mini-itx News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

HoneyComb Ryzen V3000 – An AMD Ryzen V3C18I mini-ITX motherboard with dual 10Gbps SFP+, 2.5GbE, dual SATA III

SolidRun HoneyComb Ryzen V3000 is a mini-ITX motherboard powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded V3C18I processor, supporting up to 64GB of DDR5 memory and M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD storage, and equipped with two 10 Gbps Ethernet SFP+ cages, a 2.5GbE RJ45 jack, and two SATA III ports for advanced networking and storage applications. The solution is comprised of a mini-ITX motherboard and a Ryzen V3000 CX7 COM Express module, which the company introduced in 2022. As an industrial motherboard, it’s designed to operate in the -40°C to +85°C temperature range. HoneyComb Ryzen V3000 specifications: Ryzen V3000 CX7 COM Express module SoC – AMD Ryzen Embedded V3C18I octa-core/16-thread processor clocked at 1.9 GHz / 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 4 MB L2 cache and 16 MB L3 cache; TDP: 15W System Memory – Up to 64GB (2x 32GB), ECC/Non-ECC DDR5 memory up to 4800 MT/s via two SODIMM sockets. Dimensions – 125 […]

April 16, 2025April 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Axelera Metis Compute Board pairs Rockchip RK3588 SoC with 214 TOPS Metis AI accelerator

Axelera Metis Computer Board is a Rockchip RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard equipped with a Metis AIPU (AI Processing Unit) capable of delivering up to 214 TOPS, 16GB LPDDR4 memory for the CPU, and 4GB LPDDR4x RAM for the AI accelerator. I first came across the Axelera Metis AIPU in M.2 and PCIe card in 2023, and I was rather impressed with the advertised 214 TOPS of AI performance promised in this form factor and relatively affordable $149 price tag considering the price-to-performance ratio. At the time, it was still hard to source the chip and module due to limited quantities, and in 2024, it became easier to evaluate the solution with the Axelera Metis PCIe Arm AI evaluation kit based on a Fireﬂy ITX-3588J mini-ITX motherboard equipped with a 214 TOPS Metis AIPU PCIe card. The new Metis Compute Board is similar, but in a more compact form factor since the […]

March 30, 2025March 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Radxa Orion O6 Preview – Part 2: Debian 12 – What works, what doesn’t

I went through an unboxing and Debian 12 installation on the Radxa Orion O6 at the end of January, but decided to work on other reviews since software support still needed to be worked on. Since then, there’s been some work done, but no new image released. After waiting for almost two months, I’ve decided to carry on with the review by testing the Debian 12 image in a way similar to the Rock 5B SBC preview I did with Debian 11 in 2022 to check what works and what doesn’t on the Orion O6 at the time of the review. That will involve testing all ports, including 5GbE networking and the PCIe slot with an (old) NVIDIA graphics card, running some benchmarks, and also trying the Debian 12 image with a self-built Linux 6.13 kernel using ACPI instead of UEFI for the default image. Orion O6 SBC benchmarks on […]

March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Axiomtek GMB850 Raptor Lake Refresh mini-ITX motherboard GMB850 is made for casino gaming machines

Intel Raptor Lake mini-ITX motherboard casino gaming

Axiomtek GMB850 is a mini-ITX motherboard powered by up to 14th Gen Intel Raptor Lake-Refresh processors and designed for casino gaming machines requiring advanced features like gaming analytics, real-time player interaction systems, and dynamic content management. While mini-ITX motherboards may serve multiple markets, there’s a specific market for casino and arcade gaming often using AMD processors. We’ve previously covered such boards in the past with the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000-powered Sapphire FS-FP6 or the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000/R1000-based Axiomtek GMB140. Axiomtek Gaming’s GMB850 is a more powerful update with Intel Raptor Lake Refresh processors supporting up to four independent displays with up to 4K resolution and gaming I/O modules making it suitable for casino slot machines, electronic table games, and video walls. Axiomtek GMB850 specifications: SoC – LGA1700 socket for 12th/13th/14th Gen. Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron “Alder Lake-S” or “Raptor Lake-S” processor System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR5 4800 MHz […]

