Sparkfun Thing Plus – Quicklogic EOS S3 Arm eFPGA board launched in Crowd Supply

Sparkfun Thing Plus Quicklogic EOS S3

SparkFun Electronics is a well-known electronics retailer that usually sells its in-house developed or third-party boards through its own online store. But this time around, the company decided to launch “Sparkfun Thing Plus – Quicklogic EOS S3” through Crowd Supply crowdfunding platform. The board is based on QuickFeather board designed with the same Quicklogic EOS S3 Arm Cortex-M4 plus embedded FPGA SoC, but follows Sparkfun’s Thing Plus form factor with a Qwiic connector and a different mix of sensors. Sparkfun Thing Plus – Quicklogic EOS S3 (QTPLUS-1.0) board specifications: SoC – QuickLogic EOS S3 MCU + eFPGA SoC with Arm Cortex-M4F Microcontroller up to 80 MHz, up to 512 Kb SRAM, and an embedded FPGA (eFPGA) with 2400 effective logic cells, 64 Kb RAM Storage – 16 Mbit SPI NOR flash (GigaDevice GD25Q16CEIGR) Sensors STMicro LIS2DH12TR accelerometer Digital pulse density modulation (PDM) microphone with Wake-on-Sound (WoS) feature: Vesper VM3011-U1 Expansion […]

Machine Learning on Raspberry Pi Pico, RP2040, and future RPi MCUs

RP2040 Boards Feature Image

Although the Raspberry Pi Pico comes with the RP2040 chip that lacks the performance to implement machine learning inference for its applications. However, we saw a person detection use case through ArduCAM and TensorFlow lite interface. But, the processing performance of the use case was on the slower side. Additionally, a recent Eben Upton presentation also unveiled that due to low power requirements the board compensates the processing efficiency. Hence, it offers low-performance for edge inference and machine learning use cases. Eben Upton’s teaser on improvement in machine learning and the future scope of “Pi Silicon” revealed potential growth and development in edge inference applications. The demand for RP2040 boards has given rise to the market necessity for more boards. This demand can only be fulfilled if more boards with RP2040 chip are available in the market and company “partners such as Adafruit, Pimoroni, Adafruit and Sparkfun are start releasing […]

Microsoft previews Azure Percept Edge AI development platform

Microsoft Azure Percept development kit

Microsoft has recently announced the public preview of Azure Percept platform combining hardware and services to ease AI implementations at the edge through the use of Azure AI technologies and Azure cloud for device management, AI model development, and analytics. The hardware currently available includes the Azure Percept DK (Development Kit) with an NXP i.MX 8M powered WiFi & Bluetooth gateway/carrier board, the Azure Percept Vision system on module (SoM), as well as the optional Azure Percept Audio SoM with a 4-mic array. Key features and specifications: Azure Percept DK carrier board SoC – NXP iMX 8M quad-core Cortex-A53 processor System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 16GB flash Connectivity – Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity via Realtek USB – 2x USB-A 3.0 port, 1x USB-C port Security – Nuvoton NCPT750 Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 Power Supply – 19V/3.4A Systems-on-Module Azure Percept Vision SoM based on Intel Movidius […]

NXP i.MX 8M Plus 2.5-inch Pico-ITX SBC supports UIO40-Express expansion modules

i.MX 8M Plus SBC

With NXP i.MX 8M Plus AI processor nearing mass production, we’ve seen many companies introduce i.MX 8M Plus systems-on-module at Embedded World 2021. But as one would come to expect, there should also be single board computers based on the new processor, and Advantech has unveiled the RSB-3720 2.5-inch SBC (aka Pico-ITX SBC) compatible with the company’s UIO40-Express expansion boards. RSB-3720 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX8M Plus dual or quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8GHz (1.6 GHz for industrial temperature range) with Cortex-M7 real-time core, Vivante GC7000UL 3D GPU, 1080p60 H.265/H.264/VP9 decoder, 1080p60 H.265/H.264 encoder, 2.3 TOP/s Neural Network Accelerator System Memory – 4GB or 6GB LPDDR4 4000MT/s Storage – 16 GB eMMC Flash for OS, 8 MB QSPI NOR Flash for board information, microSD socket Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 3840 x 2160 at 30Hz Single or dual-channel 24 Bit LVDS with backlight power, 5/12V, Max. […]

