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March 4, 2026March 4, 2026 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Renesas RA0E3 Arm Cortex-M23 MCU is a stripped-down RA0E1 for cost-sensitive applications

Back in 2024, Renesas first released the RA0E1, an ultra-low-power Cortex-M23 MCU designed for cost-sensitive applications, followed by the RA0E2, with extended temperature range support (-40°C to +125°C). The company has expanded its lineup with the RA0E3, a stripped-down version of the RA0E1 with less memory, fewer peripherals, and fewer GPIOs, designed for small and budget-focused applications for sensing, motor assist, safety, and basic system control. The MCU retains the same 32 MHz Arm Cortex-M23 (Armv8-M) core but now comes with 16KB flash and 2KB SRAM. It features an 8-channel 16-bit TAU timer, a 32-bit interval timer, a 10-bit ADC with a temperature sensor, a Data Transfer Controller, and serial interfaces including SPI, I²C, and UART (with LIN support). Additionally, it comes with up to 17 GPIOs, pull-ups, open-drain support, and built-in clock sources. It has an operating voltage range of 1.6V to 5.5V and supports −40°C to +125°C operation […]

February 25, 2026February 25, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

NXP TJA1410 and TJF1410 PMD transceivers enable “CAN-like” Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) connectivity

We’ve reported on 10BASE-T1S and 10BASE-T1L Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) chips from Microchip and Analog Devices in the past, which support Ethernet communication over a single twisted-pair cable. But those chips integrate a full Ethernet PHY or MAC-PHY inside the device. NXP takes a different approach with their TJA1410 (automotive) and TJF1410 (industrial) Physical Medium Dependent (PMD) transceivers. These new PMDs separate the analog physical layer from the digital Ethernet logic. By integrating the digital portion of the PHY into the host microcontroller or switch, the TJA1410 and TJF1410 only need to handle the essential analog functions for transmitting and receiving signals over the physical medium. They communicate with the host via a 3-pin OPEN Alliance (OA) interface. TJA1410 and TJF1410 PMD transceivers specifications: Networking – 10BASE-T1S (Compliant with IEEE 802.3cg and OPEN Alliance TC14,TC10 specifications) Host Interface – 3-pin OA interface (requires host MCU/switch with a 10BASE-T1S digital PHY) […]

February 23, 2026February 23, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

AMD VEK385 Versal AI Edge Gen 2 FPGA evaluation kit plugs directly into a PCIe Gen5/Gen4 slot

VEK385 Evaluation Kit with AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2 XC2VE3858 adaptive SoC

AMD has introduced the VEK385 Evaluation Kit built around the Versal AI Edge Gen 2 XC2VE3858 SoC FPGA, which combines eight Cortex-A78AE cores, ten Cortex-R52 cores, FPGA fabric with 543,104 LUTs, 144 AI Engine-ML v2 tiles (up to 184 INT8 TOPS), 2,064 DSPs, a Mali-G78AE GPU, and an integrated ISP. The kit features 20 GB of LPDDR5X memory, a PCIe x8 edge connector supporting Gen5 x4 and Gen3/4 x8, and two HDMI 2.1 RX/TX ports for video. There is also an SFP28 port for 25–100 Gb/s Ethernet, and CAN-FD alongside PL/PS Ethernet for deterministic control applications. The board is designed to accelerate prototyping for automotive (ADAS, autonomous driving), industrial (AMR, edge AI boxes), healthcare (ultrasound, endoscopy, 3D imaging), and aerospace-grade systems. VEK385 Evaluation Kit specifications Adaptive SoC – AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2 XC2VE3858-2MSESSVA2112 heterogeneous adaptive SoC CPU – 8x Arm Cortex-A78AE application cores Real-time – 10x Arm Cortex-R52 […]

February 23, 2026February 23, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

OnLogic Factor 101 – A fanless industrial edge AI computer with Qualcomm QCS6490 SoC, 10GbE networking

Onlogic Factor 101 Qualcomm QCS6490 powered industrial computer

The OnLogic Factor 101 (FR101) is an ultra-small form factor, fanless industrial computer built around the Qualcomm QCS6490 platform for edge AI and data gateway applications. Designed for space-constrained applications, it targets light machine vision, inspection, monitoring, and low-speed autonomous systems. The octa-core Qualcomm Kryo 670 (Cortex-A78/A55-class) processor is paired with 8GB LPDDR4x memory and 128GB UFS flash storage. The fanless system features 10GbE and Gigabit Ethernet ports, five USB ports, and HDMI and USB-C (DisplayPort) video output. Its compliance with various standards makes it suitable for general office and industrial edge deployments. OnLogic Factor 101 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 CPU – Octa-core Kryo 670 with 1x Gold Plus core (Cortex-A78) @ 2.7 GHz, 3x Gold cores (Cortex-A78) @ 2.4 GHz, 4x Silver cores (Cortex-A55) @ up to 1.9 GHz GPU – Adreno 643L GPU @ 812 MHz with support for Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan […]

February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Avalue EMX-PTLP – A thin mini-ITX motherboard powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 358H Panther Lake-H SoC

Intel Panther Lake-H thin mini-ITX motherboard

Avalue’s EMX-PTLP is an industrial, thin mini-ITX motherboard powered by Intel Panther Lake-H Core Ultra (Series 3) family, up to the 12-core Intel Core Ultra 7 358H SoC delivering up to 180 TOPS for AI and industrial automation deployments. The board supports up to 64GB of DDR5 SoDIMM/CSoDIMM memory, features M.2 PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 sockets for storage and expansion, M.2 E-Key and B-Key sockets for wireless and cellular connectivity, a PCIe x8 slot, HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, and LVDS/eDP display interfaces, GbE and 2.5GbE networking interfaces, a range of USB4, USB 3.2, and USB 2.0 interfaces, and more. Avalue EMX-PTLP specifications: SoC – Intel Panther Lake processor with Intel Xe LPG graphics (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 5 322 6-core (2P + 4LPE) CPU at up to 4.4 GHz with 12MB Smart Cache, 2x Xe core Intel Graphics (18 TOPS), AI accelerator (46 TOPS); PBP: 25 Watts […]

February 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

de next-RAP8-EZBOX – An ultra-compact, fanless or actively-cooled Intel Core i7-1365UE Raptor Lake embedded system

AAEON’s de next-RAP8-EZBOX is an ultra-compact embedded system powered by an Intel Core i7-1365UE 10-core Raptor Lake SoC paired with 16GB of LPDDR5x system and one M.2 2280 M-Key slot for storage. It’s offered as either a 42.5mm thick fanless or a 45.4mm thick actively cooled mini PC. Key interfaces include HDMI 1.4b video output, two Ethernet (2.5GbE + GbE) ports, and two USB 3.0 ports. Its compact size, powerful processor, and range of interfaces make it suitable for space-constrained autonomous systems or industrial robots. de next-RAP8-EZBOX specifications: SoC- Intel Core i7-1365UE 10-core/12-thread Raptor Lake processor up to 1.70 GHz / 4.90 GHz (Turbo) with 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.30 GHz; TDP/PBP: 15 Watts System Memory – Up to 16GB LPDDR5x Storage – NVMe SSD via M.2 2280 M-Key (PCIe x2) socket Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 […]

January 30, 2026January 31, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Microchip PIC32CM PL10 Cortex-M0+ microcontrollers are pin-to-pin compatible with AVR MCUs, support 5V operation

Microchip has added the PIC32CM PL10 MCUs to its PIC32C Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller family. Pin-to-pin compatible with AVR MCUs, the new PL10 MCUs feature a range of Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs), 5V operation, and functional safety (FuSa) compliance. The microcontrollers notably integrate a 12-bit ADC with strong noise immunity, a Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC) for responsive touch applications, and two serial communication interfaces with USART, I2C, and/or SPI support. Target applications include industrial control, building automation, consumer appliances, power tools, and sensor-based systems. Microchip PIC32CM PL10 specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M0+ core up to 24 MHz Memory – Up to 16 KB SRAM (8 KB in current datasheet) Storage – Up to 128 KB Flash (64 KB in current datasheet) I/Os and peripherals Up to 55x programmable I/O pins Up to 16x external interrupts Multi-Voltage I/Os (MVIO), removing the need for external level shifters Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC) with […]

January 22, 2026January 21, 2026 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Geehy G32R430 Arm Cortex-M52 Encoder MCU features Arctangent accelerator, dual 16-bit ADC for industrial motion control systems

Last year, Geehy introduced the industry’s first dual-core Cortex-M52 real-time MCU, and has now followed up with the G32R430, an Arm Cortex-M52 Encoder MCU with two 16-bit ADCs and a hardware ATAN (arctangent) accelerator for sub-1 µs electrical angle computation in high-precision encoder and motion control systems. The MCU is clocked at 128 MHz and uses ITCM/DTCM tightly coupled memory for deterministic, zero-wait-state execution, alongside a 4KB cache for low-latency control loops. It integrates two 16-bit high-precision ADCs with support for synchronous sampling, along with an extra 12-bit ADC, multiple analog comparators, DACs, and an on-chip temperature sensor, allowing encoder designs to be built with very few external analog components. It also supports various encoder protocols, including BiSS-C, SSI, Tamagawa, and SPI, and includes generic interfaces like USART, SPI, and I²C. With a –40°C to +105°C industrial operating range, this MCU is suitable for servo motors, industrial robots, absolute and incremental […]