u-blox has recently announced the ALMA-B2 standalone BLE 6.0 and 802.15.4 module family built around the Nordic Semi nRF54LM20 Cortex-M33 wireless microcontroller with a dedicated NPU for low-latency Edge AI applications. There are four specific product variants in the u-blox ALMA-B2 series: ALMA-B201, ALMA-B206, ALMA-B211, and ALMA-B216, all of which support Bluetooth 6.0 and Bluetooth Channel Sounding for distance measurement. They also support IEEE 802.15.4, including Thread, Zigbee, and Matter, as well as Nordic’s proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol and NFC. The company also mentions that the nRF54LM20B-based ALMA-B211 and ALMA-B216 variants include an Axon NPU that performs machine learning tasks up to 15 times faster and with greater energy efficiency than running the same tasks on the main processor alone. u-blox ALMA-B2 Series Specifications: Wireless SoC – Nordic Semiconductor nRF54LM20A (for ALMA-B201 and B206) or nRF54LM20B (for ALMA-B211 and B216) CPU Arm Cortex-M33 application processor clocked at up to 128 MHz RISC-V […]
MuseLab nanoCH32H417 – A $17 WCH CH32H417 RISC-V MCU development board with USB 3.0, Fast Ethernet
Designed by MuseLab, the nanoCH32H417 is a development board for the WCH CH32H417 dual-core RISC-V MCU, which we covered earlier this year for its USB 3.0 (5 Gbps), UHS, and Fast Ethernet support. At that time, only the official CH32H417 development board was available, but this board adds a third-party option. The board exposes various features of the MCU, including one USB 3.0 port, two USB Type-C ports, a 100Mbps Ethernet interface, and a MicroSD card slot. It also simplifies the prototyping workflow by integrating a WCHLink-E debugger directly onto the board, meaning you won’t need to wire up an external programmer to flash the MCU or view serial output. MuseLab nanoCH32H417 specifications: MCU – WCH CH32H417QEU6 MCU QingKe RISC-V5F up to 400 MHz QinKe RISC-V3F up to 144 MHz GPU – Graphics Processing Hardware Accelerator GPHA Memory – 896KB SRAM Storage – 960KB Flash Storage – MicroSD card slot Display […]
ESP32-S31 development boards unveiled for IoT, Smart Audio, and HMI applications
Two ESP32-S31 development boards are currently in the works, and the documentation is already available. The ESP32-S31 was unveiled last March, and it’s the most feature-rich ESP32 wireless microcontroller so far with two RISC-V cores, Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth, and 802.15.4 connectivity, LCD and camera interfaces, and more. The ESP32-S31-Function-CoreBoard-1 development board is based on the ESP32-S31-WROOM-3 wireless module, and offers Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 OTG, and onboard audio peripherals for connected IoT applications. The ESP32-S31-Korvo-1 is a multimedia-focused development board based on the same ESP32-S31-WROOM-3 module, but featuring a dual-microphone array for speech recognition and near/far-field wake-up, two speaker connectors, a 4.3-inch LCD, a 3MP camera module, and a microSD card slot. It targets low-cost, low-power, connected audio/video and HMI applications. ESP32-S31-Function-CoreBoard-1 development board Specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S31-WROOM-3 SoC – ESP32-S31NRV16 CPU RISC-V HP (High-performance) RV32IMAFCP CPU @ 320 MHz with FPU, SIMD, etc. RISC-V […]
Coralboard features Synaptics Astra SL2619 Edge AI SoC, supports Google Gemma 3 inference
Synaptics Coralboard is a development board powered by a Synaptics Astra SL2619 Edge AI SoC with a 1 TOPS Synaptics Torq inference engine implementing a Google Coral NPU, and supporting hardware-accelerated Google Gemma 3 lightweight models. The board features 2GB of RAM and offers MIPI camera and display interfaces, a microSD card slot, a USB Type-A port, microphone inputs (I2S), mikroBUS and Qwiic- expansion connectors, and optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity through an M.2 expansion slot. Synaptics Coralboard specifications: System-on-module – Grinn AstraSOM-261x SoC – Synaptics Astra SL2619 SoC with 2x Cortex-A55 cores @ 2GHz, 1x Cortex-M52 core @ 200MHz, and 1 TOPS Synaptics Torq (Google Coral NPU) System Memory – 2GB DDR4 @ 3200Mbps (optionally 1GB) Storage – 16GB flash, up to 64GB Input Voltage – 3.2V to 5.5V Dimensions – 25 x 25mm, LGA178 package Storage – MicroSD card slot for mass storage Display – 4-lane MIPI DSI connector […]
