Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on FOSDEM 2021 Online February 6-7 – Hardware, Embedded & IoT talks

FOSDEM 2021 Online February 6-7 – Hardware, Embedded & IoT talks

FOSDEM is an open-source developer event that takes place on the first week-end of February every year in Brussels, Belgium. Every year except this year, as due to COVID-19 restrictions, FOSDEM 2021 will take place online like most events these days. The schedule has been up for some time, and today I’ll look at some of the interesting talks mostly from the Embedded, Mobile and Automotive “virtual devroom” but also other tracks. Saturday, February 6, 2021 13:00 – 14:00 – From Reset Vector to Kernel – Navigating the ARM Matryoshka Long gone are the times of executing the OS in-place from memory-mapped flash upon reset. A modern SoC now comes with complex mask ROM firmware, with driver, filesystem, protocol and crypto support for loading… yet another bootloader. In his talk, Ahmad follows this chain of bootloaders until the kernel is started, stopping along the way for RAM setup, peripherial initialization, runtime services and other interesting sights. Getting acquainted with the […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Build a Raspberry Pi CM4 4-Bay NAS with Wiretrustee Carrier board

Build a Raspberry Pi CM4 4-Bay NAS with Wiretrustee Carrier board

Broadcom BCM2711 processor comes with a PCIe interface that is used for the USB ports on the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, but that is exposed through the board-to-board connectors of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, aka Raspberry Pi CM4, and allows all sort of designs. So far we’ve mostly seen this PCIe interface used for M.2 expansion slots on devices ranging from industrial computers to carrier board such as Piunora or Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM4 development board. But Wiretrustee had a different idea and designed carrier board with Marvell 88SE9215 PCIe to SATA controller and offering four SATA connectors to build a 4-bay NAS with Raspberry Pi CM4 module. Wiretrustee carrier board specifications: Supported SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and 4 Lite Storage 4x SATA 2.0 via Marvell 88SE9215 (PCIe 2.0 x1 to 4 6Gb/s SATA ports, no HW RAID) chip tested at a write speed of ~220MB/s on each of the SATA ports (not simultaneously) MicroSD card […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on ClusBerry 9500-CM4 – A Raspberry Pi CM4 cluster, industrial style

ClusBerry 9500-CM4 – A Raspberry Pi CM4 cluster, industrial style

Raspberry Pi cluster boards / solutions pop-up from time to time. But so far, I think we’ve seen only one based on Raspberry Pi CM4 modules with the upcoming Turing Pi 2 mini-ITX cluster board supporting four of those. TECHBASE has now unveiled a different kind of Raspberry Pi CM4 cluster with ClusBerry 9500-CM4 integrating up to eight Raspberry Pi Computer Module 4 in a DIN-Rail housing for industrial applications. ClusBerry 9500-CM4 is designed to be customizable with a choice of Raspberry Pi CM4 based modules and I/O cards: Standard 9500-CM4 cluster module with Compute Module 4 and a selection of configuration that include: I/O Controller with DI, DO, AI, 1-Wire, RS-232/485 and CAN interfaces Communication Gateway with up to 2x Ethernet, serial ports, wireless connectivity: LTE-cat.M1, 4G, 5G, LoRa, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Wireless M-Bus AI Gateway with Coral Edge TPU via PCIe M.2, or up to 4x Coral Edge TPU via USB3.0 NAS File Server RPI CM4 module with 2x […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on H2 Net Card adds four 2.5 GbE ports to ODROID-H2/H2+ SBC

H2 Net Card adds four 2.5 GbE ports to ODROID-H2/H2+ SBC

ODROID-H2+ is already a cool single board computer with an Intel Gemini Lake Refresh processor, up to 32GB RAM, dual 2.5GbE networking, support for SATA and NVMe storage, dual 4K video output, and more. But in recent days, I’ve read people complaining recently announced WiFI 6 or WiFi 6E routers only had one 2.5 Gbps or 5 Gbps Ethernet jack and wanted all/more RJ45 connectors to be 2.5 GbE ports or greater. But if even the two 2.5GbE ports on ODROID-H2+ are not quite enough for your needs, Hardkernel H2 Net Card triples that amount by adding four extra 2.5 GbE to the x86 SBC. It also works on ODROID-H2, meaning you’d get the existing dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, plus the four 2.5GbE ports from the M.2 card. There’s no much in the way of specifications for H2 Net Card: 4x Ethernet ports up to 2.5 GbE via RTL8125 controller. M.2 edge connector Compatible with ODROID-H2 / H2+ The card […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on ClearFog CX CN9K Mini-ITX 10GbE/5GbE networking SBC runs Linux or FreeBSD

