CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 5, 2019March 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 59 Comments

Pre-production HoneyComb LX2K 16-Core Mini ITX Arm Workstation is up for pre-order for $550

A few months ago, we wrote that SolidRun was working on ClearFog ITX workstation with an NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex-A72 processor, support for up to 64GB RAM, and a motherboard following the mini-ITX form factor that would make it an ideal platform as an Arm developer platform. Since then the company split the project into two parts: the ClearFog CX LX2K mini-ITX board will focus on networking application, while HoneyComb LX2K has had some of the networking stripped to keep the cost in check for developers planning to use the mini-ITX board as an Arm workstation. Both boards use the exact same LX2160A COM Express module. HoneyComb LX2K specifications: COM Module – CEx7 LX2160A COM Express module with NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 processor @ 2.2 GHz (2.0 GHz for pre-production developer board) System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR4 dual-channel memory up to 3200 Mpts via SO-DIMM […]

June 5, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Geniatech A683 is an ATSC 3.0 USB TV Tuner

ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) is the standard used in North American, and some other countries around the world such as South Korea, for digital terrestrial television that allows you to receive free-to-air or paid channels over an indoor or outdoor antenna. ATSC 3.0 is the very latest version of the standard with new features including “H.265/HEVC for video channels of up to 2160p 4K resolution at 120 frames per second, wide color gamut, high dynamic range, Dolby AC-4 and MPEG-H 3D Audio, datacasting capabilities, and more robust mobile television support” (Source: Wikipedia). The first deployments occurred in South Korea in May 2017, but it’s unclear where the US is at the moment, and it seems there were some broadcast tests in 2018, but not full deployments. Nevertheless, if you want to watch or record programs in ATSC 3.0 channels, you’ll need new hardware, and currently most TVs won’t ship […]

June 5, 2019June 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Khadas VIM3 Development Board to Launch for $69.99 and Up on June 24

After ODROID-N2, Khadas VIM3 is the second Amlogic S922X powered development board to become available to the maker community. However, while the former have been available for a couple of month, we only knew most of Khadas VIM3 specifications so far. Shenzhen Wesion has now announced a launch date and pricing for the board, and as well as released a few more details. Khadas VIM3 Basic and Pro will start selling on June 24 for respectively $69.99 with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash, and $99.99 with 4GB RAM and 32GB flash. Those prices are very attractive, and competitive against ODROID-N2 due to the extra features like built-in flash. The downside is that those are introductory prices that will be effective for the first production batch and until July 22, 2019 only, after which prices will increase. The company also provided a comparison table showing the main difference between their earlier […]

June 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Xibo Player for Linux Released (Open Source Digital Signage Player)

Xibo is an open source digital signage software comprised of a CMS and a player/client. Xibo CMS has always worked on both Windows and Linux, but in recent years, Xibo Client only worked on Windows, Android, and WebOS with the latter two being paid apps. Many years ago there was a Python-based Xibo player working in Linux but it was abandoned. However, recently the company restarted the development of a Linux player, and I even tried Xibo Player and CMS on MINIX NEO Z83-4U mini PC, but at the time the player was at the alpha stage and not very stable at least with the layout I experimented with. Around two months have passed, and the developers must have worked out the quirks, as Xibo Player for Linux has now been released, and just like the Windows player it’s entirely free to use, and open source (C++ code) under the […]

June 4, 2019June 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

HT-102 is a $130 Thermal Camera for Android Phones

Thermal cameras are useful to accurately monitor the temperature of electronics components, people, fires, houses, and so on. Thermal imaging cameras can be relatively expensive and one way to lower the cost and make sharing of results easier is to get a model that connects to your smartphone. The ones listed on Amazon cost $200 and up, but you’ll find HT-102 thermal camera for Android phones on Chinese websites such as GearBest or Banggood for around $130. HT-102 specifications: Material: metal Capture Temperature Range – -20 to 300°C Accuracy – ±3℃ or ±5% of reading Resolution – 0.1℃ or 0.1℉ Working band – 8-14μm Horizontal viewing angle / vertical viewing angle – 43°±1°/ 43°±1° Infrared image resolution – 32 x 32 Visible image resolution – 640 x 480 Phone I/F – USB type-C port for data and power Dimensions – 60 x 30 mm Weight – 19 grams Temperature Range […]

June 4, 2019June 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

SolidRun i.MX 8M Mini SoM Includes Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur 2803S AI Accelerator

There are already plenty of NXP i.MX 8M Mini boards and system-on-modules, but so far none of those included a neural network accelerator. But that’s now an option as SolidRun and Gyrfalcon teamed up to design SolidRun i.MX 8M Mini system-on-module that combines NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor with Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur 2803S NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in order to speed up AI workloads at the edge. SolidRun i.MX 8M Mini SoM Specifications: SoC (one or the other) NXP i.MX8M Mini S single core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 core up to 400MHz, GC NanoUltra 3D GPU + GC320 2D GPU NXP i.MX8M Mini D dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 core up to 400MHz, GC NanoUltra 3D GPU + GC320 2D GPU NXP i.MX8M Mini Q quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 core up to 400MHz, GC NanoUltra […]

June 3, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Bye Bye Camera Notch, Hello Under Display Camera

As phone manufacturers tried to stretch the screen to body to the theoretical limit of 100%, some not-always-broadly popular design choices had to be made. And so the camera notch was born to expand the screen, which resulted into an ultra-thin top bezel, combined with a small cut-out for the front-facing camera that many people dislike. If you are one of those people, I have good news: the death of the camera notch could be near thanks to under display cameras. Xiaomi was the first company to release a demo this morning through a tweet by Alvin Tse, Head of Pocophone Global for Xiaomi. Check this out from our R&D team! @Xiaomi continues to innovate and we have some exciting tech up our sleeves. RT if you love under display camera! #xiaomi pic.twitter.com/4Rlzt9uRAd — Alvin T (@atytse) June 3, 2019 We can see two nearly identical poco phones above, except […]

June 3, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Silicon Motion SM3282 is a Single Chip Solution for Portable USB SSD Sticks

Portable USB SSD drives are nothing new, but they are usually implemented using a stand-alone SSD with its own SSD controller combined with a USB to SATA or PCIe bridge chip in order to interface the SSD drive with the host computer or board. Silicon Motion has recently unveiled SM3282 SSD controller that also comes with an on-chip USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface providing a complete single-chip hardware and software solution for portable USB SSD sticks. This should enable smaller and cheaper USB SSD drives. Some of the key features of the SM3282 controller include: Peak sequential read and write transfer speeds of over 400MB/sec Supports USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A and type C Crystal-less design for bill-of-materials cost savings Built-in 3.3V/2.5V/1.8V/1.2V voltage regulators Supports LED for indicating access status 68-pin QFN package Compatible with Windows 10, Mac OS 10.x and Linux kernel v2.4 and greater The chip also […]