Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Xiaomi Mi AX6000 WiFI 6 “Enhanced” Router sells for $92 (in China)

Xiaomi Mi AX6000 WiFI 6 “Enhanced” Router sells for $92 (in China)

Yesterday, I wrote about Linksys AXE8400 WiFi 6E router which the company claimed was the world’s first, but it was pointed out to me that Xiaomi Mi AX6000 router was outed a few days earlier, and is even available right now in China or, while the Linksys router is scheduled to launch in spring or summer. Another big difference is the price with the Xiaomi router offered for 599 CNY (about $92) while the Qualcomm Networking Pro 1210 based Linksys router will sell for $450. That can partially be explained by the speed for WiFi (6000 Mbps vs 8000 Mbps), and Ethernet (2.5 Gbps WAN vs 5 Gbps WAN), but the Xiaomi router should still offer decent performance. Another reason for the cheaper price, as pointed by some smart people on OpenWrt forums is that the Xiaomi router goes not support 6 GHz, so it’s NOT a WiFi 6E router as initially advertised, and the company now refers to it […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments on Sipeed MAIX-II Dock is an Allwinner V831 powered AIoT vision devkit

Sipeed MAIX-II Dock is an Allwinner V831 powered AIoT vision devkit

Sipeed introduced MAIX development boards powered by Kendryte K210 dual-core RISCV processor with AI accelerators in 2018, and we tested the Maixduino and Grove AI HAT based on the solution using Arduino and Micropython the following year. It works fine for audio and video project requiring AI acceleration at low power, but performance (resolution/fps) is limited. So if you’d like a bit more oomph for your audio & vision AI projects, as well as proper Linux support, Sipeed has just launched MAIX-II Dock powered by Allwinner V831 Cortex-A7 AI camera SoC clocked at up to 800-1000 MHz and 64MB on-chip DDR2 RAM, as well as a Full HD camera and a small display.MAIX-II Dock specifications: MAIX-II core module SoC – Allwinner V831 single-core Cortex-A7 processor clocked at 800-1000 MHz with 0.2TOPS AI accelerator, H.264/H.265/JPEG video encoder up to 1080p30 System Memory – 64MB DDR2 in package (SiP) Storage – Optional 16MB flash M.2 B-Key edge connector with Storage – 2x […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 42 Comments on NanoPi R4S SBC preview with OpenWrt and Ubuntu Core

NanoPi R4S SBC preview with OpenWrt and Ubuntu Core

Rockchip RK3399 powered NanoPi R4S router SBC launched at the beginning of the month, and FriendlyELEC kindly sent a review sample to CNX Software. I intended to test thermally performance, Ethernet, and USB like I did for NanoPi R2S and NanoPi NEO3,  but Armbian is not available right now, so I could not use some of the tools I normally used right now. So instead, I tested the board/gateway with the image from FriendlyELEC. First FriendlyCore based on Ubuntu Core 20.04, but there some issues which we’ll detail in this preview, so I then switch to FriendlyWrt built upon OpenWrt 19.07 which works better, but I still encountered some problems. That’s just to say it might be better to wait a little longer until Armbian images are released, or until FriendlyELEC fixes some of the shortcomings. NanoPi R4S gateway unboxing Before testing the software, let’s see what I’ve received. NanoPi R4S SBC inside its metal enclosure together with a 16GB […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Orange Pi R1 Plus router SBC features Rockchip RK3328, Dual GbE

Orange Pi R1 Plus router SBC features Rockchip RK3328, Dual GbE

FriendlyELEC NanoPi R2S SBC for headless applications with Rockchip RK3328 processor and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports is getting some competition, as with Orange Pi R1 Plus board, Shenzhen Xunlong Software has updated its Orange Pi R1 board powered by an Allwinner H2+ to RK3328 processor coupled with 1GB RAM, and offering dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, plus one USB port for router applications. Orange Pi R1 Plus board specifications with highlights in bold or stricken through showing differences against R1 board: SoC –Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz with Arm Mali-450MP2 System Memory – 1GB DDR4 RAM Storage – MicroSD card slot, 16 MB SPI flash Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet via RTL8211E transceiver and RTL8153B USB 3.0 to Ethernet chip + 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (Realtek RTL8189ETV) with u.FL antenna connector and external antenna USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x USB-C OTG port Expansion headers Unpopulated 26-pin “Raspberry Pi B+” header 13-pin header with earphone, 1x GPIO, TV-out, UART, […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on DR6018-S is a more compact, cheaper WiFi 6 SBC with optional WiFi 6E

