Toradex Launches New Verdin Arm SoM Family Starting with iMX8M Mini/Nano Modules

Verdin iMX8M Mini / Nano

So far, Toradex had two Arm-based system-on-module families with the smaller, lower-power Colibri and more powerful Apalis modules. The Colibri form factor was first defined in 2005, and the company is still maintaining it, but since then new interfaces have emerged, so Toradex has now designed a new low-power module family called Verdin. Toradex Verdin modules offer more I/Os with a 260-pin edge connector, include a battery-ready design with a wide input voltage range (3.3 to 5V), low power 1.8V IOs, the ability to easily extend power management to carrier board peripherals, and off-the-shelf thermal solutions. The modules are also tested for EMC, shock and vibration tolerance, and “Toradex Direct Breakout” is said to simplify signal routing on carrier boards as high speed, impedance critical signals are routed from the source IC to the edge connector on the Verdin module in such a ways to limit complexity on the carrier […]

ADLINK Industrial-Pi (I-Pi) SMARC Development Kit Features Rockchip PX30 SoC

ADLink Industrial Pi-SMARC Devkit

ADLINK Technology has just announced the Industrial-Pi (I-Pi) SMARC Development Kit to help engineers quickly design prototypes for industrial applications using peripherals and sensors. The I-Pi SMARC development kit is comprised of a baseboard, LEC-PX30 SMARC-compliant Rockchip PX30 system-on-module, an acrylic case, a 12V/2A power supply, USB cable, and a 32GB MicroSD card. The company promotes the kit as “an industrial-ready substitute for Arduino and Raspberry Pi (RPi) platforms that are commonly used for prototyping but cannot typically be ‘dropped’ into an industrial solution as-is“. LEC-PX30 SMARC System-on-Module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip PX30 Quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 CPU with TrustZone technology, ARMv8 Cryptography Extensions, Mali-G31 GPU System Memory – 1GB or 2GB DDR3L at 1066/1333 MHz Storage – 8, 16, 32 or 64 GB eMMC flash Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet from SoC, 10/100M Ethernet via LAN9514 USB 2.0 Ethernet controller Video Decoding – H.264 up to 1080p60, H.265/HEVC up to 1080p60, […]

Amlogic A113L Dual-Core Cortex-A35 Processor Targets Smart Audio and IoT Applications

Amlogic A113L Meson A1

Over two years ago, we reported about Amlogic A111, A112, A113 processors designed for audio applications such as smart speakers. A111 features four Cortex-A5 32-bit core, while A112 and A113D/A113X processors come with four Cortex-A53 cores instead. We have not heard much about those since then, but all those processors are still listed on Amlogic website, A112 is supposedly used in Xiaomi AI smart speaker, and Amlogic A113X1 Far-Field Dev Kit is still listed on Amazon’s list of devkits for Alexa voice service, but currently out of stock. Amlogic has been working on a more cost-efficient processor for smart audio and IoT applications with Amlogic A113L dual-core Cortex-A35 processor shown as Meson A1 in the Linux source code. It was just added in Linux 5.5. We don’t have much information about it, but it’s interesting as it’s the first Cortex-A35 processor from the company, and it targets the same smart […]

NXP QN9090 & QN9030 Bluetooth 5.0 SoC’s Come with Optional NFC Tag (NTAG)

QN9090 Development Board

NXP has recently announced the availability of its QN9090 and QN9030 Bluetooth 5.0 SoC with optional support for 802.15.4, Multiprotocol RF, and NFC technology. Both devices are powered by an Arm Cortex-M4 core clocked at 48MHz, but differ in terms of on-chip storage and memory with QN9090 equipped with 640KB flash and 152 KB SRAM, against 320KB flash and 88KB SRAM for QN9030. The “T” versions – QN9090T and QN9030T – add NFC integrated on-chip, enabling Bluetooth pairing by tapping a smartphone, tablet or other NFC reader device without the need for a battery-powered NFC tag. NXP QN9090(T) & QN9030(T) Bluetooth 5.0 SoCs Key features and specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-M4 up to 48MHz Built-in Memory & Storage QN9090(T) – 640 KB flash, 152 KB RAM, 128 KB ROM QN9030(T) – 320 KB Flash, 88 KB RAM, 128 KB ROM External  Storage – Quad-SPI for execute in place or data […]

