CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 3, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

NXP QorIQ LayerScape LX2160A is a 16-core Arm Cortex A72 Communication Processor with 100 Gbit/s Ethernet

NXP Semiconductors has been working on a high-end communication processor with their QorIQ LayerScape LX2160A SoC equipped with 16 Arm Cortex A72 cores, 16 Ethernet ports supporting 1 to 100 Gbit/s, as well as 24 PCIe Gen4 lanes, and four SATA 3.0 ports. NXP LX2160A key specifications / features: Processor – 16x Arm Cortex-A72 CPU cores, running up to 2.2GHz with 8MB L2 cache, 8MB platform cache Memory I/F – 2 x DDR4 72b including ECC, up to 3200 MT/s, maximum capacity of 256 GB Storage – 4 x SATA3.0 Ethernet Up to 16 Ethernet ports Supported Ethernet speeds include 1, 2.5, 10, 25, 40, 50, and 100 gigabits per second 130Gbps Layer 2 Ethernet switch PCIe – Up to 24 PCIe Gen4 lanes, supporting ports as wide as x8 24 SerDes lanes, operating up to 28GHz Acceleration Engines – 50Gbps security accelerator, 100Gbps data compression/decompression engine Security – Secure […]

May 3, 2018May 3, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Microchip Offers Free PIC16F18446 8-bit MCU Development Boards

Microchip announced several PIC and AVR microcontrollers with “Core Independent Peripherals and Intelligent Analog” in February with respectively PIC16F18446 family of microcontrollers, and ATmega4809 megaAVR microcontrollers, with the latter to be integrated in the next generation of Arduino boards. The company is now organizing a promotion for their PIC16F184xx product family where they give away a PIC16F18446 MPLAB Xpress evaluation board! Key features of PIC16F184 micro-controllers: High-precision 32 MHz internal oscillator 7 to 28 KB Flash program memory 512 bytes to 2 KB of SRAM 12-bit ADC with computation (ADC2), up to 24 channels 5-bit DAC eXtreme Low Power (XLP) with sleep currents down to 50 nA IDLE and DOZE low power modes Memory Access Partition (MAP) Device Information Area (DIA) Signal Measurement Timer (SMT) Hardware Limit Timer (HLT) Windowed Watch Dog Timer (WWDT) Peripheral Pin Select (PPS) Peripheral Model Disable (PMD) Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) Two comparators Numerically Controlled Oscillator […]

May 3, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Arm Cortex M35P Armv8-M MCU Core Gets Physical Security with Anti-tampering Features

Armv8 and Armv8-M processor already support Arm TrustZone security, which aims to prevent software attacks against the target device. However, if a hacker has physical access to the hardware, it may not be sufficient to prevent hacking. Arm Cortex-M35P core addresses this issue by providing physical (hence the P in the name) security with anti-tampering features that protect against access even with direct access to the hardware. Highlights of the processor: Architecture – Armv8-M Mainline (Harvard) ISA Support – Thumb/Thumb-2 Pipeline – Three-stage Software security – Optional TrustZone for Armv8-M, stack pointers checking Physical security – Built-in protection from invasive and non-invasive attacks DSP Extensions Optional DSP/SIMD instructions Single cycle 16/32-bit MAC Single cycle dual 16-bit MAC 8/16-bit SIMD arithmetic Floating Point Unit – Optional single precision floating point unit,IEEE 754 compliant Co-processor interface – Optional dedicated co-processor bus interface for up to 8 co-processor units for custom compute Memory […]

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Ebyte Offers Low Cost Wireless Modules for LoRa, Zigbee, NB-IoT, Bluetooth, and More

Chengdu Ebyte Electronic Technology Ltd (or just Ebyte for short) is a company based in Western China that design and manufacturer low cost wireless modules for LoRa, WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, NB-IoT & GPRS cellular connectivity, many of which appear to be FCC certified. The list of modules is way too long, so I’ll just have a look at two products from the company: Ebyte E32-915T20D LoRa 915 MHz module and Ebyte ME3612 NB-IoT wireless module. Ebyte E32-915T20D LoRa 915 MHz module Specifications: Connectivity Semtech SX1276 LoRa 900~931MHz (default: 915 MHz), 32 channels Range – up to 3 km with 20 dBm power, 5 dBi antenna Data rate – 2.4 kbps (default), configurable to 0.3, 1.2, 2.4, 4.8, 9.6, 19.2 kbps Rx Sensitivity – -138dbm at 0.3kbps Expansion – 7-pin header 2.54mm pitch with UART, USART host interface Power Supply – 2.1 to 5.5V DC Power Consumption – Standby: 2.0 uA; Tx: 120 mA […]

