CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 4, 2018July 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

NVIDIA Introduces Jetson Xavier Devkit and Isaac Robotics Software

NVIDIA Xavier was first unveiled in September 2016 as an artificial intelligence SoC with eight NVIDIA Custom 64-bit Arm cores, a 512-core Volta GPU, 8K video encoding and decoding, and a computer vision accelerator (CVA) now called NVDLA (NVIDIA Deep Learning Accelerator). Earlier this year, the company announced Xavier was sampling, and DRIVE IX & DRIVE AR SDKs for the automotive market. On the eve of Computer 2018, NVIDIA has introduced Jetson Xavier development kit, as well as Isaac robotics software for autonomous machines. Jetson Xavier key specifications: SoC – NVIDIA Xavier with 8-core ARMv8.2 64-bit CPU, 8MB L2 + 4MB L3 512-core Volta GPU with Tensor Cores 2x NVDLA engines for deep learning 7-way VLIW Processor for vision acceleration VPU with dual 4Kp60 video decoding and encoding System Memory – 16GB 256-bit LPDDR4x | 137 GB/s Storage – 32GB eMMC 5.1 flash Display – 3x eDP/DP/HDMI at 4Kp60 | […]

June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Firefly Core-PX3-SEJ SoM Features Rockchip PX3-SE Industrial-Grade Processor

Allwinner is not the only Chinese fabless silicon vendor to offer industrial grade processors, as Rockchip PX3 SE quad core Cortex A7 processor can also operate in the industrial temperature range (-20°C to 80°C). I had covered Rockchip PX3 previously, but it’s the first time I read about Rockchip PX3-SE processor, and Firefly is the first company to integrate the processor into a product, namely Core-PX3-SEJ system-on-module. Core-PX3-SEJ module specifications: SoC – Rockchip PX3-SE quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.3 GHz with Arm Mali-400MP2 GPU – See datasheet for details System Memory – 512MB, 1GB or 2GB dual-channel DDR3 Storage – 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB eMMC flash Edge Connector – 204-pin DDR3 SO-DIMM connector with Storage – Micro SD card interface Connectivity SDIO interface for WiFi & Bluetooth module Gigabit Ethernet Display – HDMI up to 1080p, CVBS, MIPI DSI or LVDS for LCD display Audio – Via […]

June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

UM25C is a Better USB Power Meter with built-in Display, Bluetooth, and Android & Windows Apps

Products such as USB Charger Doctor are good way to test your USB chargers or cables, as well as checking the power consumption of USB powered development boards. You just plug them into a USB port, and connect the load, and you’ll see the real-time voltage and current shown on an LED display. Those do the job, but I’ve just been made aware of UM25C USB meter tester that improves a lot on the concept with a dot matrix display capable of showing charts, and Bluetooth connectivity to send the data to Android or Windows devices. UM25C specifications: Display 1.44″ color LCD display 0-5 brightness setting Auto screen off time – 0 to 9 minutes Refresh rate – 2Hz Measurement Range & Accuracy Voltage – 4-24.000V ±0.5‰ + 2digits Current – 0-5.0000A ±1‰ + 4 digits Capacity – 0-99999mAh Energy accumulation – 0-99999mWh Load impedance – 0.8Ω-9999.9Ω Time range – […]

June 4, 2018June 10, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Tibbo-Pi is a Wirefree Modular IoT Prototyping Platform for Raspberry Pi Board

Tibbo Project System (TPS) is a modular Linux IoT prototyping platform based on the same Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x processor used in BeagleBone Black or a PocketBeagle boards, and comprised of a main board, Tibbit blocks to add features as needed, and an enclosure. I’ve now been informed the company will be at Computex 2018 to showcase their new products including Tibbo-Pi, following the same concept as Tibbo Project System, but leveraging Raspberry Pi 3 board and ecosystem instead. While an English brochure is said to be available, all information in the webpage listed in the photo above is in Japanese. But basically, Tibbo-Pi is said to be an IoT edge device for industrial use, made for build a prototypes, or small scale production system thanks to a choice a 60 different Tibbit Blocks sensor and I/O module blocks, all wire free. Programming of the system is typically done with with […]

June 3, 2018June 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

Sonoff S26 Smart Socket Mini Review & Teardown

ITEAD Studio very recently launched their Sonoff S26 WiFi Smart plug as a more compact and cost effective upgrade to their Sonoff S20 smart sockets, and which comes in 6 different versions for China, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe type F for Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Eastern Europe, and Europe type E for France, Belgium, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Tunisia and Morocco. You can find the one that suits you most on World Standard website. I was interested in getting the device, mostly to check the hardware design, so the company sent me one sample to try out. Sonoff S26 Unboxing Sonoff S26 comes is a white package with Sonoff branding. I received the US type plug (S26B model) which includes a ground pin on both side, so it’s not suitable for most sockets here in Thailand that do not […]

June 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

My Attempt at Getting Started with Zephyr Project OS on ESP32

Zephyr Project is a real-time operating systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) that was introduced in early 2016, and supported/hosted by the Linux Foundation. It runs on a fairly large number of MCU boards from different architecture (x86, Arm, RISC-V, etc..), and Linaro even launched 96boards IoT compliant hardware like BLE Carbon board that are designed to run Zephyr Project. More recently, Linaro CEO revealed several commercial products are shipping with Zephyr Project OS, so I thought it might be a good time to give it a try. Target Board – Wemos Lolin32 I only had STM32 Bluepill, and some ESP32 boards, so I went with the latter since it comes with WiFi. But instead of re-using some of my existing boards, I asked Banggood whether they could send Wemos Lolin32, which they did. They sell it for $7.99 shipped, but any other ESP32 board should do. The board […]

June 1, 2018June 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

UDOO BOLT AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 SBC Goes for $229 and Up (Crowdfunding)

While Intel has been outing low cost and low power processors with less than 10W TDP over the years with their Bay Trail, Cherry Trail, Braswell, Apollo Lake, and now Gemini Lake processors, AMD has not really ventured into the low power space, and the latest announcements about 10-12W processors was for their Embedded G-Series J Family, which I have not seen in many products. More recently, the company introduced Ryzen Embedded V1000 family of processors with 4 to 8 Zen cores, 4K support, 10 GbE interface, and more with a TDP of 12 to 25W for Ryzen Embedded V1202B & V1605B dual / quad core processors. The latest x86 UDOO board – dubbed UDOO BOLT – will be one of the rare AMD development boards available on the market with pricing starting at $229. Two versions of the board will be available: UDOO BOLT v3 with Ryzen Embedded V1202B, […]

June 1, 2018September 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Allwinner T2 is a Rebranded Allwinner A20 Processor Operating in Industrial Temperature Range

Last month, Allwinner unveiled A40 and A60 industrial and military grade processors leveraging IP blocks from the old-but-popular Allwinner A20 dual core processor. This is good news for software support, as A40 and A60 should hopefully become supported in U-boot and the Linux kernel without too many efforts, as well as for companies or makers requiring wider temperature ranges in their products. However, those new processors were not pin-to-pin compatible with Allwinner A20, so a PCB redesign would be required. That’s where Allwinner T2 comes into play, as reported by Olimex, it is a rebranded Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor with an industrial temperature range (-40 to +85 °C) that makes it suitable for automotive infotainment. I actually covered Allwinner T2 back in 2015, but at the time Allwinner did not mention anything about temperature range, and SATA support – found in A20 – was not shows in […]