CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 30, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Qualcomm Unveils Mesh Networking WiFi Router / Gateway Reference Design Powered by IPQ40x8/9 NSoC

Qualcomm has just announced the Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform for OEM and broadband providers to design home WiFi routers/gateways capable of providing “robust and consistent connectivity”, and feature voice control capabilities, centralized management and security, and a range of mesh system features. In order to speed up adoption the the platform, the company introduced the Qualcomm Mesh Networking Reference Design with the following key features & benefits: Network System-on-Chip (NSoC) – Qualcomm IPQ40x8/9 network system-on-chip with four Cortex A7 cores, 802.11ac WiFi 2×2+2×2, network and crypto accelerators Qualcomm Wi-Fi Self-Organizing (SON) feature suite will ensure corner-to-corner Wi-Fi coverage, easy set-up, automatic management and traffic optimization, as well as additional security safeguards. Carrier-Grade features with Wi-Fi SON APIs, cloud-based diagnostics Integrated voice capabilities thanks to built-in microphone array and speaker, voice recognition software, and APIs support for popular cloud-based assistant applications. Variety of backhaul options to be used to maximize the […]

May 30, 2017May 30, 2017 by TLS - 2 Comments

ACT Power unveils its Project-X A1 production ready development board at Computex 2017

These days developer boards are a dime a dozen, but Taiwanese ACT Power has taken a different approach from most companies out there by making their addition production ready. The Project-X A1 is the first in what is expected to be a series of boards that will utilize the same mezzanine board connectors, to make it easy to change hardware platforms over time. The board on display at Computex is still an early prototype and some things will change before the final product launches. Specification wise we’re looking at: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU @ 600 MHz System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage 8GB eMMC flash, SD card slot Video Output – 1x HDMI 1.4a up to 4K @ 30 Hz Audio Output – HDMI, I2S via pin-header Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet with optional PoE support USB – Two […]

May 30, 2017May 30, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Olimex ESP32-EVB Board with Ethernet, CAN Bus, and Relays up for Sale for 26 Euros

One of the new feature of Espressif ESP32 SoC over ESP8266 is the inclusion of an Ethernet MAC interface, but so far few boards come with an RJ45 jacks. ESP32 Monster board is an option, also including an OLED Display and CAN Bus, and sold on Tindie for $35, but Olimex has now stocked their ESP32-EVB board with Ethernet, CAN Bus, and two relays, and you can purchase it for 26 Euros per unit, and less in larger quantities. Olimex ESP32-EVB Rev. B specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-WROOM32 module with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth LE Wired Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet with RJ45 jack (via LAN8710A) External Storage – micro SD slot Relays – 2x 10A/250VAC relays with LED status Expansion 40-pin GPIO female header (2.54mm pitch) UEXT connector for sensors and modules CAN Bus USB – 1x micro USB port for debugging (CH340T) and power Misc – Reset and […]

May 29, 2017March 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 55 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-M2 Berry Allwinner V40 Development Board, Allwinner Business Units & SDK/Software Management

SinoVoIP has unveiled yet another new board with Banana Pi BPI-M2 Berry this week-end. It’s actually quite similar to Banana Pi BPI-M2 Ultra board, by they replaced Allwinner R40 with Allwinner V40 processor, removed some features, and use Raspberry Pi 3 form factor. If we look at Allwinner V40 product brief we can see the specifications look almost identical, with V40 potentially exposing an extra CAN bus. The company’s announcement was very confusing since they show Banana Pi BPI-M2 Berry board with Allwinner R40 instead of Allwinner V40. Banana Pi BPI-M2 Berry Banana Pi BPI-M2 Berry specifications: SoC – Allwinner V40 quad Core ARM Cortex A7 processor with ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1G DDR3 SDRAM Storage – micro SD slot, SATA interface Connectivity – 1x Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6212 module) Video Output – HDMI 1.4 port up to 1080p60, 4-lane MIPI DSI […]

May 29, 2017May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

STMicro Unveils STM32L4 Discovery Kit for IoT with WiFi, BLE, NFC, Sub-GHz RF, and Plenty of Sensors

