UP 4000 SBC
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UP 4000 SBC is a Raspberry Pi lookalike with an Intel Apollo Lake processor

AAEON has unveiled the UP 4000 single board computer with a form factor and ports arrangement similar to Raspberry Pi 2/3, but powered by a choice of x86 processors, namely the Intel Atom E3900 series, Celeron N3350, or Pentium N4200 all parts of the Apollo Lake family. The first UP Board was introduced in 2015 as a device offering an x86 alternative to the Raspberry Pi 2 with an Intel Atom x5-Z8300/Z8350 “Cherry Trail” processor, but later “UP bridge the gap” boards from the company used larger “Squared” (85.6 x 90 mm) or “Xtreme” (122 x 120 mm) form factors. The UP 4000 SBC brings us back to the original business card form factor but with a boost in performance and various specifications improvements. UP 4000 vs UP Board specifications   AAEON says the new board is able to deliver 30% faster CPU performance and twice the 3D graphics performance […]

Banana Pi Leaf BPI-Leaf-S3
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Banana Pi BPI-Leaf-S3 ESP32-S3 board launched for $7.5

Banana Pi is better known for its Arm Linux boards, but the company’s Banana Pi BPI-Leaf-S3 board features Espressif ESP32-S3 dual-core WiFi & BLE AI processor, with compatibility with ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 minus a built-in USB to TTL chip, and added support for battery and an I2C connector. Banana Pi Leaf (BPI-Leaf-S3) specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 512KB RAM, wireless connectivity Storage/Memory – 8MB flash, 2MB SPRAM Connectivity via ESP32-S3 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 with 40 MHz bandwidth support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0 and Mesh connectivity with long-range support, up to 2Mbps data rate. PCB antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C OTG port for power and programming Expansion 2x 22-pin headers with up to 36x GPIO, 2x 12-bit ADC, 14x touch sensor inputs, 4x SPI, 2x I2C, 2x I2S, LCD interface, DVP camera […]

Graperain Samsung, Rockchip RK3588, and Qualcomm CPU modules, SBCs, and carrier boards
CANBed M4 development board
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CANBed M4 SAM E51 development board features MCP2542FD CAN transceiver

CANBed M4 development board based on Microchip SAM E51 Cortex-M4 microcontroller and MCP2542FD CAN transceiver provides a more powerful alternative to the CANBed RP2040 with a Raspberry Pi dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller introduced last year. The board supports both CAN 2.0 and CAN FD with a 4-pin terminal block or a DB-9 connector, and offers expansion capabilities though two Grove connectors, and an 18-pin IO header. CANBed M4 specifications: MCU – Microchip ATSAME51G19A Arm Cortex M4 core @ up to 120 MHz with 512KB flash, 192KB RAM CAN Microchip MCP2542FD CAN transceiver with support for CAN 2.0 and CAN FD up to 2+ Mbps Input interface – DB-9 connector or terminal block 120 Ohm terminal resistor USB – 1x Micro USB port for programming Expansion I2C Grove connector UART Grove connector SPI header 18-pin I/O header with up to 12x GPIOs, UART, I2C, 4x analog inputs, 5V, and GND Misc – […]

Rockchip RK3568 mini-ITX motherboard
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Firefly ITX-3568JQ – A Mini-ITX motherboard with Rockchip RK3568 CPU

Firefly ITX3588J mini-ITX motherboard with Rockchip RK3588 SoC now has a little sister/brother based on Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor called ITX-3568JQ, and designed to power Arm PCs, cloud terminals, industrial controllers, edge computers, advanced NVR, NAS devices, and more. The motherboard supports up to 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, offers SATA storage, dual Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, optional 4G or 5G cellular connectivity, can handle up to three independent displays, and offers plenty of I/O options including an RS232/RS485 DB9 connector and a PCIe slot. Firefly ITX-3568JQ specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568J quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52-2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 1.0 TOPS NPU, 8MP ISP, 4Kp60 video decoding, 1080p60 H.265/H.264 video encoding System Memory – 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB eMMC flash 16MB SPI flash 1x […]

