Texas Instruments To Finally Launch a 64-bit Processor with AM654 SoC

Sitara AM652 Block Diagram

Texas Instruments has a wide portfolio of Arm-based processors targeting industrial control with their Sitara family. So all their models, including the latest Sitara AM57x family, were based on 32-bit Arm cores. But a somewhat recent Linux mainline kernel commit reveals the company has been working on a 64-bit Arm processor family, namely AM65x family, and one the first processor will be TI AM654 “Keystone III” quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 + dual lockstep Cortex-R5F processor. The AM654 SoC is said to be a lead device of the K3 multicore SoC architecture targeting both the broad market and industrial control. Some of the key features and specifications include: CPU – Quad ARMv8 A53 cores split over two clusters GPU – PowerVR SGX544 GICv3 compliant GIC500 Configurable L3 Cache and IO-coherent architecture Dual lock-step capable R5F uC for safety-critical applications High data throughput capable distributed DMA architecture under NAVSS 3x Gigabit Industrial Communication […]

Amazon Launches $50 Fire TV Stick 4K Powered by MediaTek MT8695 SoC

Fire TV Stick 4K

Amazon introduced their latest 4K streaming device with Fire TV (2017) last year. The TV box was based on Amlogic S905Z, supported 4K HDR10, and was launched for $69.99. The company also had a Fire TV stick that’s limited to 1080p, and they’ve now announced an upgrade – Fire TV Stick 4K – that support 4K Dolby Vision and HDR10+ thanks to MediaTek MT8695 SoC, and sells for just $49.99 – or $10 more than the 1080p model – with  shipping expected to start by the end of the month. Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT8695 quad core Arm processor @ up to 1.7 GHz with Imagination PowerVR GE8300MP4 GPU supporting OpenGL 3.2 and Vulcan 1.1 System Memory – 1.5 GB DDR4 Storage – 8GB flash, no micro SD card Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0b up to 4K UHD @ 60 Hz with HDCP […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

New WiFi Naming Scheme: 802.11n Becomes WiFi 4, 802.11ac WiFi 5, 802.11ax WiFi 6

WiFi 6 Icon

Terminology used by engineers may be confusing for end-users, so for example in the TV market 720p becomes “HD Ready”, 1080p “Full HD”, and 4K may be referred to “Ultra HD”. A few years ago, I tried to buy a 1080p TV, and the seller was really confused at first saying they only had “HD Ready” or “Full HD” televisions. Two terms I had personally never heard of myself, but eventually we managed to understand each other… Up to now the official IEEE name for different WiFi standards like 802.11n, 802.11ac, or the new 802.11ax may have been a little confusing to consumers. So the WiFi alliance has decided to launch a new scheme naming scheme. We’ll soon have to refer to 802.11n routers as WiFi 4 routers, AC routers as WiFi 5 routers, and it will probably be less confusing for 802.11ax routers since I expect them to be […]

BLE Micro is a Tiny, Coin-Cell Powered Bluetooth 4.0 Development Board

BLE Micro

DFRobot Bluno is a Bluetooth 4.0 LE development board following Arduino UNO form factor, and powered by TI CC2540 chipset. The board sells for $24.90 on their online store, and the company provides firmware and mobile app source code, but if you ever wanted a similar solution in a much smaller form factor, and powered by a coin cell battery, the company has now launched BLE Micro board. BLE Micro board specifications: Bluetooth Chip – Texas Instruments CC2540 8051 MCU with USB, Bluetooth 4.0 LE connectivity Wireless Connectivity Frequency: 2.4GHz Transfer rate:  ≤1Mbps Modulation: GFSK, Bluetooth low power, V4.0 Sensitivity: -93dB Transmission distance – 30m in free space USB – 1x micro USB port Expansion – 21 through holes with reset, power signals, UART, and GPIOs. Input Voltage: +3.3 DC Power Consumption – Working: 10.6mA average, ready mode:8.7mA Temperature Range – -10 ℃ ~ +65 ℃ Dimensions – 49mm x […]

Silicon Labs Releases Z-Wave Public SDK, Raspberry Pi 3 Image

Z-Wave Raspberry-Pi

Z-Wave is a wireless communication protocol initially developed by Zensys, before being purchased by Sigma Designs which provided Z-Wave compliant chips, and this year Silicon Labs purchased Z-Wave from Sigma Designs,  Z-Wave is fairly popular in the US, and the Z-Wave alliance has certified around 2,400 products so far. However, we seldom hear about hobbyist projects featuring Z-Wave because the wireless protocol is proprietary, documentation was not available publicly, and you’d also need a few thousands dollars to get started: $4,000 a year to be a Z-Wave Alliance member, $2,500 for certification, and the development kit sells for about $2,000… But in 2016, things improved with Sigma Designs releasing Z-Wave Application Layer specifications publicly, as well as Z-Wave over IP (Z/IP), Z-Ware Middleware, and the Z-Wave S2 Security Specification. But you still needed to acquire the Z-Wave SDK and obtain access to the Z-Wave Technical Support website and the Z-Wave […]

Genmitsu CNC Router Review – Part 1.5: Laser Attachment

Genmitsu CNC -Router Laser Review

Hey Karl here with a small update for the SainSmart Genmitsu CNC Router 3018 review. In the first part I described the build and first cuts. And in this part I am calling it 1.5 because it is to just talk about the optional laser attachment that was just made available and initial impressions. In the first part I commented about the laser connector on the board. The stars aligned and Sainsmart asked if we wanted to check out their  2.5W PWM controlled laser sold for $89.99 with free shipping. Installation In the box all you get is the laser itself and some eye protection. At first I wanted to mount the laser on the side of the tool head so it would be easy to change between CNC and the laser. I took the laser apart and was going to use the 2 mounting holes and ended up breaking […]

AAEON Intel Arc

Dav1d Open Source AV1 Decoder Aims to be Fast and Lightweight

Dav1d AV1 Decoder

Lots of efforts are being put into AV1 open source, royalty-free video codec with the AV1 specification published in March, and companies like YouTube and Netflix having recently uploaded AV1 video samples for testing and evaluation. We also reported FFmpeg 4.0 was released with AV1 supporting using libaom reference decoder. However, the library is not really optimized for code size and speed, but instead just to demonstrate AV1 decoding and encoding. So VideoLAN, VLC and FFmpeg communities have been working on another decoder called Dav1d – which stands for “Dav1d is an AV1 Decoder” – that aims to be lightweight, cross-platform, fast and open source. Some of the technical details about dAV1d include: written in C99 without VLAs (Variable Length Arrays) ASM in NASM/GAS syntax (no intrinsics), Meson/ninja buildsystem, Works on x86, x64, ARMv7, ARMv8 architectures for now Runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS operating systems Licensed under BSD […]

Air602 is another $2 WiFi IoT Module, Based on Winner Micro W600 Arm SoC

Air602 WiFi Module

WiFi used to be fairly expensive to add to MCU projects with spending $30 to $40 just for a WiFi module pretty common just less than 5 years ago, but this all changed thanks to Tensilica based Espressif ESP8266 modules selling for $5 in 2014, and an active community gathering behind the WiSoC, and related modules and development board. ESP8266 modules are now available for under $2, and around two years ago it looked like we would have another option based on Arm Cortex-M3 with RTL8710 modules such as Pine64’s PADI IoT stamp also selling for about $2 in single quantities. However, most people did not really the benefit of switching to another platform based on Arm for this type of applications, and the products never really took off, many went away, and PADI IoT stamp appears to be one of the few survivors. Yet another $2 WiFi IoT module […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC