development board News - CNX Software

May 19, 2025 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

Waveshare RA4M1-Zero mini development board features secure boot, firmware encryption, and castellated design

RA4M1 Zero Mini Development Board versions

Waveshare RA4M1-Zero is a mini development board built around the Renesas RA4M1 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 MCU running at 48MHz. The MCU also features 256KB of flash memory, 32KB of SRAM, 8KB of EEPROM, and a built-in Floating Point Unit (FPU). Hardware peripherals include a 14-bit ADC, a 12-bit DAC, a CAN bus controller, an onboard USB 2.0 interface, and WS2812 RGB LED. The MCU also supports firmware encryption, secure boot, and tamper-proof security features to ensure application safety. Its small size (23.5 x 18mm) and castellated module design make it suitable for space-constrained applications, including IoT devices, industrial control systems, secure embedded systems, and compact sensor nodes. RA4M1-Zero mini development board specifications: MCU – Renesas RA4M1 (R7FA4M1AB3CFM) as found in the Arduino UNO R4 CPU 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F @ 48MHz Memory – 32KB SRAM Storage – 256KB Flash, 8KB EEPROM USB – USB 2.0 device interface via USB Type-C connector […]

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

SiFli SF32LB52J big.LITTLE Arm Cortex-M33 Bluetooth MCU powers the Core Time 2 smartwatch

SiFli SF23LB52J is a Bluetooth 5.3 microcontroller part of the SF32LB52x family with two Cortex-M33 in big.LITTLE configuration with a 240 MHz high-performance core for user application/GUI and a 24 MHz low-power core to manage the Bluetooth part. A few months ago, Eric Migicovsky, the founder of the smartwatch company Pebble, and now Core Devices, introduced the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches running PebbleOS open-source firmware that were mostly relaunches of the never-released Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 with some tweaks. We already knew the Core 2 Duo would be based on a Nordic nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller, however, the one for the Core Time 2 was kept secret. That’s until today, as Eric has just announced that the Core Time 2 would be based on the SiFli SF23LB52J MCU, since the smartwatch required an MCU with more RAM and processing power, and SiFli also offers […]

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

ESP32-C5 dual-band WiFi 6 SoC enters mass production, ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 board launched for $15

Espressif Systems has just started mass production of the ESP32-C5 RISC-V wireless microcontroller with dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee, Thread) connectivity. The ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 development is now available for about $15 on AliExpress, and should soon show up on the company’s Amazon store. So far, WiFi-capable Espressif microcontrollers have only supported 2.4 GHz WiFi since it’s cheaper and offers better range for IoT applications, but some applications may benefit from 5 GHz WiFi, so the company unveiled the ESP32-C5 dual-band WiFi 6 and BLE RISC-V MCU in June 2022. Design probably took longer than expected, but we noted documentation for an ESP32-C5 beta board in March 2024, and finally, the company has just announced that mass production has started. We’ll have a closer look at the ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 board in this article, since it is different from the beta board. ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-C5-WROOM-1 SoC […]

April 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Small (45x43mm) system-on-module packs Rockchip RK3562 AIoT SoC, 16GB eMMC, 2GB RAM, and PMIC

MIYR Tech MYC-YR3562 is a small 45x43mm system-on-module that packs a Rockchip RK3562 or RK3562J quad-core Cortex-A53 AIoT SoC with a 1 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 2GB LPDDR4, 16GB eMMC flash, 32 Kbit EEPROM, and a PMIC. To keep the module small while making no compromise on the number of I/Os offered, the company designed the module with 164 castellated holes (LCC – ) and 58 pads (LGA). That means the MYC-YR3562 system-on-module gets all interfaces from the RK3562(J) SoC, including Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, PCIe 2.1, RGB, LVDS, and MIPI-DSI interfaces, camera inputs (MIPI-CSI), and a range of low-speed I/Os. MYC-YR3562 SoM specifications SoC – Rockchip RK3562 or RK3562J CPU RK3562 – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 quad-core @ 2.0 GHz RK3562J – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 quad-core @ 1.2 GHz (stock, overclock up to 1.8 GHz) GPU – Mali-G52-2EE with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.0/1.1 AI accelerator […]

