CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 2, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

AMD Ryzen 5000U mini PCs coming soon from ASRock and GIGABYTE

Last year, AMD introduced the Ryzen 4000-U Series mobile processors for laptops but we soon got news of mini PCs based on the processor with devices such as MINISFORUM DeskMini HM50 or ASRock Mars 4000U. So it should not be surprising that we got some updates at Computex 2021 with companies announcing AMD Ryzen 5000U powered mini PCs with the likes of new GIGABYTE BRIX models and ASRock Mars 5000U which are expected to become available in the second half of the year. GIGABYTE BRIX Ryzen 5000U mini PCs Preliminary specifications: SoC -Up to a 15-watt Ryzen 5000U “Cezanne” processor with 8x Zen 3 CPU cores, 16 threads, and Radeon Vega graphics. System Memory – Up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 via two SODIMM slots Storage – M.2 2280 slot for PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) or SATA SSD. The high-profile model will also include an internal 2.5-inch drive bay. Video Outputs […]

June 2, 2021July 31, 2022 by Karl Johnson - 11 Comments

Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro laser engraver – First impressions

Hey Karl here. Today I am here to share my initial experiences with the Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro laser engraver. That is a mouth full so I will refer to it as the LM2Pro for the remainder. The LM2Pro is the successor to the Ortur Laser Master 2. I have only had 1 experience with a diode laser and that was quite a long time ago and a lot has changed in the desktop laser department. I have used the LM2Pro for almost 2 weeks and I am blown away by what I have been able to achieve in such little time. I don’t know if it is better software or the machine itself. Probably a mixture of both. There are 3 different models with different power lasers. The 20W version was sent for review. It is dishonest to call this a 20w laser. I am not sure which […]

June 1, 2021 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 24 Comments

MeLE Quieter2 Review – Windows 10, Ubuntu 20.04, and eGPU

MeLE has recently released a passive mini PC called the Quieter2. What is particularly interesting is that whilst it only has a low-powered Intel Celeron CPU it also supports an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD drive which theoretically makes using an eGPU possible. MeLE provided a 99% discount coupon so that I could purchase one for review and the results from various testing are detailed below. Hardware Overview The Quieter2 physically consists of a 131 x 81 x 18.3mm (5.16 x 3.19 x 0.72 inches) rectangular plastic case with a metal base plate. The top half of the case is finely grooved to mimic the fins of a heat spreader but is made of plastic rather than metal to allow reception to the WiFi antennas as one is directly connected to it. As a passively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s 14 nm J4125 Gemini Lake Refresh processor which is a […]

June 1, 2021June 1, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

You can now buy Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU for one dollar

Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller is not exactly new, as it was introduced with Raspberry Pi Pico board last January. But until now, you had to get samples from the Raspberry Pi Foundation due to limited supplies. What has changed today is that you can more easily buy Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU for one dollar either in single quantity or reels with the following pricing: Reel/Tape with 3400 pcs for $3400 US Reel/Tape with 500 pcs for $500.00 US Raspberry Pi RP2040 cut tape (single unit): $1.00 US The math geniuses among us will have quickly figured out there isn’t any volume discount, so it’s one dollar per chip whether you buy one or thousands. [Update: See comment from Raspberry Pi Foundation below explaining pricing for reels is still to be determined] That’s about all there’s new. If you have not quite followed recent Pico news, here’s a summary of Raspberry […]

May 31, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel Core i7-1195G7 Tiger Lake mobile processor reaches up to 5 GHz

Intel QuickSync & Intel Gaussian-and Neural Accelerator 2.0

Intel introduced the Tiger Lake family of processors last September with the 7-15W UP4-Series SoCs, and the more powerful 12-28W UP3-Series processors. The company has announced two new Tiger Lake processors at Computex 2021 with the Core i5-1155G7 and Core i7-1195G7 U-Series with the latter reaching up to 5.0 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost on a single core to compete and in some cases outperform AMD Ryzen 5000-series mobile processors. While reaching 5GHz on a 28W processor is a nice milestone, nothing much has changed as we can see from the table above, except for tweaks in the CPU and GPU frequency. The base frequency has actually been slightly lowered in the new part, but the Turbo frequencies for single-core and all cores have been increased. Intel did share some performance slides comparing a Core i7-1195G7 system to one with AMD Ryzen 7 5800U. The first slide shows casual gaming […]

May 31, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Intel 5G Solution 5000 5G M.2 module developed with MediaTek, Fibocom

Qualcomm very recently unveiled Snapdragon X65 and X62 5G M.2 card reference designs to help OEM’s develop their own 5G modules for integration into PC’s and CPE’s. But as one should have expected, more options are coming, and Intel have now announced their own “5G Solution 5000” 5G M.2 card for laptops at Computex 2021 in collaboration with MediaTek and Fibocom. Fibocom FM350-GL (Intel 5G Solution 5000) specifications: Modem technologies – 5G NR, 4G LTE, 3D WCDMA Frequency bands – Sub 6GHz for global coverage Data throughput 5G NR – Up to 4.7 Gbps downlink; up to 1.25 Gbps uplink 4G LTE – Up to 1.6 Gbps Cat 19downlink; up to 150 Mbps uplink Built-in eSIM Host interface – PCIe Gen 3 Dimensions – 30 x 52 x2.3 mm (M.2 card) Temperature Range – -10 to +55°C The 5G module targets platforms built upon Intel Tiger Lake and Alder Lake […]

May 31, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mercury+ XU6 Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ module is optimized for I/O-intensive applications

Enclustra, a company headquartered in Switzerland specializing in FPGA solutions, has recently announced the launch of the Mercury+ XU6 system-on-module based on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC. The module is optimized for I/O-intensive applications with up to 294 user I/Os, up to eight 6/12.5 Gbps multi-gigabit transceivers, and available with six different variants of Xilinx MPSoC. The company also offers Mercury+ ST1 and PE1 baseboards for evaluation and early software development. Mercury+ XU6 SoM Key features and specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC (ZU2CG, ZU2EG, ZU3EG, ZU4CG, ZU4EV, or ZU5EV) with: CPU ARM dual-/quad-core Cortex-A53 processor up to 1333 MHz ARM dual-core Cortex-R5 up to 533 MHz GPU – Mali-400MP2 GPU (only for EG/EV variants) Video Codecs – H.264 / H.265 Video Codec (only for EV variants) FPGA fabric – Up to 256,000 system logic cells System Memory – Up to 8 GB DDR4 ECC SDRAM (PS side) Storage – […]

May 30, 2021January 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

MyCobot robotic arm is offered with Raspberry Pi 4 or M5Stack ESP32 modules

Elephant Robotics’ MyCobot robotic arm was introduced last year with M5Stack Atom & Basic ESP32 modules with 6-degrees of freedom, a 250 grams max payload, available now for $599. The company has launched a new $699 version – MyCobot-Pi – with most of the same features, except for an upgrade to Raspberry Pi 4B which offers more performance and flexibility. Both versions of MyCobot arm robotic arm support accessories such as a gripper and a suction pump attachable through a LEGO connector, but while the original version – MyCobot-M5 – relies on Arduino programming, the new MyCobot-Pi runs Debian/Ubuntu and ROS operating systems with image recognition algorithms that can work with a variety of cameras. Since we’ve missed last year’s announcement, we’ll cover both models in this article. MyCobot Robotic Arm Despite the mechanical parts being the same, the specifications for MyCobot-M5 and MyCobot-Pi differ quite a lot: Controller MyCobot-M5 […]