Linux 5.14 Release – Main changes, Arm, MIPS, and RISC-V architectures

Linux 5.14 release

Linus Torvalds has just announced Linux 5.14 release which happens to almost coincide with the anniversary of the initial announcement of the “small” project on August 25, 1991, about 30 years ago. Here’s Linux 5.14’s announcement: So I realize you must all still be busy with all the galas and fancy balls and all the other 30th anniversary events, but at some point you must be getting tired of the constant glitz, the fireworks, and the champagne. That ball gown or tailcoat isn’t the most comfortable thing, either. The celebrations will go on for a few more weeks yet, but you all may just need a breather from them. And when that happens, I have just the thing for you – a new kernel release to test and enjoy. Because 5.14 is out there, just waiting for you to kick the tires and remind yourself what all the festivities are […]

LibreELEC 10.0 minimal Linux OS for media playback released with Kodi 19.1

LibreELEC 10.0

While most TV boxes and SBCs nowadays ship with or support a version of Android, people who just want the best viewing experience may prefer to switch to a Linux distribution such as LibreELEC or CoreELEC. The good news is that LibreELEC 10.0 has just been released with Kodi 19.1 and Linux 5.10 LTS. LibreELEC 10.0 is said to work well for Allwinner, Rockchip, and “Generic” Intel/AMD devices, while the Raspberry Pi 4 release’s codebase is rather new, and there may still be a few rough edges. Support for the previous generation Raspberry Pi boards has been dropped, and there’s no support for Amlogic platforms as CoreELEC already provides good support. Since LibreELEC 10.0 is based on Kodi 19.1, it benefits from the same features as Kodi 19 “Matrix” release including AV1 video decoding, a new skin, HDR support, and more. LibreELEC 10.1 support a wide range of single board […]

AAEON FWS-2280 is an Elkhart Lake network appliance for SD-WAN, UTM, Firewall, VPN…

AAEON FWS-2280 Elkhart Lake network appliance

AAEON FWS-2280 is a Linux network appliance based on an Intel Elkhart Lake Atom x6000E, Celeron, or Pentium processor, with up to 32GB RAM, with 5 wired interfaces, supports for wireless expansion. The system is designed to power network applications including UTM (Unified threat management ), firewall, SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network), VPN, and more. AAEON FWS-2280 specifications: SoC – Intel Elkhart Lake dual-core or quad-core processor Intel UHD Graphics, defaulting to the 10W Intel Celeron J6412 quad-core processor @ 2.0/2.6 GHz System Memory – 1x 260-pin DDR4 SO-DIMM @ 3200MHz up to 32GB Storage – SATA III port (2.5-inch SATA bay), mSATA slot Video Output – HDMI Networking 4x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports via Intel i211 controllers 1x SFP cage via Intel i210 controller Optional wireless connectivity (4G, 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc…) via mini PCIe and M.2 sockets, plus 5x antenna holes USB – 2x USB 2.0 port Expansion […]

Turing Pi V2 mini-ITX cluster board takes four Raspberry Pi CM4 or NVIDIA Jetson SoMs

Turing Pi v2 mini-ITX cluster board

The Turing Pi V2 is a mini-ITX cluster board that builds on the  Turing Pi mini-ITX cluster board taking up to 7 Raspberry Pi Compute Modules introduced in 2019, but instead supports up to four Raspberry Pi CM4 (Compute Modules 4) or NVIDIA Jetson Nano/TX2 NX/Xavier NX SO-DIMM system-on-modules. The Turing Pi 2 board is equipped with two Mini PCIe sockets, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two SATA III ports, four USB 3.0 ports, a 40-pin GPIO header, and a 24-pin ATX connector for power. Since board-to-board connectors – as found in Raspberry Pi Computer Module 4 – are not ideal for density, the company went with a design including 260-pin SO-DIMM connectors plus CM4 adapter boards, a design that allows them to also integrate other SoMs like the NVIDIA Jetson SO-DIMM modules. Turing Pi V2 specifications: SoM interface – 4x 260-pin SO-DIMM slot for up to four Raspberry Pi CM4 […]

