Banana Pi BPI-M4 RPi 3+ Lookalike Board with 4K Video, M.2 Socket Launched for $38

Banana Pi BPI-M4

Banana Pi BPI-M4 was unveiled at the beginning of the year as an alternative to Raspberry Pi 3B+ with the same form factor, but equipped with a more capable processor, namely Realtek RTD1395 with support for 4K video output and decoding, Gigabit Ethernet support, PCIe, etc.. SinoVoIP has however made the choice not to go with Gigabit Ethernet, and opted for a cheaper design with Fast Ethernet instead. Having said that, the 4K capabilities of the processor, and PCIe via an M.2 socket are still leveraged in the company’s latest Banana Pi board. What’s changed is that Banana Pi BPI-M4 is now available on Aliexpress for $38 plus shipping in 1GB RAM + 8GB flash storage configuration. Banana Pi BPI-M4 specifications have not changed: SoC – Realtek RTD1395 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Mali-470 MP4 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR4 (option 2 GB) Storage – 8G eMMC flash […]

New Release (1.3.5) for H3Droid Android OS Optimized for Allwinner H3 & H2+ Processors

H3droid 1.3.5

H3Droid project provides Android images for Allwinner H3 & H2+ boards and TV boxes in order to improve on the firmware released by manufacturers. Last time we wrote about was in 2017, but the project released H3droid 1.3.5 recently with several improvements.. The good news is that more boards are supported with a bit fix that for example enables H3Droid to work on Orange Pi Zero (256MB RAM) and Libre Computer Tritium H2+ SBC’s, but the bad news is that it’s still based on Android 4.4 Kitkat, so some apps are not working anymore including Kodi, and the default YouTube app had to be removed since it does work not anymore. Workarounds do exist though, as you can install SPMC fork of Kodi, and play YouTube videos in a web browser, or install it manually after updating Google Play Services. Here’s the full changelog provided by the developers: Added: fex/uboot […]

Intrinsyc Open-Q 820Pro SoM Comes with a Faster Snapdragon 820E Processor, 4GB RAM

Snapdragon 820E Development Board

Intrinsyc Open-Q 820 system-on-module was introduced in 2017 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 3GB RAM, and a built-in wireless module for 802.11ac WiFi 5, and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity. The company has now announced an almost identical ultra-compact module but based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820E and featuring 4GB RAM. Open-Q 820Pro μSoM is a drop-in replacement for Open-Q820 requiring only some software changes. Snapdragon 820E is said to deliver 9% faster CPU and 5% faster GPU speeds at the same power consumption compared to Snapdragon 820. Open-Q 820Pro μSoM specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 820E (APQ8096SG) Embedded Platform with four Kryo cores including 2x cores @ up to 2.342GHz, and 2x cores @ up to 1.6GHz, Adreno 530 GPU @ 652.8 MHz,  Hexagon 680 DSP @ 825 MHz System Memory – Dual-channel 4 GB LPDDR4  @ 1866 MHz (PoP) Storage – 32 GB UFS 2.0 1-lane gear3 flash Connectivity Pre-certified […]

MYiR Launches MYC-JX8MX CPU Module & MYD-JX8MX Devkit Powered by NXP i.MX 8M Processor

MYD-JX8MX Development Board

MYiR Tech Limited (aka MYiR) has launched a new NXP i.MX 8 CPU module – MYC-JX8MX – powered by NXP i.MX 8M processor, as well as the corresponding MYD-JX8MX development kit. The module integrates up to 2GB LPDDR4 RAM, 8GB eMMC flash, 256Mbit QSPI Flash, Gigabit Ethernet PHY & PMIC onboard, and I/O signals are accessible from a 314-pin MXM 3.0 expansion connector. Typical applications for the company’s latest system-on-module include scanning/imaging solutions, building automation and smart home, human-machine interface (HMI), machine vision or other consumer and industrial applications requiring multimedia capabilities. MYC-JX8MX CPU Module Specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.3GHz,  Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core @ 266MHz, 2D and 3D GPU System Memory – 1GB or 2 GB LPDDR4 (supports up to 4GB LPDDR4) Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash (supports up to 64GB), 256Mbit QSPI Flash 314-pin MXM 3.0 edge connector with: 1x Gigabit […]

