Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Released – What’s New?

Ubuntu 20.04 Release

Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver”  was released nearly exactly two years ago, and that means it’s time for another LTS (Long Term Support) release with Canonical officially releasing Ubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa” today. There are a few changes to the graphical user interface, Amazon Icon is now gone, a recent Linux 5.4 kernel is used by default with Wireguard VPN backport, and snap becomes a first citizen in Ubuntu 20.04. This is also the first LTS version of Ubuntu that does not provide 32-bit x86 images. Ubuntu 20.04 ISO files will soon be found on Ubuntu website, and if you already a machine with Ubuntu 18.04 or 19.10, you should be able to upgrade with the following commands:

It’s possible the release has not been pushed to your mirror, so you may need to wait for a little while, or use the command to install the development release :

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$50 ODROID-C4 Raspberry Pi 4 Competitor Combines Amlogic S905X3 SoC with 4GB RAM

ODROID-C4

Hardkernel has just launched an update to its ODROID-C2 board, with ODROID-C4 SBC equipped with a 2.0 GHz Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor combined with up to 4GB RAM, four USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0 video output, and the usual 40-pin I/O header. That makes it a worthy competitor to Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM, especially since it supports Ubuntu 20.04, CoreELEC, Android 9, and LineageOS operating systems, and comes with a proper heatsink for cooling for just $50 plus shipping. ODROID-C4 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 2.0GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 and OpenCL 2.0 System Memory – 4GB DDR4 Storage 1x eMMC connector (8/16/32/64GB modules available) 1x Micro SD slot with support for DS/HS mode up to UHS-I SDR104 Video & Output – HDMI 2.0 port up to 4K@60Hz with HDR, CEC, EDID Audio – Digital […]

AAEON Compact Fanless Embedded Box PC Features NVIDIA Jetson Xavier-NX or Nano SoM

AAEON Jetson Xavier-NX Embedded Box PC

NVIDIA Jetson Xavier-NX module was officially launched about a week ago, and at the time we noted several carrier boards and mini PCs were launched or announced from companies like D3 Engineering, Diamond Systems, and Connect Tech. We should expect many new Jetson Xavier-NX embedded mini PC announcements over the next few weeks and months, and AAEON has now announced two new similar compact fanless embedded box PCs namely Boxer-8221AI and BOXER-8251AI with the same designed but powered by respectively Jetson Nano and Jetson Xavier-NX modules. Both models should share the same specifications except for the module: SoM Boxer-8221AI – NVIDIA Jetson Nano with quad-core Arm Cortex-A57 processor @ 1.43 GHz, 128-core Maxwell GPU, 4GB LPDDR4,  16GB eMMC flash Boxer-8251AI – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier-NX with 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARM v8.2 64-bit CPU, a 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores, 2x NVDLA deep learning accelerators (up to 21 TOPS […]

XCY X41 Mini PC Is Powered by an Intel Core i7-10510U Comet Lake Processor

Comet Lake Mini PC

Released in August 2019, Intel’s  10th generation Comet Lake-Y and U-Series processors have been found in several laptops, but there have been less Comet Lake mini PC‘s announced with the new processors. XCY X41 barebone mini PC has been around for a while with Intel’s 6th Gen to 8th Gen processor but has recently been upgraded with a variant featuring the 15W Intel Core i7-10510U 10th Gen Comet Lake processor. XCY X41 mini PC (Comet Lake version) specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-10510U quad-core/octa-thread Comet Lake-U processor @ 1.80 GHz / 4.90GHz (Turbo) with 8MB cache, 24 EU Intel UHD Graphics 620; 15W TDP (TDP up: 25 W / TDP down: 10 W) System Memory – 2x 260-pin SO-DIMM slot for up to 32GB DDR4 2400/2666MHz Storage – M.2 2280 socket for NVME SSD, SD card slot Video Output 1x HDMI up to 4096×2304 @ 24Hz 1x DisplayPport up to […]

How to Build KiCad on Ubuntu 18.04 / 20.04 and Import Altium PCB Files

BeagleBone Black Altium KiCad

KiCad open-source EDA (Electronics Design Automation) suite software is now very popular, and many new projects are designed with the utility. AFAIK, some companies like Olimex switched all their new designs to KiCAD. But since many schematics and PCB layouts have been designed with other tools like EAGLE, Orcad Allegro, or Altium PCB design tools, it would be nice to be able to import those designs into KiCad. Converters have been around for a long time but when I tried to convert Beagleboard-xM OrCAD schematics to import them in KiCAD back in 2012, the results were really awful and unusable. But I recently saw a tweet saying it’s now possible to import Altium files into KiCAD. Finally, importing #altium boards into #kicad is only one click away (in the developer version). This allows to view and edit #opensource #hardware which was designed with #proprietary software, and thus, in fact, not […]

PinePhone “Community Edition: UBports” Linux Phone Launched with Ubuntu Touch

PinePhone Community Edition UBports

PinePhone “BraveHeat” Limited Edition Linux smartphone launched last November as promised for $149.99. As the codename implied, it was for the enthusiasts as the phones that were part of that product batch may have had some defects, and came without an operating system, meaning the users had to flash the firmware themselves. But there’s now a new edition, namely PinePhone “Community Edition: UBports” pre-loaded with UBports with Ubuntu Touch featuring Lomiri user interface. The specifications are exactly the same with an Allwinner A64 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, a 5.95″ display with 1440×720 resolution, and 4G LTE cellular connectivity. The only difference is that Ubuntu Touch is preloaded to the device, and the back of the phone should have a marking showing you purchased UBports Edition. What should be noted is that it’s still not considered as a consumer device, as UBports is still beta, and the […]

NanoPi R2S Dual GbE IoT Board and Gateway Launched for $22 and Up

NanoPi R2S Dual Gigabit Ethernet SBC

We first covered NanoPi R2S SBC back in mid-January 2020. Specifically designed for headless and IoT application the board features a Rockchip RK3328 processor combined with 1GB RAM, and contrary to most competing platforms on the market such as Orange Pi R1 or NanoPi R1S, R2S comes with two true Gigabit Ethernet ports. At the time, the board was not available for sale, but now FriendlyELEC has started to take orders for just $22.00, and adding a yellow case adds $3 to the total. This is around $5 extra compared to NanoPi R1S gateway which was expected with extra RAM (1GB) and true dual GbE connectivity. But in the age of COVID-19, nothing runs quite as smoothly as it used to and the company expects shipping delays: Because of the epidemic, postal services in a lot of countries get delayed. Customers who need orders urgently need to choose DHL. EU […]

NXP LX2160A based NSA 6310 uCPE Runs Ubuntu, Supports up to 25Gbps Ethernet

NSA 6310 LX2160A uCPE

NXP QorIQ LayerScape LX2160A networking processor with 16 Cortex-A72 cores, 16 Ethernet interfaces with support for up to 100GbE connectivity, 4 SATA III, and 24 SerDes lanes, was first announced in 2018, and at the time the company expected the processor to be found in enterprise storage controllers, appliances handling network function virtualization (NFV), white-box switching (e.g. control plane for L2 switches in TOR and EOR applications), and 5G packet processing. So far, we’ve reported about one appliance using the processor, namely SolidRun Janux GS31 Edge AI Server that combines the NXP networking processor with up to 128 AI accelerators for inference at the edge. The just-announced Nexcom NSA 6310 uCPE (Universal Consumer Premise Equipment) serves several purposes aiming to help telecom companies build virtualization environments, and with the ability to connect FPGA and AI/ML accelerators via PCIe interface can also support AI edge processing. NSA 6310 specifications: SoC (one […]