proxmox News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 29, 2025July 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AAEON FWS-2291/FWS-2292 – Intel N97 & N150 desktop network devices with six 2.5GbE and GbE ports

AAEON FWS-2291 and FWS-2292 are Intel N97/N150 desktop network devices with six Ethernet ports, either in 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports + 2 SFP cages or 6x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports configuration, which are designed for SD-WAN, uCPE, and UTM (Unified Threat Management) applications. The network and firewall appliances are said to support up to 16GB DDR5 memory with the default processors, come with 32GB eMMC flash for the OS (build option up to 128GB), offer a 2.5-inch SATA bay and an M.2 Key-M socket for additional storage, M.2 Key-E and Key-B sockets for WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE, and/or 5G cellular connectivity, and two USB 3.2 ports. They also support power redundancy thanks to two 12V DC lockable input connectors. FWS-2291/FWS2292 specifications: SoC FWS-2291 (default) – Intel Processor N97 quad-core Alder Lake-N CPU up to 3.6 GHz with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 12W FWS-2292 (default) – Intel Processor N150 […]

July 3, 2025July 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

NanoPi R3S LTS dual Gigabit Ethernet router board gains HDMI output and speaker connector

FriendlyELEC NanoPi R3S LTS is an update to the NanoPi R3S low-cost dual gigabit Ethernet router introduced last year, which gains HDMI output, a speaker connector, and a power button. The new model still features a Rockchip RK3566 SoC with up to 2GB RAM, an optional 32GB eMMC flash, a microSD card socket, a MIPI DSI display connector, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, and a USB-C port for power and programming, as well as a 3-pin UART header accessible after opening the metal enclosure. NanoPi R3S-LTS specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU NPU – 1 TOPS AI accelerator VPU 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder 1080p60 H.264/H.265 video encoder System Memory – 1GB or 2 GB LPDDR4/4XX Storage Optional 32GB eMMC flash MicroSD card socket with support for UHS-1 (SDR104) Video Output HDMI 2.0 port […]

June 26, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Topton N18 NAS mini-ITX motherboard ships with Intel N150 or Core i3-N305 SoC, offers 6x SATA, 10GbE, 2x 2.5GbE

Topton N18 is a mini-ITX motherboard powered by either an Intel Processor N150 Twin Lake CPU or a Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N SoC, and suitable for NAS and networking applications with six SATA ports, a 10GbE RJ45 port, and two 2.5GbE jacks. The motherboard also features a DDR5 SO-DIMM socket for up to 64GB memory, two M.2 PCIe sockets for NVMe SSD storage, HDMI and DisplayPort video output, and up to eight USB ports via ports and internal headers. Topton N18 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Processor N150 quad-core Twin Lake processor @ up to 3.6 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics @ 1.0 GHz; TDP: 6W Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 1.25 GHz; TDP: 15W System Memory – Single-channel DDR5 SO-DIMM slot fitted with up to 32GB RAM; upgradeable to 64GB […]

May 26, 2025June 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

NanoPi M5 – A Rockchip RK3576 SBC with HDMI, dual GbE, M.2 NVMe and SDIO WiFi sockets, UFS 2.0 storage support

It feels like everybody is now launching hardware based on the Rockchip RK3576 SoC, the little brother of the RK3588 with Cortex-A72/A53 cores instead of Cortex-A76/A55 cores, 4K video output, and a mid-range Mali-G52 GPU, while keeping most of the same interfaces. FriendlyELEC has now joined the fray with the NanoPi M5 SBC equipped with up to 4GB LPDDR4x or 16GB LPDDR5, sockets for a UFS module and an M.2 NVMe SSD, HDMI 2.0 and MIPI DSI display interfaces, two MIPI CSI camera connectors, two gigabit Ethernet ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, two USB 3.0 ports, a 30-pin GPIO header, and more. NanoPi M5 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU – Octa-core CPU with 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores at 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, and Vulkan 1.2 NPU – 6 TOPS […]

May 22, 2025May 21, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Protectli Vault Pro VP2430 – An Intel N150 fanless network appliance with four 2.5GbE ports, four video outputs

Vault Pro VP2430 A compact, fanless network appliance

The Protectli Vault Pro VP2430 is a compact, Intel Processor N150-based fanless network appliance designed for firewall, router, and virtualization applications in home labs, small businesses, and edge deployments. The system supports up to 64GB DDR5-4800 memory via a single SO-DIMM slot and features various storage options, including a 32GB onboard eMMC flash, an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slot, and a SATA 3.0 interface for 2.5″ SSDs. It comes with four 2.5GbE Intel I226-V Ethernet ports and includes video outputs via HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2, and two USB-C with DisplayPort functionality. It also features M.2 slots for WiFi and 4G/5G modem, to work with the module, there is also a Nano SIM slot. Additionally, it has multiple internal headers, including GPIO, COM, SATA, and eSPI for expansion. On top of that, the system supports both AMI and coreboot BIOS options, and TPM 2.0 for security, making it ideal for secure […]

May 10, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Beelink ME Mini is a compact 6-slot SSD NAS and mini PC powered by an Intel N150 Twin Lake SoC

Beelink was one of the first companies to launch an Intel Processor N150 mini PC with the EQ14 model, and they’ve now launched the ME Mini 6-slot SSD NAS based on the Twin Lake processor, coupled with 12 GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and a 2TB NVMe SSD. The compact NAS/computer also features two 2.5GbE ports, a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module, HDMI 2.0 video output, and a few USB ports. Like the Beelink EQ14, it comes with an integrated 100/240V power supply instead of an external power brick. Beelink ME Mini specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N150 quad-core Twin Lake processor @ up to 3.6 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics @ 1.0 GHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – 12GB LPDDR5 4800 MHz; note: a 16GB LPDDR5 model will also be available Storage 5x M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x1 sockets 1x M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 […]

December 17, 2024December 18, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

iKOOLCORE R2 Max review – Part 2: 10GbE on an Intel N100 mini PC with OpenWrt (QWRT), Proxmox VE, Ubuntu 24.04 and pfSense 2.7.2

iKOOLCORE R2 Max Review Proxmox VE Ubuntu 22.04

I’ve already checked out iKOOLCORE R2 Max hardware in the first part of the review with an unboxing and a teardown of the Intel N100 system with two 10GbE ports and two 2.5GbE ports. I’ve now had more time to test it with an OpenWrt fork, Proxmox VE, Ubuntu 24.04, and pfSense, so I’ll report my experience in the second and final part of the review. As a reminder, since I didn’t have any 10GbE gear so far, iKOOLCORE sent me two R2 Max devices, a fanless model and an actively-cooled model. I was told the fanless one was based on Intel N100 SoC, and the actively-cooled one was powered by an Intel Core i3-N305 CPU, but I ended up with two Intel N100 devices. The fanless model will be an OpenWrt 23.05 (QWRT) server, and the actively cooled variant be the device under test/client with Proxmox VE 8.3 server […]

December 14, 2024December 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

How to use iperf3 in multi-thread mode for 10Gps+ Ethernet testing

With 10GbE becoming more widespread and often found in entry-level hardware, the CPU may become the bottleneck, so I’ll explain how to use iperf3 in multi-thread mode to fully saturate the 10GbE bandwidth even with a system based on a relatively low-end multi-core processor.

For this tutorial, I use two iKOOCORE R2 Max mini PCs with two 10GbE interfaces each and an Intel N100 quad-core processor running an OpenWrt fork (QWRT) and Proxmox VE (Debian) respectively. I will show how I can fully saturate the 10GbE interfaces using multithreading, but not with a typical iperf3 single-core test.