Intel made announcements about upcoming AI solutions at 2019 Intel AI Summit. Those include Intel Nervana Neural Network Processors (NNP) for training (NNP-T1000) and inference (NNP-I1000) for cloud and data center customers, as well as Gen 3 Intel Movidis “Keem Bay” VPU. We’ll focus on the latter in this post with Intel claiming similar performance as NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier at much lower power consumption with claims of up to 4.7 times more power efficiency when using ResNet-50 benchmark inference measurement using INT8 with a batch size of 1. Considering Jetson Xavier AGX has a ~30W power budget, that would mean Movidius “Keem Bay” consumes around 6 Watts. Compared to Myriad X MA2085, the new Gen3 VPU is said to have more than 10 times the inference performance. Intel did not provide any TOPS figure, but considering the company announced 1 TOPS of neural compute performance for Myriad X, one […]
Firewalla Gold Intel-based Ubuntu Router Enables Multi-Gigabit Cyber Security (Crowdfunding)
We covered Firewalla based on NanoPi NEO board in mid-2018. The device is a tiny firewall, parental control, ad-blocker, and VPN appliance for end-users. Since then they’ve launched Firewalla Blue based on NanoPi NEO2 SBC with Gigabit Ethernet and a faster processor, and now the company has just introduced the even more powerful Intel-based Firewalla Gold. Firewalla Gold specifications: Processor – Unnamed intel 64-bit quad-core processor System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 32GB flash Connectivity 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports supporting over 3 Gbps in total, and up to 10 VPN connection at up to 120 Mbps aggregated bandwidth. WiFi 6 module (not sure optional or included) Misc – RTC Power Supply – DC barrel jack They may have designed a custom board this time, as I’m not sure which off-the-shelf SBC they may have used in their new product. The device runs Ubuntu Linux so the users will have […]
DepthAI Brings AI plus Depth to the Raspberry Pi (Crowdfunding)
Edge computing on the Raspberry PI has been a bit of ups and downs, especially with everyone gearing for AI in everything. The Raspberry Pi, on its own, isn’t really capable of any reliable AI applications. Typical object detection on the Raspberry Pi would get you something around 1 – 2 fps depending on the nature of your model and this because all those processing is done on the CPU. To address this poor performance of AI applications on the Raspberry Pi, AI Accelerators came to the rescue. The Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 is one such accelerator capable of somewhere around 8 – 15 fps depending on your application. The NCS2, which is based on the Myriad X VPU technology, offers so much more than the compute stick delivers, and this is something that the team behind DepthAI has exploited to create a powerful AI module for edge computing […]
YABA is a Backplane Architecture Controller for Automation and IIoT (Crowdfunding)
Automation and IIoT Through YABA YABA is an acronym and a concept being developed. The acronym is Yet Another Backplane Architecture (YABA). The concept is to bridge the gap between PLC/PAC and open source hardware. The YABA Bridge to IoT YABA is designed to be a robust, open hardware controller that will be a simple but effective midpoint or bridge to the approach of modern industrial technologies in the automation and IoT sector, especially production lines in industrial settings. Where YABA is in Process The process is midstage right now, with a prototype coming. There is an IndieGoGo campaign, but it is at the development stage right at this moment. The developer has reported that the team is about two months out of a working prototype, which should put them an efficient schedule timeline. The project has the backplane, CPU, I/O boards at about 75% complete, and just working towards […]
Pantahub Enables Seamless, Remote Linux Firmware Updates Over-the-Air
Let’s say you’re running Raspbian on your Raspberry Pi 4 board, but would like to check out the latest Ubuntu 19.10 for the board. What would you normally have to do? After downloading the firmware and turning off your Raspberry Pi 4, you’d normally need physical access to your Raspberry Pi 4 to remove the MicroSD card, insert it into your computer and start balenaEtcher or other utility to flash the image. Once it’s done remove the MicroSD card from your PC and insert it back into the Raspberry Pi SBC, before booting it up. That’s fine for experimentation, but time-consuming if you had to do this for multiple boards that may be placed in various locations. That’s where Pantacor’s PantaHub, PantaVisor, and PVR utility come in. Pantahub is a web dashboard used for registration, to monitor your devices, and documentation, Pantavisor is an Alpine Linux based device init system […]
PrinCube Said to Be Smallest Handheld Smartphone Color-Inkjet Printer That Prints on Anything (Crowdfunding)
PrinCube the smallest, color-inkjet printer on the market. PrinCube is a portable handheld color ink-jet printer that is palm-sized, wirelessly controlled by a smartphone, and easy to set up. The IndieGoGo campaign has exploded to more than $2,000,000.00 USD and featured on a number of tech sites. Article Intent For clarity and function of the PrinCube abilities, there needs to be a careful examination of the facts that surround wireless, handheld, color inkjet, printer, that can print on any surface. Other Handheld, Smartphone, Color-Inkjet Printers There is another product, similar to PrinCube, PrintBrush, which is also a handheld wireless color inkjet printer, connected to a smartphone. It should be noted that while PrinCube is a very popular campaign, PrintBrush, which came out earlier than PrinCube, has very similar claims. It is worth looking over the websites for both printers Here are the campaigns PrintBrush XDR- Colors Everywhere on Kickstarter PrinCube […]
inCharge 6 All-in-One Charging Cable Supports USB-C, USB-A, Lightning, and Micro USB (Crowdfunding)
You probably own a few battery-powered devices, maybe one or two phones, a camera, Bluetooth headset, etc…, and each requires a different cable. It’s also easy to forget bringing the right cable, and once your device runs out of battery you’re out of luck. inCharge 6 universal charging cable aims to solve this first world problem by offering a single cable that supports devices charged through USB Type-C, Lightning or Micro USB port, and small enough to hook to your keyring so you never forget it. Alternatively, the company also offers a 1.5-meter version of the cable. The cable takes power from USB type-A or type-C power supply, and output to USB type-C, Lightning or Micro USB with the latter two available through the same connector. The cable also allows you to charge a device from another device, and transfer data between the two (Charge & Sync) as illustrated below. […]
Xebec Converts Your Laptop into a Triple Monitor Laptop (Crowdfunding)
Xebec a Triple Screen Device Add-on for Laptops Xebec has developed a two-screen addon for laptops ranging from 10″ to 20″ effectively expanding any laptop into a triple monitor laptop. The idea of extending a laptop screen is not new. Mobile Pixels had developed an attachable extension screen called the DUO and we reported on it in a previous article. Xebec is a Sailing Ship A Xebec is a small three sail ship, with square sails, a very apropos term for this system of three small square screens. Go Anywhere With Triple the Screens The aim is to be able to attach the screens on-the-go and have them work as well as a full monitor. Xebec’s two-screen extension attaches to the back of any monitor screen. The pair of displays slide left and right so their screens are completely viewable. The System Is Lightweight The unit weighs 1.9 lbs […]



