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February 5, 2026February 6, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Cubie A7S – A compact Allwinner A733 SBC with USB-C DisplayPort, GbE, WiFi 6, PCIe Gen3 FFC connector, GPIO headers

Radxa has launched its third Allwinner A733 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SBC with the compact Cubie A7S featuring up to 16GB LPDDR5 memory, up to 256GB eMMC flash and a microSD card slot for storage, a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, and a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module. Other features include two USB-C ports, including one supporting DisplayPort Alt mode for video output, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a 16-pin PCIe Gen3 x1 FFC connector, 30-pin and 15-pin GPIO headers, and a 4-lane MIPI CSI camera connector. At 51 x 51 mm, it offers a middle ground between the credit card-sized Cubie A7A and the Pi Zero-sized Cubie A7Z. Cubie A7S specifications: SoC – Allwinner A733 CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-A76 @ up to 2.00 GHz Hexa-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.8 GHz Single-core RISC-V E902 real-time core @ up to 200 MHz GPU – Imagination Technologies BXM-4-64 MC1 GPU with […]

January 29, 2026January 29, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

UP Xtreme PTL Edge – Intel Core Ultra X5 338H/X7 358H Panther Lake AI mini PC features 40-pin GPIO header, RS232/RS485 COM ports

AAEON UP Xtreme PTL Edge is an upcoming Panther Lake AI Mini PC powered by either an Intel Core Ultra 5 338H or Core Ultra X7 358H with up to 180 TOPS of AI performance, and offering industrial features such as a 40-pin GPIO header, two RS-232/422/485 COM ports, and a wide 19 to 36V DC input range. Other highlights include support for up to 128GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, up to four 8K displays through two HDMI 2.1 ports and two DisplayPort 2.1 video outputs, two USB4 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, dual 2.5GbE, optional WiFi and Bluetooth, and more. UP Xtreme PTL Edge specifications: Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra X7 Processor 358H CPU – 16-core (4P + 8E + 4LPE) @ 1.9/1.5/1.5 GHz Base frequency, 4.8/3.5/3.5 GHz Turbo frequency Cache – 18 MB Intel Smart Cache GPU […]

January 29, 2026January 29, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Avalue EMS-ARH – A fanless, modular industrial “Arrow Lake-H” PC featuring IET interface with DDI, PCIe, USB 3.0…

Avalue EMS-ARH is a fanless industrial PC that supports “Arrow Lake-H” Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 5 processors with wide temperature tolerance, and various I/O options. This compact PC is suitable for industrial, medical, and transportation environments that require silent operation. The system supports up to 64GB of DDR5-6400 memory via two SO-DIMM slots, NVMe SSD using an M.2 Key-M socket, and wireless or cellular via M.2 Key-E and Key-B slots with SIM support. Additionally, it features two 2.5GbE ports, multiple USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 ports, two RS-232/422/485 serial interfaces, 8-bit GPIO, and triple 4K display output via DisplayPort 1.4 and dual HDMI 2.0b. It supports a wide 9-36V DC input, an IET expansion interface (see below for details), and a fanless design for harsh edge deployments. Avalue EMS-ARH specifications: Arrow Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 5 225H 14-core (4P + 8E + 2LPE) Arrow Lake processor […]

January 8, 2026January 9, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

MUSE Book laptop review – Testing an octa-core RISC-V Linux laptop in 2026

SpacemiT sent me a sample of the MUSE Book RISC-V Linux laptop for review. It’s based on the SpacemiT K1/M1 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V SoC, ships with up to 16 GB of RAM, eMMC flash and/or NVMe SSD, and features a 14.1-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, WiFi 6 connectivity, a few USB ports, and more. I won’t go through all the hardware specifications since Leo already did that when he wrote about the MUSE Book Laptop in April 2024, along with a teardown, and additional details about the SpacemiT K1/M1 SoC. I’ll still do an unboxing and quickly check the hardware, but I’ll focus on the software part to show the progress with Bianbu OS 2.3 (Ubuntu 24.04-based) on RISC-V hardware, as I just did for the low-end StarFive JH7110S-based VisionFive 2 Lite SBC. It’s quite a long review, so if you are short on time, you can jump directly […]