STMicro has recently introduced B-L475E-IOT01A Discovery kit powered by STM32L4 Cortex-M4 and targeting IoT nodes with a choice of connectivity options including WiFi, Bluetooth LE, NFC, and sub-GHZ RF at 868 or 915 MHz, as well as a long list of various environmental sensors. B-L475E-IOT01A Discovery kit key features and specifications: MCU – STM32L4 Series MCU based on ARM Cortex -M4 core with 1 MB Flash memory, 128 KB SRAM Storage – 64 Mbit (8MB) Quad-SPI Flash memory (Macronix) Connectivity Bluetooth 4.1 LE module (SPBTLE-RF) Sub-GHz (868 or 915 MHz) low-power-programmable RF module (SPSGRF-868 or SPSGRF-915) Wi-Fi module based on Inventek ISM43362-M3G-L44 (802.11 b/g/n compliant) Dynamic NFC tag based on M24SR with its printed NFC antenna Sensors 2x digital omni-directional microphones (MP34DT01) Capacitive digital sensor for relative humidity and temperature (HTS221) 3-axis magnetometer (LIS3MDL) 3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope (LSM6DSL) 260-1260 hPa absolute digital output barometer (LPS22HB) Time-of-Flight and gesture-detection […]

May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Intel DLIA is a PCIe Card Powered by Aria 10 FPGA for Deep Learning Applications

Intel has just launched their DLIA (Deep Learning Inference Accelerator) PCIe card powered by Intel Aria 10 FPGA, aiming at accelerating CNN (convolutional neural network) workloads such as image recognition and more, and lowering power consumption. Some of Intel DLIA hardware specifications: FPGA – Intel (previously Altera) Aria 10 FPGA @ 275 MHz delivering up to 1.5 TFLOPS System Memory – 2 banks 4G 64-bit DDR4 PCIe – Gen3 x16 host interface; x8 electrical; x16 power & mechanical Form Factor – Full-length, full-height, single wide PCIe card Operating Temperature – 0 to 85 °C TDP – 50-75Watts hence the two cooling fans The card is supported in CentOS 7.2, and relies on Intel Caffe framework, Math Kernel library for Deep Neural Networks (MKL-DNN), and works with various network topologies (AlexNet, GoogleNet, CaffeNet, LeNet, VGG-16, SqueezeNet…). The FPGA is pre-programmed with Intel Deep Learning Accelerator IP (DLA IP). Intel DLIA can […]

May 29, 2017May 30, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel Compute Card Apollo Lake and Kaby Lake SKUs, Block Diagrams, and Specifications

Intel Compute cards are the latest ultra-thin CPU cards introduced by Intel at the beginning of the year, with a concept similar to EOMA68 CPU cards, that it to allow CPU card upgrades or replacements, and interoperability across compatible devices such as smart kiosks, IoT gateways, and so on. But at the time, Intel did not reveal that many details about the different cards, although we know NexDock is working on laptop dock compatible with Intel Compute Cards. But I’ve recently received some block diagrams for Apollo Lake Pentium/Celeron, and Kaby Lake Core M/Core i5 compute cards.There will two SKUs for Apollo Lake compute cards sharing the same specifications, except for the processor: SoC CD1C64GK SKU – Intel Celeron N3450 quad core processor @ 1.1 / 2.2 GHz (base/turbo) with 12EU Intel HD Graphics Gen9; 7.5W TDP CD1P64GK SKU – Intel Pentium N4200 quad core processor @ 1.1 / 2.5 GHz […]

May 28, 2017May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

FriendlyELEC Mailbag: NanoPi NEO OLED Starter Kit, NEO Station NS-120B, and NanoPi K2 Multimedia Kit

FriendlyELEC will send me some review samples from time to time, and normally I just ask for one item, but they aways send a bunch of their products instead. This time I asked for a NanoPi NEO NAS Kit v1.2 to play with, but I got clearly more than what I asked for… Let’s start with the box at the top. It contains “NanoPi NEO complete starter kit” selling for $29.99for $29.00 with the following items: NanoPi NEO board NanoHat OLED Heatsink and thermal pad kit Akuminum housing a Mico USB cable A micro SD card pre-loaded with NEO OLED Ubuntu firmware. Three buttons, and screws It’s actually not fully complete, as you’d need to provide and solder your own male headers to NanoPi NEO board. I did not have time for soldering that day, but the final results should be really neat based on pictures from their website. If […]