Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on Kingston Adds 4 GB & 8 GB Capacities to DataTraveler 2000 Encrypted USB Flash Drives with Keypad

Kingston Adds 4 GB & 8 GB Capacities to DataTraveler 2000 Encrypted USB Flash Drives with Keypad

Kingston DataTraveler 2000 is a USB 3.0 flash drive that stores files with hardware based AES-256 encryption, and to make sure nobody can access those, it’s also protected with a pin code thanks to a keypad on the flash drive itself. That’s news to me, but the devices have been selling since early 2016 with 16 to 64GB capacities, and you’ll find them on Amazon for $127 and up. However, since such high security USB flash drives are mostly used for confidential information by enterprises and governments (it’s FIPS-197 compliant), some company’s customers may have complained that 16 to 64GB storage is a bit too much for confidential data, with recent top secret documents leaks or IP thefts, so Kingston has just announced smaller 4GB and 8GB versions of the drives. Those drives are OS agnostic with encryption occurring inside the drive, and seen buy your computer or other hardware […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on NVIDIA Jetson TX1 Developer Kit SE Offered for $199 (Promo)

NVIDIA Jetson TX1 Developer Kit SE Offered for $199 (Promo)

Launched in 2015, NVIDIA Jetson TX1 developer kit integrates some serious processing power with a Jetson TX1 module with a 256-core Maxwell GPU, four Cortex A57 cores, 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, and plenty of ports and I/Os via a mini-ITX carrier board. The only problem is that it’s quite expensive, as it was launched with an official $599 price tag, and it’s still $579 on Amazon US. The good news is that NVIDIA decided to launch a promotion for Jetson TX1 Developer Kit SE, based on the same $500+ development kit minus USB cable and camera module, and offered for just $199. Let’s refresh our memory with the board’s specifications: Jeston TX1 module NVIDIA Maxwell GPU with 256 NVIDIA CUDA Cores Quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 MPCore Processor 4 GB LPDDR4 Memory 16 GB eMMC 5.1 Flash Storage Connects to 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled devices 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet NVIDIA Jetson TX1 Carrier […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Intel Wireless-AC 9560 CRF Module Adds 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5 to Gemini Lake/Cannon Lake Processors

Intel Wireless-AC 9560 CRF Module Adds 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5 to Gemini Lake/Cannon Lake Processors

Last week, we saw that the upcoming Intel Gemini Lake processors integrated a CNVi (Connectivity Integration) block with a WiFi MAC, and Bluetooth MAC & Baseband Modem connected over a CNVio interface to a separate CRF (Companion RF) module handling the RF part. The design change is shown in the block diagram below with the old design on the left using wireless modules connected over PCIe and USB, and the new design on the right used in Cannon Lake/Gemini Lake processors which aims at saving power, cost, and size. Intel has now uploaded the product brief for their first wireless CRF module: Intel Wireless-AC 9560 with the following key features: Connectivity WiFi Dual band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wave 2 2×2 WiFi up to 1.73 Gbps using 160 MHz channels Standards – IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 802.11d, 802.11e, 802.11h, 802.11i, 802.11w, 802.11r, 802.11k, 802.11v pending OS support Security WPA and WPA2, 802.1X (EAP-TLS, TTLS, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on ESP32-PICO-D4 System-in-Package Combines ESP32, 4MB SPI Flash, a Crystal Oscillator, and Passive Components

ESP32-PICO-D4 System-in-Package Combines ESP32, 4MB SPI Flash, a Crystal Oscillator, and Passive Components

Espressif Systems has revealed another ESP32 variant, but this time it’s not an SoC, but a 7x7mm system-in-package (SIP) that comes ESP32 dual core processor, a 4MB  SPI flash, a crystal oscillator and various passive components, so that you don’t need to include those in your design, and create an ultra-compact PCB for wearables and other space-constrained applications. ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP specifications: SoC – ESP32 with two Tensilica LX6 cores, 448 KB ROM, 520 KB SRAM (inc. 8KB RTC memory), 1kbit eFuse On-module Flash – 4MB SPI flash Connectivity WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n/e/i (802.11n up to 150 Mbps) Bluetooth – Bluetooth V4.2 BR/EDR and BLE specification; ; class-1, class-2 and class-3 transmitter; Audio: CVSD and SBC SIP Interfaces SD card, UART, SPI, SDIO, LED PWM, Motor PWM, I2S, I2C, IR GPIO, capacitive touch sensor, ADC, DAC, LNA pre-amplifier Sensors –  On-chip Hall sensor & temperature sensor Clock – On-module 40 MHz crystal […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Android 8.0 Oreo Launched, OS Images, and AOSP Source Code Released