UP Xtreme Whiskey Lake-U SBC Launched for €249 and up (Crowfunding)

UP Extreme SBC

Back in March, I was tipped about AAEON’s upcoming UP Xtreme Whiskey Lake board equipped with Intel’s latest 15W processors, and providing a boost in performance compared to their previous UP boards, including UP Squared board introduced in 2016 with a choice of Apollo Lake processors. The company has now finally launched a Kickstarter campaign to let the public pledge for UP Xtreme SBC for €249 and up. UP Xtreme Whiskey Lake-U SBC specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron 4305UE dual-core processor @ up to 2.2 GHz with 2MB cache, Intel UHD 610 graphics Intel Core i3-8145UE dual-core 4-thread processor @ up to 2.1 GHz / 3.9 GHz (Turbo) with 4MB cache, Intel UHD 620 graphics Intel Core i5-8365UE quad-core 8-thread processor @ up to 1.6 GHz / 4.1 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, Intel UHD 620 graphics Intel Core i7-8665UE quad-core 8-thread processor @ up to 1.9 […]

Mcuzone RK3308 SoM and MDK3308-EK Evaluation Kit are Designed for Smart Voice Applications

Mcuzone MDK3308-EK Rockchip-RK3308 Development Board

Rockchip RK3308 is a quad-core Cortex-A35 processor that was announced in 2018 together with RK3326  specifically for Smart AI solutions. While the processor is equipped with an RGB LCD output interface, it does not come with a 2D or 3D graphics accelerator, so it’s better suited to smart speakers with an optional display using a basic user interface. I’ve not seen many hardware platforms or boards based on the processor, but today I noticed “Hangzhou Wild Chip Tech” had an RK3308 system-on-module, as well as development kits for sale on Aliexpress with the module price starting at $23. Mcuzone MDK3308 Coreboard Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3308 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.3 GHz with NEON and VFPv4 FPU System memory / storage configurations: 256MB DDR3/3L + 256MB NAND flash 512MB DDR3/3L + 8GB eMMC flash 2x 100-pin dual row headers (1.27mm pitch) exposing: Display – LCD interface up to 1024×600 (RGB), […]

C.H.I.P. is Back via PopCorn Computer with Allwinner or Amlogic Processor (Crowdfunding)

Super Popcorn

C.H.I.P was a $9 Linux computer launched in 2015 by Next Things Co., and followed by the $16 C.H.I.P Pro in 2016. Sadly the company eventually encountered financial troubles and had to fold last year. But the design was open source hardware, Source Parts managed to get hold of several original Allwinner GR8 systems-in-package, and in April we reported that they sold Kettlepop, a limited edition of a CHIP Pro derivative fitted with 8GB eMMC flash. Source Parts is now back with three CHIP lookalikes: Popcorn Original based on Allwinner R8/A13 Arm Cortex-A8 processor with 512MB RAM, and 32GB eMMC flash and 100% software compatible with the original C.H.I.P computer Super Popcorn Computer powered by Amlogic S905D quad-core Cortex-A53 processor Super ‘8’ Popcorn Computer powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor Popcorn Original is basically the same as C.H.I.P board except for the 32GB eMMC flash storage replacing the 4GB […]

STMicro adds Dual-core Cortex-M7/M4 Microcontrollers to STM32H7 Family

STM32H747I-DISCO

STM32H7 is the high-performance family of STMicroelectronics Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller. So far all STM32H7 MCUs had a single core, but the company has now added dual-core devices (STM32H74x/75x) comprised of an Arm Cortex-M7 core clocked at up to 480 MHz and a Cortex-M4 core clocked at 240MHz. In some way, this part is the little brother of STM32MP1 Arm Cortex-A7 + Cortex-M4 processor, as the new dual-core MCU also targets current products upgrade with the Arm Cortex-M4 core running legacy code, and the more powerful Cortex-M7 aimed at new features such as more sophisticated graphical interfaces, or offloading intensive workloads such as neural networks, checksums, DSP filtering, or audio codecs. Highlights of the new STM32H7 dual-core microcontrollers: Cores Arm Cortex-M7 at 480 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 at 240 MHz 3224 CoreMark / 1327 DMIPS Up to 2MByte Flash and 1Mbyte SRAM on-chip Dual-Bank Flash for seamless firmware updates “New” features MIPI […]