T-Chip Intelligent Technology Co. is a hardware and software technology services company, and a few years ago they setup the “Firefly Team” to provide development boards running Android and/or Linux distributions to the maker community. If I remember correctly the company started with Firefly-RK3288 development board powered, as its name implies, by Rockchip RK3288 processor. Since then they’ve launched several other Rockchip development boards and modules, which I’ve covered on this blog. The company decided to send me some of their recent boards and accessories, so let’s have a look at what I received in my “mailbag”. I’ve also taken a few photos for those who did not watch the video or prefer close up photos. ROC-RK3328-CC “Renegade” Development Board The first board is ROC-RK3328-CC “Renegade” board which was first launched via a crowdfunding campaign by Libre Computer. Both companies have been collaborating on some boards, and Libre Computer makes […]
SECO Q7-C25 / Q7-C26 QSeven SoMs Feature NXP i.MX 8M / i.MX 8Quad Processor
We’ve previously covered SECO’s SM-C12 SMARC 2.0 i.MX 8M system-on-module, but the company has just unveiled two new module families which are compliant with Qseven – another SoM standard – and powered by NXP i.MX 8M dual/quad core Cortex A53 processor and NXP i.MX 8Quad Cortex A53 or A72/A53 SoC with respectively Q7-C25 and Q7-C26 systems-on-module. SECO Qseven i.MX 8/8M System-on-Module Q7-C25 / Q7-C26 specifications: SoC Q7-C25 (one or the other) NXP i.MX 8M Quad 4x Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5GHz, 1x Cortex-M4 F real-time core, Vivante GC7000Lite GPU, VPU NXP i.MX 8M Dual 2x Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5GHz, 1x Cortex-M4 F real-time core, Vivante GC7000Lite GPU, VPU NXP i.MX 8M QuadLite 4x Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5GHz, , 1x Cortex-M4 F real-time core, Vivante GC7000Lite GPU no VPU Q7-C26 (one or the other) NXP i.MX 8QuadMax 2x Cortex-A72 cores + 4x Cortex-A53 cores + 2x Cortex-M4F cores, 2x Vivante […]
Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce Released
A few days ago, we wrote about the launch of Mintbox Mini 2 / Mini 2 Pro (MBM2), an Intel Apollo Lake Linux mini PC that will ship with Linux Mint 19, and that will start getting into hands of users around mid July. The Mint team has now officially announced the release of Linux Mint 19 – codenamed “Tara” – with the default Cinnamon desktop environment, as well as variants with MATE or Xfce. Linux Mint 19 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2023, and comes with several new features and improvements including: Timeshift – Utility that allows you to go back in time and restore your computer to the last functional system snapshot, and manages updates. Update Manager – Now relies on Timeshift for updates, supports automatic updates through a option in the preferences, adds “lowlatency” kernels support New Welcome Screen – More […]
Visual Studio 2017 with an Embedded Linux Arm Device
This is a non-sponsored guest post written by Marc Goodner: Principal Program Manager, Microsoft, and Jeremias Cordoba: Innovation Engineer, Toradex. Today many embedded devices run some flavor of Linux as their primary operating system. This poses a challenge to developers who run Windows on their development machine. This article explains a new way to use the latest Visual Studio for C++ development on an embedded Arm Devices from a Windows Host PC using containers for the build environment. The device we are deploying to is from the Toradex Colibri Family of System on Modules using the NXP i.MX 6ULL SoC, which features an Arm Cortex A-7. As a demo project, we will connect a Bluetooth Sensor with the Toradex Colibri Module. Please note that Visual Studio support for this case is in an early state, you will see improvements from Microsoft and Toradex in the coming months. Prerequisites Colibri i.MX 6ULL […]
Air-T Artificial Intelligence Radio Transceiver SDR Platform Combines NVIDIA Jetson TX2 and Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA (Crowdfunding)
If often write about low end and cheaper hardware on this blog, but not in this post. Deepwave Digital Air-T (Artificial Intelligence Radio – Transceiver) is a high-end software defined radio platform with continuous frequency coverage from 300 MHz to 6 GHz. The board combines AD9371 RFIC transceiver providing up to 2 x 2 MIMO of 100 MHz of receiving bandwidth, a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA, and NVIDIA Jetson TX2 module. Air-T hardware specifications & key features: Software-defined Radio Analog Devices 9371 2×2 MIMO transceiver 2 x RX channels (100 MHz each) 2 x TX channels (100 MHz each) Auxiliary RX channels: Observation & Sniffer. Note: Can use either Observation or Sniffer at one time; utilizes one of the RX channels NVIDIA Jetson TX2 for processing 256 NVIDIA CUDA core GPU 6 CPU cores – 2x NVIDIA Denver2, 4x Arm Cortex-A57 8GB RAM 32GB eMMC flash Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA with75k logic […]
MintBox Mini 2 Apollo Lake Linux Mini PC Launched for $300 and Up
Mintbox Mini 2 / Mini 2 Pro (MB2M) Linux mini PC based on Intel Celeron J3455 Apollo Lake processor and running Linux mint 19 was first announced in March of this year. Compulab has now announced availability of both models, as well as some extra add-on boards: PoE Ethernet device FACET card, 2.5″ HDD FACET card, and GPIO + serial + CANbus FACET Card. The main specifications have not changed with the main differences between the two models between the memory and storage capacities: SoC – Intel Celeron J3455 quad core processor @ 1.5 / 2.2 GHz with 12 EU HD graphics; 10W TDP System Memory & Storage MB2M – 4GB DDR3L-1866 (upgradeable to 16GB via 1x 204-SO-DIMM slot) + 64GB M.2 SSD + micro SD slot MB2M Pro – 8GB DDR3L-1866 (upgradeable to 16GB via 1x 204-SO-DIMM slot) + 120GB M.2 SSD + micro SD slot Display – mini DP […]
Allwinner T7 Automotive SoC Complies with AEC-Q100 Grade 3 Specifications
Allwinner T-series processors such as Allwinner T2 are designed for the transportation / automotive market for products like smart rear-view mirrors, infotainment systems, and navigation systems. While the company’s offered wide-temperature range support, AFAIK they did not have a part that had an actual automotive certification so far. This changes with their Allwinner T7 processor which is said to be the first Chinese processor achieving AEC-Q100 Grade 3 qualification. AEC-Q100 is a “failure mechanism based stress test qualification for integrated circuits” brought out by the Automotive Electronics Council. The chip must pass various tests within their specified temperature range (grade): Grade 0: -40°C to +150°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 1: -40°C to +125°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 2: -40°C to +105°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 3: -40°C to +85°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 4: 0°C to +70°C ambient operating temperature range Allwinner T7 comes with an […]
ModBerry M500 Industrial Computer Upgraded to Raspberry Pi 3 B+ with PoE Support
TECHBASE has been making modular industrial computers based on hobbyist boards for several years with products like ModBerry M300 IoT Gateway. ModBerry M500 is another of their model, powered by a Raspberry Pi 3 board and launched in 2016. The company has now upgraded the industrial gateway to Raspberry Pi 3 B+ board, and added PoE support in the process. ModBerry M500 specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2837B0 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.4 GHz with VideoCore IV GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB micro SD card Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 and 3.5mm jack for CVBS (composite + stereo audio) Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet (max 300 Mbps) Dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2 LE Optional Zigbee, LTE/3G, GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth cards USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Expansion I/Os 2x RS-232/RS-485 4x digital inputs, 4x digital outputs up to 30V DC 1-wire […]