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Hardkernel & Libre Computer Release Ubuntu 18.04 Images for ODROID-XU4/3 & AML-S905X-CC Boards

Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver” LTS operating system was released just last week, and at least two Arm board companies have independently released Ubuntu 18.04 images for their boards. First, Hardkernel has released an Ubuntu 18.04 MATE image for their Exynos 5422 powered ODROID-XU4(Q), ODROID-XU3 (Lite), ODROID-HC1, and ODROID-MC1 boards/kits. The ODROID Ubuntu image comes with the following key features: Linux 4.14.37 LTS GPU hardware acceleration via OpenGL ES 3.1 and OpenCL 1.2 drivers for Mali T628MP6 GPU FFMPEG/ffplay with hardware accelerated H.264 decoder X11 armsoc display driver with 2D acceleration GPU accelerated Chromium browser (WebGL contents and YouTube 720p plays well) Kodi 17.6 can play H.264 1080p/60fps BigBuckBunny sample video. (Note: no h.265, no 4K in Exynos-5422 processor) WiringPi and other GPIO/SPI/I2C/ADC/I2S tinkering libraries are available. KVM & Docker More stable and performant USB 3.0 and Gbit Ethernet drivers The company sent me a kit based on ODROID-XU4Q board to […]

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

XTRX SDR Mini PCIe Card Supports 10 MHz to 3.8 GHz Tuning Range, up to 120 MSPS Sample Rate

Fairwaves is a startup that aims to make deploying and operating mobile networks in rural regions profitable, and their latest project is called XTRX, a high performance Software Defined Radio (SDR) board packed into a mini PCIe card form factor. The project was launched on Crowdsupply earlier with year, got fully funded by around 700 backers, and the company is now working on fulfilling backers rewards by the end of August. XTRX board specifications: RF Chipset – Lime Microsystems LMS7002M FPRF (as found in LimeSDR Mini) FPGA Chipset – Xilinx Artix 7 35T RF Channels – 2 × 2 MIMO Sample Rate – ~0.2 MSPS to 120 MSPS SISO / 90 MSPS MIMO Tuning Range: 30 MHz – 3.8 GHz Rx/Tx Range: 10 MHz – 3.7 GHz 100 kHz – 3.8 GHz with signal level degradation PCIe Bandwidth PCIe x2 Gen 2.0 up to 8 Gbit/s PCIe x1 Gen 2.0 […]

May 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Facebook Oculus Go Standalone VR Headset Launched for $199 and Up

Oculus has developed virtual reality headset for several years, starting with VR development kits, before launching consumer VR headsets working with either a powerful computer (Oculus Rift), or a smartphone (Oculus Gear VR). But the company – now part of Facebook – has more recently been working on an all-in-one virtual reality headset called Oculus Go that works without external hardware, and launched it today starting at $199.00. Oculus Go specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 octa-core Mobile VR Platform System Memory – Storage – 32 or 64GB storage Display – 5.5″ display with 2560 x 1440 resolution; 538ppi; up to 72 Hz refresh rate Fresnel lenses Audio – Built-in spatial audio and integrated microphone Battery – Lithium-Ion battery good for about two hours for games to up to 2.5 hours for streaming media and video. Dimensions – 190mm x 105mm x 115mm Weight – 468 grams The company explains […]

May 1, 2018May 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Energizer POWERMAX P550S Smartphone Offers up to 20 Days Battery Life with a 5,000 mAh Battery

Energizer, the battery company, has now entered in the phone & smartphone business with devices boasting large capacity batteries such as their POWERMAX P550S Android smartphone powered by a Mediatek processor, and equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery promising over 20 days of standby time. Energizer POWERMAX P550S specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6737 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz with Mali-T720MP GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot up to 64GB Display – 5.5″ capacitive touch IPS display with 1280×720 resolution Cellular Connectivity 2G – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 3G – 900/2100 MHz 4G / LTE – B3/B7/B20 Data / Voice – VoLTE, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA up to 21 Mbps, HSUPA up to 5.76 Mbps, and LTE up to 150 Mbps downlink / up to 50 Mbps uplink Dual nano SIM card slot Wireless Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS […]