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Google Releases Android O Developer Preview 2, Announces Android Go for Low-End Devices, TensorFlow Lite

After the first Android O developer preview released in March, Google has just released the second developer preview during Google I/O 2017, which on top of features like PiP (picture-in-picture), notifications channels, autofill, and others found in the first preview, adds notifications dots, a new Android TV home screen, smart text selection, and soon TensorFlow Lite. Google also introduced Android Go project optimized for devices with 512 to 1GB RAM. Notifications dots (aka Notification Badges) are small dots that show on the top right of app icons – in supported launchers – in case a notification is available. You can then long press the icon to check out the notifications for the app, and dismiss or act on notifications. The feature can be disabled in the settings. Android TV “O” also gets a new launcher that allegedly “makes it easy to find, preview, and watch content provided by apps”. The […]

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Samsung ARTIK 053 WiFi IoT Module Runs Tizen RT on an ARM Cortex R4 MCU

Samsung has just introduced the latest member of its Artik family at IoT World 2017. ARTIK 053 is a WiFi module powered by an ARM Cortex R4 wireless micro-controller @ 320 MHz with hardware based security, GPIO, SPI, and I2C ports, and running Tizen RT real-time operating system. Artik 053 module specifications: MCU – 32-bit ARM Cortex R4 @ 320MHz with 1280 KB RAM for general use, 128 KB RAM for global IPC data (likely Samsung Exynos i T200, or a variant without an ARM Cortex M0+ core) Storage – 8 MB flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi @ 2.4 GHz Expansion – 29 dedicated GPIO ports, 2x SPI, 4x UART (2-pin), 4x ADC, 1x JTAG, 2x I2C Security – AES/DES/TDES, SHA-1/SHA-2, PKA (Public Key Accelerator), PRNG/DTRNG (Random Number Generators), Secure key storage, Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) Power Supply – 5 to 12VDC input voltage Dimensions – 40 x 15 x […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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The Future of Cellular IoT Explained – LTE M1, LTE NB-IoT, eSIM, and Battery Life Hype

Telecom companies also want their share of the IoT business, but with 2G to 4G cellular technology often being too power hungry and/or expensive for this market, 2G on-going – or upcoming – sunset depending on your location, LTE Cat M1 and LTE Cat NB1 (aka NB-IoT) standards have been developed, and used in products like Pycom FiPy board, and SARA-R4 and SARA-M2 modules. If you want to have an overview learn about the new LTE IoT standards and the future of cellular IoT, Particle has published a useful presentation – embedded below – dealing with both, as well as eSIM (Embedded SIM), 2G sunset, and battery life expectations. The main takeaways from my reading of the presentation: LTE NB1 is better suited for low power stationary sensors transmitting a small amount of data a few times a day. Requires new hardware and software LTE M1 can be used for […]

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Nextion Enhanced NX8048K070 is a 7″ Resistive or Capacitive Programmable Touch Display with an Optional Enclosure

Nextion displays are designed to be controlled by MCU boards with the user interface designed in Nextion Editor drag-and-drop tool. ITEAD Studio launched them in 2015, and I played with Nextion 2.4″ and 5.0″ models, but at the time, I found the Windows only Nextion Editor program not to be that user-friendly and inconvenient to use, as for example, UI designs do not automatically scale across all display sizes. The company is now back with a 7″ model, available with resistive or capacitive touch panel, and featuring an ARM7 processor exposing 8 GPIOs. Nextion Enhanced NX8048K070 (_011) specifications: CPU – ARM7 processor @ 108 MHz with 8K RAM, 1024 EEPROM, 1024 bytes instruction buffer Storage – 32MB flash memory, micro SD card slot Display – 7″ TFT display with resistive or capacitive panel; resolution: 800×480; 65K colors; adjustable brightness: 0 to 230 nit Expansion – 8x GPIOs including 4x PWM, […]

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EduExo DIY Robotic Exoskeleton Kit is Arduino Powered, 3D Printable, Designed for STEM Education (Crowdfunding)

Robotic exoskeletons are used for medical purposes such as helping with the rehabilitation of stroke patients, or enable paraplegics to walk again, as well as in the work place to assist people lifting heavy objects. While it’s possible to learn about the theory about exoskeleton technology, practical experience may help grasping all concepts better. However, there are not many courses available, and exoskeletons are usually expensive, so Volker Bartenbach, PhD at ETH in Zürich, has decided to created EduExo robotic exoskeleton kit for education purpose. The EduExo hardware is based on off-the-shelf components like an Arduino UNO board, a motor, and a force sensor, as well as a rigid exoskeleton structure and cuff interfaces. The latter is optional as you can get the kit without it, and will instead receive the STL files to 3D print the parts yourself. There’s also a handbook to help you get started in several […]

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Visualizing Electronics Manufacturing Price Variation with Volume and Lead Time

Google Android Things developers announced a production hardware sample based on Intel Edison module: Android Things is focused on helping developers build production ready devices that they can bring to market. This means building custom hardware in addition to the app software running on the Android Things system-on-module (SoM). As a part of this effort we have released Edison Candle, the first in a series of production samples designed to showcase hardware and software designed to work together. The code is hosted on GitHub and the hardware design files are on CircuitHub. That’s what the Edison Candle looks like. It’s just demo hardware to show how to build a product with a system-on-module (Intel Edison) for Android Things with everything released in Github. You can also purchase the board on CircuitHub, but then I saw the price was around $356 for such a simple board (without Edison). That’s quite a […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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Allwinner G202 Dual Core Processor is Designed for Voice Activated Smart WiFi Speakers

Today I received Banana Pi BPI-M2 Ultra board together with Allwinner catalog. As I flicked through it, I discovered new Allwinner B-Series ARM Cortex A7 processors (B188 and B288) designed for e-readers, as well as Allwinner G-Series ARM Cortex A7 processors (G102 and G202) targeting the WiFi speaker market, now dominated by products like Amazon Echo or Google Home (in the US). Allwinner G202 specifications: CPU – Dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor Memory I/F – DDR2/DDR3/DDR3L SDRAM Storage I/F – eMMC 5.0, SD 2.0 compliant Audio 24-bit/192 Khz audio playback 2x I2S/PCM interfaces up to 384 KHz sample rate, and 16 channel TDM with 32bit sample resolution DSD (Direct Stream Digital) interface with 2 channels,64/128/256bit sample mode DMIC (Digital Microphone) interface with 8 channels, maximum 48KHz sample rate S/PDIF OUT interface Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi with WPS, WPA/WPA2 security Other interfaces – USB 2.0 OTG, UART, SPI, TWI […]

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Think Silicon Ultra Low Power NEMA GPUs are Designed for Wearables and IoT Applications

When you have to purchase a wearable device, let’s say a smartwatch or fitness tracker, you have to make trade offs between user interface and battery life. For example, a fitness tracker such as Xiaomi Mi Band 2 will last about 2 weeks per charge with a limited display, while Android smartwatches with a much better interface need to be recharged every 1 or 2 days. Think Silicon aims to improve battery life of the devices with nicer user interfaces thanks to their ultra-low power NEMA 2D, 3D, and GP GPU that can be integrated into SoCs with ARM Cortex-M and Cortex-A cores. The company has three family of GPUs: NEMA|p pico 2D GPU with one core 4bpp framebuffer, 6bpp texture with/out alpha Fill Rate – 1pixel/cycle Silicon Area – 0.07 mm2 with 28nm process Power Consumption – leakage power GPU consumption of 0.06mW; with compression (TSFSc): 0.03 mW NEMA|t […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications