Arduino to switch from Arm Mbed to Zephyr RTOS

Arduino Zephyr RTOS

Following Arm’s decision to stop supporting Mbed from July 2026 onwards, Arduino has now decided to use Zephyr RTOS instead of Arm Mbed for Arduino boards that rely on the latter including Arduino GIGA, Arduino Nano 33 BLE, Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, as well as Arduino PRO boards/solutions such as the Portenta, Nicla, and Opta families. Note that Arduino UNO, MKR, and Nano families are not impacted by the change since their Arduino Core implementation does not rely on Mbed. The change is not going to happen overnight as software development takes time, and Arduino plans to release the first beta based on ZephyrOS by the end of 2024. and a rollout for various boards starting in 2025 long before Arm Mbed is phased out for good. Arduino is not new to the Zephyr project as the company became a Silver member last year, and they were aware that Arm […]

Remote.It adds Bluetooth assisted WiFi configuration to Raspberry Pi SBC’s

Remote.it Dashboard

Remote.It, a company providing remote access services, has released an open-source project to enable Raspberry Pi WiFi network configuration using Bluetooth (BLE), so users can easily configure WiFi on the board by simply using their smartphone. Configuring WiFi on a Raspberry Pi usually involves either: Manual configuration – The user connects a monitor and keyboard to the Raspberry Pi to configure the wireless network directly on the device. Pre-configured SD cards, NVMe SSDs, or USB drives –  The WiFi ESSID and password can be set in Raspberry Pi USB imager, and the Raspberry Pi will automatically connect to the network at boot time. That’s quick, but less flexible since the credentials can’t be modified after deployment, and it only works when using a single wireless network. Remote.It offers a third option for WiFi provisioning using Bluetooth LE. The Raspberry Pi can run headless or fully enclosed into a product, and […]

Lattice MachXO5D-NX FPGA family enables Hardware Security in Programmable FPGAs

Lattice MachXO5D NX FPGA dev board

Lattice Semiconductor has recently introduced the MachXO5D-NX FPGA family, which integrates a hardware root of trust (RoT) into low-power FPGAs. This addresses security challenges by combining on-chip Flash memory and hardware encryption to minimize code capture risks during load time. The MachXO5D-NX family includes three variants with logic cell counts of 27k (FMXO5-25), 53k (LFMXO5-55T), and 96k (LFMXO5-100T). These FPGAs feature built-in hardware encryption, a cryptographic engine supporting AES-256, ECDSA-384/521, SHA2-256/384/512, and RSA 3072/4096, and a unique secret identity (USID) for device identity protection. Built on a 28-nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process, these FPGAs reduce power consumption by 75% and lower soft error rates by 100x(as the company mentions). They support interfaces such as MIPI D-PHY (CSI-2, DSI), LVDS, Gigabit Ethernet, and PCIe, making them suitable for secure edge applications. Lattice MachXO5D-NX FPGA family specifications FPGA – Lattice Semi MachXO5D-NX FPGA family (27k (FMXO5-25), 53k (LFMXO5-55T), and 96k (LFMXO5-100T)) Programmable […]

Raspberry Pi RP2040-based Pico Video4 display board features 4 composite video outputs

Pico Video4 display board top

The Pico Video4 Display is a Raspberry Pi RP2040-powered board that supports up to 4 analog composite video display interfaces with dedicated frame buffer memory accessible via SPI. The four video outputs are sent out through an RCA connector and a VGA DB15-HD connector that uses the red, green, and blue channels to create a composite video signal. The Pico Video4 Display is based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller chip and the VLSI VS23S040 four-megabit static RAM device with a video display controller that can output NTSC, PAL, and VGA video from the memory array. It provides the composite video outputs with a dedicated frame buffer and other hardware. This ensures that the RP2040’s limited processing power and memory are not hogged up in generating the video signal, leaving room for other major tasks. It has 8 inputs that are voltage-compatible to the input voltage, from 5V to 12 […]

Waveshare Pi5 Module BOX is a configurable mini computer kit for the Raspberry Pi 5

Waveshare Pi5 Module BOX

Waveshare Pi5 Module BOX is a multi-functional mini-computer kit designed for the Raspberry Pi 5. The housing of this kit is made from aluminum alloy and Waveshare lists three variants of this kit, the first one is the Pi5 Module BOX-A (PCIe to Gigabit Ethernet), Pi5 Module BOX-B (PCIe to 4-ch USB3.2 Gen1), and Pi5 Module BOX-C (PCIe to M.2 interface). The kit looks very similar to the Waveshare Jetson Nano-powered mini-computer or the ODYSSEY-X86J4105 SBC with a case that we have reviewed previously, there was also this metal enclosure for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 that we have written about, feel free to check that out if you are interested in some similar products. Waveshare Pi5 Module BOX specifications Compatibility – Designed for Raspberry Pi 5 (not included) Case Material – Aluminum alloy PCIe Adapter Board Options: Pi5 Module BOX-A – PCIe to Gigabit Ethernet port Pi5 Module BOX-B […]

Radxa X4 low-cost, credit card-sized Intel N100 SBC goes for $60 and up

Radxa X4 x86 Raspberry Pi 5 SBC

Radxa X4 is a credit card-sized Intel Processor N100 single board computer (SBC) that costs almost the same as a Raspberry Pi 5 with the 4GB RAM model going for about $60 and the 8GB RAM variant around $80. The x86 SBC offers many of the same features as the Raspberry Pi 5 including dual micro HDMI output, four USB 3.2/2.0 ports, Ethernet and WiFi networking, and the 40-pin GPIO header handled through a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller.  Networking is better with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6, M.2 SSD support is built-in and four to eight times faster compared to PCIe HAT for the Pi 5, and the USB 3.2 ports are capable of 10 Gbps speed. So let’s little not too like, and the main downside is the lack of MIPI CSI and DSI connectors for projects requiring those camera and display interfaces. Radxa X4 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor […]

StackyFi ESP32-S3 board features camera connector, 40-pin GPIO header for Raspberry Pi HAT (Crowdfunding)

StackyFi ESP32-S3 Raspberry Pi Zero board

SB Components’ StackyFi is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth IoT board with a 40-pin GPIO header compatible with most Raspberry Pi HAT expansion boards and a camera connector for image capture to a microSD card or machine learning applications. The Raspberry Pi Zero-sized board also comes with two USB Type-C ports, one “native” and the other for serial debugging, an IMU sensor, an RGB LED, and Boot and Reset buttons. The board can be powered through one of the USB-C ports or a LiPo battery. It partially builds upon the earlier StackPi board with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. StackyFi specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 MCU – ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM Memory – TBD PSRAM Storage – TBD flash Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 PCB antenna Storage – MicroSD card Camera I/F – FPC connector that works with OV2640 camera […]

Linux 6.10 Release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.10 Release Changelog

Linux Torvalds has announced the release of Linux 6.10 on LKML: So the final week was perhaps not quote as quiet as the preceding ones, which I don’t love – but it also wasn’t noisy enough to warrant an extra rc. And much of the noise this last week was bcachefs again (with netfs a close second), so it was all pretty compartmentalized. In fact, about a third of the patch for the last week was filesystem-related (there were also some btrfs latency fixes and other noise), which is unusual, but none of it looks particularly scary. Another third was drivers, and the rest is “random”. Anyway, this obviously means that the merge window for 6.11 opens up tomorrow. Let’s see how that goes, with much of Europe probably making ready for summer vacation. And the shortlog below is – as always – just the last week, not some kind […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design