Edge AI video processing system combines SocioNext SC2000 4K camera SoC with Hailo-8 AI accelerator

EdgeTuring AI processing solution

We’ve previously written about Hailo-8 AI accelerator delivering up to 26 TOPS at low power (3 TOPS per watt), and found in AI edge systems such as Foxconn BOXiedge server powered by a Socionext SynQuacer SC2A11 24x Cortex-A53 cores SoC and capable of analyzing up to 20 streaming camera feeds in real-time for video analytics. Leopard Imaging has now created a much more compact Edge AI processing solution with EdgeTuring based on Hailo-8 M.2 card and Socionext SC2000 4K camera SoC, and designed for low-power video analytics. EdgeTuring features and specifications: Camera SoC / Image Processor – Socionext SC2000 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 650MHz with 4Kp30 H.265/H.264 encoder, up to 1.2 Gigapixel per second processing, LPDDR-3  memory (PoP) AI Module – Hailo-8 M.2 Module for up to 26 TOPS  Camera Dual camera but only one sensor works for AI Sensors – 2x Sony IMX477 CMOS Image Sensor, diagonal 7.857 mm […]

QuickLogic’s Hearable Reference Design enables Alexa Voice-Initiated Devices

Working with QuickLogic's Smart Hearable Reference Design

Last year we saw QuickFeather board featuring EOS S3 Cortex-M4F MCU with embedded FPGA, which was a crowdfunding project. This year the company has launched its smart hearable reference design based on a similar processor by QuickLogic. The device is dedicated to “Voice-Initiated, Hands-Free, Alexa Built-In Devices with Close-Talk Support.” QuickLogic’s smart hearable reference design is based on the company’s Open Reconfigurable Computing (QORC) which supports a complete open-source set of development options for the MCU and FPGA devices. It is also built on the EOS S3 Voice Processor and the QuickFeather open source development kit. This can enhance the user experience with a longer battery life of the device. The EOS S3 Arm Cortex- M4 processor features Low Power Sound Detection (LPSD) technology along with DSP Concepts’ TalkTo noise suppression and beamforming technology for the directional transmission of signals. It also comes with Alexa Wake Word engine technology, an […]

ANNKE CZ400 AI security camera review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing and teardown

Annke CZ400 AI security camera review

We’re starting to see more and more security cameras with built-in AI features such as Reolink RLC-810A 4K camera with people & vehicle detection or the lower cost Vacom Cam Full HD camera with person detection only, which I have not reviewed yet due to some technical issues. I would not buy a camera without AI now as such features greatly reduce false positives. Another model has now come my way with ANNKE CZ400 (aka I91BK) 2K security camera that comes with even more advanced AI-accelerated computer vision features with not only face detection, but also intrusion detection, line crossing detection, region entrance detection, region exiting detection, object removal detection, unattended baggage detection, and audio exception detection. In this first part of the review, we’ll check the specifications, the content of the package with an unboxing, as well as a partial teardown that is needed to install a microSD card. […]

This mini-computer is set to outperform NVIDIA Xavier by eight times

Fast Sense X Robotics AI Platform

When it comes to high-end AI-edge computer boards, we have seen Hackboard 2 with support for Windows 10 operating system and optional 4G or 5G cellular connectivity. Fast Sense Studios is a Russian-based startup designing powerful on-board computers to bring edge AI capabilities to mobile robotics. At Embedded World 2021, the company has unveiled the Fast Sense X Robotics AI Platform that integrates the power of six computers into a single module. The company claims the newly launched edge AI computer outperforms the NVIDIA Xavier with over 8x higher performance in mobile robots thanks to the advanced DNN inference hardware. Apart from the Intel UHD GPU, the computer also integrates up to 3 Coral Edge TPU devices and up to 2 Myriad X devices allowing it to give optimum results even when on heavy workloads. “We believe in the future where reliable physical agents become relevant for routine tasks that […]