Linux

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Inforce 6320 Snapdragon 410E Powered IoT Edge Gateway Launched for $250

Inforce 6320 Snapdragon 410E Powered IoT Edge Gateway Launched for $250

Inforce Computing launched several boards and modules based on Snapdragon 410/410E including 6301 SoM and 6309 micro SBC, which their customers can integrate into their own products. The company has now launched an “Application Ready Platform” with Inforce 6320 IoT/IoE (Internet of Everything) edge routers that can be deployed directly by their customers. Inforce 6320 comes with a Snapdragon 410E board with dual Gigabit Ethernet, a Wireless module with WiFi and Bluetooth, USB 2.0 ports, a micro HDMI port and other interfaces, as well as a rugged metal enclosure also used for cooling.Inforce 6320 IoT gateway specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E processor (APQ8016E) with four ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit CPU @1.2GHz, Adreno 306 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.0, DirectX, and OpenCL, Hexagon QDSP6 @ 700MHz System Memory and Storage – 1GB LPDDR3 RAM + 8GB eMMC (eMCP package); MicroSD card connector Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz WiFi, BT 4.1 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Advantech ROM-7720 is a Qseven 2.1 Compliant i.MX 8 QuadMax Computer-on-Module

Advantech ROM-7720 is a Qseven 2.1 Compliant i.MX 8 QuadMax Computer-on-Module

Many solutions based on NXP i.MX8 processors are likely to be announced during Embedded World 2018 next week. We’ve already seen several NXP i.MX 8M Cortex A53 based modules such as Variscite DART-MX8M or Compulab CL-SOM-IMX8 systems-on-module, and more are coming. One of those will be Advantech ROM-7720 computer-on-module (CoM) featuring the top of the line NXP i.MX 8 QuadMax Cortex A72/A53 processor and following QSeven 2.1 specifications / form factor. Advantech ROM-7720 CoM specifications: SoC –  NXP i.MX 8QuadMax processor with 2x Cortex A72 cores @ up to 1.6GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores, 2x Cortex-M4F real-time cores, a HiFi 4 DSP, and 2x Vivante GC7000XSVX GPUs System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 @ 1600 MHz (optional 4GB RAM) Storage – 8 GB eMMC Flash for OS, 64 MB Quad SPI Flash for boot loader Video Output / Display I/F 2x 24-bit LVDS, 1366 x 768 for 1ch; 1920 x 1080 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Microchip Launches $39 Industrial Grade System-on-Module with SAMA5D2 System-in-Package

Microchip Launches $39 Industrial Grade System-on-Module with SAMA5D2 System-in-Package

Last fall, Microchip introduced four SAMA5D2 systems-in-package (SiP) combining the Cortex A5 processor with 16 to 128 MB DDR2 in a single package, and at the time, the company also offered ATSAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1, a fast prototyping and evaluation platform for the SiP that was designed with a baseboard and a soldered down ATSAMA5D27-SOM1 system-on-module. The kit was available for $245, and pricing for the SiP started at around $9 per unit for 5K order. The company has now started to offer ATSAMA5D27-SOM1 module separately with pricing starting at $39 each for 100 pieces order. ATSAMA5D27-SOM1 specifications: SiP – Microchip ATSAMA5D27C-D1G SiP with Cortex-A5 MPU @ 500 MHz, 128 MB DDR2 DRAM Storage Microchip SST26VF064BT 64Mb Serial Quad I/O (QSPI) flash memory for boot code (Linux kernel or RTOS) Microchip 24AA025E48 2Kb Serial EEPROM with EUI-48 Note Identity for the Ethernet MAC address Connectivity – Microchip KSZ8081RNAIA 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet PHY for wired […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on ADL Embedded Solutions ADLEPC-1520 Atom based Industrial Mini PC Supports Stackable I/O Expansion

ADL Embedded Solutions ADLEPC-1520 Atom based Industrial Mini PC Supports Stackable I/O Expansion

