CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 5, 2021January 5, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Balena EtcherPro multi SD card writer now up for pre-order

We first wrote about Balena EtcherPro in December 2018, as a relatively low-cost multi-SD card writer, designed by Balena for people who needed to flash several micro SD cards, USB drives, or boards. At the time, mass production was scheduled for Q2 2019. But it took a bit more time than expected, and the company is only now taking pre-orders for the device with a $50 deposit, and $990 price tag excluding VAT and shipping. EtcherPro highlights and specifications: Display – 7-inch RGB touch screen for control Ports – 16x USB 3.0, 16x SD card slots, 16x MicroSD card slots to flash up to 16 drives/devices at once Flash at speeds up to 52MB/s when flashing 16 drives/devices simultaneously, or up to 200MB/s for a single drive/device Supports SD, microSD, USB drives, and single-board computers (or compute modules via carrier boards) Flash an image from a physical drive source or […]

January 5, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

5G coming to entry-level devices with Snapdragon 480 5G SoC

5G rollout really only started ramping in 2019, and we covered premium 5G mobile SoC like Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Huawei Kirin 990 or Samsung Exynos 980, as soon as December 2018. In late 2019 and 2020, 5G came to mid-range mobile devices thanks to chips such as Snapdragon 765(G), MediaTek Dimensity 720, UNISOC T7520, and others. Somehow, 5G still felt premium to me since the technology is still relatively, so I was surprised by the level of coverage in Europe and the US, and even smaller countries like Thailand, when I looked at the 5G coverage map above after seeing an announcement for Snapdragon 480 processor designed for entry-level 5G smartphones. Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 (SM4350) key features and specifications: CPU – Octa-core Kryo 460 processor with two Cortex-A76 class cores @ 2.0 GHz, six Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz GPU – Adreno 619 GPU with H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) VP8 […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

January 5, 2021October 24, 2024 by Saumitra Jagdale - 1 Comment

BHI260AP is an AI smart sensor with built-in IMU by Bosch Sensortec

BHI260AP AI smart sensor integrates a 6-axis IMU, a 32-bit customizable programmable microcontroller, and various software functionalities. The AI smart sensor has embedded AI with on-sensor applications such as fitness tracking, navigation, machine learning analytics, and orientation estimation. The dimensions of the miniaturized AI smart sensor are 4.1mm x 3.6mm x 0.83 mm. Hardware Features of BHI260AP AI Smart Sensor ARC EM4 CPU includes ARCv2 16/32 bit instruction set working up to a frequency of 3.6 MHz. The core also integrates Floating Point Unit (FPU) and Memory Protection Unit (MPU) with 4 channel micro DMA controller. CPU has two modes of AI functioning at 25Hz and 50Hz with 249µA and 386µA of current consumption respectively. Integrated sensor (6-DoF IMU) includes 16-bit 3 axis accelerometer and 16-bit 3 axis gyroscope. The sensor works at an operating voltage of 1.8 V with a standby current value of 8µA, hence the power consumption […]

January 4, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

100 Allwinner A20 EOMA68 CPU cards manufactured for testing

Last week, and technically last year, we wrote Dragonbox Pyra open-source hardware handheld Linux PC was ready to ship after 6 years in the making, and 4 years after initial pre-orders, highlighting that such projects can take a long time. But it’s not the only project to have suffered from long delays, but still slowly getting things done. Rhombus Tech started working on earth-friendly EOMA68 (Embedded Open Modular Architecture Standard) computing cards based on the 68-pin PCMCIA form factor in 2012, before launching Allwinner A20 based EOMA68 cards on Crowd Supply in 2016 together with laptop and micro PC shells. The project had regular updates over the year, mostly to discuss the progress of the project, and unexpected challenges encountered. But there may light in the tunnel, as in the latest December 30th update, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (LKCL) announced the company had managed to manufacture 100 OEMA68 cards based […]

January 4, 2021January 4, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 mini-STX SBC to power gaming machines, digital signage, PoS…

SAPPHIRE introduced the FS-FP5V 5-inch SBC powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor in 2018, followed by FS-FP5R board based on AMD Ryzen R1000 processor the following year. But with the launch of AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processor family in 2020, it should come as no surprise that Sapphire has also introduced a new 5″x5″ mini-STX SBC powered by Ryzen Embedded V2000 SoCs with Sapphire (V2000) FS-FP6. Sapphire FS-FP6 specifications Specifications with differences against FS-FP5V highlighted in bold: SoC AMD Ryzen Embedded V2516 hexa-core/12-thread processor @ 2.1 GHz / 3.95 GHz (Turbo) with 3MB L2 cache, 6 CUs Radeon RX Vega 6 GPU @ 1.5 GHz; TDP: 10-25W TDP (15W default) AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 hexa-core/12-thread processor @ 3.0 GHz / 3.95 GHz (turbo) with 3 MB L2 cache, 6 CUs Radeon RX Vega 6 GPU @ 1.5 GHz; TDP: 35-54W TDP (45W default) AMD Ryzen Embedded V2718 octa-core/16-thread processor […]

January 4, 2021January 6, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 393 Comments

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max mini PC international giveaway

Right before Christmas, I posted a review of MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max mini PC powered by an Intel Pentium J5005 Gemini Lake processor coupled with 8GB RAM and a 240GB SSD. It’s basically the same as the previously reviewed MINIX NEO J50C-4 except for the extra memory and faster & higher capacity SSD storage. MINIX asked me if I could do a giveaway of three units on CNX Software after the review, and I thought it would be a good idea so here we are. I wanted to complete the review before launching the giveaway and tested MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max with the pre-installed Windows 10 Pro. I worked just as well as the previous model with no CPU throttling and the performance one should expect from a Gemini Lake processor, but you may want to add an extra 8GB memory stick to take advantage of the higher bandwidth provided […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

January 3, 2021March 1, 2021 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 42 Comments

Rock Pi X Review – An Atom x5 SBC running Windows 10 or Ubuntu 20.04

The ROCK Pi X is the first x86 SBC (single board computer) from Radxa and resulted from repeated enquiries about running Windows on their earlier ROCK Pi 4. The ROCK Pi X comes in two models (Model A and Model B) with each model having either 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of RAM and either 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB of eMMC storage. Additionally, the Model B includes WiFi and Bluetooth together with supporting Power over Ethernet (PoE) although this requires an additional HAT. Both Seeed Studio and Radxa provided samples and in this review, I’ll cover some performance metrics from both Windows and Ubuntu and also discuss the thermals. Rock Pi X Hardware Overview The ROCK Pi X is similar in size to a Raspberry Pi board… but with slightly different ports and port locations even when compared to the Raspberry Pi 4. It is physically slightly larger than its […]

January 2, 2021February 26, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

ESP32-S3 dual-core WiFi and Bluetooth LE 5 SoC supports AI acceleration for AIoT applications

Back in September, we reported that Espressif Systems planned to release a new ESP32-S3 with “AI instructions and multi-CPU cores” with few other details, except the chip would also be part of the MINI-series wireless modules. Now we have many more details, as the Shanghai-based company has now officially announced ESP32-S3. The processor features dual Tensilica LX7 cores, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 & Bluetooth 5 connectivity, and as expected supports AI instructions to cater to the AIoT (AI + IoT) market. ESP32-S3 key features and specifications: CPU Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with additional vector instructions for AI acceleration ULP core to handle low power modes Memory – 512 KB of internal SRAM Storage – Octal SPI flash and PSRAM support (supports larger, high-speed devices compared to ESP32) Connectivity 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 with 40 MHz bandwidth support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0 connectivity with long-range […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications