CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 1, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

2017 Singles’ Day Promotions on Chinese Online Stores

Singles’ day (Guanggun Jie – 光棍节) is celebrated every year on November 11 (11.11) in China, and retailers launch promotions to attract young shoppers, especially online. Last year Singles’ day was even bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US terms of (online?) sales,with an estimated 20 billions dollars of goods moved. Online Chinese retailers that cater to overseas market bring their promotions to the international stage, and like last year, I’ve gather some of the Singles’ day promos launched by the most popular e-retailers in China. GearBest 11.11 Sale / Double Eleven promotion will span from November 1 until November 13, with Day 1-7 being the preheat period, abd 8-13 the formal time for the promotion. The event includes flash sales for all sort of items, “lucky bags” where you buy something cheap but do not know exactly what it is…, promotions for top brands (Vernee, Creality, […]

November 1, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Arm Announces Mali-D71 for 4K/120 Hz Displays, Assertive Display 5 with HDR

Arm has just announced Mali-D71 display processor optimized for 4K120 displays used for virtual reality, Assertive Display 5 display management core which adds support for high dynamic range (HDR10 / HLG), as well as CoreLink MMU-600 system memory management unit to handle data feed to Mali-D71, with the integration leading to a 55% area saving for the combined solution and a 50% latency improvement. Mali-D71 Display Processor The main advantages of D71 display processor include: 30% system power savings by fully offloading GPU workloads before output such as composition, rotation, high-quality scaling, and other imaging processing in fixed function hardware. 2x area efficiency compared to Mali-DP650. When driving a single display, it can re-use the resources of a secondary display, doubling the performance. 4x latency tolerance – Mali-D71 can sustain up to 4x the delay on the system bus for the same throughput, helping maintaining high refresh rates up to […]

November 1, 2017November 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 240 Comments

Giveaway Week – ESP32 PICO Kit v3 Boards

I don’t have one, but eight boards to give away to four winners (2 each) with Espressif Systems ESP32 PICO Kit v3 board based on ESP32-PICO-D4 SIP, an all-in one package with ESP32, 4MB SPI flash, crystal oscillator, and passive components, which allows for smaller boards. The board is very similar to any other ESP32 boards, and software compatible, but it’s just quite thinner, and easier to work with on breadboards. Since I had already played with Arduino Core and Espruino (JavaScript) on other boards, I used one of the 10 boards provided by Espressif to play with Micropyhon on ESP32. Each winner will get two ESP32 PICO Core board in order to make it worthwhile with regards to shipping costs. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or […]

October 31, 2017February 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

SAMA5D2 Based SiPs Combine ARM Cortex-A5 Processor With Up to 128MB DDR2

Atmel SAMA5D2 ARM Cortex-A5 processor was released about two years ago with extended temperature range and lower power consumption compared to previous SAMAD5 processors, with the new SoC still targeting industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), wearables and point of sale applications. In recent years, we’ve seen companies packing main components into systems-in-package (SiP) with products such as Octavo Systems OSD3358 and Espressif Systems ESP32-PICO-D4 with integrate an existing processor with memory, storage, and/or PMIC. Microchip (previously Atmel) has now done the same for their SAMA5D2 processors with SiPs combining the Cortex A5 SoC with DDR2 memory. Four SAMA5D2 SiPs have been launched: ATSAMA5D225C-D1M based on ATSAMA5D22C MPU with extra SD/SDIO, QSPI, FLEXCOMs (2x), I2S, and timers (2x) and: 128 Mb (16 MB) DDR2 DRAM 90 Peripheral I/Os 196 BGA Package Designed for RTOS/bare metal development ATSAMA5D27C-D5M based on ATSAMA5D27C MPU with: 512 Mb (64 MB) DDR2 DRAM 128 Peripheral I/Os […]

October 31, 2017October 31, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

WCH CH340E is a Tiny 10-Pin Serial to USB Chip

I own a bunch of USB to serial debug board based on CH340G/T or PL2303HX, and all include a crystal on the board with the exception of Hardkernel’s USB-UART module kit based on CP2104 (QFN24 package) working without crystal, hence smaller than most, but a bit more expensive than most. WCH has just released a new form version of their CH340 that does not require a crystal, comes in a tiny (3x3mm) MSOP10 package, and costs about 42 cents on Electrodragon (5 pieces). You’ll also find it for as low as 1 CNY ($0.15) on 1688.com. CH340E is slightly more expensive than CH340G, but considering you don’t need a crystal, and it will take less space on your PCB, total BoM cost for this USB to TTL function should be lower. Electrodragon reports that only two external parts are required, and they tested it up to 150,000 baud to flash […]

October 31, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

$50 Waveshare Compute Module IO Board Plus is Designed for Raspberry Pi CM3/CM3L Compute Modules

Raspberry Pi Compute Module CM3L and CM3 are fairy inexpensive at $25 and $30 respectively, but if you want to get the complete development kit with Compute Module IO Board, CM3 and CM3L modules, and accessories you’ll need to spend around $150 plus shipping. A cheaper option might be Waveshare “Compute Module IO Board Plus for Raspberry Pi CM3, CM3L” with many of the same features as the original Compute Module IO board, plus some extras like terminal blocks for ADC/DAC or RTC battery, which I first found on DX for $49.95 including shipping. Waveshare Compute Module IO Board Plus specifications: Compute Module socket for Raspberry Pi CM3/CM3L I/O headers 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header (3) GPIO header for all pins exposed by the modules (2) Arduino headers for shields (10) 10-bit ADC/16-bit DAC screw terminals (11) 3x 5-pin sensor interface (13) 1-WIRE interface, for connecting single-bus devices like DS18B20 […]

October 31, 2017November 2, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 76 Comments

Giveaway Week – Muses-β DTV Modulator and Video Encoder

The next item for giveaway is rather specialized hardware, as V-Bridge Muses-β allows you to take raw video input via HDMI or video composite, encode it and module to your DTB standard (DVB-T, ATSC… ) and get the video through your TV tuner via a cable, or over-the-air if you add your own an amplifier and antenna. The system is controlled by an STM32 board with LCD display and button, and you can operate directly from the board, selecting various option. I used a TV box as input, and U4 Quad hybrid set-top box to get the video signal and output it to my TV when I reviewed the system with DVB-T / QPSK modulation. The system is limited to MPEG-2 up to 1080p30 encoding since it’s what the SoC supports. I’m giving away the complete “turn key solution” shown in the first photo to one lucky winner. To enter […]

October 30, 2017October 30, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

$15 Banana Pi M2 Zero Board is a Raspberry Pi Zero W Clone with a Quad Core Processor

Many development boards have followed Raspberry Pi 2/3 form factor in recent years, including Hardkernel ODROID-C2 and Pine64 ROCK64, but so far I had not seen any boards leveraging Raspberry Pi Zero (W) form factor. SinoVoIP will change that, as they’ve just launched Banana Pi M2 Zero (aka BPI-Zero) board powered by Allwinner H2+ quad core processor, leveraging Raspberry Pi Zero W form factor, and now selling on Aliexpress for $15 plus shipping. Banana Pi M2 Zero specifications: SoC – Allwinner H2+ quad core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 1 GHz with Mali 400MP2 System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot up to 64GB Video/Audio Output – mini HDMI Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth LE (AP6212 module with options for AP6181, AP6335) Camera – 1x MIPI CSI connector supporting 8-bit YUV422 CMOS sensor, CCIR656 protocol for NTSC and PAL, 5MP camera, 1080p […]