benchmarks News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 12, 2026January 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Milk-V Titan – A $329 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard with a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot

We first noted the UltraRISC UR-DP1000-powered Milk-V Titan mini-ITX motherboard when we wrote an article about three high-performance RISC-V processors to watch in H2 2025. There have been some delays, as there often are, but the Titan board finally appears to be in stock, so it’s probably a good time to have a closer look. Powered by a 2 GHz UR-DP1000 octa-core RISC-V CPU, the Titan mini-ITX motherboard supports up to 64GB DIMM memory and M.2 NVMe storage (PCIe Gen4 x4), and features a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot for a graphics card or other expansion, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 ports, a BMC, and more. Milk-V Titan specifications: CPU – UltraRISC UR-DP1000 8x 64-bit RISC-V UR-CP100 “RV64GCBHX” cores up to 2.0 GHz Two 4x core cluster design with 4MB L3 cache each, and a total of 16MB cache. Fully RVA22 compliant, and “Compliant with RVA23 excluding V extension.” Supports Hardware […]

January 8, 2026January 9, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

MUSE Book laptop review – Testing an octa-core RISC-V Linux laptop in 2026

SpacemiT sent me a sample of the MUSE Book RISC-V Linux laptop for review. It’s based on the SpacemiT K1/M1 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V SoC, ships with up to 16 GB of RAM, eMMC flash and/or NVMe SSD, and features a 14.1-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, WiFi 6 connectivity, a few USB ports, and more. I won’t go through all the hardware specifications since Leo already did that when he wrote about the MUSE Book Laptop in April 2024, along with a teardown, and additional details about the SpacemiT K1/M1 SoC. I’ll still do an unboxing and quickly check the hardware, but I’ll focus on the software part to show the progress with Bianbu OS 2.3 (Ubuntu 24.04-based) on RISC-V hardware, as I just did for the low-end StarFive JH7110S-based VisionFive 2 Lite SBC. It’s quite a long review, so if you are short on time, you can jump directly […]

December 31, 2025January 4, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

VisionFive 2 Lite SBC Review – Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost RISC-V SBC in 2026

VisionFive 2 Lite RISC-V SBC Ubuntu Review 2026

StarFive has sent me a sample of the VisionFive 2 Lite RISC-V SBC for review. It’s a low-cost credit card-sized board based on the StarFive JH7110S quad-core RISC-V SBC and designed to get started with Linux RISC-V on the cheap. When I first tested the earlier VisionFive 2 SBC with a StarFive JH7110 RISC-V SoC in February 2023, I didn’t call it a review, but rather a hands-on experience, since, at the time, many features still didn’t work properly. Almost three years have passed since then, so reviewing the VisionFive 2 Lite SBC with Ubuntu 24.04 will allow us to see how much progress has been made on the software side. If you are in a rush, you can jump to the what works, what doesn’t section. VisionFive 2 Lite unboxing I received the board in a plastic box with a cover reading “VisionFive 2 Lite Your Gateway to RISC-V”. […]

December 14, 2025December 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

UP Xtreme ARL AI Dev Kit review – Benchmarks and AI workloads on an Intel Core Ultra 5 225H Arrow Lake SBC

That’s the last part of my review of three Intel-based UP AI development kits, and after testing the UP TWL AI Dev Kit with an Intel N150 CPU and the UP Squared Pro TWL AI Dev Kit with an Intel N150 CPU coupled with an Hailo-8L M.2 AI accelerator, I’ll now report my experience with the high-end UP Xtreme ARL AI Dev Kit with a 14-core Intel Core Ultra 5 225H “Arrow Lake” single board computer with Intel Arc 130T graphics delivering up to a combined 83 TOPS of AI performance. I’ve followed the same procedure as with the previous models, using the pre-installed Ubuntu 24.04 Pro operating system to report system information, run some benchmarks, and go through AI workloads using Nx Meta and the AAEON UP AI Toolkit system. It just ran additional benchmarks and tests since it’s my first Intel Arrow Lake platform. UP Xtreme ARL system […]

