Tango Nano 9K

Tang Nano 9K FPGA board can emulate PicoRV32 RISC-V soft-core with all peripherals

Tang Nano 9K FPGA is the third board from Sipeed based on GOWIN FPGA following the original Tang Nano board with 1K LUT and Tang Nano 4K launched last year with GW1NSR-LV4C (aka GW1NSR-4C) FPGA offering 4068 logical units and 64 Mbit PSRAM, plus an Arm Cortex-M3 hard processor. As its name implies, the new board comes with 9K LUTs, as well as 64 Mbit PSRAM, 32 Mbit Flash, a micro SD card, and video I/O (HDMI, RGB LCD connector) that makes it suitable to run Verilog HDL code emulating a PicoRV32 RISC-V soft-core with all peripherals. Tang Nano 9K FPGA board specifications: FPGA – GOWIN LittleBee GW1NR-9/GW1NR-LV9 8,640 logical units (LUTs) 6,480 flip-flop 17,280 bits shadow SRAM (SSRAM) 486 Kbit block SRAM (BSRAM) 64 Mbit PSRAM 608 Kbit user flash 2x PLL Up to 276x user I/O Storage – 32 Mbit SPI flash. MicroSD card socket Display I/F HDMI […]

Raspberry Pi Zero W connected to PC

USB add-on boards leverage Raspberry Pi Zero test pads, USB Gadget mode

I’ve just come across a few USB boards that take advantage of the Raspberry Pi Zero (W) test pads to add one or more USB Type-A ports to the board without soldering. The first one is “Catda Raspberry Pi zero WH USB expansion board” which I found on Banggood for $9.99. It’s a kit that ships with a USB Zero plug expansion module, an acrylic “isolation protection cover”, an acrylic transparent light diffraction protection cover plus M2.5 screws and nuts for mounting it to the Raspberry Pi Zero WH board, but it should work any Raspberry Pi Zero including the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board since it relies on pogo pin to connect the four test pads for USB data and power, and those are in the same position for all Pi Zero boards. You can then plug it into a laptop or computer to power the board […]

Graperain Samsung, Rockchip RK3588, and Qualcomm CPU modules, SBCs, and carrier boards
Raspberry Pi CM4 Nano industrial mini PC

Raspberry Pi CM4 Nano industrial mini PC supports wide temperature range, 12-18V DC input

If you ever wanted a mini PC similar to Raspberry Pi 4 but working within a wider temperature range and supply voltage, as well as a few extra features, the Raspberry Pi CM4 Nano industrial mini PC with a metal enclosure might be worth looking at. Based on the EDATEC CM4 Nano carrier board, the mini PC supports Raspberry Pi CM4 with up to 8GB RAM, 32GB storage, optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, and offers one HDMI port, a flat cable HDMI + Touchscreen connector, Gigabit Ethernet, three USB 3.0 ports and more. It works in settings with -25 to +60°C ambient temperature and offers a 12-18V DC input. EDATEC (Raspberry Pi) CM4 Nano specifications compared to Raspberry Pi 4 SBC: The company uses the Raspberry Pi OS image for the board plus a Board Support Package (BSP) specific to CM4 Nano to support extra features like the RTC: […]

Casio F-91W Microchip SAM L22 board

Microchip SAM L22 board makes Casio F-91W watch more customizable (Crowdfunding)

Casio F-91W is a popular watch that was first released in 1989, and it is still sold today for around $15. The team at “Oddly Specific Objects” decided to create the “Sensor Watch” open-source hardware board based on Microchip SAM L22 Cortex-M0+ microcontroller that can replace the electronics inside the watch. They still keep the display and enclosure and wristband from the original Casion F-91W watch, but the new board connects to a temperature sensor board, and more importantly, provides the ability to hack/program the watch with your own code, besides the few samples provided, or even design your own sensor board. Sensor Watch board specifications: MCU – Microchip SAM L22 Arm Cortex M0+ microcontroller @ 32 MHz with 32KB RAM, 256 KB of Flash with up to 16 KB EEPROM emulation area Display – Controller for 10-digit segment LCD, plus five indicator segments USB – 1x Micro USB PCB […]

