UP Core is a Low Cost & Compact Intel Maker Board Powered by an Atom x5-Z8350 SoC (Crowdfunding)

The UP community has already launched Intel Cherry Trail and Apollo Lake boards in the past with UP Board and UP2 (squared) boards, and they are now about to launch a cheaper and smaller board called UP Core powered by Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor with to 1 to 4GB memory, up to 64GB eMMC flash, HDMI, USB 3.0, … and I/O expansion connectors. UP Core specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz / 1.92 GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel HD 400 graphics @ 200 / 500 MHz System Memory –  1, 2 or 4 GB DDR3L-1600 (soldered on board) Storage – 16, 32, or 64 GB eMMC flash, SPI flash ROM Video Output / Display – HDMI 1.4 port, full eDP (embedded DisplayPort) connector Audio I/O – Via HDMI, and I2S Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi  @ 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth 4.0 LE (AP614A) […]

$18.9 Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 Board: Allwinner H3, WiFi + Bluetooth LE, HDMI and 8GB eMMC Flash

When will they ever stop? Shenzhen Xunlong has launched yet another Allwinner H3 board called Orange Pi Zero Plus 2, that has not that much in common with Orange Pi Zero, since it uses a different processor (H3 vs H2+), adds HDMI, and implements WiFi and BLE via an Ampak AP6212 module.Orange Pi Zero Plus 2: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU @ 600 MHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI port with CEC support Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 LE (Ampak AP6212) with u.FL antenna connector and external antenna USB – 1x micro USB OTG port Camera – MIPI CSI port Expansion headers – Unpopulated 26-pin “Raspberry Pi B+” header + 13-pin header with headphone, 2x USB 2.0, TV out, microphone and […]

Shenzhen Xunlong Software & Canonical Launch Orange Pi App Store for Ubuntu Snaps

The maker of Orange Pi boards, Shenzhen Xunlong Software, has partnered with Canonical to launch Orange Pi app store, allowing developers to gain a simple mechanism to share their applications, projects and scripts with the Orange Pi community. The store relies on snaps instead of deb packages, with snaps allowing a secure distributions of apps bundled with all their dependencies, which according to Canonical can decreased the time for an half an hour installation process to just a few seconds. The community has already contributed hundreds of snaps in the Ubuntu snap store, including openHAB for home automation, Rocket.chat self-hosted chat platform, NextCloud for cloud storage, and wifi-ap for networking. You can get them from the App store, but installing a snap from the command line is easy, for example:

However, I cannot find any Ubuntu Core image for Orange Pi Boards yet on Ubuntu Core Getting Started page. […]

MYiR Tech MYC-JA5D2X System-on-Module is Powered by Microchip ATSAMA5D2 Cortex A5 Processor

MYIR Tech has released MYC-JA5D2X system-on-module powered by a Microchip Atmel SAMA5D2 ARM Cortex A5 processor with 256MB flash, and 256 MB DDR3. The module relies on a SO-DIMM edge connector to expose the camera interface, Ethernet, USB, camera, and other I/O signals. MYC-JA5D2X CPU module specifications: SoC – Atmel SAMA5D26 or SAMA5D27 ARM Cortex A5 processor @ up to 500 MHz with 128KB L2 cache System Memory – 256MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 256MB NAND flash, 4MB data flash, 64KB EEPROM Connectivity – On-board 10/100M Ethernet PHY 200-pin SO-DIMM edge connector with: 1x Ethernet 1x USB Host, 1x USB Device, 1x USB HSIC (HSIC is only for SAMA5D27) Up to 10x serial ports, up to 2 x CAN (only for SAMA5D27) Up to 7 x I2C, up to 7 x SPI Up to 2 x QSPI 12 x 12-bit ADC (enhanced resolution up to 14 bits) 4x PWM 1x […]

NXP Introduces Kinetis K27/K28 MCU, QorIQ Layerscape LS1028A Industrial SoC, and i.MX 8X Cortex A35 SoC Family

