CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 11, 2017March 23, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Getting Started with Espruino & JavaScript on ESP32 with ESPino32 Board

Venus Supply Co., Ltd, better known as ThaiEasyElec, is a company based in Thailand, selling embedded systems and development board, as well as providing development services based in Thailand. The company sent me their latest board called ESPino32 powered by Espressif ESP-WROOM-32 WiFi and Bluetooth module for evaluation. While the board is supported in Arduino-esp32, I’ve already tested Arduino with ESP32-Bit module & ESP32-T board, so after checking out the hardware, I’ll load it with something different: Espruino, a firmware allowing for JavaScript programming over the serial console, or a Web based IDE. ESPino32 Unboxing and Soldering The board shipped with four female headers, and I/O stickers. The board includes ESP-WROOM-32, exposes I/Os through four 10-pin headers, features CP2104 chip for serial to USB debugging via micro USB port, two buttons (reset and program), a user LED connected to IO16, and a jumper to select between regulated power supply (micro […]

September 11, 2017September 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

PiPo X12 Mini PC is Equipped with a 10.8″ Touchscreen Display, an RS232 Port, Ships with a Digital Stylus Pen

PiPo has released several mini PCs with touchscreen displays with products like PiPo X8 or PiPo X9S, and now the company has launched PiPo X12 model based on an Intel Cherry Trail processor, with a larger 10.8″ display, an RS-232 port to connect a barcode reader for instance, and that ships with a digital stylus pen. PiPo X12 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz/1.92 GHz with Intel Gen8 HD graphics System Memory – 4 GB DDR3 Storage – 64 GB flash, and micro SD slot Display – 10.8″ capacitive touch IPS display with 1920×1280 resolution Video Output – HDMI 1.4a and VGA Audio Output – HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, built-in microphone and speaker. Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet ports, dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 with external antenna USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 port Misc – […]

September 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

$99 Inforce IFC6420 Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E Board Comes with 3 HDMI Out/In Ports

Inforce Computing has introduced the first board of their “Application Ready Platforms” family with Inforce 6420 SBC powered by Qualcomm Snpadragon 600 / 600E processor, and equipped with three HDMI ports including one HDMI input, and two independent HDMI outputs making suitable for products needing streaming, content sharing or rendering on multiple displays. The board also comes with WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, etc… for “edge computing in the IoT space”. Inforce 6420 board specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 / 600E (APQ8064 / APQ8064E) quad core Krait 300 CPU @ up to 1.7 GHz with Qualcomm Adreno 320 GPU, and Hexagon DSP System Memory – 2GB on-board DDR3 (PCDDR3-533MHz) Storage – 4GB eMMC flash (expandable to 64GB) Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet via Atheros8151, dual band dual stream 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 via QCA6234 Video – 2x HDMI 1.4a outputs up to 1080p, 1x HDMI input up to 1080p Audio – […]

September 10, 2017September 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

UFS 3.0 Embedded Flash to Support Full-Duplex 2.4GB/s Transfer Speeds

All my devices still rely on eMMC flash for storage, but premium smartphones, for example, make use of UFS 2.0/UFS 2.1 flash storage with performance similar to SSD, with Samsung UFS 2.0 storage achieving up to 850MB/s read speed, 260 MB/s write speed, and 50K/30K R/W IOPS. UFS 3.0 promises to roughly double the performance of UFS 2.0/2.1 with transfer rates of up to 2.4 GB/s, and separately, the UFS Card v2.0 standard should deliver UFS 2.1 performance on removable storage. Several Chinese and Taiwanese websites, including CTimes and Benchlife, have reported that companies have started getting UFS 3.0 & UFS Card v2.0 licenses from JEDEC, and Phison is working on a controller to support both new standards, and scheduled to launch in 2018. Premium smartphone SoC are only expect to support UFS 3.0 in 2019 and beyond, and hopefully by that time eMMC will have been replaced by UFS 2.0/2.1 […]

September 9, 2017September 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Amlogic A111, A112 & A113 Processors are Designed for Audio Applications, Smart Speakers

Amlogic processors are mostly found in TVs and TV boxes, but the company is now apparently entering a new market with A111, A112, and A113 audio processors. I was first made aware of those new processors through Buildroot OpenLinux Release Notes V20170831.pdf document posted on their Open Linux website, where two boards with Amlogic A113D and A113X are shown. First, S400 board with the following key features/specifications: SoC – Amlogic A113D CPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 512MB SLC NAND flash Display I/F – MIPI interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet SDIO WiFi/BT (AP6356S) Audio SPDIF_IN/SPDIF_OUT LINE_IN/LINE_OUT 2x Audio headers (MIC_Connector & SPK_Connector) USB – 1x USB 2.0 OTG Expansion – 2x PCIe ports Misc – 6x ADC Keys, IR_IN/IR_OUT, UART Interface (RS232) The second S420 board is based on A113X SoC, and comes with less features (no display, no Ethernet, no PCIe…), less memory: SoC – Amlogic A113X […]

September 8, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Habey EMB-2200 Pico-ITX board is Designed for Industrial IoT Gateways & HMI Panels

Habey USA has sent out an email to announce their EMB-2200 industrial grade Pico-ITX board powered by NXP i.MX6UL processor with up to 512 MB DDR3, WIFi and Bluetooth, optional PoE support, LCD interface, etc…, and designed for IoT gateways, HMI applications, and other embedded applications. Habey EMB-2200 board specifications: SoC- NXP i.MX 6UltraLite single core ARM Cortex-A7 processor at 528/696MHz System Memory – 128, 256 or 512MB RAM Storage – Various options of eMMC, iNAND or SLC NAND flash (Default: 8GB eMMC flash) Display – 1x 24-bit Parallel LCD (RGB) interface up to 1366×768, 4-wire touch interface Audio – 1x 3.5mm Line OUT jack Connectivity – 2x 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet ports, WiFi and Bluetooth module USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports I/Os – 5x RS-232 header, 2x CAN Bus, 2x USB2.0, 1x USB OTG Configurable GPIO, SPI, I2C Expansion – 1x full-size mini-PCIe with USB connection for cellular […]

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

IPv10 Draft Specification Released for IPv6 <-> IPv4 Communications

The first time I used IPv6 was in 2000 for my final year project, and for many years, we’ve been told that IPv4 32-bit address space was running out, and a transition to 128-bit IPv6 address was necessary, and would happen sooner rather than later. Fast forward to 2017, I’m still using IPv4 in my home network, and even my ISP is still only giving a dynamically allocated IPv4 address each time we connect to their service. Based on data from Google, IPv6 adoption has only really started in 2011-2012, and now almost 20% of users can connect over IPv6 either natively or through IPv4/IPv6 tunneling. But today, I’ve read that IPv10 draft specifications had been recently released. What? Surely with the slow adoption of IPv6, we certainly don’t need yet another Internet protocol… But actually, IPv10 (Internet Protocol version 10) is designed to allow IPv6 to communicate to IPv4, […]

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Geekcreit ESP32 Development Board Goes for $4 Shipped (Promo)

While you may have thought Wemos Lolin32 board selling for $6.9 plus shipping was already a decent deal, you can now buy a breadboard friendly ESP32 development board for the normal price of ES8266 board thanks to a promotion on Banggood selling 1,000 pieces of “Geekcreit ESP32” board for $4.09 including shipping, and valid until September 10, or while stock lasts. It looks to be roughly the same design as the fake NodeMCU ESP-32s board I once spotted: Wireless Module – ESP-WROOM-32 with Espressif ESP32 dual core processor with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 LE Expansion – 2x 19 pin headers with GPIOs, Analog inputs (ADC), UART, I2C, VP/VN, etc…; breadboard compatible USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming Misc – BOOT and EN buttons, red (power) and blue (GPIO2) LEDs Power Supply – 5V via USB or Vin pin Dimensions – 51.4 x 28.3 mm […]