CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 25, 2019 by Karl Johnson - 6 Comments

Sovol SV01 Review – A 3D Printer that Prints like a Boss

Howdy, Karl here. Let’s do this backward today and give final thoughts first …I like the SV01 3D printer. With a print volume of 280x240x300mm, it’s a good size printer. I think I could get several more centimeters in height if I relocated the filament sensor. I have had it for several months and have printed with it quite a bit and had a really good experience. It is a keeper. By that I mean I have reviewed quite a few printers and I don’t have enough space to keep them all. I find the less desirable ones good homes with friends and family. BTW I plan on doing a follow up soon for all the past articles. Just a few highlights per past article. I think it would be interesting. It is hard to truly review some products in a short amount of time. Back to the SV01…IMO, likes […]

September 25, 2019September 26, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Broadcom BCM7218X STB SoC Comes with AV1 Hardware Decoding, WiFi 6

CNX Software first covered AV1 open-source, royalty-free video codec aiming to compete against H.265 and succeed VP9 in 2016. I also tried the reference implementation and both encoding and decoding were really slow at that time and an AMD FX8350 powered computer would only achieve 0.36 fps encoding on a 352 x 288 video, while decoding was much faster at over 1,000 fps. This was really early work, and the final AV1 specifications were only released in March 2018, before companies like YouTube and Netflix started to publish AV1 video samples, and now I’ve noticed the former is sometimes streaming videos using AV1 codec on desktop computers and laptops. This still relies on software decoding, and most Arm platforms and entry-level level Intel computer may not be able to handle AV1 decoding, so hardware decoding will eventually be required, especially on battery-operated devices since it will consume much less power. […]

September 25, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Geniatech SOM3399 RK3399 SoM Complies with 96Boards System-on-Module Specification

96boards System-on-Module specification was introduced last April together with their first SOM-CA (2x board-to-board connectors) and SOM-CB (4x board-to-board connectors), namely TB-96AI & TB-96AIoT modules powered by respectively AI capable Rockchip RK1808 and RK3399Pro processors that would fit into a compatible baseboard. Those started to ship early this summer, and there’s now a new module that complies with 96Boards SoM specification courtesy of Geniatech SOM3399 powered by a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor without the extra NPU / AI accelerator found in the aforementioned modules. Geniatech SOM3399 Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 dual-core Cortex-A72 up to 1.8GHz, quad-core Cortex-A53 up to 1.4GHz, Mali-T860 MP4 GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0, OpenCL1.2, DirectX11.1 System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 (4GB as option) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (16, 32, and 64GB as option) Board-to-board connector – 4x 100-pin high-speed connectors (X1, X2, X3, and X4 as defined by the spec) with USB 3.0, […]

September 24, 2019October 7, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Energous Launches WattUp Hearables Developer Kit with Near-Field Wireless Charging

We previously wrote about Energous WattUp near, mid, and far-field wireless charging while covering SKIIN smart underwears that could be recharged using WattUp near-field wireless technology, but the technology inside can also support future on the desk (mid-field) or in the room (far-field) charging. The company has now introduced the WattUp hearables developer kit that sadly still does not seem to support mid- and far-field charging yet but provides everything to manufacturers to get started with wireless charging for Bluetooth earbuds, smart headphones, and similar gadgets. The kit offers all hardware and software resource to get started with developing wirelessly charged audio devices: Transmitter reference design with power supply, based on Dialog Semi DA14680 Bluetooth LE chip, DA4100 wireless power transmitter, as well as EN3921 and EN3913M front end ICs. Receiver reference design with DA2223 RF to DC receiver and DA14585 Bluetooth LE SoC Mobile app Reference design user guide […]

September 24, 2019September 24, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AAEON BOXER-8310AI Rugged Fanless Mini PC Combines Apollo Lake Processor & Myriad X VPU for AI Edge Applications

We’ve covered several of AAEON rugged mini PCs part of BOXER-8100 family powered by an NVIDIA Tegra X2 processor and targetting AI Edge applications. The company has now introduced three new AI embedded computers for the same AI edge applications but using Intel processors together with Intel/Movidius Myriad X VPU (Vision Processing Unit) for AI acceleration. The three models are BOXER-8310AI, BOXER-8320AI, and the upcoming BOXER-8330AI based on respectively Intel Celeron/Pentium Apollo Lake processor, Intel Core i3 7th gen processor, and an Intel Core i3/77 or Xeon processor. I’ll focus on the Apollo Lake model in this post to introduce AAEON BOXER-8300AI family of rugged mini PCs. BOXER-8310AI specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Pentium N4200 quad-core Apollo Lake processor Intel® Celeron N3350 dual-core Apollo Lake processor System Memory – 1x DDR3L SODIMM slot supporting up to 8GB RAM @ 1867 MHz Storage Device – mSATA socket AI Module […]

September 24, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Beelink GT-King Pro Android TV Box Features Amlogic S922X-H Processor with Dolby and DTS Licenses

Amlogic offers variants of their processors depending on whether they come with Dolby and/or DTS licenses. For example, we’ve recently seen Amlogic S922XJ with Dolby license only for the upcoming MINIX NEO N22XJ TV box. Beelink has used another variant, namely Amlogic S922X-H, with both Dolby and DTS licenses in their GT-King Pro TV box as an upgrade to their Beelink GT-King TV box which Karl reviewed a few weeks ago. Beelink GT-King Pro specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X-H hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Arm Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.21 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 cores @ 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G52MP6 GPU; 12nm manufacturing process System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 75 Hz Video – AVE-10 engine with 4K UHD H.265/VP9/AVS2 video decoding up to 60 fps, Dolby Vision, Advanced HDR10, […]

September 24, 2019May 3, 2023 by Stephen Vicinanza - No Comments

HealthyPi v4 Wearable WiFi Vital Signs Monitor Follows Raspberry Pi HAT Form Factor

HealthyPi v4 Campaign Starts ProtoCentral has started a Crowd Supply campaign for the HealthyPi v4, its latest vital signs monitoring dev kit. The HealthyPi v4 is wearable, wireless, and can be mounted on a Raspberry Pi. The units are all open source and stand-alone made for end-users, students as well as researchers and developers. An Improvement on HealthyPi v3 The recent increase in health-related tech has fueled ProtoCentral’s desire to bring its HealthyPi v3 up to current usability and development standards. The retail versions of the HealthyPi v4 are made specifically to work in conjunction with the Android OS for ease of use and mobility. Also, the Raspberry Pi HAT form factor is also supported in this version of the device. Articles On Health-Related Development The articles that have touched on health-related issues and topics from our archives, as well as very recently include HEGduino a neurofeedback monitor and […]

September 23, 2019September 24, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

STMicro Launches the first 8-pin STM32 Microcontrollers

At the end of last year, STMicro introduced what they claim is the first 90nm mainstream microcontroller with STM32G0 Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU clocked at 64 MHz. At the time, the family included parts with 24, 32, 48 and 64 pins packages, but there were also plans for 8-pin and 100-pin STM32G0 microcontrollers. The company has now just announced availability for the first 8-pin STM32 microcontrollers thanks to four new STM32G0 SKUs with up to 8KB RAM and 32KB flash in an SO8N package. The 90nm process node and simpler design make the new microcontrollers most suitable for cost & energy-conscious applications governed by battery-capacity limits, eco-design legislation, or market expectations such as appliance energy ratings. 8-pin STM32 Microcontrollers Available Now STM32G030J6 is part of STM32G0 Value Line with 32KB flash and 8KB memory, as well as 6 I/O pins supporting GPIO, SPI, I2C, and UART outputs. STM32G031J6, STM32G031J4, and STM32G041J6 […]