Arm Cortex-A320 is a low-power Armv9 CPU core optimized for Edge AI and IoT applications, with up to 50% efficiency improvements over the Cortex-A520 CPU core. It is the smallest Armv9 core unveiled so far. The Armv9 architecture was first introduced in 2021 with a focus on AI and specialized cores, followed by the first Armv9 cores – Cortex-A510, Cortex-A710, Cortex-X2 – unveiled later that year and targeting flagship mobile devices. Since then we’ve seen Armv9 cores on a wider range of smartphones, high-end Armv9 motherboards, and TV boxes, The upcoming Rockchip RK3688 AIoT SoC also features Armv9 but targets high-end applications. The new Arm Cortex-A320 will expand Armv9 usage to a much wider range of IoT devices including power-constrained Edge AI devices. Arm Cortex-A320 highlights: Architecture – Armv9.2-A (Harvard) Extensions Up to Armv8.7 extensions QARMA3 extensions SVE2 extensions Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE) (including Asymmetric MTE) Cryptography extensions RAS extensions […]
Armbian v25.2 and DietPi v9.11 released with updated Ubuntu and Debian-based Linux images for single board computers
Vendor-provided Linux images for single board computers are not always working optimally, so this post is a regular reminder that users may want to check out Armbian and DietPi projects mostly supported by the community but also backed by some of the vendors who offload some (repackaging) software work to them. Armbian and DietPi are separate projects, but this month, Armbian v25.2 and DietPi v9.11 were almost released simultaneously. I don’t report on each release (should I?), but they release an update every few months. The last time we had a look at both projects was in September 2024 for the releases of DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8. Let’s see what the new releases have to bring. Armbian v25.2 Main changes: New Boards – Rock 2A and 2F, NanoPi R3S, Retroid Pocket RP5, RPMini, Rock 5T, GenBook, MKS-PI, SKIPR, Armsom CM5, NextThing C.H.I.P, Magicsee C400 Plus Rockchip 3588 Improvements – […]
Rimer SBC is a Microchip SAMD51 Cortex-M4-based development board with a built-in LCD, keyboard, audio, and battery
The Rimer SBC is a development board based on a Microchip SAMD51 Cortex-M4 microcontroller and designed as a complete standalone playground with a built-in display, keyboard, audio input and output, a few I/Os, and a 60x20mm LiPo battery or an optional 18650 battery holder. It is specifically based on the Microchip ATMSAMD51J20A microcontroller, running at 120MHz with 1MB of flash memory and 256KB of RAM, and utilizes many of the peripherals available in the TQFP64 package. The board includes a 3.2-inch 320 x 240 IPS TFT LCD connected via high-speed SPI and a 40-key mechanical keyboard scanned via an I2C GPIO expander. It also features an amplified 700mW speaker output and buffered analog input and output is routed via the 3.5mm audio jack. The Rimer SBC’s standalone nature makes it suitable for on-the-go development, rapid prototyping, and educational purposes without the need for external hardware. The maker also plans to […]
Renesas RA4L1 ultra-low-power MCU family offers 168 µA/MHz operation, dual-bank flash, capacitive touch
Renesas has recently introduced the RA4L1 ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33 MCU family along with two evaluation/development boards. This new lineup consists of 14 ultra-low-power devices based on an 80 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor with TrustZone support and designed for metering, IoT sensing, smart locks, digital cameras, and human-machine interface (HMI) applications. The RA4L1 MCU family offers high power efficiency at 168 µA/MHz while active and a standby current of 1.70 µA while retaining SRAM. Additionally, they support segment LCD, capacitive touch, USB-FS, CAN FD, low-power UART, multiple serial interfaces (SPI, QSPI, I2C, I3C, SSI), ADC, DAC, real-time clock, and security features like the RSIP security engine with TRNG, AES, ECC, and Hash. Renesas RA4L1 microcontroller Renesas RA4L1 specifications MCU core Arm Cortex-M33 core (Armv8-M) Up to 80 MHz operating frequency Arm Memory Protection Unit (MPU) 8 secure regions (MPU_S) 8 non-secure regions (MPU_NS) CoreSight ETM-M33 Dual SysTick timers (secure & non-secure) […]