ADL Embedded Solutions has recently announced ADLEPC-1520 embedded mini PC powered by a dual or quad core Intel Atom Bay Trail-I processor, supporting wide temperature range, and long term 15 years availability for industrial applications and environments. The computer also includes an expansion header with PCIe, SATA, USB, SM-Bus and DisplayPort interfaces, that allows for standard or custom expansion board stackable on top of the main board. ADLEPC-1520 specifications for the main board (ADLE3800SEC): SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom E3845 quad core Bay Trail-I processor @ up to 1.91GHz, with 2MB cache, 10W TDP Intel Atom E3827 dual core Bay Trail-I processor @ up to 1.75 GHz, with 1MB cache, 8W TDP System Memory – Up to 4GB soldered down Storage – 2x M.2 Key B 2242 SATA II SSD slots Video Output – 1x DisplayPort Connectivity – Dual Gigabit Ethernet USB – 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments on WCH CH341 USB to Serial Chip Gets Linux Drivers to Control GPIOs over USB

WCH CH341 USB to Serial Chip Gets Linux Drivers to Control GPIOs over USB

USB to serial chips are often used as a debug interface either directly on the target board, or via a dedicated debug board. But some models have extra pins exposed, and one of those is WCH CH341, which also includes I2C & SPI interfaces and up to 8 GPIOs. But software support for those extra pins is not currently built-in into the drivers found in Linux mainline, and you’d also have to find a board that breakout the relevant pins. It turns out there are few of things including “CH341A ALL IN 1 USB to SPI/I2C/IIC/UART/TTL/ISP serial adapter” board going for $10 shipped on Aliexpress, and which Zoobab successfully used to control 6 (out of 8) GPIOs over USB. The board comes with a USB board to connect to your computer, several header for I2C, UART, SPI, some LEDs, and jumper to select I2C/SPI or UART mode and voltage (5V/3.3V). […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Human Readable Decoding of /proc/cpuinfo for Arm Processors

Human Readable Decoding of /proc/cpuinfo for Arm Processors

One of the most common way to get CPU information is to check the content of /proc/cpuinfo. For example, this is the output I get from running the command on NanoPi NEO (Allwinner H3) board:

Many fields are self-explanatory, but what about CPU implementer and CPU part numbers? Those are values stored in Arm’s CPUID Base Register, and 0x41 looks up to Arm implementer, while 0xc07 refers to Cortex A7. But I had to look it up to find out. One solution would be to decode those values in the kernel, but the developers won’t do that probably because it may break user-space programs that rely on hexadecimal values. So instead, Riku Voipio decided to write and submit a patch for lscpu program found in util-linux package. The patch has been merged so the new ID mapping feature should be supported in util-linux 2.32 and greater. In the meantime, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Embedded Linux Conference & IoT Summit 2018 Schedule

Embedded Linux Conference & IoT Summit 2018 Schedule

The Embedded Linux Conference 2018 and the OpenIoT Summit 2018 will jointly take place next month, on March 12 – 14, 2018 in Portland, Oregon, USA. The former is a “vendor-neutral technical conference for companies and developers using Linux in embedded products”, while the latter is a “technical conference for the developers and architects working on industrial IoT”. The Linux Foundation has already published the schedule, and it’s always useful to learn what will be discussed about even for people who won’t attend. With that in mind, here’s my own virtual schedule with some of the talks I find interesting / relevant to this blog. Monday, March 12 10:50 – 11:40 – Progress in the Embedded GPU Ecosystem by Robert Foss, Collabora Ltd. Ten years ago no one would have expected the embedded GPU ecosystem in Linux to be what it is now. Today, a large number of GPUs have […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Monitor Network Traffic per Process with Nethogs

Monitor Network Traffic per Process with Nethogs

Yesterday I wrote about using 3G on Raspberry Pi board,  and one of the commenter mentioned higher traffic than expected when connecting to 3G to just send a few bytes before disconnecting. One of the reasons are the extra data needed if you transmit data over a secure connection, for example establishing a PPP connection, connect to the board over SSH, and disconnect, results in the transmission & reception of a few kilobytes on my board:

But if you get much more traffic than that, you may want to investigate if another package may transfer data when it detects the connection is up. To analyze traffic, tcpdump and Wireshark are good options, especially if you want to look into the packets data, however such tools do not tell you which process is sending or receiving the data. So I searched whether I could find a program that would do […]