XMOS xCORE-XA Octa-core ARM Cortex-M3 SoC and $14.99 StartKIT Board

XMOS is a fabless semiconductor company that specialized in multicore MCUs that delivers scalable, parallel multitasking compute, which are used in embedded applications for consumer, industrial and automotive markets. They’ve recently announced xCORE-XA (eXtended Architecture), their first MCU based on ARM technology with one ARM Cortex M3 core, and seven xCORE core, as well as a low cost development board called XMOS StartKIT featuring xCORE-A (Analog) with eight cores. XMOS xCORE-XA SoC xCore-XA is actually an octa-core MCU with the following key features: Eight 32bit processors – seven xCORE logical cores supporting DSP instructions, and an ARM Cortex-M3 processor (up to 500 MIPS in total) On-chip Memory – 192KB SRAM, and 512 or 1024KB SPI Flash depending on model. 38 I/O including I2C, SPI, ADC, DAC, op-amps, capacitive sensing comparators, and optional USB 2.0 interface. Hardware response ports – Eliminate the need for interrupts and provide up to 100x faster […]

Crowdfunding Report 2013 on CNXSoft Blog

Crowdfunding has really took off in 2013, with sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, as they enable start-ups to launch new and innovative products, and some established, even large companies, I’m thinking Canonical with Ubuntu Edge here, have also tapped into that market, actually shifting part of the risks from shareholders, to customers / individual funders. In this post, I’ll go through all the crowdfunding projects, 16 Indiegogo and 25 Kickstarter campaigns, featured on cnx-software.com between the beginning of December 2012 till the end of November 2013, to find out which ones have been a stellar success in terms of funding and on-time delivery, and those that have failed in one way or another, with some being close to looking like scams. There was a wide range of products with dealing home automation, the Internet of things, wireless Arduino compatible boards, Linux development boards, media players and more. Let’s go straight […]

SliceCase is a Modular & Customizable Case for Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and Soon More (Crowdfunding)

When you design hardware around Arduino or Raspberry Pi boards, most likely that not, the enclosures available on the market won’t be usable with your project, and you’ll have to design your own which may end up not quite looking as nice as you expected. Two Hornets, a startup based in the Netherlands, is trying to provide a solution with SliceCase, a modular and customizable casing system, that at first looks similar to some other enclosures like Pimoroni PiBow case. But there’s more than meets the eye, as SliceCase is composed of standard components, that allow you to build the casing around your hardware, and even order custom top covers and sides online. At first, they’ll focus on the most popular boards such as Arduino Standard and Mega boards, and the Raspberry Pi, but if this concept takes off more boards will be added. The enclosure system is composed of […]

X100 Raspberry Pi Expansion Board Adds VGA Output, RTC and More

Suptronics X100 is an expansion board that connects on top of the Raspberry Pi in order to add VGA output, RTC, four USB ports, a micro SD card slot, an RS232 DB9 connector, and an 8-channel servo port. Key features of X100 expansion board:   Input Voltage – 6V to 23V converted to 5V, 3A via step-down DC/DC converter to power the Raspberry Pi. VGA – HDMI to VGA converter supporting up to UXGA (1600×1200) and 1080p with 10-bit DAC USB – self-powered USB hub with 4 ports Storage – micro SD card reader RTC – NXP PCF2127AT / PCF2129AT with included CR2032 battery Debugging – RS232 DB9 connector (via MAX3232) to be used with a null-modem cable. I/Os – Reset switch for RPi reset, headers to access S1 & S5 on top of the Raspberry Pi Servo support – 8-channel Darlington driver chip  (ULN2803) allowing to control electronic circuits […]

$89 LOGi Development Boards Add FPGA and Arduino Headers to the Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone Black (Crowdfunding)

LOGi-Pi and LOGi-Bone are expansion boards featuring Xilinx Spartan 6 for respectively the Raspberry Pi, and the Beaglebone Black. Valent F(x), the company who designed the boards, is currently looking for funds via Kickstarter in order to bring the cost down to $89, or even $69 for early backers. LOGi boards specifications: FPGA – Xilinx Spartan 6 LX9 TQFP-144 FPGA 9,152 Logic Cells, 16 DSP48A1 Slices, 576KB Ram, and 96 User Available I/O Pins System Memory –  256 Mb SDRAM connected to the FPGA Storage – 1x High Bandwidth SATA connector expansion port Video Output – 10x Length-tuned LVDS Pairs Connectors: 2x Digilent Inc. PMOD ports supporting 59+ plug-and-play hardware modules Arduino compatible headers connected to the FPGA pins (3.3v only) supporting over 200 Arduino Shields. Bit-Stream loading interface connected to the host processor, optional bitstream FPGA self-loading from onboard Flash. Misc – 2x LEDs 2x Push Buttons 2x DIP Switches 3.3v I/O Regulator and […]

Olimex Announces 30 Euros A10-OLinuXino-LIME Development Board for December

The Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone Black and Cubieboard are probably the best selling ARM Linux boards in the sub $50 category, but they’ll soon be joined by Olimex A10-OLinuXino-LIME powered by AllWinner A10 ARM Cortex A8 SoC with 512MB RAM that will sell for 30 Euros (About $40) when it becomes available in December. Another version of the board based on AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 SoC, called A20-OLinuXino-LIME will also be sold, adding Gigabit Ethernet, and scheduled for Q1 2014. Pricing has yet to be disclosed for the A20 version. A10-OLinuXino-LIME specifications: SoC – AllWinner A10 ARM Cortex-A8 @ 1GHz with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – microSD card slot, SATA, and optional 4GB NAND Flash Video Output – HDMI 1080p USB –  USB-OTG + 2x USB Hosts Connectivity – 10/100Mbit Ethernet Expansions – 200 GPIOs on 0.05″ connectors Misc – Lipo battery management and connector, […]

Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi May Be Available Soon (Sort of)

Since the Raspberry Pi was launched many people have asked, and still ask, if/when Ubuntu will be available for the Raspberry Pi. As Canonical decided to only provide support for ARMv7 and higher architecture, for optimal performance and user experience on recent hardware, and Raspberry Pi is powered by Broadcom BCM2835 processor based on ARMv6 architecture, this did not happen, and instead a version of Debian called Raspbian became popular, and is still the main OS used by most people. But a team of developers in the UK has recently decided to give it a try and launched a flexible Indiegogo campaign in order to purchase enough Raspberry Pi boards and required accessories (power supplies, SD cards, cables…) to setup a build farm for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Ubuntu 13.10, and Ubuntu 14.04. They plan to acquire at least 32 Raspberry Pi boards for their build farm. But don’t get too […]

Ninja Pi Crust Let You Connect Arduino Shields to the Raspberry Pi

There are quite a few projects using both the Raspberry Pi and an Arduino board and its shields together. These are working but the cabling may get messy. People have already found solutions to plug Arduino shields into the Raspberry Pi with products such as Cooking Hacks’ Raspberry Pi to Arduino shield connection bridge (40 Euros) or Open Electronics’ Raspberry Pi bridge (22.50 Euros). Those two boards are fine, but do not include an Atmel MCU, and use Raspberry Pi GPIOs directly, except for their ADC. Another solution is the Paperduino Pi, a DIY Arduino board that can be plugged on top of the Raspberry Pi, and compatible with Arduino shields. But if you want an Arduino board that can easily be stacked between the Raspberry Pi, and Raspberry shield, the upcoming Ninja Pi Crust by Ninjablocks may be an interesting option, especially if you plan to use the 433MHz […]

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