December 11, 2025December 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

UP Squared Pro TWL AI Dev Kit Review – Intel N150 + Hailo-8L accelerator tested on Ubuntu 24.04

Intel N150 SBC Hailo-8L module with Heatsink

I’ve been asked to review three Intel-based UP AI development kits running Ubuntu 24.04 Pro. Last time, I tested the UP TWL SBC with Nx Meta and UP AI Toolkit, and most AI workloads would pass, but since these were running on the Intel N150 CPU or GPU, the performance was not optimal for most. I’ll now switch to the UP Squared Pro TWL “mid-range” AI devkit review with another Intel Processor N150 SBC fitted with a 13 TOPS Hailo-8L M.2 AI accelerator. Both the UP TWL and UP Squared Pro TWL come with a 64GB eMMC flash, and I found out it was rather tight since AI software and models can take a lot of space. The UP Squared Pro TWL has a few M.2 sockets, so I’ll install an NVMe SSD to expand storage before installing the UP AI toolkit. As usual, I’ll run a few benchmarks and […]

November 17, 2025December 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

UP TWL AI Dev Kit review – Benchmarks, features testing, and AI workloads on Ubuntu 24.04

Earlier this month, I started the review of the Intel-based UP AI development kits with an unboxing of the UP TWL, UP Squared Pro TWL, and UP Xtreme ARL single board computers. I’ve now had time to test the first model, the credit card-sized, Intel Processor N150-based UP TWL SBC with 64GB eMMC flash preloaded with Ubuntu 24.04. As usual, I’ll run a few benchmarks and test the board’s key hardware features, but I’ll then focus on the AI part since that’s what the kit is for. Note that the UP TWL AI Dev Kit is an entry-level solution, and all AI workloads will be running on the CPU or the integrated GPU, since there’s no dedicated AI accelerator or an M.2 slot to add one on this model. In the next parts of the review, the UP Squared Pro TWL adds an Hailo-8L AI accelerator, and the UP Xtreme […]

November 11, 2025November 16, 2025 by Kumpee Teeravech - 1 Comment

LattePanda IOTA review – An Intel N150 + RP2040 SBC tested with Windows 11, UPS expansion, PoE, NVMe SSD, and more

I’ve received a review sample of the LattePanda IOTA single-board computer (SBC) from DFRobot. It is a compact, palm-sized SBC powered by an Intel Processor N150 quad-core Twin Lake CPU, and featuring 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 64 GB of onboard eMMC storage. It also integrates a Raspberry Pi RP2040 co-processor for handling I/O operations, providing greater flexibility for embedded and automation applications. LattePanda IOTA unboxing The parcel was shipped from China and arrived safely in a standard cardboard box. Inside were several smaller boxes containing the following components, with foam padding that was slightly loose but still provided adequate protection. All components arrived in good condition. I received a total of seven items from DFRobot, which are listed below. LattePanda IOTA (8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash) Smart UPS Expansion Board: A plug-and-play UPS module for the LattePanda IOTA that provides stable, continuous power with intelligent management and supports […]

November 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC review with Raspberry Pi OS “Trixie”

Today, we’ll review the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC using the recently released Raspberry Pi OS “Trixie” based on Debian 13. It’s quite similar to the earlier Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC, but comes with more memory (16GB vs 8GB), a 256GB NVMe SSD, and a proper mechanical keyboard with replaceable caps and RGB LED lighting, so we’ll focus on these aspects during our tests, after going through the usual unboxing and teardown process. Raspberry Pi 500+ unboxing We received an early prototype of the Raspberry Pi 500+ keyboard PC with a UK layout, white design in a retail package. The bottom side of the package includes a list of features and confirmation that it’s indeed a UK layout keyboard. Not ideal for Thai users (we usually rely on the US layout), but that was probably the only layout available when Raspberry Pi sent us a sample in mid-September. […]