development board News - CNX Software

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) - 9 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 […]

April 21, 2025April 21, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

JUMPtec SMARC-sAM67 – An industrial SMARC SoM based on TI AM67x Jacinto SoC for Edge AI and vision applications

JUMPtec, a subsidiary of Kontron, has recently introduced SMARC-sAM67, an industrial SMARC SoM built around Texas Instruments’ AM67x Jacinto dual- or quad-core processors (AM67, AM67A, or AM67D) designed for industrial, robotic, and vision applications. The SMARC-sAM67 module features up to 8GB LPDDR4 memory, up to 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash, dual Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe Gen3 x1 expansion, USB 3.2 and USB 2.0, and display interfaces including dual-channel LVDS and DSI (or optional DisplayPort). It also features four UARTs, CAN bus, SPI, I2S, I2C, MIPI CSI cameras, and various industrial features such as extended temperature support (-40°C to 85°C), failsafe update support, and an ultra-low power RTC. JUMPtec SMARC-sAM67 SoM Specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments dual- or quad-core AM67x Jacinto processor (Standard AM67, optional AM67A or AM67D) System Memory – Up to 8GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – Up to 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash storage Networking – 2x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet PHY with […]

April 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Avaota F1 – A tiny camera board based on Allwinner V821 RISC-V SoC with built-in WiFi and 64MB DDR2

The Avaota F1 is an ultra-small, open-source hardware Linux SBC powered by an Allwinner V821 32-bit RISC-V camera SoC with 64MB on-chip DDR2 and built-in 2.4 GHz WiFi 4, and designed for camera applications with a MIPI CSI connector. The 35×22 mm board also features a 32MB NOR flash, an analog microphone, a USB-C port for power, data, and programming, two 15-pin GPIO headers, a FEL button, and a user LED. It looks like it will be offered as a development kit with a 1080p30 camera and a 3.5-inch or 1.54-inch SPI display. I also think it’s the first time I’ve seen a Linux-capable application processor with built-in WiFi. Avaota F1 specifications SoC – Allwinner V821L2-WXX CPU 32-bit RISC-V CPU @ 1.2GHz with 16KB L1 D/I cache, 128KB L2 cache 32-bit RISC-V MCU @ 600 MHz with 16KB L1 I-cache, 8KB L1 D-cache Memory – 64MB DDR2 on-chip VPU – […]

April 16, 2025April 15, 2025 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

Luckfox Nova Audio IoT board features 8-channel mic input, voice activity detection, and PoE

Luckfox has recently released the Luckfox Nova Audio IoT board built around the Rockchip RK3308B quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A35 SoC clocked at up to 1.3GHz, and featuring 8-channel microphone inputs and voice activity detection (VAD). The board comes with 512MB DDR3 RAM, 8GB eMMC flash storage, and a microSD card slot. It also features dual 26-pin GPIO headers that support UART, SPI, I2C, and more. The Luckfox Nova is also equipped with a PoE-capable Ethernet RJ45 port, and optionally supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2/BLE. Other onboard interfaces include a USB Type-C port for power and programming, a speaker, microphone headers, and more. All these features and various I/O options make this device suitable for applications where multi-channel audio capture, voice recognition, and real-time audio signal processing are required. Luckfox Nova specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3308B Quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A35 @ up to 1.3GHz Integrated high-performance audio codec Built-in Voice Activity […]

April 15, 2025April 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Xero MCU is a compact USB-C board based on STM32F411 microcontroller (Crowdfunding)

Xero MCU is a small STMicro STM32F411 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller board with a USB-C port, twenty through and castellated holes for GPIOs, a Debug connector, Reset and Boot buttons, and a few LEDs. The 100 MHz MCU embeds 512KB flash and 128KB SRAM, and the board is said to be designed for hobbyists, students, and professionals. For reference, the Xero MCU board features the same STM32F411CEU6 microcontroller found in the Black Bill board. However, it’s quite shorter at about half the size, and features castellated edges, making it suitable for soldering on a baseboard. Xero MCU specifications: Microcontroller – STMicro STM32F411CEU6 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 100MHz with 512KB Flash, 128KB SRAM USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – 2x 20-pin through and castelled holes with up to 17x GPIO, I2C, 2x SPI, 2x UART, 4x ADC, 5V, 3.3V, and GND Debugging – 4-pin debug connector […]