SolidRun LX2162A SOM packs 16 Cortex-A72 cores, 32GB DDR4 onto a 58x48mm module

LX2162A SOM

SolidRun LX2162A SOM is a compact (58x48mm) system-on-module based on NXP LX2162A 16-core Cortex-A72 networking processor and equipped with up to 32GB DDR4 RAM that’s 25% of the size of the company’s earlier COM Express Type 7 computer-on-module based on NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 communication processor and found in ClearFog CX LX2K networking board. The much smaller size has been made possible by replacing the SO-DIMM sockets with soldered RAM, and switching from LX2160A to LX2162A SoC with similar features, but offered in a 23x23mm package that is nearly one quarter the size thanks to a reduction of the number of SerDes and PCIe interfaces, and manufacturing with a 16nm FinFET process technology. LX2162A SOM specifications: SoC – NXP Layerscape LX2162A communication processor with 16x Cortex A72 cores clocked at up to 2.0 GHz (option for the 12-core LX2122A, or 8-core LX2182A) Memory – Up to 32GB DDR4 […]

Qualcomm IPQ4019 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi system-on-module comes with Dual Gigabit Ethernet baseboard

IPQ4019 system-on-module

Wallys Communication has introduced their lowest cost networking platform with the DR4019S board equipped with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as a Qualcomm IPQ4019 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi system-on-module. The module comes with 32MB NOR flash, and 256MB DDR memory and targets applications ranging from security surveillance to commercial radio coverage to hotel wireless applications, or even forest fire protection engineering. DR4019S board specifications: SoC – Qualcomm IPQ4019 quad-core Arm Cortex A7 at 716.8 MHz System Memory – 256MB DDR Storage – 32MB NOR flash Connectivity 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports 802.11b/g/n/ac Wave 2 WiFi 5 with 2x 5G MMCX connectors, 2x 2.4G MMCX connectors (but we can only see one or two of those on the provided photo) USB – 1x USB 3./2.0 port Misc – Debug UART header Power Supply – 12V via DC jack Power Consumption – 9.6W (max) Dimensions – 65 x 35 x 16mm Temperature […]

Tiger Canyon Porcoolpine fanless Tiger Lake NUC announced for $679 and up

Fanless Tiger Lake NUC

Simply NUC “Tiger Canyon Porcoolpine” is a fanless Intel NUC offered with a choice of Tiger Lake UP3 processors, notably Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1135G7, and Core i7-1165G7, and equivalent vPro parts when available. The mini PC comes with up to 64GB DDR4, NVMe & SATA storage, a Thunderbolt 4 port, two HDMI 2.0b ports, 2.5 GbE networking, and optional Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, as well as a DB9 serial port for industrial applications, for example, to connect a barcode scanner. Tiger Canyon Porcoolpine (NUC11TF) specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i3-1115G4 dual-core/quad-thread processor @ up to 3.0 / 4.1 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB L3 cache, 48EU Intel Xe graphics; 28W TDP Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core/octa-thread processor @ up to 2.4 / 4.2 GHz with 8MB L3 cache, 80EU Intel Xe graphics; 28W TDP Intel Core i5-1145G7 (vPro) quad-core/octa-thread processor @ up to 2.6 / 4.4 GHz with […]

Banana Pi BPI-M2S Amlogic A311D SBC comes with dual GbE, HDMI & MIPI interfaces

Banana Pi BPI-M2S

There’s at least one more Amlogic A311D SBC coming our way with Banana Pi BPI-M2S equipped with 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, as well as two Gigabit Ethernet ports, combines with video interfaces that include HDMI, MIPI DSI & CSI, as well as two USB ports. This news comes just a few after we wrote about Geniatech DB10 AI development board based on Amlogic A311D hexa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor and noted there were few platforms based on the SoC, apart from Khadas VIM3 SBC, and a few others. Banana Pi BPI-M2S SBC specifications: SoC – Amlogic A311D hexa-core processor with 4x Arm Cortex-A73 cores, 2x Arm Cortex-A53 cores, Arm Mali-G52 MP4 (6EE) GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 and OpenCL 2.0 support, 5 TOPS NPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash (option up to 128GB), MicroSD card slot Video interfaces HDMI 2.1 output up to 4Kp60 […]