NXP pushed out several press releases with the start of Embedded World 2017 in Germany, including three new micro-controllers/processors addressing different market segments: Kinetis K27/K28 MCU Cortex M4 MCU family, QorIQ Layerscape LS1028A industrial applications processor, and i.MX 8X SoC family for display and audio applications, 3D graphic display clusters, telematics and V2X (Vehicle to everything). NXP Kinetis K27/K28 MCU NXP Kinetis K27/K28 MCU family is based on an ARM Cortex-M4 core clocked at up to 150 MHz with FPU,and includes up to 1MB embedded SRAM, 2MB flash, and especially target portable display applications. Kinetis K27/K28 MCUs share the following main features: 2x I2S interfaces, 2x USB Controllers (High-Speed with integrated High-Speed PHY and Full-Speed) and mainstream analog peripherals 32-bit SDRAM memory controller and QuadSPI interface supporting eXecution-In-Place (XiP) True Random Number Generator, Cyclic Redundancy Check, Memory Mapped Cryptographic Acceleration Unit K28 supports 3 input supply voltage rails (1.2V, 1.8V […]

NanoPi NEO2 Development Board Powered by Allwinner H5 64-bit ARM Processor Sells for $15

NanoPi NEO is a cool little board, and I’ve been using it with Armbian as a 24/7  MQTT + Domoticz server for several weeks without any issues so far. FriendlyElec has now an update with NanoPi NEO2 featuring Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 processor instead of Allwinner H3 Cortex A7 processor, a faster Gigabit Ethernet connection, and a new audio header. NanoPi NEO2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 processor with an ARM Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (via RTL8211E-VB-CG chip) USB – 1x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port, 2x USB via headers Expansion headers 24-pin header with I2C, 2x UART, SPI, PWM, and power signals 12-pin header with 2x USB, IR pin, I2S 5-pin audio header with microphone and LINE out signals Debugging – 4-pin header for serial […]

$80 BeagleBone Blue Board Targets Robots & Drones, Robotics Education

Last year, we reported that BeagleBoard.org was working with the University of California San Diego on BeagleBone Blue board for robotics educational kits such as EduMiP self-balancing robot, and EduRover four wheel robot. The board has finally launched, so we know the full details, and it can be purchased for about $80 on Mouser, Element14 or Arrow websites. BeagleBone Blue specifications: SiP (System-in-Package) – Octavo Systems OSD3358 with TI Sitara AM3358 ARM Cortex-A8 processor @ up to 1 GHz,  2×32-bit 200-MHz programmable real-time units (PRUs), PowerVR SGX530 GPU, PMIC, and 512MB DDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 LE (TI Wilink 8) with two antennas USB – 1x USB 2.0 client and host port Sensors – 9 axis IMU, barometer Expansion Motor control – 8x 6V servo out, 4x DC motor out, 4x quadrature encoder in Other interfaces – GPIOs, 5x UARTs, 2x […]

Turtle Board is a Raspberry Pi 2 Like FPGA Board for J-Core J2 Open Source SuperH SH2 SoC

J-core J2 is an open source processor and SoC design implemented in VHDL, and using  SH2 instruction set found in some Renesas (previously Hitachi) micro-controllers. The code available royalty free under a BSD license, and it’s also patent-free since all SH2 related patents expired expired in October 2014. The developers used to run the code on Xilinx Spartan 6 based Numato Mimas v2 board since it was cheap ($50) and mostly did the job. “Mostly”, because it still lacked Ethernet, capability for SMP and the serial port was slow, so they decided to design their own Turtle Board to address those issues. Turtle Board preliminary specifications: FPGA – Xilinx Spartan 6 LS25 or LS45 FPGA MCU – 8-bit Atmel MCU for load/update flash at power on. Storage – micro SD slot, 8MB SPI flash System memory – 256 MB RAM Video & Audio Output – HDMI and AV jack Connectivity […]