CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 11, 2020February 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

KKSB Raspberry Pi 4 Aluminum Case Review – Benchmarks at Stock Clock and Overclocked to 2.0 GHz

KKSB is a Swedish company designing and manufacturing metallic products for various open-hardware products such as single board computers including Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ODROID, Orange Pi and others, as well as mobile phone and tablet stands, and they also have a mini-ITX case planned for March. The company approached CNX Software to review their latest Raspberry Pi 4 case, and I was interested to find out how it would handle cooling. KKSB Raspberry Pi 4 Case Aluminum Unboxing So I recently received the enclosure in a mostly white package. The case comes in two parts as well as a thermal pad for the processor, mounting screws, rubber pads, and two plastic bits for the LED. Aluminum Case Assembly First, peel over the plastic film on one side of the thermal pad, and place it on the extrusion for the processor on the top part of the enclosure. Remove the second […]

February 11, 2020June 21, 2021 by Stephen Vicinanza - No Comments

miriac SBC-S32G274A Dev Kit Features NXP S32G Vehicle Network Processor

MicroSys Announces Automotive miriac SBC S32G274A Dev Kit MicroSys is showcasing its latest automotive and industrial SBC & development kit, the Miriac SBC-S32G274A, powered by NXP S32G Quad-core Cortex-A53 vehicle network processor. The development kit runs Linux and is aimed at the automotive industry. The Components of the SBC The miriac SBC-S32G274A was developed specifically with the NXP’s S32G274A Vehicle Network Processor for automotive connectivity. A SoM, the MPX-S32G274A, is mounted almost at the center of the carrier board and comes with the purchase. High-speed interfaces include: 2x Flexray 4x LIN 16x CAN 2x CAN FD The NXP S32G Safe and Secure Vehicle Network Processor Made for high-speed calculations and communication, the miriac SBC is built on the NXP’s S32G Arm Cortex-A53 Safe and Secure Vehicle Network Processor. Introduced at CES 2020 earlier this year, the NXP S32G processor is designed with security and functionality in mind. Utilizing ASIL D […]

February 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

MikroTik wAP LoRa8/LoRa9 LoRa Gateway Kits Launched for $169

Last year, MikroTik announced they had worked on several LoRa products including R11e-LoRa8EU mini PCIe LoRaWAN Gateway/concentrator card, wAP LoRa8 kit (LoRa & WiFi gateway) with the mini PCIe card, as well as a 6.5 dBi Omni antenna kit to extend the range provided by the 2 dBi internal antenna. All three products are now available with R11e-LoRa8EU mini PCIe selling for $89, wAP LoRa8 kit going for $169, and the optional antenna kit adding $49. The company also introduced wAP LoRa9 kit with R11e-LoRa9 mini PCIe card geared towards markets (like the USA) using the 902-928 MHz frequency band and selling for the same price. MikroTik wAP LoRa8 kit (RBwAPR-2nD&R11e-LoRa8) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros QCA9531 MIPSBE (Big Endian) processor @ 650 MHz System Memory – 64 MB RAN Storage – 16 MB flash Connectivity Wired – 10/100M Fast Ethernet WLAN – 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 @ up […]

February 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Arm Introduces Cortex-M55 MCU Core, Arm Ethos-U55 microNPU for Cortex-M Microcontrollers

Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things often go hand in hand with AIoT being a new buzz word that came up last year or so. But for AIoT to scale we need ultra-low-cost, low-power solutions capable of doing inference at the sensor node level, and this is only possible with microcontrollers. To achieve this goal, Arm has just unveiled the Arm Cortex-M55 microcontroller core optimized for artificial intelligence workloads that delivers up to a 15x uplift in ML performance and a 5x uplift in DSP performance with greater efficiency, as well as Ethos-U55 microNPU designed for Cortex-M microcontrollers that need even more AI performance (up to 480 times faster), while consuming as little power as possible. Arm Cortex-M55 Key features and specifications: Architecture – Armv8.1-M Bus interface – AMBA 5 AXI5 64-bit master (compatible to AXI4 IPs) Pipeline – 4-stage (for main integer pipeline) Security – Arm TrustZone technology […]

February 10, 2020February 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Coronavirus Update: Many Chinese Companies to Stay Closed at Least until February 17

About 10 days ago, I wrote a post about the impact of the coronavirus on manufacturing and shipping from China. At the time, we knew the Chinese New Year “holiday” was extended until February 10 in order for the authorities to contain the outbreak. That meant manufacturing would be impacted, and not much will ship from China during that time period. At the time, we were also told packages shipped from China were safe as it took several days and the virus would just die off on the way. But there have been some updates since then. First, a new study shows the coronavirus may stay alive on surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days at room temperature. So I’m not sure what that means for packages sent via courier services like FedEx or DHL. The previous link offers some solutions: … but can be efficiently […]

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

GOLE F7 Windows 10 Tablet Review – Part 2: Barcode & QR Code Scanner, NFC, and Ruggedness

GOLE F7 is a waterproof, shock resistant, rugged tablet running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. The company sent us a sample together with a charging dock, and you can check out “GOLE F7 Rugged Tablet Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Charging Dock” to find out more about the hardware interface and other physical features of the tablet. I’ve now spent more time with the tablet and tested some of the features such as Barcode scanner and NFC reader. I’ve only done minimal testing of the usual Windows 10 benchmarks since the Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor powering the tablet has been around for many years, and we have previous mini PC’s reviews showing the performance of the platform in Windows 10 with MINIX NEO Z83-4 Pro or even the previous GOLE F10 model. Instead, I’ve focused on the differentiating features including the ruggedness of the device. GOLE F7 System Info Windows […]

February 10, 2020February 12, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Versalogic Grizzly Embedded Server Board is Powered by a 16-Core Intel Atom C3958 Processor

Launched in 2016, Intel Atom Denverton processors are usually found in motherboards for low power servers hosted in data centers as well as in network appliances. But Versalogic Grizzly embedded server board fitted with the 16-core Atom C3958 Denverton processor aims specifically at embedded systems with applications ranging from smart-grid, and smart-city applications, to transportation, security, and defense operations. Versalogic Grizzly (VL-ESU-5070) key features and specifications: Processor – Intel C3958 16-core Denverton server-class processor @ 2.0 GHz System Memory – 4x SO-DIMM sockets for up to 128 GB DDR4 of ECC memory Storage – 2x SATA 3 ports, bootable mSATA socket, bootable M.2 NVMe SSD socket Networking – 2x 10GbE SFP+ ports (copper or fiber), 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports Video output – None, but optional VGA/LVDS mini PCIe card available Audio – No on-board audio, but optional VL-ADR-01 audio interface available USB – 2x USB 3.0 host ports Serial – […]

February 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Kaleido Screenless Portable PC Comes with Built-in Projector & Foldable Keyboard

The iF International Forum Design GmbH organizes a yearly design competition called the iF DESIGN AWARD. Hefei LCFC Information Technology’s Kaleido is one of this year’s winners. At first sight, I assumed it was a keyboard PC, but instead, it’s a portable computer without screen instead integrating a projector and a foldable keyboard. When the keyboard is unfolded the projector display can be seen straight ahead, but the triangular case allows the computer to project the display at a 30° angle, or straight ahead in “tower” mode which places the projector higher up and may be needed to align with the white curtain. The computer also integrates a loudspeaker and microphone which can be used for conference calls. It’s compact and light enough to be transported in a suitcase between meetings. We don’t have specifications as Kaleido appears to be at the design stage, but the date of launch is […]