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October 14, 2025October 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Radxa Orion O6N – A smaller, cheaper 12-core Armv9 Nano-ITX SBC based on CIX P1 (CD8160) SoC

Radxa Orion O6N is a Nano-ITX SBC powered by CIX P1 (CD8160 variant) 12-core Cortex-A720/A50 processor with a 30/45 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 64GB LPDDR5, support for UFS and M.2 NVMe storage, and plenty of interfaces. It’s a smaller and cheaper version of the Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard introduced at the end of last year. It offers most of the same features, but is equipped with a CD8160 SoC instead of a CD8180 with a slightly lower CPU frequency for the Cortex-A720 big cores (2.6 vs 2.8 GHz), more storage options, fewer display interfaces, no dedicated audio port, 2.5GbE networking instead of 5GbE, and a few other differences you can see in the specifications below. Radxa Orion O6N specifications (highlights in bold and strikethrough show differences against Orion O6): SoC – Cix P1 (Codename: CD8160) 12-core DynamIQ processor 4x Cortex‑A720 big cores @ up to 2.6 GHz 4x Cortex‑A720 […]

September 25, 2025September 25, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC gets 256 GB NVMe SSD, 16GB RAM, RGB LED lighting

The Raspberry Pi 500+ is an upgrade to the Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC, getting a mechanical keyboard with RGB LED lighting, a 256GB NVMe SSD, and 16GB LPDDR4x memory. Apart from that, the rest of the ports and features are exactly the same for the new “Plus” model: two 4K-capable micro HDMI ports, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, three USB ports, a microSD card slot, and a 40-pin GPIO header. Raspberry Pi 500+ specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2712 CPU – Quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor @ 2.4GHz GPU – VideoCore VII GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1 graphics, Vulkan 1.2 VPU – 4Kp60 HEVC decoder System Memory – 16GB LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM Storage 256 GB NVMe SSD preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS; connected to M.2 PCIe 2280 socket MicroSD card slot Video Output – 2x micro HDMI ports up to 4Kp60 Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port Dual-band […]

September 4, 2025September 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Review of TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus Thunderbolt 4/USB4 NVMe SSD enclosure

TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus USB4 NVMe SSD enclosure review

TerraMaster has sent me the D1 SSD Plus portable SSD enclosure for review, and helped me get a 2TB WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD for testing, since the PCIe Gen4 x4 storage device reached up 7,300 MB/s to sequential read speeds, and 6,600 MB/s sequential write speeds, well beyond the 40Gbps capabilities of the enclosure. I had reviewed two ORICO NVMe enclosures previously, namely the ORICO COM2-T3 and ORICO M234C3-U4, which were both based on an Intel JH7440 Thunderbolt 3 chip. I tested the COM2-T3 up to 3166.71 MB/s with a fast SSD, but TerraMaster claims up to 3,853MB/s sequential read speed and 3,707 MB/s sequential write speed with a 4TB Samsung 990 PRO SSD, while connected to an Apple M4 Pro Mac mini (MacOS version 15.3.2) using AJA System Test software. So I thought it might be a good idea to give it a try. TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus unboxing […]

August 18, 2025August 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

BIWIN Mini SSD offers an alternative to the microSD Express standard

There’s now an alternative to microSD Express if you want ultra-fast storage in a tiny form factor. Meet BIWIN Mini SSD storage with a size (17x15mm) only slightly bigger than a microSD Card and a read speed of up to 3700 MB/s. The new Mini SSD form factor was introduced at Embedded World 2025 last March, but it only recently got some news coverage as mini SSD slots will be found in the upcoming GPD Win 5 handheld gaming PC and ONEXPLAYER Super X gaming tablet. BIWIN Mini SSD highlights: 3D TLC NAND technology Integrates the controller and flash memory modules Interface – PCIe Gen4x2 with NVMe 1.4 protocol Read speeds up to 3700 MB/s Write speeds up to 3400 MB/s Capacity – 512 GB to 2 TB Features – Dynamic SLC caching, wear leveling, TRIM, and garbage collection Dimensions – 17 x 15 x 1.4mm; note: a microSD card measures 15 […]

August 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Pironman 5 Mini is a cheaper Tower PC case for the Raspberry Pi 5

If you found the Pironman 5 and Pironman 5 Max Tower PC cases for the Raspberry Pi 5 pretty cool, but had a hard time justifying paying much more for the enclosure than for the board itself, SunFounder has an update for you. The company has now introduced the Pironman 5 Mini Tower PC enclosure with a similar, yet smaller design, fewer features, and easier assembly, bringing the price down to $45.99. That means the OLED information display, most RGB LEDs, the oversized tower cooler, the micro HDMI to HDMI adapter board, and more are all gone. Pironman 5 Mini features: Compatible SBC – Raspberry Pi 5 only. The Raspberry Pi 4 won’t work, and I can’t think of another SBC with two micro HDMI ports and the exact same layout as the Pi 5. Storage MicroSD card slot Optional NVMe SSD via M.2 M-Key (2230/2242/2260/2280) PCIe 2.0/3.0 socket Video […]

August 7, 2025August 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

VisionFive 2 Lite low-cost RISC-V SBC launched for $19.90 and up (Crowdfunding)

StarFive VisionFive 2 Lite is a low-cost, credit card-sized RISC-V SBC powered by a 1.25 GHz JH7110S quad-core 64-bit processor and equipped with 2GB to 8GB RAM, and a microSD card slot for storage. It’s the little brother of the VisionFive 2 Pico-ITX SBC introduced in 2022, but in a more compact Raspberry Pi-like form factor with an M.2 2242 socket for storage, Gigabit Ethernet, optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, four USB ports, HDMI 2.0, MIPI DSI and CSI connector, and a 40-pin GPIO header. VisionFive 2 Lite specifications: SoC – StarFive JH7110S (a low-cost version of the JH7110 clocked up to 1.25 GHz) CPU – Quad-core 64-bit RISC-V (SiFive U74 – RV64GC) processor @ up to 1.25 GHz GPU – Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan 1.2 VPU 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 video decoder 1080p30 H.265 video encoder JPEG encoder/decoder System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or […]

July 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

P250Q-M80 M.2 NVMe SSD supports one-click data destruction by software or hardware (smoke involved)

Team Group P250Q-M80 is a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD with up to 2TB capacity and a rather unique feature: one-click data destruction with software or hardware method. If you press a button for 5 to 10 seconds, the software method is triggered, and the SSD automatically wipes out all data. A longer 10-second or over press triggers the hardware method, which applies high voltage to the SSD to self-destruct a la Mission: Impossible with smoke and all. P250Q-M80 specifications: Host Interface – PCIe Gen4 x4, M-Key Flash Type – 3D TLC Capacity – 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB Sequential R/W – Up to 7,000 / 5,500MB/s Features – TRIM and SMART support; no thermal sensor, no external DRAM buffer Max. Power consumption – 1358mA @ 3.3V Dimensions – 80 x 22 x 3.5 mm Temperature Range – Operating: 0°C to +70°C; storage: -55°C to +95°C Humidity – 5% ~ […]

June 29, 2025July 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Pironman 5 Max Review – A fancy Raspberry Pi 5 Tower PC enclosure with dual M.2 PCI sockets for SSD and/or AI accelerator

SunFounder has sent me a review sample of the Pironman 5 Max Tower PC case for the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC. We had already reviewed the Pironman 5 last year, but the new Max model has various improvements, including a sleeker design made of black aluminum and semi-transparent black acrylic panels, a dual NVMe PiP expansion board for two M.2 NVMe SSDs (optionally in RAID 0/1 configuration), or one NVMe SSD and one AI accelerator module, a Tap-to-Wake feature for the OLED information display, and programmable RGB LEDs for the two fans. So the Pironman 5 Max deserves another review of its own. I’ll be doing an unboxing, going through the assembly instructions and software installation, before testing the new features, and finally, the cooling efficiency of the solution. Pironman 5 Max unboxing I received the Pironman 5 Max in its retail package along with a Raspberry Pi AI Kit […]