CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

STMicroelectronics Stellar P3E quad-core Arm Cortex-R52+ automotive MCU features Neural-ART AI accelerator

Stellar P3E AI automotive MCU Block Diagram

STMicroelectronics has introduced the Stellar P3E, the first automotive MCU with an embedded Neural-ART AI accelerator, designed to simplify X-in-1 Electronic Control Units (ECUs) by consolidating powertrain functions like the inverter, on-board charger (OBC), and DC-DC converter into a single module. The MCU enables smart sensing, predictive maintenance, and virtual sensor applications without the cost and complexity of a separate SoC. The microcontroller features four 500 MHz Arm Cortex-R52+ cores with 19.5 MB of xMemory, which is based on phase-change memory (PCM), offering roughly twice the density of embedded flash. The chip integrates multiple ADC channels for precise sensing, high-resolution PWM down to 102 ps for fine motor control, and 10 timer modules for deterministic real-time operation. Connectivity options include Gigabit Ethernet and CAN-XL, for high-speed, low-latency in-vehicle communication. Stellar P3E (SR6P3EC4/SR6P3EC6) specifications: MCU – SR6P3EC4 / SR6P3EC6 CPU Cores – 4x Arm Cortex‑R52+ cores at up to 500 MHz; […]

February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Avalue EMX-PTLP – A thin mini-ITX motherboard powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 358H Panther Lake-H SoC

Intel Panther Lake-H thin mini-ITX motherboard

Avalue’s EMX-PTLP is an industrial, thin mini-ITX motherboard powered by Intel Panther Lake-H Core Ultra (Series 3) family, up to the 12-core Intel Core Ultra 7 358H SoC delivering up to 180 TOPS for AI and industrial automation deployments. The board supports up to 64GB of DDR5 SoDIMM/CSoDIMM memory, features M.2 PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 sockets for storage and expansion, M.2 E-Key and B-Key sockets for wireless and cellular connectivity, a PCIe x8 slot, HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, and LVDS/eDP display interfaces, GbE and 2.5GbE networking interfaces, a range of USB4, USB 3.2, and USB 2.0 interfaces, and more. Avalue EMX-PTLP specifications: SoC – Intel Panther Lake processor with Intel Xe LPG graphics (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 5 322 6-core (2P + 4LPE) CPU at up to 4.4 GHz with 12MB Smart Cache, 2x Xe core Intel Graphics (18 TOPS), AI accelerator (46 TOPS); PBP: 25 Watts […]

February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mimiclaw is an OpenClaw-like AI assistant for ESP32-S3 boards

MimiClaw is an OpenClaw-inspired AI assistant designed for ESP32-S3 boards, which acts as a gateway between the Telegram messaging application and Claude online LLM to control the hardware by just chatting to it. We’ve just written about PicoClaw, an ultra-lightweight personal AI Assistant for cheap Linux boards that just needs 10MB of spare RAM. It was itself inspired by Nanobot, a lightweight assistant written in Python, that’s 99% smaller, in terms of lines of code, than the original OpenClaw project that started it all. Since most of the processing is done through messaging apps and online LLMs, it was only a matter of time until this type of solution was ported to microcontrollers. MimiClaw highlights: Written in C; relies on the ESP-IDF 5.5 framework System requirements – ESP32-S3 board with 16 MB flash and 8 MB PSRAM, such as the LILYGO T7-S3, FireBeetle 2 ESP32-S3, ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N16R8, Seeed Studio’s XIAO ESP32S3 […]

February 12, 2026 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

SlimeVR Butterfly Trackers – nRF52833-based, ultra-slim, full-body VR trackers offer up to 48h battery life (Crowdfunding)

Designed by SlimeVR in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the SlimeVR Butterfly Trackers are open-hardware, IMU-based, ultra-slim, full-body VR trackers designed for virtual reality gaming, motion capture, VTubing, and more. The trackers provide full-body positional tracking without base stations, cameras, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. Each tracker uses an IMU to measure absolute rotation and transmits data over a custom 2.4 GHz ESB protocol via a dedicated dongle supporting up to 10 trackers, eliminating occlusion issues and router setup. Based on Nordic Semi’s nRF52833 wireless MCU, the split “butterfly” design places the PCB and 90 mAh battery side-by-side to achieve a thickness of under 7 mm and a weight below 10 grams, while a flexible interconnect improves comfort when worn under clothing. The system offers a 100–200 Hz refresh rate, <15 ms latency, over 48 hours of battery life with USB-C charging and OTA firmware updates. SlimeVR Butterfly Trackers specifications: Wireless MCU – Nordic nRF52833 CPU […]

