We’ve already covered several cluster solutions based on Raspberry Pi boards such as Bitscope Blade with up to 40 Raspberry Pi boards, a 16 Raspberry Pi Zero cluster board prototype, Circumference “datacenter-in-a-box” with up to 32 Raspberry Pi 3 B+ boards. If you want something more compact, it makes sense to develop a platform with Raspberry Pi Compute Modules instead, and we’ve already published news about MiniNodes Raspberry Pi 3 CoM Carrier Board that supports up to to 5 Compute Modules 3/3+ last year. There’s now another option with Turing Pi Clusterboard support up to 7 Compute Modules for applications leveraging Kubernetes, Docker, Jupyter Notebook, machine learning (TensorFlow/Caffe), and serverless stack. Turing Pi specifications: 7x Sockets for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3/3+ Storage – 7x microSD card slots Video Output – 1x HDMI port, MIPI DSI connector Audio – 1x 3.5mm audio jack Camera I/F – 2x MIPI CSI connectors […]
Chuwi LapBook Plus Apollo Lake 4K Laptop Sells for $440 (Promo)
A little over two years ago, I reviewed Chuwi LapBook 14.1 Apollo Lake laptop with Windows 10, but it happened to run Ubuntu 17.04 fairly well, until the company made a major redesign of the laptop a few months later, and updated the BIOS to disable the Linux option. So I would not recommend Chuwi laptop if you’d ever want to run a Linux distribution, but if you’re after a affordably priced laptop with 4K (3840×2160) display, the upcoming Chuwi LapBook Plus laptop, also based on an Apollo Lake processor, may be worth a look. Chuwi LapBook Plus specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad core Apollo Lake (Embedded) processor @ 1.6 GHz / 2.0 GHz (Turbo) with Intel HD Graphics 505,up to 500MHz; 12W TDP System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 (dual-channel) Storage – 256GB SSD, plus M.2 2280 socket for optional SATA SSD Display – 15.6″ 4K HDR display […]
ASRock 4×4 Box is a Compact Mini PC Based on AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000/V1000
The mini PC market has a new product from ASRock, a company, well known for its motherboards and Mini PCs. Following up on their iBOX-R1000 Ryzen Embedded R1000 mini PC, the ASRock 4×4 Box is now available with either the AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 processor or the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor in a smaller form factor. Right now, the new mini PC targets the industrial sector, and not the consumer market. This addition to the industrial motherboards and rugged mini PCs line, the 4×4 Box R1000 and V1000 offers more features and are designed to fit in a smaller case, hence the 4×4 name which likely refers to the 4″x4″ dimensions of the motherboard. The AMD Ryzen Embedded is finding its way into all kinds of industrial and medical uses, because of its Radeon VEGA graphics capability and processing enhancements over the R or C series processors. The ASRock […]
Howchip Introduces Scorpion 3 & Scorpion 5 Boards Powered by Nexell Processors
Howchip has announced 2 development boards based on Nexell processors. Even though pricing is not available yet for these boards, we can now know their main features. Both development boards have been launched as COM & carrier development kits. Scorpion 3 is mainly focused for developments where a powerful dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 NXP3220 featured with Linux 4.14 can be enough, and Scorpion 5 seems to be focused for applications which may have more intensive requirements, for instance in terms of user interface, being based on a quad-core Arm Cortex-A9 NXP4330Q featured with Android Nougat and with UI specific features like 3D-Graphics Accelerator. Even though there is not so much information, Howchip also announces as “coming soon” the Scorpion 1 board, based on Exynos i T200 as an integrated IoT solution. Howchip Scorpion 3 Howchip Scorpion 3 is a great embedded computer in a board whose form factor is only 68x50mm. […]
Testing Ubuntu 18.04 on XIDU PhilPad 2-in-1 Hybrid with Touchscreen
So I’ve recently completed the review of XIDU Philpad 2-in-1 hybrid with Windows 10. The laptop features a 13.3″ touchscreen and support stylus, and I was intrigued whether those would work in Ubuntu 18.04. So I flash the Ubuntu 18.04.2 Desktop ISO to a flash drive and installed Ubuntu to another USB flash drive to give it a try with persistent storage. Note that while it’s OK for testing, running Ubuntu 18.04 from a USB flash drive is very slow, so it’s not recommended. The good news is that you can enter the BIOS by pressing either Esc or Del at boot time, an option is available to select Linux in the BIOS. I could then select Partition 1 in my bootable flash drive, and install Ubuntu 18.04 on the other drive with some patience, and everything works smoothly, albeit slowly due to using a cheap USB flash drive during […]
Chatreey AC1-Z Low Power Fanless Mini PC Goes for $153 and Up
The Chatreey AC1-Z mini PC is running either the Intel Celeron Apollo Lake J3455 and the Intel Celeron Gemini Lake J4105 and boasts a full complement of features and SoC peripherals. It closely resembles the series of mini computers similar to the Zotac Nano mini PC. The Chatreey AC1-Z is a silent, fanless mini-PC that offers 4GB RAM, 4K resolution across two display inputs, and housing either the Apollo Lake or the Gemini Lake processors. The Gemini Lake version has a choice of up to 64GB eMMC storage and offers a drive bay for an optional 2.5 SSD or SATA HDD. I/O 2x USB 3.0 Type A, 2x USB 2.0 Type A 1x LAN 1x Micro SD 1x Audio 3.5 mm 2x HDMI Features Power Button Kensington Lock Power Connector (12V 2.5A) Dual-band WIFI /WLAN 802.11ac+BT The AC1–Z system is inspired by other mini-PC models and carries a lot of […]
Beelink GT1 Mini 2 TV Box Gets an Amlogic S905X3 Processor
Beelink GT1 Mini TV Box powered by Amlogic S905X2 was launched with Android 8.1 in October 2018, and the company informed us they have an upcoming upgrade, the Beelink GT1 Mini 2, with the same form factor by an upgraded Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor. GT1 Mini 2 is not the first TV box announced with S905X3, as we previously covered Elebao X3 that was supposed to launch at the end of May. So there clearly has been delays, but this time the launch should be closer as Beelink also shared benchmarks and system information from Android 9.0. Beelink GT1 Mini 2 Beelink GT1 Mini 2 preliminary specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.9 GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU System Memory – 4GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, Micro SD slot Video & Audio Output HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with […]
XIDU PhilPad 2-in-1 Hybrid 2K Laptop Review
I had never heard about XIDU laptops and tablets, and it’s apparently the brand name of “Shenzhen Baohuazhong Co Limited” that was founded in 2014 and specializes in the design, development, manufacturing, distributions, and support for computer systems. I came to know about the company as they approached me to review one of their laptops, namely XIDU PhilPad XT133A model with an Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core Apollo Lake processor coupled with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, and equipped with a 13.3″ touchscreen display with 2K (2560×1440) resolution. XIDU PhilPad Specifications SoC – Intel Celeron N3350 dual core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.10 GHz / 2.40 GHz (Turbo) with 12EU Intel HD graphics 500 GPU; 6W TDP System Memory – 6GB DDR3 Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot Display – 13.3″ touchscreen IPS display with 2560 x 1440 resolution Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack, built-in microphone and speaker Camera […]