QNAP gets into dev board market with the QBoat Sunny at CES

One surprise at CES was QNAP’s entry into the developer board market with the introduction of the QBoat Sunny developer board. It’s a rather odd beast to say the least and Qnap is even offering a cut-down version of its QTS OS for, simply named QTS Lite. The only thing we know about QTS Lite at this time is that it’ll support “basic server functions” as well as apps from the QNAP app center, such as the Container Station which will allow you to run the QIoT Suite which will apparently help you to build IoT solutions quicker. But let’s go back to the board itself. The specs are as follows. Processor – Intel AnyWAN GRX750 @ 2GHz (6W Dual Core Atom based) Memory – 2GB DDR3L Storage – 4GB eMMC, two M.2 2260/2280 SATA only slots for SSDs (RAID-1 support) Network connectivity – 3x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x WAN 2x […]

ASUS Tinker Board is a Raspberry Pi 3 Alternative based on Rockchip RK3288 Processor

Regular readers may remember MQMaker MiQi board, a $35 (and up) development board powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 processor, based on Raspberry Pi 3 form factor, but much faster according to benchmarks. Sadly, the board’s crowdfunding campaign was not that successful, possibly because of the “its’ a 2-year old processor” syndrome. But now, Minimachines has found that ASUS has designed a very similar board, dubbed Tinker Board, with an extra WiFi and Bluetooth LE module, audio jack, MIPI DSI connector, and a few other modifications. Asus Tinker Board specifications (bold highlights and strike-through show differences with MiQi board): SoC – Rockchip 3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-T764 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3, dual channel Storage – 8 or 32 GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot Video output & Display I/F 1x HDMI 2.0 up to 3840×2160@60p […]

$10 RTLDuino is an Arduino Compatible WiFi IoT Board based on Realtek RTL8710AF WiSoC

Last summer, we discovered a cheap RTL8710AF WiFi module with many of the same function as ESP8266, but with an ARM Cortex M3 core instead. The only problem is that it was not quite as easy to play with as ESP8266 boards, as at the time I started by playing with AT commands with B&T RTL00 RTL8710AF module, and later on, I got a more convenient PADI IoT Stamp with breakout board, but if you wanted to change the firmware you had to play with the SDK and a J-Link SWD debugger. Realtek RTL8710AF did not offer the convenience of Arduino IDE program like its big brother “RTL8195AM” from the same Ameba family. I know mbed is being worked on, but in the meantime things have changed for the better, as kissste informed me that RtlDuino implementation added Arduino support to RTL8710AF and RTL8711AM modules, and an NodeMCU-like board with […]

Banana Pi BPI-R2 Router Board Powered by Mediatek MT7623A Quad Core Processor Comes with 5 GbE Ports, SATA, and More

Mediatek-MT7623N-Board

Banana Pi BPI-R1 board was launched in 2014 with 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, SATA interfaces, and powered by Allwinner A20 board. SinoVoip is now about to launch an updated version – Banana Pi BPI-R2 – powered by Mediatek MT7623A quad-core Cortex A7 processor with 2GB RAM, 8GB flash, 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, up to 2 SATA connectors, mPCIe, USB 3.0, and more. BPI-R2 board specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7623A quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz with Mali 450 MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (option 16/32/64GB), up to 2x SATA interfaces, micro SD slot up to 256GB expansion Video Output / Display  I/F – HDMI 1.4 up to 1920×1200, MIPI DSI connector Connectivity – 5x 10/100/1000 Mb Ethernet port (via MT7530), Bluetooth 4.1 & dual band 802.11b/g/n WiFi (MT6625L module) USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x micro USB 2.0 […]

Tiny Intrinsyc Open-Q 820 SoM Features Snapdragon 820 Processor, WiFi and Bluetooth

Intrinsyc has unveiled a new smaller version of their Snapdragon 820 based Open-Q 820 system-on-module, simply called Open-Q 820 µSOM bringing the module size from 82 x 42mm to 50 x 25mm, while keeping many of the features of the large SoM with 3GB LPDDR4, 32GB UFS 2.0 flash, 802.11ac WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.1. It competes with other small Snapdragon 820 modules such as Inforce 6601 micro SoM. Open-Q 820 µSOM specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad core Kryo cores with 2x cores @ up to 2.2GHz, and 2x cores @ up to 1.6GHz, Adreno 530 GPU,  Hexagon 680 DSP System Memory – 3 GB LPDDR4 @ 1866 MHz Storage – 32 GB UFS 2.0 1-lane gear3 flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2×2 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1, Qualcomm IZat Gen 8C GPS 3x board-to-board connectors with the following interfaces: Display 2x MIPI-DSI 4-lane, 60fps, up to 2560×1600 (single port), 4096×2160 (dual port) […]

$55 OpenMV Cam M7 Open Source Computer Vision Board is Powered by an STM32F7 Cortex-M7 MCU

I wrote about Jevois-A33 computer vision camera based on Allwinner A33 quad core Cortex A7 processor last week, and today, I’ve come across OpenMV Cam M7 open source computer vision board based on a much less powerful STMicro STM32F7 ARM Cortex M7 micro-controller, but with the advantage of consuming less power, and exposing some extra I/Os. OpenMV Cam M7 board specifications & features: MCU – STMicro STM32F765VI ARM Cortex M7 @ up to 216 MHz with 512KB RAM, 2 MB flash. External Storage – micro SD slot Camera Omnivision OV7725 image sensor supporting 640×480 8-bit grayscale images or 320×240 16-bit RGB565 images at 30 FPS 2.8mm lens on a standard M12 lens mount USB – 1x micro USB port (Virtual COM Port and a USB Flash Drive) Expansion – 2x 8-pin headers with SPI, I2C CAN bus, asynchronous serial bus (Tx/Rx), 12-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC, 3x I/Os for servo control; interrupts and PWM on […]

Ten Most Popular Posts of 2016 on CNX Software and Some Stats

The last day of the year is a good time to look back at what the year brought us, and I have to say it has been a fun and interesting year on CNX Software. The TV boxes news cycle has been dominated by Amlogic products, but most products have now switched to 64-bit ARM SoC, with 4K and HDMI 2.0 support, and price have kept going down, so you can now get a 4K TV box for as low as $20, although many people will prefer spending a bit more for extra memory and support. Intel based Bay Trail & Cherry Trail mini PCs have continued to be released with Windows, and in some cases Ubuntu, but the excitement seems to have died off a bit, maybe with the expectation of upcoming Apollo Lake mini PCs that should be more powerful. The year have been especially fruitful in the […]

ESP32-WROVER-KIT Devkit Supports Espressif ESP32 Modules, Includes a 3.2″ LCD Display

Yesterday Olimex wrote a blog post informing us that ESP32-CoreBoard was back in stock, one the many ESP32 boards launched late this year, but still hard to get. The company also mentioned they’d have limited quantity of the new ESP32-WROVER with JTAG and LCD display together with the picture below. ESP32 is quite more powerful than ESP8266 so it makes sense to have an ESP32 development kit with an LCD display. A quick DuckDuckGo search led me to ESP-WROVER-KIT Getting Started Guide, where we can find more details including the overall specifications: Compatible with ESP-WROOM-32 and ESP32-WROVER modules based on ESP32 dual core Tensilica L108 processor clocked at up to 240 MHz with WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity Storage – Micro SD slot Display – 3.2″ LCD display connected via SPI USB – 1x micro USB port Expansion 8-pin UART header 6-pin SPI header 48-pin header for I/Os and camera […]

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