February 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

de next-RAP8-EZBOX – An ultra-compact, fanless or actively-cooled Intel Core i7-1365UE Raptor Lake embedded system

AAEON’s de next-RAP8-EZBOX is an ultra-compact embedded system powered by an Intel Core i7-1365UE 10-core Raptor Lake SoC paired with 16GB of LPDDR5x system and one M.2 2280 M-Key slot for storage. It’s offered as either a 42.5mm thick fanless or a 45.4mm thick actively cooled mini PC. Key interfaces include HDMI 1.4b video output, two Ethernet (2.5GbE + GbE) ports, and two USB 3.0 ports. Its compact size, powerful processor, and range of interfaces make it suitable for space-constrained autonomous systems or industrial robots. de next-RAP8-EZBOX specifications: SoC- Intel Core i7-1365UE 10-core/12-thread Raptor Lake processor up to 1.70 GHz / 4.90 GHz (Turbo) with 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.30 GHz; TDP/PBP: 15 Watts System Memory – Up to 16GB LPDDR5x Storage – NVMe SSD via M.2 2280 M-Key (PCIe x2) socket Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 […]

February 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

It’s been a while since we’ve tested a laptop, but CHUWI sent us their latest CoreBook AirPlay 16 laptop for review. It’s powered by a mid-range AMD Ryzen 5 6600H hexa-core processor, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 and a 512GB NVMe SSD, and features a 16-inch display with 1920 × 1200 resolution. I’ll start the CoreBook Air Plus 16 review by listing the specifications, going through an unboxing and a teardown to check out the hardware, and finally boot it to the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro. We’ll then test it in more detail with Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 24.04 or 26.04 (Snapshot 4) in the next parts of the review. CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 specifications SoC – AMD Ryzen 5 6600H CPU – 6-core/12-thread Zen 3+ “Rembrandt” processor at up to 3.3 GHz / 4.5GHz (Turbo) GPU – AMD Radeon 660M clocked at up to 1,900 MHz with […]

February 11, 2026February 12, 2026 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

Open Stack standalone 4G LTE IoT board runs RTOS on Quectel EC200U LTE module (Crowdfunding)

Open Stack — Standalone 4G LTE IoT & Connectivity Module

Open Stack is a standalone 4G LTE IoT connectivity board designed to run RTOS-based C applications directly on the Quectel EC200U series LTE module, meaning you don’t need an external MCU like Arduino, ESP32, or Raspberry Pi. By removing the MCU, the board reduces power consumption, bill-of-materials (BOM) cost, and physical footprint. The board supports multi-band LTE with GSM fallback, GNSS, and Bluetooth 4.2, as well as IPv4/IPv6 client and server modes. It also includes a USB Type-C port, a Nano SIM card slot, LTE/GNSS/BLE antenna connectors, an OLED information display, status LEDs, control buttons, and a 40-pin Raspberry Pi HAT-compatible GPIO header. Networking support includes TCP/UDP, SSL/TLS, HTTP/HTTPS, MQTT, LwM2M, CoAP, FTP/FTPS, and PPP, making it suitable for asset tracking, industrial monitoring, BLE-to-LTE gateways, remote infrastructure, and always-connected IoT deployments without additional controller hardware. Open Stack specifications: Cellular Module – Quectel EC200U-CN series (EC200UCNAA-N05-SGNSA) module Cellular Connectivity: LTE FDD […]

February 11, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

ESP32 Marauder 5G – Apex 5 module for Flipper Zero combines ESP32-C5, two Sub-GHz radios, nRF24, and GPS

Designed by HoneyHoneyTrading, the ESP32 Marauder 5G – Apex 5 Module is an ESP32-C5-based hacking and penetration testing tool for the Flipper Zero, with dual-band WiFi 6 (2.4GHz and 5GHz), two Sub-GHz radios (868MHz and 433MHz), an NRF24 radio, and a built-in GPS. This new Flipper Zero module can be considered an upgrade from the ESP32 Marauder – Double Barrel 5G, as it does not rely on a dual-chip configuration for 5 GHz operation, leveraging the ESP32-C5 dual-band capabilities instead. A microSD card slot handles storage, and the device can also save data directly to the Flipper Zero’s microSD card. It also features five antennas, including WiFi, Sub-GHz, nRF24, and GPS, along with dedicated LED indicators for the Sub-GHz radios and nRF24 activity. There is also a hardware button to toggle 433 MHz and 868 MHz Sub-GHz operation, a USB-C port, and a side button for power management and firmware […]