CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 16, 2022February 8, 2023 by Sponsored Post - 2 Comments

Elephant Robotics Christmas 2022 sales (Sponsored)

Elephant Robotics is back with another promotional event for Christmas 2022 selling educational robotic kits and toys with up to a $400 discount until December 26, 2022. The highest discount is for the Raspberry Pi 3-powered MarsCat selling for $999, or $400 less than the original price tag of $1,399, but the company also offers an $80 discount for all robotic arms from the company including the myCobot and mechArm robotic arms, myBuddy dual arm system, and myPalletizer compact 4-axis robotic arm, as well as the myAGV four-wheel drive vehicle. If you use the coupon code Xmas, you’ll get a $50 on the metaCat robotic plush toy / smart cat. Finally, all orders over $3,000 qualify for free shipping with the FREESHIP3000 coupon code. The exact same promotions are available on the Elephant Robotics’ Amazon store. If you prefer doing your shopping on Aliexpress instead, Elephants Robotics has more Chrismas […]

December 16, 2022December 16, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

SpinQ quantum computers target the education market

Quantum computing promise a leap in the performance of applications relying upon parallelism using the properties of quantum physics like superposition, interference, and entanglement to perform computation instead of flipping “0” and “1” like traditional transistors. It will be used in scientific simulations, cryptography, machine learning, computational biology, and more. So far, I had seen massive quantum computers in research labs, but companies like Intel and IBM are working on providing quantum processors with hundreds and thousands of qubits that should eventually be found in supercomputers. It’s unclear to me whether we’ll ever see “quantum accelerators” in embedded processors, and in any case, it would be many years away. But if you are interested in better understanding the technology and playing around with quantum computing, SpinQ is selling 2-qubit and 3-qubit quantum computers for the education market: Gemini Mini, Gemini, and Triangulum. Gemini Mini quantum computer Specifications: Number of qubits: […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

December 16, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

PineTab2 Linux tablet to feature Rockchip RK3566 SoC, up to 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash

The PineTab2 is an upcoming 10.1-inch Linux tablet based on the 1.8 GHz Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor and equipped with up to 8GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash. The new model is a clear step-up compared to the Allwinner A64-based PineTab which did not survive the supply shortage and has also gone through a complete physical redesign with a modular metal chassis that is easy to disassemble for upgrades and change parts such as the eMMC module, camera module, battery, or even the display. PineTab2 preliminary specifications: SoC – SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.8 GHz with ARM Mali-G52 2EE GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2. OpenCL 2.0. Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU System & Storage Option 1 – 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash module Option 2 – 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash module MicroSD card slot Display – 10.1-inch IPS display (other details TBC) […]

December 15, 2022January 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

TwoTrees TS2 laser engraver review – Part 1: Unboxing and assembly

TwoTrees TS2 is a laser engraver with a 10W laser, and the company sent us a sample for review. I usually let Karl review this type of hardware as he’s done previously with the Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro laser engraver, but he happens to be busy with another 10W laser engraver from a different company, so I decided to try it out myself this time around. I’ll write a two-part review, with the first part checking out the specifications, unboxing the package, and reporting my experience assembling my very first laser engraver, before engraving and cutting various materials in the second part of the review. TwooTrees TS2 laser engraver specifications Basic TS2 specifications provided in the user manual: Laser Power – 10 Watts Wavelength – 445 nm +/-5 Control board – Makerbase DLC32 V.20 with ESP32-WROOM-32U module Engraving accuracy – 0.1mm Engraving speed – 10,000mm per minute Engraving size […]

December 15, 2022December 16, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Olimex AgonLight2 8-bit open-source hardware computer sells for 50 Euros