Orange Pi AIPro (8T) SBC features a 8 TOPS Huawei Ascend AI SoC, runs Ubuntu or openEuler
Orange Pi AIPro (8T) is a new single board computer for AI applications that features an unnamed Huawei Ascend AI quad-core 64-bit processor delivering up to 8 TOPS (INT8) of AI inference performance, although there’s also a 20 TOPS (INT8) variant of the SoC. The SBC comes with up to 16GB LPDDR4X and a 32MB SPI flash but also supports other storage options such as a microSD card, an eMMC flash module, and/or an M.2 NVMe or SATA SSD. The board also features two HDMI 2.0 ports, one MIPI DSI connector, a 3.5mm audio jack, two MIPI CSI camera interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 5 connectivity, a few USB ports, and a 40-pin GPIO header for expansion. Orange Pi AIPro specifications: SoC – Huawei Ascend quad-core 64-bit processor delivering up to 8 TOPS (INT8) AI performance and equipped with an unnamed 3D GPU; Likely Ascend 310B with Arm Cortex-A76 equivalent […]
OpenWrt 24.10 released with Linux 6.6, TLS 1.3 by default, and 1970 supported devices
OpenWrt 24.10 open-source lightweight Linux operating system for routers has just been released. It’s been upgraded to Linux 6.6 from Linux 5.15 in OpenWrt 2023.05, supports TLS 1.3 by default, improves support for WiFi 6 (802.11ax), and adds initial support for WiFi 7 (802.11be). After over one year of work since the release of OpenWrt 23.05, OpenWrt 24.10 adds over 5400 commits, and the total number of supported devices is now close to 2,000 at 1,970. It’s also the first stable release supporting OpenWrt One, the router directly designed by OpenWrt developers in collaboration with Banana Pi. OpenWrt 24.10 highlights: TLS 1.3 support in default images with MbedTLS 3.6 Activate POSIX Access Control Lists and file system security attributes for all file systems on devices with big flash sizes. Needed by docker. Note this is not enabled for all targets with the small_flash feature flag, including ath79/tiny, bcm47xx/legacy, lantiq/ase, lantiq/xrx200_legacy, […]
Linux 6.13 Release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.13 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List: So nothing horrible or unexpected happened last week, so I’ve tagged and pushed out the final 6.13 release. It’s mostly some final driver fixes (gpu and networking dominating – normal), with some doc updates too. And various little stuff all over. The shortlog is appended for people who want to see the details (and, as always, it’s just the shortlog for the last week, the full 6.13 log is obviously much too big). With this, the merge window for 6.14 will obviously open tomorrow. I already have two dozen pull requests pending – thank you, you know who you are. Linus Release about two months ago, Linux 6.12 – the new LTS version – brought us real-time “PREEMPT_RT” support that had always required out-of-tree patchsets until now, the completion of the EEVDF (Earliest Eligible […]
NXP MCX L14x and MCX L25x ultra-low-power Cortex-M33 MCUs target energy harvesting and battery-powered devices
NXP Semiconductors has launched the MCX L series of ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33 MCUs with the MCX L14x and MCX L25x SKUs. The new series offers similar peripherals as the rest of the MCX portfolio but uses a new “power management architecture that supports always-on, battery-powered applications” The MCX L series uses a dual domain architecture, with “real-time processing and ultra-low-power sensing functions in a single device.” The Arm Cortex-M33 core supports real-time processing functions while the Arm Cortex-M0+ core offers always-on operation in the ultra-low-power sense domain. The new microcontrollers reportedly use three times less power than their predecessors. The ultra-low-power series is targeted at energy-constrained applications, powered by a battery, ultracapacitor, or power harvesting circuit. These include building control, industrial sensing, smoke and fire alarms, flow meters, smart appliances, and motion detectors. NXP MCX L14x and L25x specifications: CPU Main core: Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller @ up to 96 MHz […]