ESP32-C3 board 25 RGB LEDs

Board with 25 RGB LEDs is offered with ESP32-C3 or ESP32-Pico-D4

In case you are in need of a tiny WiFI or Bluetooth-connected board with an RGB LED matrix, two have shown up on Banggood with basically the same 25 RGB LED design , except “C3FH4 RGB” board is based on ESP32-C3 RISC-V SoC, while the other, named “PICO D4 RGB“, features ESP32-Pico-D4 SiP (System-in-Package). The boards are cute and the main purpose is probably for decoration/ornament, but I’d imagine if you purchase a few they could also be used as an experimentation/education platform for mesh networking, using the ESP Mesh Development Framework (ESP-MDF) for instance. C3FH4 RGB / PICO D4 RGB board specifications: SoC/SiP C3FH4 RGB board – ESP32-C3FH4 SoC with RISC-V core @ 160 MHz, 4MB flash, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 5 LE with Long-Range support PICO D4 RGB board – ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core Xtensa processor @ 240 MHz, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth dual-mode, 4MB flash Ceramic […]

Horizon X3 AI development board

Horizon X3 AI development board is powered by Sunrise 3 AI Edge Arm processor

Horizon X3 AI development board is powered by Horizon Robotics Sunrise 3 (aka X3) quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with a 5 TOPS NPU, and multiple camera support with the chip apparently designed for the automotive industry. [Update January 25, 2022: A third-party company, Finsbury Glover Hering, claiming to represent Horizon Robotics informed CNX Software the chip is not designed for the automotive market, and that Horizon’s AIoT business is actually limited to the domestic China market and not overseas.] The devkit is comprised of a Sunrise 3 system-on-module with 1GB LPDDR4 & 16GB EMMC memory, as well as a baseboard with Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi, HDMI up to 1080p60 and MIPI DSI interface, a camera interface, and a 40-pin header for expansion. Horizon X3 AI development board specifications: SoC – Horizon Robotics Sunrise 3 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz, one Cortex-R5 core, a 5 TOPS NPU (2x “Bernoulli” BPU) System […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Amber Power Silicon 20x10mm

The death of transformers? AC Direct DC Enabler is a solid-state solution for AC-DC power supplies

Power supplies would typically transform AC mains to DC voltage with the use of transformers, rectifiers, or filtering, but Amber Solutions’ AC Direct DC Enabler chip claims to do without those old tech electromechanical components by enabling DC extraction directly from AC mains through solid-state architecture. The company claims the technology leads to dramatically smaller size footprints, while simultaneously “delivering a much more dynamic, configurable power delivery capability”. Consumer, commercial and industrial electrical products manufacturers and semiconductor companies can already evaluate the technology as the AC Direct DC Enabler is now available as a demo kit. The company made bold claims even announcing the death of transformers: The magic of the Amber AC Direct DC Enabler is that it allows manufacturers to add modern intelligence and enhanced functionality to new and existing products using much smaller silicon chips to manage and deliver DC power. Using a single silicon chip, this […]

Axzez interceptor Raspberry Pi CM4 carrier board

Raspberry Pi CM4 carrier board comes with 5x SATA, 4x GbE, 2x HDMI, RS-485 interfaces

We just wrote that Wiretrustee carrier board for Raspberry Pi CM4 with four SATA interfaces was canceled and made open-source hardware a few days ago, but the Axzez Interceptor carrier board is offering a solution that is somewhat similar with 5x SATA ports and designed for NAS, NVR, IoT, and Managed Switch applications. The Interceptor Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 notably includes two 4Kp60 capable HDMI ports, 5x SATA ports, 4x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 4x USB 2.0 interfaces, RS-485, and is powered via an ATX-24 connector, with a Mini-ITX adapter in the works. Axzez Interceptor specifications: Compatible SoM –  Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Storage Support for 5x SATA HDD/SSD via JMicron JMB585 PCIe to SATA controller Supports software RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 or 10 HDD sleep/standby Video Output – 2x full-size HDMI 2.0 connectors (4Kp60) Networking – 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports via Realtek RTL8367RB switch; programable […]

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