CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 23, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

HDHomeRun QUATRO 4K ATSC 3.0 Streamer Comes with Four ATSC Tuners (Crowdfunding – US)

If your country broadcasts free-to-air TV channels over ATSC, and you want to watch 4K HDR channels, you’d need to hardware compatible with the latest ATSC 3.0 standard. One way to achieve this is to connect an ATSC 3.0 USB TV tuner to a computer or laptop, or get a set-top box with one or more built-in tuner. ATSC 3.0 trials will start this year in the US, and SiliconDust has just introduced HDHomeRun QUATRO 4K streamer that comes with four ATSC tuners, two of which support ATSC 3.0 standard, as well as one Ethernet port. The company did not exactly release the complete specifications for the device, but here’s what we know so far: Four ATSC Tuners all using QAM256/64 modulation: 2x ATSC 3.0 & 8VSB (ATSC 1.0) tuners 2x 8VSB only tuners RF input for roof or indoor antenna 100Mbps Ethernet (enough to stream four channels at once) […]

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Qt for MCUs 1.1 Adds Support for more STM32 and NXP i.MX RT Boards, FreeRTOS

The first stable version of Qt for MCUs was released in August 2019 in order to bring Qt graphical toolkit to microcontrollers such as STMicro STM32F7, Renesas RH850, or NXP i.MX RT1050. Qt for MCUs would run bare metal on supported boards, and software engineers would develop graphical interface using QML and C++. Qt for MCUs 1.1 has just been released with the addition of more STM32 and i.MX RT boards, support for FreeRTOS real-time operating system, and more. Qt for MCUs 1.1 highlights: Five new supported boards: NXP i.MX RT 1064 EVK, STM32 H750B-DK, STM32 F469i-disco, STM32 L4R9i-disco, and STM32 L4R9i-eval Asset management Optional PNG compressions for assets to lower storage footprint Option to read data directly from flash memory for lower RAM consumption, or copy to RAM for better performance, at the cost of higher RAM consumption. FreeRTOS support (technology preview) to run background tasks without blocking the […]

April 22, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Is MIPS Dead? Lawsuit, Bankruptcy, Maintainers Leaving and More…

When in 2018, Blu posted a guest post entitled “Baikal T1 MIPS Processor – The Last of the Mohicans?” I thought maybe it was too pessimistic with regard to the future of MIPS architecture. At the time, MIPS belonged to Imagination Technologies, but soon the company had its own financial problems and had to sell MIPS assets to Wave Computing. The latter eventually announced the launch of MIPS Open Initiative early last year, so there was some hope as interest might pick up to compete against RISC-V and Arm again. But in recent months, MIPS related news has not been so good. First, Wave Computing decided to end MIPS Open Initiative in November 2019, then Paul Burton and Ralf Baechle removed themselves from the Linux kernel MIPS maintainer list in February 2020, as their work with MIPS ended leaving Thomas Bogendoerfer as the only maintainer. But this month, things turned […]

April 22, 2020July 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

AAEON Compact Fanless Embedded Box PC Features NVIDIA Jetson Xavier-NX or Nano SoM

NVIDIA Jetson Xavier-NX module was officially launched about a week ago, and at the time we noted several carrier boards and mini PCs were launched or announced from companies like D3 Engineering, Diamond Systems, and Connect Tech. We should expect many new Jetson Xavier-NX embedded mini PC announcements over the next few weeks and months, and AAEON has now announced two new similar compact fanless embedded box PCs namely Boxer-8221AI and BOXER-8251AI with the same designed but powered by respectively Jetson Nano and Jetson Xavier-NX modules. Both models should share the same specifications except for the module: SoM Boxer-8221AI – NVIDIA Jetson Nano with quad-core Arm Cortex-A57 processor @ 1.43 GHz, 128-core Maxwell GPU, 4GB LPDDR4, 16GB eMMC flash Boxer-8251AI – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier-NX with 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARM v8.2 64-bit CPU, a 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores, 2x NVDLA deep learning accelerators (up to 21 TOPS […]

