CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 4, 2020November 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Singles Day 2020 Promotions and Coupon Codes

Singles Day started as an event in mainland China that offers discounts similar to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the west. It happens every year on November 11 and has now expanded to overseas markets thanks to popular Chinese online shopping websites. Just like in prior years, I’ll list some of the offers for SIngles Day 2020 from sites like Aliexpress, Banggood, Geekbuying, and others. Aliexpress Singles Day 2020 Aliexpress 11.11 Global Shopping Festival has been on since October 28th, but there’s no actual discount just yet. You can simply add an item to your cart, and purchase it at a discounted price on November 11-12 with discounts up to 70% off. There are also coupons for various products. You’ll find all instructions on the shopping guide, or go to coupon codes. If you’re specifically looking for Arm Linux development boards, Khadas has a $2 coupon and discounts for […]

November 4, 2020November 6, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 150 Comments

Giveaway Week – MINIX NEO C-G USB-C Multiport Adapter

I started Giveaway Week 2020 with MINIX NEO Storage Plus USB-C Hub with 480GB SSD, but I have another USB-C hub from the company, this time without storage: MINIX NEO C-G USB-C multiport adapter. It’s a standard USB-C adapter with two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, HDMI output up to 4Kp60, Gigabit Ethernet, and USB-C pass-through port. To enter the draw simply leave a comment with your country and whatever else you’d like to say. If the country is missing, I’ll consider the entry void. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address. Contests are open for 48 hours starting at 11 am (Bangkok time) every day. Comments will be closed after 48 hours. If comments are open, the contest is still going on. Winners will be selected with random.org, and announced in the […]

November 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Librem Mini v2 Linux Mini PC features Intel Core i7-10510U Comet Lake Processor

Purism launches their first Linux mini PC with Librem Mini powered by an Intel Core i7-8565U Whiskey Lake processor earlier this year, and now the company has unveiled an updated model with the same features, except that Librem Mini v2 mini PC features a slightly more powerful 10th generation Intel Core i7-10510U Comet Lake processor for the same $699 price tag. Librem Mini v2 specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-10510U quad-core/octa-thread Comet Lake processor @ 1.8 GHz / 4.9 GHz (Turbo) with 8MB cache, Intel UHD Graphics 620; 15W TDP System Memory – 2x SO-DIMM slot for up to 64GB DDR4-2400 RAM Storage – 1x SATA III 6Gbps SSD/HDD (7mm thickness), 1x M.2 SSD (SATA III/NVMe x4) Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz, 1x DisplayPort 1.2 up to 4K @ 60Hz Audio – 3.5mm audio jack (Mic & Headphone), digital audio via HDMI Connectivity Gigabit […]

November 3, 2020November 7, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Arm Cortex-A78C core supports up to 8 cores per cluster, 8MB L3 cache for always-on laptops

[Update November 7, 2020: Correction for the meaning of “multi-OS support” on Arm Cortex-A78AE core] Arm Cortex-A78 CPU core was first introduced in May 2020 with a focus on mobile devices like smartphones and was followed by Cortex-A78AE for automotive and industrial embedded applications in September. The company has now introduced a new variant with Arm Cortex-A78C supporting up to eight cores per cluster, a larger cache up to 8MB for higher performance, and advanced security features all designed for always-on laptops and other “on-the-go” devices. Arm Cortex-A78C key features and specifications: Architecture – Armv8-A (Harvard) Extensions – Armv8.1, Armv8.2, Cryptography, and RAS; Armv8.3 (LDAPR instructions only), Armv8.3-A and Armv8.6-A Pointer Authentication support (excluding the optional FPAC extension), and Armv8.4 multi-OS support ISA support – A64, A32, and T32 (at EL0 only) Microarchitecture Pipeline – Out of order Superscalar Neon / Floating Point Unit Optional cryptography Unit Max number of […]

November 3, 2020December 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Precursor is a mobile, open hardware, dual FPGA development kit (Crowdfunding)

Precursor mobile open-source dual FPGA devkit

Sutajio Ko-usagi PTE LTD has launched some interesting hardware on Crowd Supply over the years include Novena open-source hardware Arm laptop, and Fomu FPGA USB board. The company is now back with another project: Precursor, a mobile, open-source hardware devkit powered by not one, but two FPGA with Xilinx Spartan 7-Series FPGA, plus a super-low-power Lattice iCE40 UP5K FPGA for deep-sleep system management. The device also comes with a display, battery, and keyboard that make it looks like older Palm or Blackberry phones. Precursor FPGA devkit specifications: FPGA Xilinx XC7S50 primary System on Chip (SoC) FPGA with -L1 speed grade for longer battery life; tested with 100 MHz VexRISC-V, RV32IMAC + MMU, 4k L1 I/D cache Lattice Semi iCE40UP5K secondary Embedded Controller (EC) FPGA for power, standby, and charging functions; tested with 18 MHz VexRISC-V, RV32I, no cache System Memory – 16MB external SRAM Storage – 128MB flash Display -536 […]

November 3, 2020November 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 97 Comments

Giveaway Week – Miniware DT71 Smart Tweezers

Day 2 of Giveaway Week 2020 on CNX Software. What do we have here? Miniware DT71 smart tweezers that serve as LCR meter, basic signal generator, and of course actual tweezers. I found DT71 to be a useful tool for electronics enthusiasts and engineers for checking out SMT (and DIP) components, debugging boards, and even generating signals for testing. When connected to a PC, it will show as a USB storage device that you can use to adjust settings or upgrade the firmware. To enter the draw simply leave a comment with your country and whatever else you’d like to say. If the country is missing, I’ll consider the entry void. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address. Contests are open for 48 hours starting at 11 am (Bangkok time) every day. Comments will be […]

November 2, 2020November 2, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 67 Comments

Raspberry Pi 400 Keyboard PC Review and Benchmarks vs Raspberry Pi 4

Raspberry Pi 400 Review vs Raspberry Pi 4

Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard computer with Broadcom BCM2711C0 1.8 GHz processor has just launched, and we already published a teardown of the Raspberry Pi 400 hardware to check out the cooling solution and overall hardware design. In this review, we’ll mostly focus on Raspberry Pi 400 and Raspberry Pi 4 differences, since both devices mostly rely on the same chips. After checking the different features, we’ll run Thomas Kaiser’s “SBC Bench” script to test thermal cooling and benchmark both RPi hardware platforms. Raspberry Pi 400 vs Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Features Since under the hood, the two platforms are very similar, we’ll highlight the difference as shown in the table below courtesy of Cytron. Price is not shown in the table above, but Raspberry Pi 400 costs $70, while Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB goes for $55. That’s $15 extra for a keyboard, case, and cooling solution, so the […]

November 2, 2020November 2, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Raspberry Pi 400 Teardown – Heat spreader and motherboard

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has just introduced the Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard computer with the guts of Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, 4GB RAM, and a 78-key keyboard. I got a sample courtesy of Cytron, so before we test the device in more detail, I decided to have a look at the internals with a teardown. Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard PC can easily and safely be opened with an old credit card or other hard cards – I used a card holding a SIM card – that you can swipe between the pink case and the white keyboard to pop out the keyboard. The keyboard is attached to the mainboard with a flat cable, so we can lift the black part of the connector to take it out, and this will reveal the large heat spreader (metal plate) that, as we’ll soon see, is the secret sauce to keep the computer […]