Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 changelog

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.17: So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I’m happy to report that it was very calm indeed. We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it’s all good. And that calm last week can very much be seen from the appended shortlog – there really aren’t a lot of commits in here, and it’s all pretty small. Most of it is in drivers (net, usb, drm), with some core networking, and some tooling updates too. It really is small enough that you can just scroll through the details below, and the one-liner summaries will give a good flavor of what happened last week. Of course, this means […]

Snapdragon X70 5G modem leverages “AI” to reach 10 Gbps

Snapdragon X70 5G AI modem

Qualcomm has announced their latest 5G modem with the Snapdragon X70 that is said to “uses the power of AI” to enable 5G speeds up to 10 Gbps, wider coverage, low latency, and higher power efficiency. The company explains the Qualcomm 5G AI Suite enables AI-powered optimizations of sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G links on the Snapdragon X70 through various techniques: AI-based channel-state feedback and dynamic optimization AI-based mmWave beam management for superior mobility and coverage robustness AI-based network selection for superior mobility and link robustness AI-based adaptive antenna tuning for up to 30% improved context detection for higher average speeds and coverage That’s about all the details we have about the “artificial intelligence” part, and I’m not convinced neural networks are actually used here. For reference, the previous generation Snapdragon X65 was also sold as a 10Gbps 5G modem, but maybe Snapdragon X70 can achieve high speeds more reliably. […]

FOSDEM 2022 schedule with embedded Linux, IoT, automotive… sessions

FOSDEM 2022

While typically taking place in Brussels, Belgium, FOSDEM 2022 will take place online just like FOSDEM 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. The good news is that it means anybody can attend it live from anywhere in the world, and makes it more like “FOSDIM”, replacing European with International, in “Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting”. FOSDEM 2022 will take place on February 5-6 with 637 speakers, 718 events, and 103 tracks. I’ve made my own little virtual schedule below mostly with sessions from the Embedded, Mobile and Automotive devroom, but also other devrooms including “Computer Aided Modeling and Design”, “FOSS on Mobile Devices”, “Libre-Open VLSI and FPGA”, and others.   Saturday, February 5, 2022 12:30 – 13:00 – Five mysteries in Embedded Linux by Josef Holzmayr Once you start out in embedded Linux, there is a lot to do. Some things are obvious, some less so. First and foremost, […]

Linux 5.16 Release – Main Changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.16 release

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.16: Not a lot here since -rc8, which is not unexpected. We had that extra week due to the holidays, and it’s not like we had lots of last-minute things that needed to be sorted out. So this mainly contains some driver fixes (mainly networking and rdma), a cgroup credential use fix, a few core networking fixes, a couple of last-minute reverts, and some other random noise. The appended shortlog is so small that you might as well scroll through it. This obviously means that the merge window for 5.17 opens tomorrow, and I’m happy to say I already have several pending early pull requests. I wish I had even more, because this merge window is going to be somewhat painful due to unfortunate travel for family reasons. So I’ll be doing most of it on the road on a laptop […]

ADLINK LEC-RB5 – A Qualcomm QRB5165 SMARC module designed for drones and robots

Qualcomm QRB5165 SMARC module

ADLINK Technology LEC-RB5 is a SMARC compliant system-on-module powered by the Qualcomm QRB5165 octa-core Cortex-A77 class processor which we’ve already seen in Qualcomm Flight RB5 high-end drone reference design and Lantronix Open-Q 5165RB system-on-module designed for robotics applications. The LEC-RB5 SMARC module ships with up to 8GB PoP LPDDR4 memory, 256GB UFS storage, provides on-device artificial intelligence capabilities (up to 15 TOPS), support for up to 6 cameras, and low power consumption. The main target applications are high-end robots and drones in the consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial, and logistics sectors. LEC-RB5 SMARC SoM specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QRB5165 octa-core Kryo 585 processor with a Kryo Gold Prime @ 2.84 GHz, 3x 3 Kryo Gold @ 2.42 GHz, 4x Kryo Silver @ 1.81 GHz, Adreno 650 GPU @ up to 587 MHz, Video decode HW acceleration for H.265/HEVC, H.264, MPEG2, MVC, VC-1, WMV9, JPEG/MJPEG, VP8, VP9, video encode HW acceleration for […]

Qualcomm unveils third generation Snapdragon 8cx and 7c+ compute platforms

Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 features

Qualcomm has introduced the third generation of the Snapdragon 8cx and 7c compute platforms with the high-end 5nm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor offers up to 85% faster CPU and 60% faster GPU performance compared to Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, while the Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3, designed for entry-level and mid-range laptops and Chromebooks, is said to gain up to 60% CPU performance and achieve up to 70% faster GPU performance uplift compared to the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2. Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx specifications: CPU – Qualcomm Kryo 64-bit CPU. Details based on Anandtech live blog from the Snapdragon Tech Summit: 4x 3.0 GHz Prime cores 4x 2.4 GHz Efficiency Cores 14MB Total Cache (8MB L3+6MB System cache) Performance: +40% for single-thread, +85% for multi-thread GPU – Unnamed Adreno GPU with DirectX 12 (DX12) API support DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon Processor, Qualcomm Sensing Hub AI – Qualcomm […]

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform features 3 GHz Cortex-X2 core, 10 Gbps 5G modem

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

A couple of weeks ago, MediaTek introduces the Dimensity 9000 5G processor with a Cortex-X2 core clocked at 3 GHz, and it was just a matter of time before Qualcomm announces its own Armv9 processor. So here we are with the “Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform” equipped with an octa-core CPU subsystem comprised of one Cortex-X2 core clocked at 3 GHz, Cortex-A710 and Cortex-A510 cores, LP-DDR5 memory, as well as an integrated Snapdragon X65 5G modem capable of 10 Gbps download speeds, and all of that manufactured with the latest 4nm Samsung process. Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (SM8450) specifications: Octa-core Kryo CPU subsystem (details courtesy of Anandtech since Qualcomm will not usually reveal this information) 1x Arm Cortex-X2 core @ 3.0GHz with 1024KB L2 cache 3x Arm Cortex-A710 cores @ 2.5GHz with 512KB L2 cache each 4x Arm Cortex-A510 cores @ 1.80GHz in two clusters, each with an unspecified […]

ECS LIVA Mini Box QC710 Desktop – A $219 Windows on Arm Developer Kit

ECS LIVA Mini Box QC710 Desktop

The “Snapdragon QC710 Developer Kit” for Windows 10 on Arm app development was unveiled last May, and it’s now available for $219 on Microsoft Store as the “ECS LIVA Mini Box QC710 Desktop”. The developer kit can also be purchased at a discount for $197.10 by students, parents(!), teachers, and members of the military. I suppose this applies only to the US military and showing your Taliban membership card may not work. The developer kit looks like a standard mini PC and features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Compute Platform (SC7180), 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, HDMI output, 10/100M Ethernet and WiFi 5, and several USB ports. ECS LIVA Mini Box QC710 Desktop specifications: SoC –  Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Compute Platform (SC7180) with octa-core Qualcomm Kryo 468 (2x Cortex-A76, 6x Cortex-A55) CPU @ up to 2.4 GHz, Adreno 618 GPU System Memory – 4GB Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card […]