lowest dynamic power with […]
MediaTek MT8516 2-Mic Development Kit is Designed for Alexa Voice Service (AVS)
MediaTek has just announced the MT8516 2-mic development kit for Alexa Voice Service (AVS) that aims to help developers build voice-assistant products faster, at reduced costs, and with advanced features such as multi-room music (MRM). The kit is based on MT8516 quad-core ARM Cortex-A35 application processor, which integrates audio front-end and post-processing technologies, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. MediaTek MT8516 2-mic development kit specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT8516 quad core Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.3 GHz System Memory I/F – LPDDR2, DDR3, LPDDR3, DDR3L Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with ARC Audio 2x DMIC Amazon Alexa support MediaTek PowerAQ Multi-Room Audio 2x 4-channel I2S S/PDIF TDM in/out up to 8 channels 2-channel PDM inputs 2-channel audio DAC and DAC Connectivity – Fast Ethernet, WiFi 4, Bluetooth 4.2 LE USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG port MediaTek MT8516 supports the following technology components, although note that a license […]
FriendlyELEC ZeroPi is a Tiny Allwinner H3 SBC with Gigabit Ethernet & USB, an Optional SPI Flash
Several years ago, FriendlyELEC launched NanoPi NEO board with Allwinner H3 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor followed by NanoPi NEO2 upgrading to the Allwinner H5 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 processor. Both boards target low-cost headless applications with I/O headers, USB and Ethernet, but while the NEO2 comes with Gigabit Ethernet, NEO SBC only features 10/100M Ethernet. The company has now been working on a new family of boards called ZeroPi that’s very similar to NanoPi NEO boards, but they do not come with any I/O headers, and the first ZeroPi board features Allwinner H3 processor, and Gigabit Ethernet. ZeroPi specifications with highlights in bold or stricken-through showing differences against NanoPi NEO: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad-core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an Arm Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 256 or 512 MB DDR3 Storage – MicroSD card slot, unmounted SPI flash Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet via Realtek RTL8211E PHY USB – 1x […]
Microsoft Unveils The Vision AI Developer Kit For AI on the Edge
The field of Artificial Intelligence is getting more exciting every single day, and the big corporations and startups are massively pouring for it. One thing I am undoubtedly sure about is that the future will certainly be remarkable. Microsoft, the biggest software company in the world with sales over $100 billion has been venturing in the domain of artificial intelligence for a while now with cloud computing platform Azure and other related cloud computing services, but instead of its usual cloud computing route for AI, Microsoft is banking on AI on the edge with the introduction of the Vision AI Developer Kit in joint partnership with the semiconductor giant Qualcomm. With millions of data collected at the Edge, the potential of artificial intelligence on the edge is promising. AI cases performed on the Edge will help in making critical decisions, and more data insight can even facilitate important business scenarios. […]