ESP32-S3 PowerFeather V2 board gains support for LiFePO4/LFP batteries
The ESP32-S3 PowerFeather V2 board is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and BLE IoT board with an Adafruit Feather form factor that supports LiFePO4/LFP batteries, as well as Li-Ion or LiPo batteries, and up to 18V DC input for solar panel connection. As one could have guessed, it’s an update to the ESP32-S3 PowerFeather board introduced in 2024 with support for solar panel input, Li-Ion, and LiPo batteries. The V2 design is virtually identical, except it features an Analog Devices MAX17260 fuel gauge and a TPS631013 buck-boost regulator that keeps 3.3 V stable to add support for LiFePO4 batteries. Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are said to be safer and longer-lasting than Li-ion or LiPo batteries, albeit at the cost of lower energy density. ESP32-S3 PowerFeather V2 specifications: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R2 SoC – ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz Memory – 512KB SRAM, 16 KB RTC SRAM Wireless – 2.4 GHz […]
$13 Qualcomm QCC74xM EVK offers Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and 802.15.4 connectivity (Bouffalo Lab BL618 inside)
Back in November 2024, we wrote about Qualcomm’s QCC730M and QCC74xM modules for low-power IoT devices, but at the time, there was no evaluation board EVK for those SoCs. Fast forward to today, and the official development boards for the QCC74x series have finally been released, complete with a surprisingly affordable price tag. The Qualcomm QCC74xM EVK is a tri-radio evaluation board with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) with a price tag of just over $13. But what is interesting is that, while it carries the Qualcomm brand, documentation from the Zephyr Project clearly shows that the QCC74x series is actually based on and mostly equivalent to the Bouffalo Lab BL61x series, specifically the BL618. Qualcomm QCC74xM EVK specifications: Wireless Module – Qualcomm QCC74xM LGA Module (QCC743M, QCC744M, or QCC748M depending on the board variant) CPU – 32-bit RISC-V processor (RV32IMAFCP) @ up to 325 MHz with FPU […]
ESP32-S3 boards feature WAGO connectors for LED strips, buttons, other swappable modules
Rev Adrian Kennard (RevK) has designed several open-source hardware ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth IoT boards with WAGO connectors for interfacing LED strips, buttons, and other GPIO modules. Initially developed for the gloves and the helmet of an Iron Man suit, the ESP32-S3 boards can be used for any relevant project that needs more flexibility than soldered modules and more reliability than GPIO headers or even screw terminals, which can be susceptible to vibrations. WAGO push-in connectors make the ESP32-S3 boards especially suitable for prototyping and wearables, where being able to quickly swap modules is beneficial. The first board designed for gloves is called “Battery powered controller development board” with the following specifications: Core module – ESP32-S3-MINI-1-N4-R2 SoC – ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity Memory – 2MB PSRAM Storage – 4MB QSPI flash PCB antenna USB – 1x USB-C for power and programming Expansion […]
Renesas RZ/V2H Robotics Development Kit handles AI vision, motor control, and power management with a single board
Renesas WS125-V2HRDKREFZ is a Robotics Development Kit (RDK) powered by Renesas RZ/V2H Arm Cortex-A55/R8/M33 microprocessor and designed for high‑performance AI vision applications leveraging the MPU’s built-in 80 TOPS (sparse) AI accelerator. The kit ships with 16GB LPDDR4, 64MB QSPI flash, a 64GB microSD card, and appears to be partially inspired by the Raspberry Pi 5 with a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, a 16-pin PCIe Gen3 FFC connector, two MIPI CSI connectors, and a micro HDMI port. Other features include a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.2 ports, two CAN-FD interfaces, and a 12-24V DC input voltage range. Renesas WS125-V2HRDKREFZ specifications: SoC – Renesas RZ/V2H CPU/MCU cores 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores up to 1.8 GHz 2x Cortex-R8 real-time cores up to 800 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller core up to 200 MHz for system management GPU – Arm Mali-G31 GPU NPU – DRP-AI3 dynamically reconfigurable processor delivering up to 8 TOPS (INT8) or […]