LILYGO T-QT V1.1
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LILYGO T-QT V1.1 – A cute little board with ESP32-S3 and a 0.85-inch color display

LILYGO must be churning out at least one new “ESP32” board every month, but I don’t think they’ve ever made one with ESP32-S3. LILYGO T-QT V1.1 board changes that and combines the dual-core WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.0 AI microcontroller with a 0.85-inch color display. The board also happens to be rather small and cute with a 33 x 18 mm form factor, offers some I/O via headers and a 4-pin connector, and can be powered via its USB Type-C port or a battery, but lacks a charging circuit. LILYGO T-QT V1.1 specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 512KB RAM, wireless connectivity Storage – 8MB flash Connectivity via ESP32-S3 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 with 40 MHz bandwidth support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0 connectivity with long-range support, up to 2Mbps data rate. […]

STEPFPGA education FPGA board
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STEPFPGA FPGA board is programmable with a Web IDE (Crowdfunding)

STEPFPGA MXO2Core miniature FPGA development board is based on Lattice MXO2-4000 FPGA, and designed for education with an easy-to-use Web IDE, instead of the more traditional tools that can be frustrating to use, and detailed tutorials. The board also comes with a 2-digit segment display, some LEDs, push buttons, and a 4-way DIP switch, as well as two rows of twenty pins for I/O expansion, and a USB Type-C port used for power, programming, or mass storage. STEPFPGA MXO2Core specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi MachXO2 X02-4000 FPGA with 4320 LUTs Display – 2-digit segment display USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power, programming (UART), and mass storage Expansion – 2x 20-pin headers with up to 36x GPIOs, SPI, I2C, 3.3V, VBUS, GND; breadboard-compatible Misc – 2x RGB LEDs, 8x red LEDs, 4-way DIP switch, 4x push buttons Power Supply – 5V via a USB port Dimensions – Small four-layer […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Raspberry Pi Pico W UART serial console
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Getting started with WiFi on Raspberry Pi Pico W board

Raspberry Pi Trading announced the Raspberry Pi Pico W board basically based on the same design as the original Raspberry Pi Pico board with RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller but adding a wireless module with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.2, although the latter is not enabled on the board at this time. The company sent me a sample for review/evaluation, and I’ll focus on the WiFi part since the Raspberry Pi Pico W supports the same MicroPython and C/C++ SDKs as for the Raspberry Pi Pico board plus additional APIs for wireless connectivity. Raspberry Pi Pico W unboxing The board I received was cut from a 480-unit reel, and I also got a one-meter long micro USB to USB cable, which should probably not be included by default for people ordering the $6 board. Just like its predecessor, the board is tiny, and The pinout is the same as the […]

ROMA RISC-V laptop for developers
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ROMA Linux laptop to feature quad-core RISC-V SoC, support Web3, NFT, cryptocurrencies, etc…

ROMA is an upcoming Linux laptop equipped with an unnamed quad-core RISC-V processor with GPU and NPU, up to 16GB RAM, 256GB storage, primarily aimed at software developers, and with Web3 technology integration. The ROMA laptop will be born out of the collaboration between DeepComputing working on engineering and Xcalibyte taking care of system tuning, plus PW (assembly), ECP (security), XC (crypto), Rexeen (voice), and the LatticeX Foundation (PoS blockchain, NFT). ROMA laptop preliminary specifications: SoC – Quad-core RISC-V CPU with  GPU for graphics, NPU for AI (12nm chip for the Pro model, 28nm chip for the Standard model) System Memory – 16GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X RAM Storage – 256GB eMMC flash Security – Arm SC300 security enclave processor Display, keyboard, touchpad I agree that’s a bit light on details. We’re told the laptop will support most Linux operating systems and the company will offer free SoC and SoM upgrades, as well […]

Boardcon LGA3576 Rockchip RK3576 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications