IoT News - Page 137 of 162 - CNX Software

November 18, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

RedBear Duo is a Breadboard-friendly Wi-Fi + BLE IoT Board Based on Ampak AP6212 Module (Crowdfunding)

I’ve taken apart lots of TV boxes and together with Realtek, Ampak are by far the most popular wireless modules to provide WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity in those devices. One startup decided to use Ampak AP6212 module, also found in NanoPi 2 board, to create a breadboard-friendly IoT board with Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n connectivity. Redboard Duo has been designed with the same form factor as many other IoT boards such as NodeMCU or Spark Photon, and features the following: Ampak AP6212 module: STMicroelectronics STM32F205 ARM Cortex-M3 @120MHz, 128 KB SRAM and 1MB Flash Broadcom BCM43438 Wi-Fi 802.11n (2.4GHz only) + Bluetooth 4.1 (Dual Mode) combo chip Storage – On-board 16 Mbit (2 MB) SPI Flash Integrated chip antenna with the option to connect external antenna Expansion – Headers with 18 I/O pins Misc – RGB status LED Dimensions – 20.5mm x 39mm The company also made a small baseboard called RBLink with […]

November 18, 2015November 18, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Kondor AX FPGA + ARM Networking Board Targets Base Stations, IoT Gateways and IP Cameras

Mikro Project, a company based in Zagreb, Croatia, has recently introduced Kondor AX “Advanced System Development Board” combining Freescale i.MX6Solo processor with Lattice ECP5 FPGA, and targeting “low power applications at the network edge including HetNet (Heterogeneous Networks), Small Cells, Industrial IoT gateways and IP Cameras.” Kondor AX development board specifications: Category Lattice ECP5 LFE5UM-85F-BG756 FPGA Freescale i.MX6 Solo SoC Description 84.000 LUTs 207 Block RAMs 156 18×18 Multipliers 365 IO pins 4 SERDES channels (In/out) 400 MHz LPDDR3 Memory Support 4 PLLs, 4 DLLs ARM Cortex A9 @ 1 GHz 512 KB L2 cache GPU 3D – Vivante GC880 Video Decode: 1080p30 + D1 Video Encode: 1080p30 H.264 BP/ Dual 720p encode Programming options On-board USB JTAG interface 10-pin JTAG header Using i.MX6 processor Memory & Storage 512MB LPDDR3-1600 800 MHz Clock Rate 1x 32-bit channel 512 MB 32-bit DDR3 64Mbit SPI Flash 8GB eMMC Micro SD Card Connectivity […]

November 16, 2015December 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AndroMeda Box Edge Brillo Starter Board Features Marvell IAP140 Processor, 96Boards Form Factor

Google announced Brillo, a new operating system based on Android and targeting the Internet of things, at the end of October. The company also disclosed that ARM, MIPS and x86 architectures were supported via respectively TechNexion Pico-i.MX6UL system-on-module and PICO-DWARF baseboard, MIPS Creator CI-40 board, and Intel Edison development board. A few days later, Marvell announced Andromeda Box, an IoT platform supporting Brillo and Weave, based on IAP140, a quad-core ARM Cortex A53 application processor for the “Edge” version, and ARMADA 385 dual core Cortex A9 processor for the “Connect” version, but without the full details. AndroidMeda Box Edge is now listed on Solid Run and Arrow websites, where it is sold for $74.99. If the board looks familiar, it’s because it clearly follows 96Boards form factor, but instead of officially being supported by Linaro, it has been designed specifically as a Google’s Brillo development platform with the following specifications: […]

November 12, 2015November 12, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Newracom NRC6101 802.11ah WiFi SoC Promises up to 1 km Range for Smart Grid and Automation

802.11ah is a new WiFi standard operating in the 900 MHz range that targets low power & long range connectivity, as required by many IoT & M2M applications. According to this low power WAN standards comparison table, 802.11ah also supports up 1km range outdoor, 150 Kbps to 346 Mbps transfer rates, up 8191 clients per access points, and a 2016 launch is planned. However, I had not seen any implementations based on the new standard, except a demonstration by Antcor on a DSP in 2014. A Korean startup, Newracom, may however soon launch the first 802.11ah chip with NRC6101 SoC. I was tipped about this new solution via a Korean website, where I got the picture above from, but there’s no information about NRC6101 on the web, except for a small mention on Wikidevi.com redirecting to the product page, where NRC6101 name is not even mentioned, but with some specifications […]

November 11, 2015November 11, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ARM Introduces Cortex A35 64-bit Low Power Core, ARMv8-M Architecture for Secure MCUs

ARM TechCon 2015 has just started, and there have been a few announcements including the launch of a Cortex-A7 replacement with Cortex A35 providing 10% lower power consumption, 6 to 40% performance boost, and a better design flexibility making it suitable for SoC for smartphones to wearables. The main specifications of Cortex A35 cores: Architecture ARMv8-A (AArch32 and AArch64 ) Multicore 1-4x SMP within a single processor cluster, and multiple coherent SMP processor clusters through AMBA 5 CHI or AMBA 4 ACE technology ISA Support AArch32 for full backward compatibility with ARMv7 AArch64 for 64-bit support and new architectural features TrustZone security technology NEON Advanced SIMD DSP & SIMD extensions VFPv4 Floating point Hardware virtualization support Debug & Trace CoreSight DK-A35 The new core can both be used in quad core configuration at 1 GHz for a smartphone (90 mW per core), or in single core configuration at 100 MHz […]

November 8, 2015November 8, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments

Konke Mini K and Mini Pro Wifi Smart Sockets are Based on ESP8266 SoC

ESP8266 WiFi modules are very popular in the maker community, but so far I have not seen it in any devices myself, until I saw a tweet from @EspressifSystem about a Mini K smart socket. A search on Aliexpress lead me to two devices made by Konke, who also made Kankun KK-SP3 WiFi socket, with Mini K and Mini Pro smart sockets. Both models has basically the same features, except Mini-Pro adds infrared support: Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Rated Voltage – AC 100-240V 50/60Hz Rated Power – 2200 Watts Rated Current – 10A Charging Protection: Yes Misc – Power button, Infrared (Mini Pro model only) Plug – China / AU plugs Dimensions – 5.1 diameter x 2.7 cm (V0 grade PC material) Weight – 70 grams Both devices support on/off timers, cyclical delays and charge protection (turns off when devices are charged) with the Android or iOS app. I understand […]

November 6, 2015November 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Intel Unveils Three New Micro-controllers for IoT: Quark D1000, Quark D2000, and Quark SE

Intel’s subsidiary, Wind River, has recently announced two operating systems for the Internet of things with Rocket RTOS and Pulsar Linux supported respectively by Quark MCUs, and Intel Atom processors, as well as some ARM SoCs. But it’s not the only “IoT” announcement made by Intel in the last week, as I found out via EETimes that the company also unveiled three new Quark SoCs, namely Quark D1000, and Quark D2000, and Quark SE. Intel Quark D1000 Contrary to previous Quark processor and the upcoming D2000 and SE processors, D1000 is not compatible with x86 instructions set, and features the following: 32-bit Harvard CISC CPU @ 33 MHz with single cycle barrel shifter, two cycle multiplier, multi-cycle divider, integrated 32-bit timer, programmable interrupt controller, and JTAG debugger. 128-bit wide 32 kB code flash and 8 kB ROM 32-bit wide 8 kB SRAM and 4 kB data flash Osciallators 20-33 MHz […]

November 5, 2015June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 50 Comments

Espressif ESP32 Dual Core SoC Features Faster WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and More Peripherals

Espressif teased us about a successor to ESP8266 a few months ago that would support both WiFi and Bluetooth Low Energy, and John Lee, working for Espressif Systems, has now sent a letter to ESP8266 developers announcing the new wireless SoC with two Tensilica L108 cores and called ESP32. Espressif ESP32 key improvements over ESP8266: Faster WiFi – Wifi has been upgraded to support HT40 speed (144.4 Mbps) and has a new RF architecture to simplify the application schematics Bluetooth Low Energy and Classic Dual core processor – 2x Tensilica L108 processors clocked at up to 160 MHz Low Power Mode Improvements – ADC conversions, level thresholds, etc.. can now be performed in deep sleep Peripherals – Capacitive touch, ADCs, DACs, I2C. UART, SPI, SDIO, I2S, RMII, PMW, etc… but no USB. More RAM – ~400 KB on-chip RAM Security – Hardware accelerated AES and SSL, and more undisclosed improvements. […]