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

Zalmotek RA6M1, RA8M1, and RZ/A3U SoMs follow Adafruit Feather form factor, support carrier board for robotics and industrial control

Romanian company Zalmotek has recently introduced three new SoMs, the RA6M1, RA8M1, and RZ/A3UL, and a modular carrier board designed for embedded applications such as robotics, industrial control, and edge computing. There are a few things that I find interesting about this setup. The SoM comes in Adafruit Feather form factor and, as a result, supports various Adafruit FeatherWings. The modular carrier board supports the Dynamixel motor driver module, the Particle M-SoM breakout module, Ethernet, and CAN modules. The RA6M1 Feather SoM is powered by a Renesas RA6M1 Arm Cortex-M4 CPU at up to 120 MHz, with 512 KB flash and 96 KB SRAM while the RA8M1 Feather SoM features a Renesas RA8M1 64-bit Arm Cortex-M85 running at up to 360 MHz with 128 Mbit SPI flash, the RZ/A3UL Feather SoM is based on a Renesas RZ/A3UL 64-bit Arm Cortex-A55 CPU at up to 1 GHz, with 512 Mbit OctaFlash […]

April 24, 2025April 25, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Espressif Systems ESP32-P4-EYE development kit looks like a camera

Espressif Systems’ ESP32-P4-EYE is a development kit designed for AI vision applications that looks like a standard camera. It combines an ESP32-P4 RISC-V microcontroller with an ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 SoC, and is equipped with a MIPI-CSI camera, a 2MP display, a microphone, and a MicroSD card to store photos or videos. There’s also a rotatory encoder to control the menu on the LCD or adjust the zoom, a fill/flash light, a few buttons, an LED, and support for either USB or battery power. The company says the ESP32-P4 camera devkit targets smart surveillance, vision-based edge AI, real-time image detection, and audio-visual IoT interfaces. ESP32-P4-EYE specifications: Microcontroller – ESP32-P4 MCU Dual-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) VPU – H.264 and JPEG codecs support Memory […]

April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Microchip launches low-cost, low-power PIC16F17576 8-bit microcontrollers for analog sensors

Microchip PIC16F17576 8-bit MCUs are designed for low-cost and low-power analog sensors. They integrate a low-power comparator and voltage reference combination that can operate while the MCU core is in sleep mode, consuming less than 3.0 µA of current during analog measurements. The PIC16F17576 microcontrollers are equipped with up to four operational amplifiers (op amps) with software-controlled gain ladders, and a 12-bit differential ADC with automated averaging. Key applications include vibration and strain measurement, flow metering, gas detection, cold asset tracking, and motion sensing. PIC16F17576 specifications: Core – C Compiler Optimized RISC Architecture @ 32 MHz Memory and Storage Up to 2 KB of data SRAM Up to 28 KB of program flash memory Up to 256 bytes of data EEPROM memory Programmable code protection and write protection Digital Peripherals 2x Capture/Compare/PWM (CCP) Modules (16-bit resolution for Capture/Compare modes; 10-bit resolution for PWM mode) 2x 16-bit PWM 4x Configurable Logic […]

April 22, 2025April 22, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Renesas RA0E2 low-cost, low-power Arm Cortex-M23 MCU operates in extended temperature range (-40°C to +125°C)

Renesas RA0E2 is a low-power, low-cost Arm Cortex-M23 microcontroller (MCU) Group part of the RA0 family introduced in 2024 that can operate in an extended temperature range (-40°C to +125°C) and offers a wide variety of peripheral functions and safety features. It follows the RA0E1 devices – the first member of the RA0 family – designed for consumer electronics, household appliances, power tools, industrial monitoring, and other applications, including battery-powered devices. The new RA0E2 MCUs offer both software and pin-to-pin compatibility (for 32-pin SKUs) with RA0E1 devices, but the new family adds more memory and storage with up to 16KB SRAM, 128KB code flash, and 2KB data flash. The RA0E2 also features more I/Os with 32-pin to 64-bit packages, instead of 16-pin to 32-pin packages. Renesas RA0E2 specifications: MCU Core – Arm Cortex-M23 Armv8-M Core up to 32MHz Memory and Storage 16KB SRAM Code Flash – Up to 128KB Data […]