DR6018-S is a more compact, cheaper WiFi 6 SBC with optional WiFi 6E

Earlier this year we wrote about Wallys Communications DR6018-V2 WiFi 6 embedded router board based on Qualcomm IPQ6010 processor with M.2 sockets for optional 5G and WiFi 6E cards. The company has now launched a more compact, and cheaper board with DR6018-S SBC based on the same processor with 802.11ax WiFi 6 and 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 support, plus an M.2 socket for people wanting to add WiFi 6E cards. DR6018-S board specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros IPQ6010 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.8 GHz System Memory – 1GB (2x 512MB) DDR3L 16-bit interface with 32-bit memory bus design Storage – 256MB NAND Flash, 32MB NOR flash, optional SD card slot Networking Wired – 2x Gigabit Ethernet port including one with PoE support Wireless WiFi 2×2 2.4GHz MU-MIMO OFDMA 802.11b/g/n/ax WiFi 6, max 23dBm per chain 2×2 5GHz MU-MIMO OFDMA 802.11a/n/ac/ax WiFi 6, max 20dBm per chain 4x u.FL connectors 2.4 GHz data rate up to 573 Mbps 5 GHz […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 32 Comments on NanoPi R4S SBC launched with optional metal case for $45 and up

NanoPi R4S SBC launched with optional metal case for $45 and up

We found NanoPi R4S board in a work-in-progress Wiki last month. The tiny single board computer is designed for headless applications but comes with much better specifications compared to similar boards with a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with up to 4GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3.0 ports. At the time we had limited information, but FriendlyELEC has now started selling the board for $45 and up, together with an optional metal case for a fanless operation that should ensure very good cooling. Here’s a reminder of NanoPi R4S specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with dual-Core Cortex-A72 up to 2.0GHz,  quad-core Cortex-A53 up to 1.5GHz, Mali-T864 GPU with OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC support, 4K VP9 and 4K 10-bit H265/H264 60fps video decoder System Memory – 1GB DDR3 or 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – MicroSD card slot Networking – 2x GbE, including one native Gigabit Ethernet, and one PCIe Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB 3.0 Type-A […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Cellular gateway board takes up to five 4G mini PCIe cards, one 5G M.2 module, seven SIM cards

Cellular gateway board takes up to five 4G mini PCIe cards, one 5G M.2 module, seven SIM cards

One Banana Pi customer asked them to customize Banana Pi BPI-R64 Linux router board based on MediaTek MT7622 WiFi processor as part of their “BPI 4.0 server” OEM/ODM customization service. Specifically, they were asked to design a cellular gateway board with the same five Gigabit Ethernet ports as on the original board, but adding five mini PCIe sockets and SIM card slots for 3G/4G cards, and one M.2 socket plus two SIM cards for a 5G module. Here’s the result! Banana Pi “GrassRouter” cellular gateway board specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7622E dual-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.35GHz System Memory – 1 or 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot Connectivity Cellular 1x 5G via M.2 Key-B module (USB 3.0 or PCIe bus), 2x SIM card slots. Up to 5x 3G/4G LTE via  mPCIe expansion socket, 5x SIM card slots Ethernet – 5x Gigabit Ethernet ports (4x LAN + 1x WAN) WiFi – Optional 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFI 5 […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments on Traverse Ten64 eight-core ARM64 10GbE networking platform runs mainline Linux (Crowdfunding)

Traverse Ten64 eight-core ARM64 10GbE networking platform runs mainline Linux (Crowdfunding)

Traverse Ten64 is a networking platform designed for 4G/5G gateways, local edge gateways for cloud architectures, IoT gateways, and network-attached-storage (NAS) devices for home and office use. Ten64 system runs Linux mainline on based NXP Layerscape LS1088A octa-core Cortex-A53 communication processor with ECC memory support, and offers eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, two 10GbE SFP+ cages, as well as mini PCIe and M.2 expansion sockets. Traverse Ten64 hardware specifications: SoC – NXP QorIQ LS1088 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6 GHz, 64-bit with virtualization, crypto, and IOMMU support System Memory – 4GB to 32GB DDR4 SO-DIMMs (including ECC) at 2100 MT/s Storage 8 MB onboard QSPI NOR flash 256 MB onboard NAND flash NVMe SSDs via M.2 Key M microSD socket multiplexed with SIM2 Networking 8x 1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet ports (RJ45) 2x 10GbE SFP+ cages Optional wireless M.2/mPCIe card plus 3-choose-2 nanoSIM/microSD socket and up to 11x SMA connectors for antennas USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 interface via […]

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