Mentor Embedded will regularly organize webinars to show how to use or leverage their embedded Linux distribution, but their latest upcoming webinar entitled “Deploying Embedded Linux on an AMD LX-based sub-$100 Sapphire LX210 board” caught my eyes simply because there aren’t that many low cost AMD boards. The only ones I can think of are Gizmo 2 board sold for $200, as well as some PC Engines boards starting at $106 and mainly designed for headless applications. It took me several attempts on DuckDuckGo and Google, before finding Sapphire LX 210 product page. It’s even unclear how the board is called, as the company refers to it as BP-LX210KL at times, and BP-FT3bGS or BP-210KL in other instances. Preliminary specifications: SoC – AMD G-series LX210 dual core processor with Radeon GPU supporting DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2 and OpenCL.2 manufactured using 28nm process technology System Memory – 2x DDR3 SO-DIMM up to […]
Intel introduced three Atom E3900 series Apollo Lake processors last fall that target IoT, industrial and automotive applications, and Supermicro has designed A2SAV mini-ITX board powered by Atom x5-E3940 SoC that comes with lots of interfaces include 6 SATA ports, two Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports, and up to 9 USB interfaces accessible from connectors or headers. Supermicro A2SAV motherboard specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad core “Apollo Lake” processor @ 1.6 / 1.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, 12 EU Intel HD graphics (6.5W TDP) System Memory – 1x 204-pin DDR3 SO-DIMM socket for 2, 4, or 8GB 1866/1600/1333MHz Unbuffered non-ECC 204-pin SO-DIMM DDR3 Storage 6x SATA3 ports include 2x from SoC, and 4x via Marvel 88SE9230 controller 1x SATA DOM (Disk on Module) power connector 64Mb SPI Flash EEPROM with AMI UEFI BIOS supporting Plug and Play (PnP), DMI 2.3, ACPI 5.0, USB Keyboard, SMBIOS 2.7.1, and UEFI mSATA […]
We’ve seen a series of announcements of Intel Apollo Lake based boards and modules in the last couple of weeks, with community boards such as UP Squared to ASRock IMB-157 mini-ITX board, and industrial system-on-modules and carrier boards such as the ones offered by Congatec, Seco, and Adlinktech. One more embedded systems company has now unveiled their Apollo Lake solutions with Portwell Nano-6062 Nano-ITX motherboard powered by Intel Atom E3900 “Apollo Lake” SoCs. Portwell Nano-6062 Nano-ITX board support either of the new new Apollo Lake SoCs: SoC Intel Atom x5-E3930 dual core processor @ 1.3 / 1.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache 1MB, 12 EU Intel Gen 9 HD Graphics (6.5W TDP) Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad core processor @ 1.6 / 1.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, 12 EU Intel Gen 9 HD Graphics (9W TDP) Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad core processor @ 1.6 / 2.0 GHz with 2MB L2 […]
Some LPWAN standards such as SigFox, LoRa, or nWave allows for transmission of data at low bitrate over several kilometers, and I’ve very recently featured Microchip’s LoRa modules and motes in this blog. So when Texas Instruments sent their December 2015 newsletter entitled Wireless MCU spans 20 km on a coin cell, I decided to have a look, and the company’s CC1310 wireless Cortex-M3+M0 MCU based on a proprietary sub GHz technology also claims to last 20-year on a coin cell for applications such as grid communication infrastructure and heat and water meters. SimpleLink CC1310 key features: Microcontroller – ARM Cortex-M3 @ up to 48 MHz with up to 128KB programmable flash, 8KB DRAM for cache/general purpose, 20KB Ultralow Leakage SRAM Sensor Controller – Ultralow power and autonomous; 16-Bit Architecture; 2KB of Ultralow Leakage SRAM for code and data RF core Cortex M0 core with 4KB RAM, and ROM Data […]
Following up on my 2013 Crowdfunding Report, I’ve gone through all 55 Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdunding projects featured on CNX Software between December 2013 and November 2014 (inclusive) to see how well they fared. The table below sort projects chronologically as they were published on this very blog. Date Project Crowdfunding Site Funded? Pledged amount / Goal Expected Delivery Actual Delivery Comments 2. Dec. 2013 Micro Python Kickstarter Yes 97,803 GBP / 15,000 GBP 03/2014 04/2014 Available @ https://micropython.org/store/#/store 5. Dec. 2013 Plugaway Kickstarter Yes $162,835 AUD / $50,000 AUD 04/2014 – People upset because of lack of updates. Project might be dead, and backers lost their money 6. Dec. 2013 AIRTAME Indiegogo Yes $1,268,332 / $160,000 05/2014 12/2014 People have started received the beta versions, after a massive 8-month delay 7. Dec. 2013 Crystal Board Kickstarter No $14,574 / $200,000 04/2014 – The project appears to be dead 10. […]
AMD has added six new members to is Embedded G-Series family with “Steppe Eagle” SoCs comprising a CPU, GPU and I/O in a single chip, and “Crowned Eagle” CPUs that are not actually CPUs in the old sense, but SoCs comprised of a CPU and I/O chipset, and all of them also include AMD’s ARM based PSP (Platform Security Processor) built upon ARM TrustZone architecture. You may also remember AMD G-Series APUs which are comprised of a CPU and GPU, and connected to an external I/O chipset, but none of these were announced today. The six new AMD G-Series processors are as follows: “Steppe Eagle” SoCs: GX-424CC – Quad core @ 2.4 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, and a GPU @ 497MHz. DDR3-1866 support. TDP: 25W GX-412HC – Quad core @ 1.2 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, ad a GPU @ 300MHz. DDR3-1333 support. TDP: 7W GX-212JC – Dual core @ 1.2 GHz […]
Throughout all articles in this blog, I use a lot of technical terms and acronyms that you may not be familiar with. This glossary will include technical terms used in Android and Linux devices, development boards, and embedded platforms. If one or more relevant terms or acronyms is/are missing, please let me know in the comment section or via the contact form. 0-9 – A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – X – Y – Z 0-9 1-Wire – A single-wire (plus ground) communications protocol used for memory products, interface solutions, and by SW tools. 10GbE – 10-Gigabit Ethernet 10Base2 – So-called Thin Ethernet, using RG-58 coax cables and BNC connectors […]
I usually spend most of my time writing about low cost hardware in this blog, but in this post, I’ll deal with higher-end and more expensive devices based on Freescale i.MX6 with Cornfed CONSERVER Server System and corresponding CONSERVER motherboard, as well as Ventana Network Processing Boards. Cornfed CONSERVER Conserver is a low power high-performance ARM processor server system based on Freescale i.MX6 with 4GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and SATA. The hardware specifications are as follows: SoC – Freescale i.MX6Q Quad Core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz System Memory – 4 GB DDR3 RAM Storage – ?? GB NAND Flash + 1x SATA2 connector for HDD/SSD Connectivity – 1x Gb Ethernet port USB – 4x USB Host ports Video Output – 1x HDMI port Misc – RS-232 Serial port Power Supply – 35W Internal AC Power Supply Dimensions – Mini-ITX form factor The system is preloaded with Ubuntu, and […]
