Intel NUC 13 Rugged “Bravo Canyon” fanless Alder Lake-N mini PC is designed for 24/7 operation

Intel NUC 13 Rugged

The Intel NUC 13 Rugged, codenamed “Bravo Canyon, is an upcoming fanless and dust-resistant mini PC powered by an Alder Lake-N processor and designed for 24/7 operation suitable for business and industrial applications, albeit just in a 0°C to 40°C or 50°C temperature range. The rugged computer is offered with either an external or internal heatsink, supports up to 16GB DDR5 memory, comes with 64GB eMMC flash, M.2 sockets for NVMe and/or SATA SSDs, two 4Kp60 capable HDMI 2.1 ports, two 2.5GbE networking interfaces, four USB 3.2/2.0 ports, and optional support for WiFi 6, 4G LTE cellular connectivity, and an internal expansion bay. Intel NUC 13 specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x7425E quad-core processor up to 3.4 GHz with 6MB L3 cache, Intel UHD Graphics; 12W TDP Intel Atom x7211E dual-core processor up to 3.2 GHz with 6MB L3 cache, Intel UHD Graphics; 6W TDP […]

MIPI CSI camera works with Intel Atom x7000, Processor, and Core i3 Alder Lake-N processors

Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board MIPI CSI camera

Most Intel processors do not come with a MIPI CSI camera, but some Alder Lake-N processors do, and Leopard Imaging has designed the LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H MIPI CSI camera module that is compatible with the Intel ADL-N CRB (Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board) and custom Alder Lake-N boards equipped with a compatible MIPI CSI connector. The 13MP camera supports resolutions up to 3864 x 2176 and works with boards and embedded systems based on Intel Atom processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N processors, and Intel Processors N-Series processors. LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H specifications: Sony IMX415 CMOS image sensor Diagonal – 6.43 mm (Type 1/2.8) Active Pixels – 3864 (H) x 2176 (V) Pixel Size: 1.45 x 1.45 μm Optical Format: 1/2.8″ Effective Focal Length – 4.063 mm Aperture, F/#2.29 ± 5% IR Filter – 650 nm IR cut filter Field of View (FOV) – 81.7˚ horizontal, 44.7˚ vertical; 95.1˚ diagonal Lens Mount – M12 x […]

Intel kills PathFinder IDE for RISC-V processors

Intel PathFinder Discontinued

Intel has just discontinued PathFinder Eclipse-based development environment for RISC-V processors with the website now reading: We regret to inform you that Intel is discontinuing the Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V program effective immediately. Since Intel will not be providing any additional releases or bug fixes, we encourage you to promptly transition to third-party RISC-V software tools that best meet your development needs. PathFinder was a pre-silicon open-source development environment with support for vairous RISC-V cores, a set of other IP’s, multiple operating systems, and toolchains. It allowed designers to create RISC-V SoCs to and run them on FPGA platforms such as the Terasic developer kit or Startix-10 GX evaluation kit. PathFinder appears to just be one of the casualties after Intel reported a loss for Q4 2022, and announced it will lose even more in Q1 2023 with Tom’s Hardware also highlighting Intel would stop investing in new products for […]

HiFive Pro P550 “Horse Creek” RISC-V motherboard with 16GB RAM to launch this summer

HiFive Pro P550 Horse Creek SBC

SiFive HiFive Pro P550 RISC-V motherboard based on Intel “Horse Creek” quad-core SiFive Performance P550 processor will launch this summer with 16GB DDR5 memory, two PCIe expansion slots, Gigabit Ethernet networking, USB 3.x ports, and on-board graphics. Intel Horse Creek platform was first revealed when SiFive unveiled the SiFive Performance P550 64-bit RISC-core with Cortex-A75 class performance in June 2021. The companies then demonstrated an internal Intel Horse Creek board with 8GB DDR5 and PCIe Gen5 at the Intel Innovation 2022 Developer Conference last October, and it looks like the 7nm RISC-V processor, manufactured with an Intel 4 process, will finally be available to developers this summer with the launch of the HiFive Pro P550 motherboard/development system.   HiFive Pro P550 preliminary specifications: SoC – Intel-SiFive Horse Creek SoC equipped with 4x SiFive Performance P550 RV64GBC RISC-V cores with a 13-stage, 3-issue, out-of-order (OoO) pipeline GPU – “On-board graphics” [Update: […]

Quiet, ultrathin AirJet solid state active cooling chips could replace fans

AirJet Mini

Frore Systems Airjet Mini and Airjet Pro are active cooling chips that are just 2.8mm thick and quietly suck cool air in from the top of the chip before pushing it out the sides with the aim to replace traditional fan-based solutions in ultrabooks, or be integrated into VR headsets and smartphones for improved cooling. Yesterday we saw that cameras could clean themselves with micro-vibrations, and it happens that processors can be cooled with vibrations too as the Airjet chips are comprised of tiny membranes that vibrate at ultrasonic frequencies to generate a flow of air that enters through inlet vents in the top and transformed into high-velocity pulsating jets exiting from one side of the chip. The AirJet module is actually not placed directly on the processor in ultrabooks but on copper pipes because it allows for thinner designs that way. The company says the AirJet Mini and Pro […]

Meet Intel Processor and Core-i3 N-series “Alder Lake N-series” processors

Intel Alder Lake N-series Processors

Pentium and Celeron brands are officially dead with Intel introducing the Alder Lake-N family comprised of “Intel Processor” and Core-i3 N-series processors based on the Gracemont “Efficiency” cores found in Alder Lake hybrid processors. Some of the details about the Intel Processor N100 and N200 processors were leaked last fall, followed by the Core i3-N300 and Core i3-N305, but at least it is now official, and we have more details so let’s dig into it. Alder Lake N-series key features and specifications: CPU – Up to 8x Gracemont Efficient cores for Core i3 N-series processor, and up to 4x with Intel Processor processor GPU – Intel UHD graphics with AV1 decode support Memory I/F – LPDDR5-4800, DDR4, DDR5 Storage I/F – eMMC/UFS 2.1 flash, 2x SATA 3.0 Video Output eDP 1.4b / MIPI DSI 1.3 DisplayPort 1.4 HDMI 2.0b Up to 3x independent displays Camera I/F – MIPI CSI Networking […]

Year 2022 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics

CNX Software Happy New Year 2023

It’s the last day of the year and the time to look at some of the highlights of 2022, some traffic statistics from CNX Software website, and speculate on what 2023 may bring us. The semiconductors shortage continued in 2022, but things are looking brighter in 2023 with the full reopening of the world mixed with forecasts of difficult economic times that should keep the demand/supply equation in check. On the Arm processor front the biggest news of the year, at least in this corner of the Internet, was the launch of the Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor together with interesting single board computers that we’ll discuss below. Announced last year, the Amlogic A311D2 octa-core Cortex-A73/A53 was finally made available in a few SBC’s, and we finally got some news about the Amlogic S928X Cortex-A76/A55 SoC showcased in 8K TV boxes, but we have yet to see it in action. […]

Intel Horse Creek platform showcased with SiFive P550 RISC-V CPU, 8GB DDR5, PCIe Gen5

Horse Creek Features

When SiFive introduced its Performance P550 64-bit RISC-V processor in 2021, we were told that Intel would use it in the Horse Creek platform with “leading-edge interface IP such as DDR and PCIe” and manufactured with Intel’s 7nm process. We now have more details about the Horse Creek platform, as a development board was showcased for the first time in public at the Intel Innovation 2022 Developer Conference, and according to a report by Wikichip, the Cortex-A75 class quad-core RISC-V processor runs at up to 2.2 GHz, supports DDR5-5600 memory and eight PCIe 5.0 lanes, and was taped out with Intel 4 process. Horse Creek platform specifications: CPU – SiFive P500 quad-core RISC-V processor @ up to 2.2 GHz with a 13-stage, 3-issue, out-of-order (OoO) pipeline, private L2 cache, and common L3 cache Memory – DDR5-5600 interface PCIe – PCIe Gen5 through Intel’s PCIe PHY with 8 lanes, Synopsys PCIe […]