CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 1, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

IMM-NRF52832-NANO is an Ultra Small nRF52832 Module with Bluetooth 5, ANT+, 30 I/Os

If you have a project requiring a programmable Bluetooth 4.x/5 module that’s as small as possible, Canada based I-Syst may have what you need with their IMM-NRF52832-NANO module measuring just 10 x 7 x 1.6 mm. The module is based on Nordic Semi nRF52832 Arm Cortex-M4F SoC with Bluetooth 5 LE (no long range support) and ANT+ connectivity, and exposes up to 30 I/Os for your project. Specifications: SoC – Nordic Semi nRF52832 32 bits Arm Cortex-M4F @ 64MHz with 512KB Flash, 64KB SRAM, 2.4GHz multi-protocol transceiver Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 LE, ANT+, Type 2 NFC -A Tag with wakeup on field Up to 30x I/Os: 3x SPI Master/Slave 2x 2-wire Master (I2C compatible) UART (CTS/RTS) 3x 4 channel PWM 8x configurable 12 bits, 200 ksps ADC Digital microphone interface Quadrature decoder input Sensors – Temperature sensor Security – AES HW encryption Misc – 32MHz & 32.768KHz crystals, low power […]

March 1, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Gumstix Chatterbox is a Customizable, AVS-Ready Development Platform based on Toradex Colibri i.MX7 SoM

There are several official Amazon Voice Service (AVS) development kits, and we’ve already covered a few of them with the likes of Allwinner 3-Mic Far Field AVS Development Kit or Intel Speech Enabling Developer Kit, but you can also design your own board conformant to Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service functional design guide. That’s exactly what Gumstix has done with Chatterbox carrier board for Toradex Colibri i.MX7 system-on-module powered by NXP i.MX7 Arm Cortex A7 processor. Designed in Geppeto, the board includes a 2.5-Watt speaker driver, an on-board microphone, and Line IN and headphone jacks, as well as WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet for connectivity. Gumstix Chatterbox specifications: Colibri iMX7 SO-DIMM socket Storage – microSD card slot Audio – On-board microphone; 2.5W speaker driver; Line-in & headphone jacks Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi & Bluetooth 4.1 LE (TI WiLink8 WL1831) with u.FL antenna connector USB – 1x micro USB […]

March 1, 2018March 1, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Silicon Labs WF200 WiFi Transceivers & WFM200 WiFi Modules are Designed for Battery Powered Devices

When it comes to power consumption, WiFi is not the best wireless standard around, and even the most power efficient WiFi SoCs/modules consume several times the power required for Bluetooth LE Tx or Rx. Yet we still have plenty of battery powered devices relying on WiFi, so companies are working on improving efficiency, and Silicon Labs has recently announced the WF200 transceivers and WFM200 modules that support 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and are said to slash power consumption in half. WF200 / WFM200 highlights: Low transmit (Tx: 138 mA) and receive (Rx: 48 mA) power 200 µA average Wi-Fi power consumption (DTIM = 3) Link budget of 115 dBm for long-range Wi-Fi transmissions Excellent antenna diversity and wireless coexistence in crowded 2.4 GHz environments Security – Secure boot and host interface, hardware cryptography acceleration supporting AES, PKE and TRNG Packages – 4 mm x 4 mm QFN32 transceiver and […]

February 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

NXP i.MX 8M Mini Low Power Cortex A53/Cortex M4 Processor to be Manufactured using 14LPC FinFET Process Technology

NXP i.MX 8, i.MX 8M, and i.MX 8X processors are barely available, but the company has already announced another member of their i.MX8 family with i.MX 8M Mini processors with one to four Cortex A53 application cores, one Cortex-M4F real-time core, 2D/ 3D graphics accelerator, and support for 1080p video playback and output. Apart from the lack of 4K support, that looks about the same as i.MX 8, but there’s one important difference: the manufacturing process. i.MX 8M Mini processors are manufactured using 14LPC FinFET process technology allowing the Cortex A53 cores to reach 2.0 GHz, and the Cortex-M4F core can be clocked up to 400+ MHz. Some video interfaces have also been removed from the new processor such as embedded DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0a. NXP i.MX 8M Mini key features: Application cores – One to four Arm Cortex-A53 cores up to 2GHz Real-time core – Arm Cortex-M4 at speeds […]

February 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series To Bring On-Device Artificial Intelligence to Mid-Range Smartphones

Qualcomm has announced a new family filling the gap between the mid-range Snapdragon 600 series, and the high-end Snapdragon 800 series, with Snapdragon 700 mobile platform series which will include on-device AI supported by the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine, as well as improvements to camera, device performance and power through Qualcomm Spectra ISP, Kyro CPU, Hexagon Vector Processor and Adreno Visual Processing subsystem (Yes, Qualcomm has a new name for everything, as GPU is now VPS). Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series highlights: Artificial Intelligence – Multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine delivering up to 2x improvements for on-device AI applications compared to the Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform. Camera – Qualcomm Spectra ISP will allow for better photos in different lighting conditions, slow motion capture, and improvements thanks to AI processing. Performance and Battery life – The new Qualcomm Spectra ISP, Kryo CPU and Adreno Visual Processing subsystem in 700 series will […]

February 28, 2018February 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

UP Core Plus Board To Support AI Plus FPGA and AI Net Ethernet Expansion Boards

We’ve just written about UP AI Core mPCIe card part of the new AI Edge family from UP Board, but other members will soon be released including UP Core Plus board, that builds upon UP Core Cherry Trail board launched last year, with a choice of Intel Atom x5/x7, and Celeron/Pentium Apollo Lake processors. The form factor is different, but just like the first UP Core board, the Core Plus board supports expansion boards via docking connectors such as the Net Plus Ethernet expansion, and the AI Plus expansion board with Intel Cyclone 10 GX FPGA. UP Core Plus specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x5-E3940 (2M Cache, up to 2.00 GHz) Intel Atom x7-E3950 (2M Cache, up to 2.00 GHz) Intel Celeron N3350 (2M Cache, up to 2.50 GHz) Intel Pentium N4200 (2M Cache, up to 2.50 GHz) System Memory – 2GB, 4GB or 8GB on-board DDR4L-2400 […]

February 28, 2018February 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

$70 UP AI Core mini PCIe Card Features Intel Movidius Myriad 2, Supports Tensorflow and Caffe Frameworks

AAEON’s Up Board has given us some affordable Intel development boards over the years with products such as the Cherry Trail based UP Board, or Apollo Lake powered UP Squared board among others, that are competitively priced against equivalent Arm development boards. The company has now launched a new UP AI Edge family, which will include hardware based on Intel Altera FPGA or Intel Movidius VPU (Vision Processing Unit). Their first product is based on the latter, more exactly Movidius 2 2450 VPU, and instead of being a standalone board, UP AI Core is a mini PCIe card that can fit into any 64-bit Intel board or computer. UP AI Core card specifications: SoC – Intel Movidius Myriad 2 2450 VPU System Memory – 512MB DDR SDRAM Mini PCIe edge connector Dimensions – 51 x 30 mm Host computer/board requirements System Memory – 1GB RAM or more Storage – 4GB […]

February 28, 2018January 19, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Nitrogen8M Single Board Computer with NXP i.MX 8MQuad Processor Comes with Up to 4GB RAM, 128 GB Storage

Boundary Devices Nitrogen6X was one of the first boards based on Freescale i.MX 6 processor when it launched in 2012, and even I never owned their board personally, I liked the fact the company published frequent updates about software development on their blog. With NXP i.MX 8 processors now officially available, the company introduced an update to their SBC with Nitrogen8X powered by NXP i.MX 8MQ quad-core processor, with 2 to 4 GB LPDDR4 RAM, 8 to 128 GB flash, a certified wireless module for WiFi and Bluetooth, and more. The form factor has changed dramatically, however. Nitrogen8M specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8MQuad ((Dual, QuadLite available on request) with four Cortex A53 core @ up to 1.5 GHz, one Cortex-M4F real-time core, and a Vivante GC7000Lite 2D/3D GPU System Memory – 2 or 4GB LPDDR4 (2GB standard) Storage – 16MB QSPI NOR Flash, 8GB eMMC flash (expandable to 128 […]