Android 8.0 Oreo Launched, OS Images, and AOSP Source Code Released

Google has now formally announced Android O version and name: Android 8.0 Oreo. We already had seen the new Features in Android O-reo during the first preview release with picture-in-picture support, autofill APIs, adaptive icons and so on. There’s also a new Android Oreo character… If you want to run the latest Android 8.0 on your device, you can do so on Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel C, Pixel, and Pixel XL by getting the firmware in the download page, unless you are enrolled in Android Beta Program in which case you should receive it automatically. What I did not see (yet) is a joint announcement for a new Android 8.0 phone like last year LG V20 smartphone with Android 7.0, and Google simply said that “by the end of this year, hardware makers including Essential, General Mobile, HMD Global Home of Nokia Phones, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments on Installing Let’s Encrypt Free SSL/TLS Certificate in 2 Minutes with Certbot, Spending Hours Making it Work with Cloudflare

Installing Let’s Encrypt Free SSL/TLS Certificate in 2 Minutes with Certbot, Spending Hours Making it Work with Cloudflare

I’ve been using an SSL certificate to the download subdomain of this blog running ownCloud for about 2 years, but recently my free StartSSL certificate expired, and I had troubles to renew it, and I also received an email from Google telling me that “Starting October 2017, Chrome (version 62) will show a “NOT SECURE” warning when users enter text in a form on an HTTP page, and for all HTTP pages in Incognito mode”.  So I decide to use free LetsEncrypt SSL/TLS certificates to replace the one in the download subdomain, as well as this main blog. Such SSL/TLS certificates are also very useful for the IoT gateways many of use have started using, and I found it’s even simpler than install a self-signed certificate, so there’s no reason to use those anymore. The easiest way to install Let’s Encrypt certificate is by using Certbot with instructions for various […]

AAEON Intel Arc
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Qualcomm Provides Details about 64-bit ARM Falkor CPU Cores used in Centriq 2400 Server-on-Chip

Qualcomm Provides Details about 64-bit ARM Falkor CPU Cores used in Centriq 2400 Server-on-Chip

Qualcomm officially announced they started sampling Centriq 2400 SoC with 48 ARMv8 cores for datacenters & cloud workloads using a 10nm process, but at the time the company did not provide that many details about the solution or the customization made to the CPU cores. Qualcomm has now announced that Falkor is the custom CPU design in Centriq 2400 SoC with the key features listed by the company including: Fully custom core design – Designed specifically for the cloud datacenter server market, with a 64-bit only micro-architecture based on ARMv8 (Aarch64). Scalable building block – The Falkor core duplex includes two custom Falkor CPUs, a shared L2 cache and a shared bus interface to the Qualcomm System Bus (QSB) ring interconnect. Designed for performance, optimized for power 4-issue, 8-dispatch heterogeneous pipeline designed to optimize performance per unit of power, with variable length pipelines that are tuned per function to maximize […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on NComputing RX300 Thin Client Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

NComputing RX300 Thin Client Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

NComputing RX300 is a thin client based on Raspberry Pi 3 board that will allow to remotely run Windows and Linux operating systems from a much more powerful server, and Raspberry Pi 3 mostly handling the display, and connection to hardware like USB keyboard and mouse. The company has me sent a review sample for evaluation, and I’ll start by checking out what I received, and the hardware design of the device. NComputing RX300 Thin Client Unboxing I was asked whether I could test dual display, and then I had to choose between a VGA adapter or a DVI adapter. I selected the former, and I received both RX300 thin client, and a USB to VGA secondary adapter with its USB cable. We’ll find the thin client, a 5.1V/2.5A power adapter with a US plug adapter, and a multi-language quick installation guide in the package. The enclosure is really cute, and […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC