CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Education Laptop Review

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi Laptop Review

I started my review of CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit a while ago and at the time I showed content from the kit and its first boot. I’ve now spent more time with this very special Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and will focus this review on the education part, namely CrowPi2 software, but will also look at thermal cooling under stress with and without a fan, and try to install another Raspberry Pi compatible board inside the laptop shell. CrowPi2 Education Software It’s quite important to read the user manual before getting started as there are a few non-intuitive steps you may have to take. First I assume the wireless keyboard would just connect after pressing the power button, but it did not. The user manual explains the RF dongle is inside the mouse, and once you connect it you’ll be able to use the keyboard that has some […]

Arrow Chameleon96 Arm + Cyclone V FPGA Board Sold for $32 (Promo)

buy chameleon96

First introduced in 2017, Arrow Chameleon96 96Boards SBC comes with an Intel / Altera Cyclone V SE SoC featuring a dual-core Arm Cortex A9 processor clocked at up to 800 MHz and FPGA fabric with 110K Logic Elements. It used to sell for $129, but Arrow & appears to have a promotion now where the Novtech board sells for just $31.34 with free shipping[Update: all available boards are gone, and the product is now out of stock]. It looks like a good opportunity for people interested in playing around with an Arm Linux FPGA platform. Here’s a reminder of Chameleon96 board specifications which the company shamelessly copied from CNX Software: SoC – Intel PSG / Altera Cyclone V SE 5CSEBA6U19I7N with a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ up to 800 MHz and FPGA fabric with 110K Logic Elements Chips, Ports, and Features connected to FPGA: Integrated USB-Blaster II JTAG […]

PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an Open Source Alternative to Raspberry Pi Board

PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC

There’s a lot of interest/hype around RISC-V, and low-cost boards such as Longan Nano or Maixduino are already available, but those are based on microcontroller-class chips, even though it’s possible to run Linux on Kendryte K210 RISC-V board, it comes without MMU, so it’s not for everyone. Linux capable RISC-V boards do exist but cost several hundred dollars or more with the likes of HiFive Unleashed and PolarFire SoC Icicle development kit. If only there was a RISC-V board similar to the Raspberry Pi board and with a similar price point… The good news is that the RISC-V International Open Source (RIOS) Laboratory is collaborating with Imagination technologies to bring PicoRio RISC-V SBC to market at a price point similar to Raspberry Pi. The PicoRio board was presented at the RISC-V Global Forum on September 3rd. I could not find the full presentation slides yet, but there are some screenshots […]

Arm Cortex-R82 is a Linux Capable, 64-bit Real-time Processor for Computational Storage Applications

Arm Cortex R82

Arm hast just unveiled Cortex-R82 64-bit real-time processor that is Linux-capable and designed for “next-generation enterprise and computational storage solutions”. What’s computation storage? To clearly understand what we’re dealing, let’s first find out what computational storage is via SNIA website: Computational Storage is defined as architectures that provide Computational Storage Services coupled to storage, offloading host processing, or reducing data movement. A Computational Storage Service (CSS) is a data service or information service that performs computation on data where the service and data are associated with a storage device. So If I understand correctly, so far all we asked from SSD’s, hard drives, and other storage, was to move and store data as fast as possible to a host device capable any analyzing the data. But computational storage brings this to the storage device itself, so we may soon have Smart Hard Drives that run Linux and do some of […]

Congatec Unveils COM Express & COM-HPC Tiger Lake Computers-on-Module

conga-TC570 Tiger Lake COM Express Module

Intel Core “Tiger Lake” processors designed for ultra-thin laptops have just been officially launched together with some laptop announcements. But Tiger Lake processors will find their way into embedded applications as well, with Congatec announcing conga-TC570 COM Express Type 6 Compact module and conga-HPC/cTLU​ COM-HPC high-performance module both featuring Intel Tiger Lake-UP3 (12W to 25W TDP) processors. conga-TC570 Tiger Lake COM Express Module Specifications: SoC – Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Tiger Lake-UP3 processor with up to 96 EU Intel Iris Xe graphics; 12W-28W configurable TDP System Memory – Up to 2x SO-DIMM sockets for DDR4 memory modules up to 32 GB each with 3200 MT/s ECC and non-ECC supported Networking – Intel i225 Gigabit Ethernet controller with TSN support COM Express board-to-board connectors with 440 pins Video Output – HDMI 2.0/2.1, DP 1.4, MIPI D-PHY 2.1; up to 4x independent display unit (4x 4K or 2x 8K) Storage – 2x SATA […]

VIA Pixetto Hi3518E V300 HD Camera Board Targets Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Education

VIA Pixetto HD Camera Board AI Education

VIA Technologies has launched the VIA Pixetto vision sensor aims to teach artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to students aged twelve and above. The Linux board features an Hisilicon Hi3518E V300 Cortex-A7 HD camera SoC combined with 64MB RAM, 128MB SPI flash, a MicroSD slot, as well as GalaxyCore GC2053 2M CMOS sensor offering 1920 x 1080 resolution and a 130° field of view. VIA Pixetto hardware specifications: SoC – Hisilicon Hi3518E V300 Cortex-A7 HD camera SoC @ 900 MHz with H.264, H.265, MJPEG/JPEG encoder System Memory – 64MB DDR, MicroSD card slot Storage – 128MB SPI flash Camera – GalaxyCore GC2053 2M CMOS sensor with 1920 x 1080 resolution,  130° FoV Audio – Microphone USB – 1x Micro USB 2.0 port Connectivity – WiFi 4 via Hisilicon Hi1131 low-power Wi-Fi chip  and ceramic antenna Expansion – Grove connector Misc – 3x LEDs (Power, OS boot, active status), […]

PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition Linux Phone Pre-orders to Start Mid-September

PinePhone Manjaro

Pine64 is producing PinePhone Linux phone in batches and each time there’s a different Linux operating system. It started with the BraveHeart edition in November 2019 without any OS at all, following by the UBPorts community edition, then the PostMarkerOS community edition, and we should expect pre-orders for PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition to start mid-September 2020. Just like for the PostMarketOS edition, the new PinePhone Manjaro CE will be offered in two versions: $149 with 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash $199 with 3GB RAM, 32GB eMMC flash and a USB-C dock for people wanting to connect the phone to a monitor and use it as an entry-level Linux PC The phone still has the same hardware with an Allwinner A64 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, a 5.95-inch IPS display, rear & front-facing cameras, as well as 4G LTE, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. The additional USB-C dock that comes with the […]

The Open Invention Network Aims to Protect Linux and Open-Source Software with a Patent Non-Aggression Pact

When we covered Alibaba XT910 RISC-V processor earlier this week, the company confirmed working with open-source companies to make the source code is available for the chip, but that there were legal challenges to do so for a high-performance core. The company did not expand on what legal challenges there were, but I’m pretty sure it’s about patents and potential lawsuits. But there may be a solution, or at least a way for companies to protect themselves to some degree against patent trolls, thanks to the Open Invention Network (OIN) which I discovered in a press release about UNISOC recently joined the organization. So what does the Open Invention Network does exactly? We enable freedom of action for Open Invention Network community members and users of Linux/OSS-based technology through our patent non-aggression cross-license in the “Linux System,” which defines the commitment. We will continue to grow our community and the […]