Olimex has started to take pre-orders for the AgonLight2, a customized version of the Agon Light 8-bit open-source hardware computer based on the Z80 family and running BBC Basic. Bernardo Kastrup and Dean Belfield created the Agon light 8-bit retro computer with VGA and PS2 keyboard port and programmable with BASIC earlier this year and released all hardware design files, the firmware, and documentation on GitHub, and Dean uploaded a one-hour-long video on YouTube. It was designed with EasyEDA, but Olimex re-captured the design in KiCad after getting customer requests, and the new cost-optimized board named AgonLight2 will start shipping by the end of January 2023. AgonLight2 specifications: MCU – Zilog eZ80F92 8-bit microcontroller @ 18.423 MHz with 128 KB flash, 256 bytes conﬁguration Flash memory, 8 KB SRAM (See PDF datasheet for details) System Memory – 512KB, 10ns, parallel SRAM Storage – MicroSD card socket Terminal subsystem MCU – […]

December 15, 2022December 15, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Business card-sized SBC ships with Intel Core Tiger Lake or AMD Ryzen V2000 processor

We’ve recently reviewed the UP 4000 SBC as a more powerful x86 alternative to Raspberry Pi 4, but if it still does not cut it, AAEON de next-TGU8 or de next-V2K8 should, as the business card-sized single board computers (SBC) are equipped with respectively an Intel Tiger Lake processor up to a Core i7-1185G7E, and an AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 SoC up to Ryzen Embedded V2516. But the comparison stops at the size, as both SBCs offer sets of features different from the usual Raspberry Pi form factor with notably up to 16GB RAM, SATA and NVMe storage, dual Ethernet (1x 2.5GbE, 1x Gigabit Ethernet), dual 4K display output via HDMI and eDP, some USB 3.2 ports, as well as serial and I/O interfaces via headers. de next-TGU8/V2K8 SBC specifications: SoC de next-TGU8 Intel Core i7-1185G7E quad-core/octa-thread processor @ 1.80GHz / 4.40GHz with Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 15W (TPD up: […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

December 14, 2022December 15, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

JetHome JetHub D1+ automation controller runs Armbian with mainline Linux, supports Home Assistant

JetHub D1+ Linux 6.1 automation controller

Earlier this year, we noted the addition of the JetHome JetHub D1 Linux-based home automation controller to mainline Linux 5.16, and the JetHome JetHub D1p (D1+) was just added to Linux 6.1 with some improvements. Still based on the Amlogic A113x processor, the JetHub D1+ gets more memory and storage with 2GB DDR4 RAM and 32GB eMMC flash, a MicroSD card slot, a new RTL8822CS wireless module, and a micro USB port to easily access the console and/or flash firmware to the device. JetHub D1+ specifications: SoC – Amlogic A113x quad-core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz System Memory – 2GB DDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, MicroSD slot Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet RJ45 port Dual-band WiFi 5 up to 867 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.2/5.0 (RTL8822CS) Texas Instruments CC2652P1 Zigbee 3.0 module USB 1x USB 2.0 Type-A host port for peripherals 2x Micro USB ports one console access and […]

December 14, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Sipeed LM4A – T-Head TH1520 RISC-V module to power Raspberry Pi 4 competitor and cluster board

Sipeed LM4A is a quad-core RISC-V system-on-module based on the T-Head TH1520 SoC found in the ROMA laptop and destinated to be found in a Raspberry Pi SBC competitor as well as a cluster board. The LM4A, which stands for Lichee Module 4 Model A, comes with 4GB to 16GB RAM, and up to 64GB flash, and connects to the carrier board through a 260-pin SO-DIMM connector. The TH1520 is one of the rare RISC-V SoCs with a 3D GPU, and the SBC based on LM4A has been shown to outperform the Raspberry Pi 4 in benchmarks as we’ll see below. Sipeed LM4A specifications: SoC – Alibaba T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910 (RV64GCV) processor @ 2.5 GHz, Xuantie C906 audio DSP @ 800 MHz, low power Xuantie E902 core, 50 GFLOPS Imagination 3D GPU, and 4 TOPS NPU System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB RAM Storage – Optional […]