CNX Software is 10 Years Old – Top 10 Posts of the Last Decade

CNX Software Anniversary

Around 10 years ago, I decided it might be a good idea to have an online presence. At the time, I just thought I would write from time to time, and I had no idea it would eventually become my main activity. My very first post was on February 14, 2010 about software development tools such as CVS and Bugzilla. That means today is the 10th anniversary of CNX Software website! So I thought it might be fun to look at the most popular posts of the last ten years. I only installed Google Analytics sometimes in 2011, but it should not affect the results since I did not have many readers at the time, and the post that really started to bring more visitors, and made me switch from a $1 monthly hosting plan to a VPS, was “74 USD AllWinner A10 Android 4.0 Mini PC” published in May […]

Arrow Shield96 Arm Linux Board Focuses on Hardware-based Security

Arrow Shield96

Powered by a Microchip SAMA5D2 SiP integrating a Cortex-A5 processor and 128MB DDR2 memory, Arrow Shield96 board has been designed for secure IoT application development with on-board hardware security. Two versions of the SBC are offered: Shield96 Standard reference platform Shield96 Trusted Platform preloaded with the EmSPARK Security Suite software by Sequitur Labs. Both versions come with the same hardware specifications: SiP – Microchip ATSAMA5D27-D1G Arm Cortex-A5 processor @ 500 MHz with 128MB DDR2 Storage – 128MB DDR2 Storage – 128MB (1Gbit) flash, MicroSD card slot Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet port, 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 via ATWILC1000 “IoT link controller module” USB – 1x USB 2.0 port HW Security – ATECC608 secure element Expansion – 96Boards Mezzanine connector Debugging – JTAG header, serial console via Micro USB port Power Supply – 5V via Micro USB port Dimensions – N/A (CNXSoft note: it’s supposed to be 96Boards compliant, but with […]

HardROCK64 SBC with Rockchip RK3399 Processor to Launch in April for $35 and Up

HardROCK64 SBC

If you thought we didn’t have enough Rockchip RK3399 SBCs already, Pine64 is working on a smaller and cheaper version of the RockPro64 single board computer with HardROCK64 SBC powered by RK3399 processor and following Raspberry Pi form factor. HardROCK64 specifications: SoC –  Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.4 GHz, a Mali-T864 GPU, and a VPU with 4K VP9 and 4K 10-bit H265/H264 decoding System Memory – 1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – SPI flash, eMMC flash socket, MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0, AV port, MIPI DSI connector Audio – Analog stereo audio via AV port, digital audio via HDMI Camera – MIPI CSI connector Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band WiFi 5 (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0 USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header […]

96Boards compliant Rock960 Development Board Gets a 5.0MP MIPI CSI Camera

96boards Rock960 MIPI CSI Camera

VAMRS Rock960 is a 96Boards compliant development board based on Rockchip RK3399 processor that was first unveiled in 2017, but last year it got a low-cost version with Rock960 model C selling for as little as $69. All variants of Rock960 come with MIPI CSI signals exposed via the 60-pin high-speed connector defined in 96boards specifications. So it needs a MIPI adapter board to connect the camera, and a couple of years ago, instructions were posted explaining how to use a MIPI CSI camera on 96boards such as Rock960. It now appears the MIPI adapter board is not for sale on eBay anymore, but that not an issue as e-Con Systems has just launched e-CAM50_CU96 5.0 MP camera designed to work with Rock960 board, and by extension, I assume, other 96boards compliant SBCs that expose a MIPI CSI interface. e-CAM50_CU96 is comprised of three main components: e-CAM55_CUMI0521_MOD camera module with […]