April 22, 2020April 22, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Quectel FG50X and AF50T WiFI 6 Modules Target Consumer, Industrial & Automotive Applications

The new 802.11ax standard (WiFi 6) used to be mostly found in premium smartphones, laptops, and routers, but now WiFi 6 is starting to gain more traction as we’re seeing WiFi 6 modules designed for other applications such as u-Blox JODY-W6 WiFI 6 + Bluetooth 5.1 module designed specifically for automotive applications. Quectel has now announced its own WiFi 6 modules with FG50X industrial-grade WiFi 6 module based on Qualcomm FastConnect 6800, as well as AF50T automotive-grade module powered by Qualcomm QCA6696 802.11ax chip. The former will be found in premium consumer & industrial products such as smart homes, smart TVs, over-the-top (OTT) devices, industrial controls, and customer premises equipment (CPE), while the latter will power “the Internet of Vehicles” applications such as in-vehicle infotainment and on-board diagnosis (OBD). Both also happen to support Bluetooth 5.1. Shared features: 802.11 ax WiFI 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac […]

April 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

TransferFi Wireless Power Network Lights Up Sensors up to 55 Meters Away

Wireless charging has been around for a while, and it usually placing a phone or other device on a charging pad. But back in 2018, Energous started to promote its near-field, mid-field, and far-field wireless charging solutions, with far-field meaning within a room. But so far, they only have released near-field devkits and products. Singapore based TransferFi Pte has come up with its own wireless charging solution. TranferFi wireless power network (TFi WPN) aims to power sensors up to 55 meters away and specifically targets building and factory automation in order to help companies save on installation and cabling costs. The solution works with a gateway powering up and receiving data from sensors wirelessly with a range of up to 55 meters. The TFi Gateway Max Turin-1 covers up to 32 TFi Sense devices via multichannel beamforming supporting up to 16 channels and can be connected to Modbus, BACnet & […]

April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

FULCRUM Minibot 1.0 Tiny, Pre-Assembled 3D Printer Goes for $139

There are plenty of low-cost 3D printers in the $100-$200 range, but they usually ship in kits, need to be assembled by the end-user and some may feel uncomfortable with the procedure. But some models ship fully assembled such as Easythreed NANO 3D printer, and there’s now another fully assembled 3D printer that’s just launched. Meet FULCRUM Minibot 1.0. FULCRUM Minibot 1.0 features & specifications: Display – Robin 2.4-inch TFT touch screen Storage – MicroSD card for offline printing Host Connectivity – USB port, optional WiFi module Engraving Accuracy – ± 0.1mm Nozzle diameter – 0.4mm Layer thickness – 0.1 to 0.4mm XY-axis positioning accuracy – 0.05mm Z-axis positioning accuracy – 0.0025mm Printing Size – 75 x 70 x 70mm Printing temperature – Up to 260°C or 205°C (depending where you read) Print speed – Up to 100mm/s; normal print speed: 30 to 60mm/s Supported material – PLA @ 1.75mm […]

April 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Sipeed MaixCube is a Fully Integrated AI Development Platform Powered by Kendryte K210 RISC-V SoC

MaixCube All-in-one K210 Development Platform

Sipeed has made several boards and kits based on Kendryte K210 RISC-V processor for low-power AI workloads such as face detection or object recognition including Maixduino board and Grove AI HAT that ship with camera and display. The company has now come up with MaixCube all-in-one development platform that houses Sipeed M1 module, a display, a camera, and a battery into a plastic case that’s somewhat similar to MStack M5StickV but with a larger display, and variations in the form factor and features. Sipeed MaixCube specifications: SoC – Kendryte K210 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 400 MHz (overclockable to 600 MHz) with FPU, 8MB SRAM, KPU AI accelerator, APU audio processor, and FFT accelerator Storage – 128 Mbit flash, MicroSD card slot Display – 1.3″ TFT screen with 240×240 resolution Camera – OV7740 sensor (VGA camera) Audio – Built-in microphone, external speakers support; ES8374 audio codec USB – 1x USB […]