March 11, 2025March 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Sapphire Edge+ VPR-5050 “AMD Embedded+” mini-ITX motherboard combines AMD Ryzen V2748 CPU and Versal AI Edge VE2302 SoC FPGA

Right in time for Embedded World 2025, Sapphire Technology has introduced the Edge+ VPR-5050 “AMD Embedded+” mini-ITX motherboard with AMD Ryzen V2748 octa-core CPU, and AMD Versal AI Edge VE2302 adaptive SoC that combines Cortex-A72 hard core with FPGA fabric. It’s an update to last year’s VPR-4616-MB mini-ITX motherboard with the same Versal VE2302 adaptive SoC, but a lower end AMD Ryzen R2314 quad-core processor. Two versions of the Edge+ VPR-5050 are available: the VPR-5050-MB and VPR-5050A-MB with the only obvious difference from the specifications being a 64GB eMMC flash on the “A” model, and the different RAM capacities (2x 4GB LPDDR4 vs 2x 8GB LPDDR4). Sapphire Edge+ VPR-5050 specifications: AMD Embedded+ Architecture Adaptive SoC Subsystem Main IC – AMD Versal AI Edge VE2302 with dual Arm Cortex-A72 core processor @ up to 1.6 GHz, dual-core Arm Cortex-R5F, 23 TOPS AI engine, FPGA fabric, etc… System Memory VPR-5050-MB – 2x […]

March 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Software progress and source code release for CIX P1 Armv9 SoC and Orion O6 motherboard

When the Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard with a CIX P1 12-core Armv9 SoC was announced in December 2024, we were told binary releases would start on January 15, 2025, and the source code would be released later in Q1 2025. Tom Cubie further explained that upstreaming of the CIX kernel would start in Q2 of 2025, and Linux 6.1 with Device Tree plus Linux 6.6 with ACPI would be supported in the meantime. I’ve been able to quickly check the Debian 12 binary release on the Orion O6 motherboard at the end of January, but as I was looking for an updated image for the second part of the review, I noticed there weren’t any new Debian 12 images so far. That does not mean there haven’t been any work done, as the forums are somewhat active and I’ve been told Radxa is even more active on Discord, although I […]

January 29, 2025March 30, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 36 Comments

Radxa Orion O6 Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Debian 12 installation, and first benchmarks

Radxa sent me a sample of the Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard for review. The system is powered by an CIX P1 (CD8180) 12-core Armv9 processor, equipped with 16GB RAM, and offers features like 5GbE, HDMI and DisplayPort, a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot, and more. It’s one of the most anticipated boards of the first part of 2025 since it’s powerful, offers a good performance/value ratio, and eventually promises to boot any ISO Arm64 image through an open-source BIOS / EDKII bootloader. I’ll start this review with an unboxing, NVMe SSD and WiFi module installation, and a short tutorial showing how to install Debian 12 operating systems before getting some system information and running a few benchmarks. In a few weeks, I’ll publish a more detailed review with features testing and more benchmarks to see what works and what doesn’t at this very early stage. Radxa Orion O6 unboxing I received […]

January 15, 2025January 16, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Jetway MTX-MTH1 thin Mini-ITX SBC features Intel Core Ultra 5/7 SoC, three 2.5GbE, four HDMI 2.1, PCIe Gen5 x8 slot

Jetway MTX-MTH1 is a thin industrial Mini-ITX SBC built around Intel Core Ultra 5/7 Meteor Lake processors with Intel Arc Graphics and support for up to 96GB of DDR5 memory. The most interesting features of this compact board are the three 2.5GbE jacks and four HDMI 2.1 video outputs for 4K and 8K displays. Additionally, it features multiple USB ports, a PCIe Gen 5 x8 slot, M.2 slots for storage and 4G LTE/5G, serial ports, and GPIO interfaces. With industrial environmental tolerance (-20°C to 60°C) this thin Mini-ITX motherboard is ideal for industrial automation, AI processing, edge computing, and embedded systems. Jetway MTX-MTH1 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 155H (Meteor Lake, TDP 28W) with Intel Arc Graphics Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 125H (Meteor Lake, TDP 28W) with Intel Arc Graphics System Memory – 2x DDR5 5600MHz SO-DIMM, up to 96GB Storage SATA III […]