CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 3, 2020May 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

ODROID-Go Advance Black Edition Gets WiFi, R2/L2 Button, and USB-C Power Input

At the end of last year, Hardkernel launched ODROID-GO Advance portable Linux retro game console powered by a Rockchip RK3326 processor with 1GB RAM, and a 3.5″ color display. While it was fairly well-received, people wished it would not come with a large power barrel jack and included WiFi among a few other requests. COVID-19 also delayed mass-production of the device, but the silver lining is that the company decided to make a new revision 1.1 PCB with a USB-C port for power input, a WiFi module, and R2 and L2 buttons that’s planned to launch soon under the name ODROID-Go Advance Black Edition. ODROID-Go Advance Black Edition specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3326 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.3GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3L @ 786Mhz, 32 Bits bus width Storage – 16MB SPI Flash for bootloader, Micro SD Card slot (UHS-1 Capable interface) Display – […]

May 2, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

MINISFORUM S40 Celeron N4000 PC Stick with HDMI & miniDP Goes for $190

MINISFORUM S40 Gemini Lake PC Stick HDMI miniDP

MINISFORUM S40 is yet another Gemini Lake mini PC, but it comes in a super-compact PC Stick form factor and combines an Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core processor with 4GB DDR4 RAM and 64G eMMC flash storage. All that for just $189.99 on Banggood. MINISFORUM S40 specification: SoC – Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core Gemini Lake processor @ 1.1GHz / 2.6GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphic 600; 6W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 64GB eMMC flash and microSD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz, mini DisplayPort port up to 4K @ 60 Hz Connectivity – Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 2.0 port Misc – Power button, reset pinhole, Kensington lock support, cooling fan, ventilation hole with dustproof net Power Supply – 12V? via USB-C port Dimensions – 133 x 46 […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Congatec conga-TR4 COM Express Module is Powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded SoC

We’ve covered plenty of AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000-series SBCs, and some Ryzen Embedded mini PCs, but so far, we had not written about any AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 or R1000 system-on-module (SoM) or computer-on-module (CoM), partially because there aren’t many yet, and because we missed Advantech SOM-5871 CPU module earlier this year. But there’s now another option courtesy of Congatec with conga-TR4 AMD Ryzen Embedded COM Express module with consumer or industrial temperature range, and a choice of seven different processors. conga-TR4 COM Express module specifications: SoC (one or the other) AMD Ryzen V1807B quad-core processor @ up to 3.35 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, Vega 11 graphics; 35-54W TDP AMD Ryzen V1756B quad-core processor @ up to 3.25 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, Vega 8 graphics; 35-54W TDP AMD Ryzen V1605B quad-core processor @ 2.0 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, Vega 8 graphics; 12-25W TDP AMD Ryzen V1202B dual-core […]

May 1, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

ATX12VO Standard Reduces Idle Desktop Power of ATX Motherboards

I remember a few years back when I still used an AMD FX8350 power tower PC power consumption was about 75 Watts at idle, and around 15-20 Watts when the computer was turned off. Those are really high numbers especially considering many systems can now run under full-load for up to 15-20 Watts. Power consumption has vastly improved since, but desktop computers are still not the most efficient even while idled or power off, so a new standard has been created. ATX12VO single rail power supply desktop platform form factor takes out the 3.3- and 5-volt rails from the power supply and relies on the motherboard instead that can handle those voltages more efficiently. The name makes sense as ATX12VO should read as ATX 12 Volts Only. The new motherboard standard was at least partially designed to meet the requirements of upcoming new energy regulations for desktop computers in the […]

May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Particle Tracking System Offers Software, Hardware LTE IoT Module and Tracker in Turnkey Solution

Particle’s first cellular M2M module was launched in 2015 when the company was still called Spark IO. Since then they’ve offered new modules and boards supporting recent standards like NB-IoT and/or LTE Cat-M with product likes Boron and E series castellated modules. The company found out that most of their customers used their boards for asset tracking despite many off-the-shelf products already available, and the main reason was the ability to customize the solution. To help their customers, the company has now launched the Particle Tracking System combining a software suite with LTE IoT system-on-module and Tracker One reference product to ease the development and deployment of customized asset tracking solutions. Particle Tracking System is comprised of three main components relying on the existing Particle IoT platform: Particle Tracking Services software suite with geolocation services (mapping and geodatabase), fleet-wide device management, an open device firmware application framework to integrate with […]

April 30, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

QEMU 5.0 Supports Recent Armv8.x Features, Cortex-M7 CPU, Host Directory Access, and More

QEMU (Quick EMUlator) is an open-source emulator that’s great to run programs on various architectures such as Arm, RISC-V, and many others when you don’t own proper hardware. The developers have now released QEMU 5.0.0 will plenty of new features and such as support for Armv8.1 to Armv8.4 architectures, Arm Cortex-M7 processor, various changes to MIPS, PowerPC, RISC-V, s390… architectures, support for accessing a directory on the host filesystem from the guest using virtiofsd and more. There have been over 2800+ commits from 232 developers, so the list of changes to too long to write here, but some of the highlights include: Support for passing host filesystem directory to guest via virtiofsd Support for ARMv8.1 VHE/VMID16/PAN/PMU, ARMv8.2 UAO/DCPoP/ATS1E1/TTCNP, ARMv8.3 RCPC/CCIDX, ARMv8.4 PMU/RCPC Added ARM Cortex-M7 CPU support New Arm boards: tacoma-bmc, Netduino Plus 2, and Orange Pi PC Allwinner SoC model now wires up the USB ports TPM support for […]

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

April 30, 2020July 31, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Raspberry Pi HQ Camera Features a 12MP Sensor, Supports Interchangeable Lenses

The Raspberry Pi Foundation introduced the first official Raspberry Pi camera in May 2013. The $25 camera module came with a 5MP sensor and connected via the board’s MIPI CSI connector. Then in 2016, the company launched version 2 of the camera with an 8MP sensor. The foundation has now launched a much better camera called Raspberry Pi HQ Camera (High-Quality Camera) with a 12MP sensor, improved sensitivity, and support for interchangeable lenses both in C- and CS-mount form factors. The module itself is equipped with a Sony IMX477 sensor, a milled aluminum lens mount with integrated tripod mount and focus adjustment ring, a C- to CS-mount adapter, and an FPC cable for connection to a Raspberry Pi SBC. RPi HQ camera specification: Sensor – 12.3MP Sony IMX477R stacked, back-illuminated sensor; 7.9 mm sensor diagonal, 1.55 μm × 1.55 μm pixel size Output – RAW12/10/8, COMP8 Back focus – Adjustable […]

April 30, 2020April 30, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

“New” Raspberry Pi 3B v1.2/v1.3 May be Incompatible with Cases with Embedded Heatsink

As we’ve recently seen with Raspberry Pi 4 v1.2, the Raspberry Pi Foundation will sometimes provide new revisions of their boards with small differences or fixes that most users won’t notice, so they will not make announcements about those minor revisions. Somebody on the RPi forums noted there may be a “new version of Raspberry Pi 3B“, and the discussion points out there are actually two such revisions that are mass-produced from various companies. It turns out the Foundation also posted PCN (Product Change Notices) on the product page of their boards, so we can know exactly what has changed and when. The fist PCN for v1.2 board is dated November 1, 2018, and explains the SoC has changed switching from BCM2837 to BCM2837B0 found in Raspberry Pi 3B+ but with frequency limited to 1.2 GHz. The PCN further explains the timing of the change: The new part will be […]

Boardcon LGA3576 Rockchip RK3576 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications