We’ve already seen some small HDMI displays, mostly useful for SBCs like Raspberry Pi boards, including a 7-inch monitor with a stand, a 7-inch HDMI touchscreen display, and a 7.9-inch ultrawide HDMI display. Today, I’ve come across another form factor with two 4-inch square HDMI touchscreen displays with 720×720 resolution: the VIEWE model appears to be new and is the cheaper of the two at about $33, while the Waveshare “4inch HDMI LCD (C)” has been around for a couple of years and offers extra features such as a 3.5 mm audio jack and speakers support, and mounting for Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 single board computers with adapters. VIEWE 4-inch square HDMI touchscreen display VIEWE 4-inch HDMI display (UEDX72720040-HMD-RB-A) specifications: Display 4-inch square HDMI TFT display with 720×720 resolution ST7703 display driver Brightness – 300 cd/㎡ Active area – 71.93 x 71.93 mm Touchscreen – 5-point capacitive touch screen via USB-C […]
upyOS modular MicroPython-based OS for microcontrollers works with ESP32, RP2040, etc…
upyOS is a modular, lightweight MicroPython-based operating system (OS) that provides a Unix-like experience on low-resource microcontrollers such as Espressif Systems ESP32/ESP32-C3/ESP32-S3, Raspberry Pi RP2040, and others. Inspired by smolOS, upyOS offers remote development tools, OTA updates, and a built-in web server. Its modular architecture separates system functions into reusable components, instead of large, monolithic programs. Key Features: Modular architecture: Commands and system functionality are broken down into small, independent modules to reduce memory usage. Built-in shell environment: Execute commands and scripts directly, providing a Unix-like CLI experience. Startup and shutdown scripting: Configure boot and shutdown behaviors using /etc/init.sh and /etc/end.sh. Recovery mode: A built-in failsafe mechanism lets users recover the system when booting fails. Background execution: Supports threads and asyncio for background tasks, along with & sufix, hold, resume, kill and killall commands for process control. Remote development support: Telnet and FTP servers allow file transfer and terminal access over […]
The latest Raspberry Pi OS images are now based on Debian 13 “Trixie”
Since Debian 13 “Trixie” was released last August, it was just a matter of time until Raspberry Pi OS followed. Raspberry Pi announced the update from Bookworm to Trixie a few days ago. The new Raspberry Pi OS images get the new and updated packages from Debian 13, and features like 64-bit time support to solve the Y2K38 bug. However, as Simon Long, UX engineer at Raspberry Pi, points out, there have been fewer changes in newer versions of Debian, and most changes in the new version of Pi OS are cosmetic, although there are some interesting under-the-hood changes as well. The most obvious change from the user’s perspective is the new theme featuring a completely new set of icons, a new font (Nunito Sans Light), new desktop backgrounds (the new default is a photo of the sun rising over the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho), and some other small tweaks. […]
M5Stack LLM-8850 card – An M.2 M-Key AI accelerator module based on Axera AX8850 24 TOPS SoC
M5Stack LLM‑8850 card is an M.2 M-Key 2242 AI acceleration module powered by an Axera AX8850 SoC delivering 24 TOPS ( INT8) of performance, and suitable for host devices such as Raspberry Pi 5, Rockchip RK3588 SBCs, and even x86 PCs like mini PCs with a spare M.2 Key-M socket. The card ships with 8GB RAM, a 32Mbit SPI NOR flash, and also supports H.265/H.264 8Kp30 video encoding and 8Kp60 video decoding, with up to 16 channels for 1080p videos. It is also equipped with an active cooling system to maintain stable temperatures and prevent thermal degradation inside enclosures. M5Stack LLM‑8850 card specifications: SoC – Axera AX8850 CPU – Octa-core Cortex‑A55 processor at 1.7 GHz NPU – 24 TOPS @ INT8 VPU Video Encoder – 8K @ 30 fps H.264/H.265 encoding, supports scaling / cropping Video Decoder – 8K @ 60 fps H.264/H.265 decoding, supports 16 channels 1080p parallel decoding, supports scaling / cropping Memory – 8GB 64‑bit LPDDR4x @ 4266 Mbps Storage – 32Mbit QSPI NOR […]
DDR4 supply/demand stress leads to Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5 price increases
The price of DDR4 memory has increased dramatically in recent months due to limited supply and increased demand for AI workloads. The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and 5 (CM4/CM5) are based on LPDDR4 memory, and Raspberry Pi reports that memory costs are roughly 120% higher than they were just a year ago. So they have no choice but to increase the price by $5 to $10 for the CM4 and CM5, as well as the Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC. I assume the $200 price tag for the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC released last week already includes this new reality. Product affected: 4GB Compute Module 4 and Compute Module 5 variants increase by $5 8GB Compute Module 4 and Compute Module 5 variants increase by $10 Raspberry Pi 500 unit-only increases by $10 to $100 Raspberry Pi Development Kit for Compute Module 5 increases by $5 to […]
Linux 6.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
Linux 6.17 has just been released on LKML: No huge surprises this past week, so here we are, with kernel 6.17 pushed out and ready to go. Below is the shortlog for just the last week – not the full 6.17 release – as usual. It’s not exciting, which is all good. I think the biggest patch in there is some locking fixes for some bluetooth races that could cause use-after-free situations. Whee – that’s about as exciting as it gets. Other than that, there’ the usual driver fixlets (GPU and networking dominate as usual, but “dominate” is still pretty small), there’s some minor random other driver updates, some filesystem noise, and core kernel and mm. And some selftest updates. This obviously means that the merge window for 6.18 will open tomorrow, and I already have four dozen pull requests pending. Thanks to the proactive people – you know who […]
Olimex RP2350-PICO2 open hardware boards expose all 48 GPIOs for breadboard prototyping
Olimex RP2350-PICO2-BB48 and RP2350-PICO2-BB48R open hardware development boards are built around the Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU, and expose all 48 GPIOs in a 0.6-inch dual-inline PCB layout. Compared to the earlier PICO2-XL and PICO2-XXL boards, this new board features a breadboard-friendly design with options for PSRAM and microSD on the BB48R version. Other features include USB-C power/data, BOOT and RESET buttons, a 2A 3.3V regulator, UEXT and Qwiic/Stemma connectors, status LED, and debug pads. With pre-soldered headers, it can be plugged directly into a breadboard, making it ideal for DIY projects, IoT, retro computing, and hardware prototyping. Olimex RP2350-PICO2-BB48 and RP2350-PICO2-BB48R specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2350B CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz with Arm Trustzone, Secure boot OR Dual-core RISC-V Hazard3 @ 150 MHz Either two cores can be used. Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM Package – QFN-80 Memory – 8 MB external QSPI PSRAM (only on […]
Fing Agent Raspberry Pi Kit – An all-in-one Raspberry Pi 4-based network monitoring solution
Fing has recently introduced the “Fing Agent Raspberry Pi Kit“, also called “Fing Agent plug-and-play Raspberry Pi 4 kit”, for its Fing Agent network monitoring system, which can be considered a follow-up to the earlier Fingbox hardware released in 2017. While Fingbox was a custom appliance based on Ubuntu Core, the new kit uses a Raspberry Pi, making it easier to set up and use in a home or small office network. The kit includes a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2GB) in an aluminium case, a 32GB microSD card with Fing Agent preinstalled, a USB-C power supply with adapters, and a Cat 5e Ethernet cable. Once connected to the router, it works with the Fing app, desktop, or web to monitor devices, track uptime and speed, detect intrusions, and send alerts about unusual activity. It also supports device blocking, presence detection, and diagnostics, such as port scans and vulnerability checks. Making it […]