December 31, 2025January 4, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

VisionFive 2 Lite SBC Review – Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost RISC-V SBC in 2026

VisionFive 2 Lite RISC-V SBC Ubuntu Review 2026

StarFive has sent me a sample of the VisionFive 2 Lite RISC-V SBC for review. It’s a low-cost credit card-sized board based on the StarFive JH7110S quad-core RISC-V SBC and designed to get started with Linux RISC-V on the cheap. When I first tested the earlier VisionFive 2 SBC with a StarFive JH7110 RISC-V SoC in February 2023, I didn’t call it a review, but rather a hands-on experience, since, at the time, many features still didn’t work properly. Almost three years have passed since then, so reviewing the VisionFive 2 Lite SBC with Ubuntu 24.04 will allow us to see how much progress has been made on the software side. If you are in a rush, you can jump to the what works, what doesn’t section. VisionFive 2 Lite unboxing I received the board in a plastic box with a cover reading “VisionFive 2 Lite Your Gateway to RISC-V”. […]

November 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Olimex ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo – A dual-band WiFi 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 IoT board with battery support, UEXT connector

Olimex ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo is a compact ESP32-C5 board with dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and a 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter connectivity with support for LiPo battery for a charging circuit. It follows the company’s ESP32-C5-EVB board with isolated inputs and relays launched in September 2025, and offers a minimal design with two USB-C ports, a UEXT connector for expansion module, the usual breadboard-compatible GPIO headers, and not much else, which makes it ideal for space-constrained applications and prototyping. Olimex ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-C5-WROOM-N8R4 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C5 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 240 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ 40 MHz acting as the main processor for power-sensitive applications Memory – 384 KB SRAM on-chip, support for external PSRAM Storage – 320 KB ROM, support for external flash Connectivity Dual-band 802.11ax WiFi 6 in the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz bands, with 802.11b/g/n WiFi […]

October 27, 2025October 25, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Review of Nextion 4.3-inch Edge Series HMI touch display

Review 4.3-inch NEXTION HMI Edge touch display

Today, we’ll review the Nextion 4.3-inch Edge Series HMI touch display. The company has recently launched the new Edge Series HMI touch displays for IoT applications that require better user interaction. It also supports video and audio playback, and everything can be configured relatively easily by the user using Nextion Editor software, version 1.68.1 or higher. The Edge Series HMI touch displays offer a wide range of screen sizes and formats to choose from, including a 2.1-inch round model (NX4848E021-011C) and a 2.8-inch round model (NX4848E028-011C), both with 480×480 resolution, as well as a 4.3-inch rectangular model (NX4880E043-011C) with 800×480 resolution. We received the NEXTION NX4880E043-011C Edge Series HMI touch display for review, along with accessories, namely an IO board and a speaker, so we can get hands-on and dive deep into the review. It’s versatile for all sorts of applications, from AIoT devices and vehicle control systems to medical […]

September 29, 2025November 2, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Olimex RP2350-PICO2 open hardware boards expose all 48 GPIOs for breadboard prototyping

Olimex RP2350 PICO2 BB48 Open Source Development Board

Olimex RP2350-PICO2-BB48 and RP2350-PICO2-BB48R open hardware development boards are built around the Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU, and expose all 48 GPIOs in a 0.6-inch dual-inline PCB layout. Compared to the earlier PICO2-XL and PICO2-XXL boards, this new board features a breadboard-friendly design with options for PSRAM and microSD on the BB48R version. Other features include USB-C power/data, BOOT and RESET buttons, a 2A 3.3V regulator, UEXT and Qwiic/Stemma connectors, status LED, and debug pads. With pre-soldered headers, it can be plugged directly into a breadboard, making it ideal for DIY projects, IoT, retro computing, and hardware prototyping. Olimex RP2350-PICO2-BB48 and RP2350-PICO2-BB48R specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2350B CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz with Arm Trustzone, Secure boot OR Dual-core RISC-V Hazard3 @ 150 MHz Either two cores can be used. Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM Package – QFN-80 Memory – 8 MB external QSPI PSRAM (only on […]