CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 17, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

BOKRA NXP LPC824 and Nordic nRF52832 powered MCU Modules Follow MikroBUS Form Factor

We first wrote about MikroElectronika MikroBUS socket in 2015 while covering an SBC which featured one MikroBUS socket supporting one of the 150 Click boards available at the time. There are now over 700 Click boards to choose from, with the tiny modules offering motor drivers, buttons, short-range connectivity, UART and other interfaces, as well as various sensors. But BOKRA had another idea: developing MCU based systems-on-module following MikroBUS form factor. BOKRA LPC824 Lite module The first of those modules is BOKRA LPC824 Lite with the following specifications: MCU – NXP LPC824M201JHI33 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 30 MHz with 32KB Flash Memory, 8 KB RAM I/O MikroBUS headers with SPI, I2C, UART, PWM, GPIOs 10-pin “Serial” header 4-pin I2C Grove connector for Seeed Studio I2C Grove modules Debugging interface – SWD Misc – Reset button, power LED, 2x user LEDs Power Supply – 5V/500mA via MIC5528 regulator Dimensions – 28.6 […]

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

NORVII IIoT ESP32 Industrial Controller Comes with Built-in OLED or TFT Display, DIN Rail Mount

We’ve previously covered at least one ESP32 industrial controller with TECHBASE Moduino X equipped with digital and analog I/O terminals, a 0.96″ OLED display, and support for various expansion cards for RS-485, LoRa, Sigfox… beside Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity offered by the Espressif Systems chip. NORVII IIOT industrial controller – based on ESP32-WROOM-32 module – offers many of the same options as the TECHBASE model, but also integrates a choice of 0.96″ to 1.44″ OLED or TFT display, and comes with plenty of LED’s to ease troubleshooting. There are five variants from three series (AE01, AE02, and AE03) sharing the following specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-WROOM32 with ESP32 dual-core processor @ 160 MHz, 520 Kbytes SRAM / 4 Mbit Flash, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 4.2 Storage – Optional microSD card slot Display -Built-in 0.96″ OLED display. 0.96″ TFT display or 1.44″ TFT display Communication – RS-485, WiFi, Bluetooth, optional […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Trion T20 BGA256 FPGA Development Kit Supports “PulseRain Reindeer” RISC-V RV32IM soft CPU

A few months ago I wrote about FireAnt low-cost FPGA development board powered by Efinix Trion T8 FPGA, and it was the first time I personally heard about the company. Trion FPGA family range from the T4 with 3,888 logic elements up to the Trion T200 with 192,000 LE’s. A board more powerful than FireAnt, but not quite high-end, recently showed up on Digikey with Trion T20 BGA256 development kit going for $150. Trion T20 BGA256 Development Kit specifications: FPGA – Efinix Trion T20 FPGA with 19,728 LE’s, 1,044 Kbit embedded RAM, 36 18×18 multipliers, 7 PPL’s, up to 220 GPIO’s; 256-ball FBGA (13×13 mm) System Memory – 256 Mbit SDR SDRAM Storage – NOR flash USB – 1x Micro-USB port for programming Debug / Configuration – SPI and JTAG headers to facilitate configuration Expansion 3x I/O headers to connect to external devices LVDS TX header, LVDS RX & clock […]

December 16, 2019December 18, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

OpenWiFi Open-Source Linux-compatible WiFi Stack Runs on FPGA Hardware

WiFi is omnipresent on most connected hardware, and when it works it’s great, but when there are issues oftentimes they can not be solved because the firmware is a closed-source binary. I understand companies do that either to protect their IP and/or make sure end-users do not break FCC compliance. OpenWiFi project aims to deliver a completely open-source SDR (Software Defined Radio) WiFi implementation compatible with Linux and running on FPGA hardware. OpenWiFi currently supported features: 802.11a/g; 802.11n MCS 0~7; 20MHz Mode tested: Ad-hoc; Station; AP DCF (CSMA/CA) low MAC layer in FPGA Configurable channel access priority parameters: duration of RTS/CTS, CTS-to-self SIFS/DIFS/xIFS/slot-time/CW/etc Time slicing based on MAC address Easy to change bandwidth and frequency: 2MHz for 802.11ah in sub-GHz 10MHz for 802.11p/vehicle in 5.9GHz The developers tested OpenWiFi on Xilinx ZC706 FPGA evaluation kit coupled Analog Devices fmcomms2/fmcomms4 RF board to form an access point, and connected it to […]

December 16, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - 1 Comment

ProteusDevice Secure, Open-Source Linux Handheld Features Ethernet Connectivity

ProteusDevice XXLSEC Ltd., the developer of the Privecall-TX device, has developed a near-identical, slightly bigger ProteusDevice, which runs the Linux 5.4 based PriveOS. The ProteusDevice handheld device (“not a mobile phone”) is said to have very tight security and was developed with secure access in mind. Background and Linux Handheld Market The market is seeing more Linux handheld and phones such as the Purism Librem 5, the PinePhone “Braveheart” both of which are already in mass production. There are also other computing options with the handheld Pocket Popcorn Computer, which is much like the PocketChip, but decidedly improved and faster in general, as well as the Solectrix SX Mobile Device Kit which is more of a business option, for smartphone, opensource development with no cellular connectivity, but Gigabit Ethernet and USB-to-UART ports. Some Features and Mystery Production The ProteusDevice is in good company, and has a solid start, but is […]

December 15, 2019December 15, 2019 by Ayo Ayibiowu - 11 Comments

Onion Omega2 Dash Enables Touch-based UI’s, Features Omega2S WiFi Module (Crowdfunding)

e Omega2 Dash is a Wi-Fi-enabled Linux computer with a built-in touchscreen

Onion, the team behind the Omega2 series self-styled computing modules has launched the Omega2 Dash a self-contained Omega2S module with a touchscreen. Unlike some modules integrating with a display that mostly comes in the form of a HAT (in the case of Raspberry Pi), USB, HDMI, or some unique data lines. The Omega2 Dash is a stand-alone 3.2″ TFT touchscreen display running a Linux OS, comes with a Micro USB, and boots in less than a minute, thanks to the Omega2S module attached to the back of the display screen. The Omega2S is the latest in the series of computing modules from Onion after succeeding the Omega2+. Targeted to the IoT industry in its 24x20x2.8mm form factor, the Omega2S was designed for mass production and people interested in integrating IoT solutions into their products. Integrating a display to the Omega2S will be tricky. It will require investing in a custom […]

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

December 14, 2019December 14, 2019 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 9 Comments

Ubuntu 18.04 on Beelink Gemini J45 Mini PC (Fix and Review)

When I recently reviewed the Beelink J45 (aka Beelink Gemini J), a mini PC that uses the slightly older Intel Apollo Lake Pentium J4205 processor, whilst Windows 10 Pro ran fine it was unsuitable for Ubuntu because after installation the system became unstable and problems were encountered when running anything that loaded the system. The main issue was that when connected via wired-ethernet performing a command like ‘sudo apt upgrade’ would cause the ethernet to drop after which only a reboot would restore the connection. At the time it, was unclear what the cause was however a solution to the issue was posted by ‘gambetta’ on the Beelink forum. Basically it consists of installing the r8168 module which is the Linux device driver released for RealTek RTL8168B/8111B, RTL8168C/8111C, RTL8168CP/8111CP, RTL8168D/8111D, RTL8168DP/8111DP and RTL8168E/8111E Gigabit Ethernet controllers with PCI-Express interface. To paraphrase the ‘README.Debian’ file, you use ‘r8168-dkms because the in-kernel […]

December 13, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GreenWaves GAP9 IoT Application Processor Enables AI on Coin-cell Powered Devices

GreenWaves Technologies GAP8 multi-core RISC-V microcontroller was introduced last year for artificial intelligence (AI) at the edge at ultra-low power consumption. GAP8 AIoT SoC was shown to perform inference at 3.7mA against 60mA for the same workload on STM32F7 Arm Cortex-M7 MCU. The company has now expanded its GAP IoT application processor family with GAP9 that delivers five times lower power consumption compared to GAP8 microcontroller while enabling inference on neural networks 10 times larger. Greenwaves GAP9 will bring machine learning and signal processing capabilities to (coin cell) battery operated or energy harvesting devices such as IoT sensors in consumer and industrial markets, wearables, smart building, smart farming and so on. GAP9 is said to combine architectural enhancements with Global Foundries 22nm FDX process to achieve a peak cluster memory bandwidth of 41.6 GB/sec and up to 50 GOPS compute power while consuming only 50mW. The increased memory bandwidth (20x […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications