CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 23, 2019January 9, 2020 by Ayo Ayibiowu - 6 Comments

N-Fuse Launches Raspberry Pi 3B+ LoRaWAN Gateway with PoE Support

PoE enabled Raspberry Pi 3B+ based LoRaWAN™ Gateway

Raspberry Pi is everywhere, and this small size single-board computer has reshaped technology and STEM education. The launch of the recent Raspberry Pi 4 is evident in the success and continuous growth. The Raspberry Pi 3B+ has seen so much success in several maker’s projects, while not the most powerful SBC in the market, but undoubtedly one of the most popular. I once put together an AI-powered mobile robot using just a Raspberry Pi 3B+, an RPLidar A2, and Raspberry Camera which was way capable of so many things. Another exciting Raspberry Pi end product is the “PoE enabled Raspberry Pi 3B+ based LoRaWAN Gateway” from n-fuse. The PoE enabled Raspberry Pi 3B+ based LoRaWAN Gateway as called by n-fuse is a LoRaWAN gateway based on the Raspberry Pi 3B+, the LRWCCx-MPCIE Concentrator, and the SBCPoE RPI Hat. It supports both the Europe 868Mhz and America 915Mhz frequency (you have […]

July 22, 2019July 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Intel Agilex SoC FPGA Features Four Arm Cortex-A53 Cores

Intel announced their new Agilex FPGA family manufactured with a 10nm process earlier this April, but it only caught my eyes recently when I saw “Agilex SoC FPGA” listed in Linux 5.2 Arm’s changelog. The Intel SoC FPGA is there simply because it comes with four Arm Cortex-A53 cores. Three family have been announced so far, although the later is shown as coming soon: Intel Agilex F-Series FPGAs and SoCs – Transceiver support up to 58 Gbps, increased DSP capabilities, high system integration, and 2nd Gen Intel Hyperflex architecture for a wide range of applications in Data Center, Networking, and Edge. Option to integrate the quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor. Intel Agilex I-Series SoC FPGAs – Optimized for high performance processor interface and bandwidth intensive applications. Coherent attach to Intel Xeon processors with Compute Express Link, hardened PCIe Gen 5 support and transceiver support up to 112 Gbps. Intel Agilex M-Series […]

July 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Toshiba Memory to Become Kioxia

NAND flash was invented by Toshiba Memory in the early 80’s before launching commercially in 1987, and the company kept innovating over the years and introduced BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory in 2018. However Toshiba Memory is now a separated entity from Toshiba Corp as both separated in April 2017, before the former becoming a fully independent company in June 2018 after it was acquiered by a consortium led by Bain Capital, and including SK Hynix, Apple, Dell Technologies, Seagate Technology and Kingston Technology. For that reason, EETimes reports Toshiba Memory will soon change name, and from October 1, 2019 will be known as Kioxia. The name combines words from Japanese and Greek languages with respectively “kioku” translating into “memory”, and “axia” meaning “value”, which the company says “reflects the value of memory in society driven by increasing amounts of active data through 5G, IoT and cloud computing”. This does […]

July 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

ANAVI Gas Detector ESP8266 Board Monitors Air Quality, Toxic Gases (Crowdfunding)

Leon ANAVI is a software engineer with an interest in open-source hardware, and he had previously launched several ANAVI boards for home automation based on Espressif ESP8266 or for Raspberry Pi boards including ANAVI thermometer, ANAVI light controller, and ANAVI Infrared pHAT among others. Leon has now introduced a new board on Crowd Supply: ANAVI gas detector. The board is powered by ESP8266 WiSoC providing WiFI connectivity, and supports MQ gas sensor modules such as MQ-135, MQ-2, or MQ-3 in order to monitor air quality and detect gas leaks. ANAVI gas detector board specifications: Wireless Module – Based on ESP8266 Tensilica L106 32-bit processor with Wi-Fi 4 802.11 b/g/n connectivity Display – Optional Mini OLED display Gas sensor support – MQ-135 for air quality or any other 5V MQ analog gas sensor Expansion – 3x slots for I²C sensors Debugging / Programming – UART pins for flashing custom firmware Misc […]

July 21, 2019July 20, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - No Comments

UniSoC Successfully Tested their IVY510 5G Modem in Collaboration with Huawei

UniSoC Communications has announced the completion of testing on its IVY510 5G modem. The testing was performed in partnership with Huawei and finished up in July 2019. The IVY brand platform offers compatibility with IoT products and services and is already being used as a cutting-edge option in some devices. The testing had been performed under the auspices of IMT 2020, the regulatory body in the worldwide telecom industry. In the tests, the IVY510 reached download speeds of 1.38 Gbps at CAICT’s MTNet Lab. The IVY510 was announced in February of this year at MWC. It is a multimode 2G/3G/4G/5G modem, that meets the 3GPP R15 standard, supports Sub-6GHz 5G spectrum and has a channel bandwidth of 100 MHz. Offering high performance, deeply integrated, low power 5G platform, supporting both SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone) network arrangements. The ability to move through different network formations allows the IVY510 to grow […]

July 20, 2019July 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 47 Comments

Orange Pi Zero LTS Allwinner H2+ SBC Gets More Efficient and Cooler

Orange Pi Zero is a cool little Arm Linux board based on Allwinner H2+ processor for headless applications requiring WiFi and/or Ethernet that was first launched in November 2016 for $7 and up. It was not launched without controversy, as first users had various issues with the Allwinner XR819 WiFi module, but I had no such problem when I made an Orange Pi Zero Google Assistant smart speaker. Nevertheless, Shenzhen Xunlong Software is about to launch a newer version of the board – Orange Pi Zero LTS -, with the same specifications, but improvements in the design in order to reduce power consumption, and lower the board’s temperature. As the name implies, the company will commit to long term support (i.e. long term availability) for the board, but they did not tell me for how many years. Orange Pi Zero LTS v1.5 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H2+ quad-core Cortex A7 […]

July 19, 2019July 19, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Olimex ESP32-ADF Board is Made for Smart Speakers, Internet Radios, VoIP Phones, and More

We’ve already covered several (smart) audio boards based on ESP32 WiSoC, including the Espressif’s own ESP32-LyraTD-MSC Audio Mic HDK, as well as third party boards such as TTGO TAudio or Seeed Studio ESP32-A1S all compatible with the company’s ESP-ADF (Audio Development Framework) compatible with Baidu DuerOS, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Olimex ESP32-ADF adds another ESP32 audio option, and AFAIK the first one that is open source hardware, with two speakers, and a dual-microphone that enable projects such as Alexa smart speaker, internet radio receiver, or SiP VoIP phone. Olimex ESP32-ADF specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-WROVER-B with 8MB PSRAM, 4MB Flash, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 LE Audio Stereo microphones Stereo 2x3W speakers with amplifier Audio output jack Display – UEXT connector for optional 2.8″ LCD display USB – 1x micro USB port for power supply and programming Misc – IR receiver, 4x touch buttons, 3x tactile buttons Build-in programmer […]

July 19, 2019July 19, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Amlogic S905X2 vs S905X3 – Features Comparison

Despite Arm claiming Cortex-A55 core would bring some performance improvements, we’ve recently seen actual Amlogic S905X3 benchmarks show the performance compared to Amlogic S905X2 Arm Cortex-A53 is almost identical (3% improvement for S905X3 CPU, 9% for the GPU). So Amlogic S905X3 TV box processor must differentiate itself from its predecessor by its additional features, and while we published the detailed specifications of Amlogic S905X3 processor a few months ago, we did not provide a side-by-side comparison table just yet. So here’s one courtesy of SDMC (with some corrections). SoC Amlogic S905X2 Amlogic S905X3 CPU 4x Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.80 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A55 @ 1.91 GHz Neural Network Accelerator N/A Optional 1.2 TOPS NNA GPU Mali-G31 MP2 with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0, and OpenCL 2.0 Always-on MCU Cortex-M3 & Cortex-M4 (Optional ) Cortex-M3 & Cortex-M4 DDR DDR3-2133 /DDR3L-2133 / DDR4-2666 /LPDDR3-2133 /LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM up to 4G DDR3-2133 /DDR3L-2133 / […]