CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Raspberry Pi gets official IQAudio audio boards, improved industrial support

Raspberry Pi IQAudio DigiAMP+ and Codec Zero

The Raspberry Pi was envisioned as an inexpensive, yet highly-features platform to teach programming to young kids, but as soon as the board was released in 2012 things quickly got out of control and many people started to use the low-cost SBC in various projects, or just as an XBMC (now Kodi) media center. Over 8 years later, that means 44 percent of Raspberry Pi boards were sold to the industrial/commercial market as opposed to individuals or the education market. Two recent announcements from the Raspberry Pi Foundation / Raspberry Pi Trading highlight the willingness of the organizations to expand the use of their boards to more markets: IQaudio audio boards and a new section of the website specific to industrial support. IQaudio audio boards for Raspberry Pi If you’ve already heard about IQaudio, that’s because the audio boards are not new. They were developed by a company called IQaudio […]

December 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Qualcomm unveils QCC305x/QCC3056 TrueWireless, Bluetooth LE Audio-ready SoC for earbuds

Qualcomm QCC305x TrueWireless Bluetooth LE Audio SoC

Qualcomm has some SoC families specifically designed for Bluetooth headphones, headsets, & earbuds, and we very recently covered the cute Qualcomm QCC5141 Earbud reference design made to help manufacturers design and launch earbuds with support for TrueWireless Mirroring and Hybrid ANC. The company has now introduced another family with the QCC305x SoC series aiming to “bring premium True Wireless earbud features to a broad range of tiers” such as Qualcomm Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and wake word activated voice assistant, as well as support for the upcoming Bluetooth LE audio standard. The first and only member of QCC305x family at this time is QCC3056 with the following key features and specifications: CPU – 32-bit programmable application core clocked at up to 80 MHz DSP – 2x Qualcomm Kalimba DSP @ 120 MHz with 112kB program RAM, 448kB data RAM Storage – External flash Connectivity Bluetooth 5.2 qualified BR, EDR, […]

December 16, 2020December 13, 2021 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - No Comments

Cincoze GM-1000 Embedded GPU Computer Review

Cincoze gm-1000 embedded computer NVIDIA GPU

Cincoze GM-1000 is an industrial embedded GPU computer. It is highly expandable including supporting an embedded MXM GPU. As a rugged computer, it can either be passively cooled or actively cooled with add-on fans. It can support an operating temperature ranging from -40°C – 70°C and is also able to survive being dropped or hit with a vibration/shock tolerance of 5G/50G. It is marketed as having all the features required for a compact, reliable, and high-performance computing system for field applications in machine vision, image processing, and artificial intelligence. In this review, I’ll cover some performance metrics from both Windows and Ubuntu and also discuss the thermals. Hardware Overview The model loaned by Cincoze for review came with an Intel Core i7-9700TE which is an eight-core 8-thread 1.80 GHz Coffee Lake-R processor boosting to 3.80 GHz with Intel’s UHD Graphics 630. It also came with an NVIDIA Quadro Embedded P2000 […]

December 16, 2020February 19, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Rockchip RK3566 and RK3568 datasheets and features comparison

We first covered Rockchip RK3566 processor in February, but we’ve been informed the specifications have changed since then, and earlier this month, we also wrote about RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with the same base features but some extra I/Os. But due to NDAs, people familiar with the chips could not release too many details, so we did not get the full picture. This has just changed as the datasheets for both processors have just dropped from somewhere here and there, and we can get a much closer look. RK3566 and RK3568 specifications I’ve highlighted the obvious differences above, with the big ones being the PCIe interface and RK3568 having dual Gigabit Ethernet. The other features comparison can be found in the table below. Multiplexed interfaces. Important note. Rockchip RK3566 and RK3568 are using Multi-PHY Interfaces, and while the table above lists all possible interfaces, they can not all be used […]

December 16, 2020December 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

ODROID-N2+ based “Home Assistant Blue” announced as official hardware for Home Assistant

Home Assistant has announced “Home Assistant Blue” hardware with an enclosure designed by Hahn Werke housing Hardkernel ODROID-N2+ SBC, and software supported by BayLibre who helped upstreaming the code. The goal is to make Home Assistant Blue a fully open-source platform with long-life support. The device was officially announced during the Home Assistant Conference 2020 held a couple of days ago. Home Assistant Blue home automation gateway uses the 4GB DDR4 version of the Amlogic S922X SBC, ships with a 128GB eMMC flash module, and offers Gigabit Ethernet and four USB 3.0 ports. As I understand it, the gateway will run the latest Home Assistant Core 2020.12 that was announced at the conference with a new feature called Blueprints defined as “pre-created automation with user-settable options”, as well as new neural voices for Nabu Casa Cloud TTS (Text-to-Speech), the ability to temporarily disable devices, and more. The release was initially […]

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

BBC Dr Who HiFive Inventor Coding Kit review – Tynker visual programing and MicroPython

The BBC Doctor Who HiFive Inventor Coding Kit was announced at the end of November 2020 with the goal of teaching IoT to young kids. But one day, I noticed the postman left a package on the ground right next to my house’s gate for some reason. I had no idea what it could be until I read it was from SiFive on the package. So here I am about to review BBC Doctor Who HiFive Inventor Coding Kit! The package actually included two small packages with one being an “expansion board”… HiFive Inventor Coding Kit Unboxing We’ve already written about the specs in the announcement post, but here they are again for those who forgot it’s based on SiFive FE310 RISC-V microcontroller and ESP32 for WiFi and Bluetooth. Let’s open the thinner “expansion board” package first. It’s actually the HiFive Inventor board – aka the mainboard – that comes […]

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

OneGx1 Pro 7-inch 5G mini laptop features Intel Core i7-1160G7 processor

Last summer, One Netbook unveiled OneGx1 mini laptop powered by an Intel Core i5-10210Y Amber Lake processor with support for WiFi 6, 4G LTE, and/or 5G connectivity. The company has now come up with an update with a similar design, except OneGx1 Pro mini laptop features a more powerful Intel Core i7-1160G7 Tiger Lake UP 4 processor with four cores clocked at up to 4.4 GHz, and a 96EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics. OneGx1 Pro mini laptop specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-1160G7Y Tiger lake UP4 quad-core/octa-thread processor @ 1.2 GHz (base) / 4.4 GHz (turbo one core) / 3.6 GHz (turbo all cores) with 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.1 GHz; 12MB cache; 7-15W TDP System Memory – 16GB LPDDR4/4X-4266 Storage – 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD, M.2 socket for an additional M.2 2242 SSD up to 2TB, MicroSD card slot Display – 7-inch 1920 x 1200 multi-touch […]

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Yeelight Smart LED Bulb M2 (Multicolor) Supports Google Home Seamless Setup

At the beginning of the year, I reviewed Yeelight Smart LED Bulb 1S with both the Yeelink Android app and Google Home app. The light bulb was one of the first to implement support for Google Home Local SDK which makes controlling the light bulb much faster but requires a Google Home compatible hardware platform such as Google Home Mini smart speaker. Using the light with Google Home app still required a Xiaomi account and go through some hoops, and that’s why Yeelight has now launched the Smart LED Bulb M2 (Multicolor) with support Google Home Seamless Setup. The Yeelight app is not needed anymore, and setup is easier with Google Home. All you need is a Google Assistant-enabled device like a Google Nest Mini or Google Nest Hub. Yeelight Smart LED Bulb M2 specifications: Bulb Interface – E26/E27 bulb Wattage – 8W Brightness – Up to 1000 lumens (equivalent […]