ClearFog CX CN9K Mini-ITX 10GbE/5GbE networking SBC runs Linux or FreeBSD

Last year, SolidRun introduced ClearFog CX LX2X networking single board computer offering up to 100GbE via NXP LX2160A 16-core Cortex-A72 communication processor that followed ClearFog CX 8K  ARMADA 8040 networking board launched the year before. The Israeli company is now working on two ClearFog CX CN9K networking SBC’s powered by CEx7 CN913x system-on-module featuring Marvell Octeon TX2 CN913x quad-core Cortex-A72 processor and offering multi-gigabit Ethernet with various 10Gbps, 5Gbps, and Gigabit Ethernet ports. ClearFog CN9132 Pro The higher-end version of the ClearFog CX CN9K boards is ClearFog CN9132 Pro with the following specifications: CEx7 CN9132 COM Express Type 7 module SoC – Marvell OCTEON TX2 CN9132 quad-core Arm Cortex A72 up to 2.2 GHz (Industrial temperature up to 2.0 GHz) System Memory – Up to 16GB SO-DIMM DDR4 up to2400MT/s (not included by default) Storage – Up to 32 GB eMMC flash, SPI NOR flash COM Express Type 7 board-to-board connectors with Storage – 2x SATA (Gen III) Networking – […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Forlinx OK1028A-C networking SBC supports LVDS displays, 4G/5G modules

Forlinx OK1028A-C networking SBC supports LVDS displays, 4G/5G modules

Forlinx released two networking SBC’s with 10Gbps Ethernet powered by NXP LS1043A and LS1046A processor nearly exactly one year ago. Like many other networking SBCs they do not come with video output so configuration is done via a computer or laptop either through a UART interface or a web interface. But in some cases, such boards may be integrated into machines that require a display for human-machine interaction. That’s why Forlinx has now released a new networking board – OK1028A-C – powered by NXP QorIQ Layerscape LS1028A dual-core Cortex-A72 processor that natively supports video output up to 4K UHD resolution via an eDP/DisplayPort interface which the company used to provide an LVDS header. The board also offers 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as optional WiFi, Bluetooth, and 4G or 5G cellular connectivity via M.2 and mPCIe modules. Forlinx OK1028A-C specifications: FET1028A-C system-on-module SoC – NXP LS1028A dual-core Cortex-A72 processor @ up to 1.5GHz System Memory – 2GB DDR4 Storage […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Qualcomm IPQ6000 embedded SBC offers dual Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 6 connectivity

Qualcomm IPQ6000 embedded SBC offers dual Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 6 connectivity

At the beginning of the month, we covered Mango-DVK development kit based on a  Qualcomm IPQ6000/IP6010 powered system-on-module enabling 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 connectivity. Wallys Communications contacted us earlier this week, about one of their new “802.11ax low-end product”, namely DR6000 SBC that happens to be based on Qualcomm IPQ6000 “CP03” reference design, and offers both WiFi 6 and dual Gigabit Ethernet connectivity in a round-shaped board. DR6000 / CP03 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros IPQ6000 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2GHz processor System Memory –  512MB DDR3L Storage – 128MB Nand Flash, 16MB NOR flash Networking Wired – 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports Wireless 2.4GHz 2×2 MU-MIMO OFDMA 802.11b/g/n/ax WiFi 6, up 573 Mbps, up to 20dBm per chain 5GHz 2×2 MU-MIMO OFDMA 802.11a/n/ac/ax WiFi 6, up to 1201 Mbps, up to 20dBm per chain 2x U.FL Connectors, diplexer allows dual band concurrent operation USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 port Serial – 12-pin header for serial interface Misc […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU19EG MPSoC Devkit Offers HDMI 2.0, 10GbE, High-Speed Transceivers

Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU19EG MPSoC Devkit Offers HDMI 2.0, 10GbE, High-Speed Transceivers

iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G35D is a development kit powered by Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU19EG Arm Cortex-A53 and FPGA MPSoC coupled with 4GB DDR4 RAM with ECC for the processing system (PS) & 4GB dual-channel DDR4 RAM for the programmable logic (PL). The board is equipped with HDMI 2.0 output/input ports supporting 4Kp60 UHD resolutions, a 10GbE SFP+ cage, FMC+, FMC, FireFly, and QSFP connectors for high-speed transceivers, and more. iW-RainboW-G35D specifications: iW-RainboW-G35M SoM Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ZCU19EG MPSOC (-1 speed) with four Cortex-A53 cores @ 1200 MHz, dual-core Arm Cortex-R5 MPCore up to 600MHz, FPGA fabric with 1,143K logic cells, and Arm Mali-400 MP2 GPU (lower-end ZCU17EG and ZCU11EG MPSoC are also available) System Memory 4GB DDR4 RAM for PS 4GB Dual DDR4 RAM for PL Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash (for boot code) Transceivers PS-GTR Transceivers x 4 @ 6Gbps PL-GTH Transceivers x 32 @ 16.3Gbps PL-GTY Transceivers x 16 @ 32.735Gbps Networking – Gigabit Ethernet PHY USB – USB2.0 […]

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