CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Maker Go RA4M1-R4 core board is a cheap Arduino UNO R4 Minima clone taking up to 50V DC input

The Maker Go RA4M1-R4 core board is another Arduino UNO R4 Minima clone but offered at a price point much lower than the original and the Waveshare R7FA4 Plus A (another clone) since it shows up for only $0.99 on AliExpress with free shipping. Note that the ultra-low price is because of a “Welcome deal” on AliExpress, and the regular price is $7.76, so not everyone may get it for $1. About $8 is still cheap compared to the $20 (18 Euros) asked for the official Arduino UNO R4 Minima board. Let’s look at the clone in more detail to find out if they’ve made any changes to the board. Maker Go RA4M1-R4 core board specifications: Microcontroller – Renesas RA4M1 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 48 MHz with 32KB SRAM, 256KB flash USB – 1 x USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansions – Arduino UNO female + male headers […]

August 29, 2024August 29, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Nuvoton M2003 is a low-cost Arm Cortex-M23 MCU for AIoT and Industrial applications

Nuvoton NuMaker M2003FC development board

Nuvoton has recently launched the Nuvoton M2003 series of low-cost Arm Cortex-M23 microcontrollers which at the time of writing features M2003FC1AE and M2003XC1AE microcontrollers. Major features include a 32-bit hardware multiplier/divider, 32 KB of flash memory, 4 KB of SRAM, multiple communication interfaces (UARTs, I²C, USCI), analog peripherals (8-channel 12-bit ADC, 6-channel 16-bit PWM), and support for a wide voltage and temperature range. These features make this device useful for AIoT, industrial automation, smart homes, energy storage, and automotive electronics, and the company says the low-cost M2003 family offers a migration path from 8-bit to 32-bit designs. Feature-wise both the MCUs are the same and the only difference is in their package. The M2003FC1AE comes in a TSSOP20 package, whereas the M2003XC1AE comes in a QFN20 (3x3mm) package. The NuMaker-M2003FC development board is also offered for evaluation. Nuvoton M2003 series MCU specifications Device – Nuvoton M2003 series of MCUs M2003FC1AE […]

August 28, 2024August 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

NanoPi R3S – A low-cost Rockchip RK3566 SBC and dual gigabit Ethernet router

FriendlyELEC NanoPi R3S is a low-cost Rockchip RK3566 SBC and router with two gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB 3.0 host ports, a USB-C port for power and data, a microSD card slot, Reset and Mask buttons, and a few LEDs. It also features a MIPI DSI connector for people wanting to connect a display. Its design and size are similar to the NanoPi R5C dual 2.5GbE SBC and router, so it could be viewed as a low-cost alternative with dual GbE, no M.2 socket for WiFi & Bluetooth, only one USB 3.0 port, and no HDMI video output. The company promotes it as an inexpensive platform for IoT applications, basic NAS solutions, and so on. NanoPi R3S specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU NPU – 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator VPU 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder 1080p60 […]

August 28, 2024August 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

T-Display-S3-AMOLED-1.43 – A 1.43-inch round AMOLED touchscreen display with an ESP32-S3 wireless MCU

We’ve already seen a few ESP32-S3 boards with an AMOLED display and plenty with round displays such as SB Components’ Dual Roundy, LILYGO T-RGB ESP32-S3, MaTouch ESP32-S3 Rotary IPS display among others, but I had yet to see an ESP32-S3 board with a round AMOLED display. That’s just what the LILYGO T-Display-S3-AMOLED-1.43 has to offer. The ESP32-S3 board features a 1.43-inch round AMOLED with 466×466 resolution and a capacitive touchscreen, a microSD card slot for storage, an RTC with backup battery, two 14-pin headers and a Qwiic UART connector for expansion, a USB-C port for power/charging and programming, and a 2-pin connector for a LiPo battery. T-Display-S3 AMOLED-1.43 specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 8MB PSRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh connectivity Storage – 16MB SPI flash, MicroSD […]

August 28, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - 2 Comments

ASUS ROG USB-BE92 is a USB 3.2 Gen1 WiFi 7 BE6500 adapter

The ASUS ROG USB-BE92 is a USB 3.2 Gen1-based WiFi 7 adapter that supports IEEE 802.11a/b/n/ac/ax/be standards. It operates in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, with dual internal antennas for improved signal reception. The device is designed for high-throughput wireless performance in BE6500 networks, supporting MU-MIMO technology. Primarily targeted for Windows 10 and 11 platforms, it enables next-generation wireless connectivity when paired with WiFi 7 routers and compatible client devices. We previously discussed several WiFi 7 modules, SBCs, and chipsets including Compex WLE7002E25, 8Devices Noni, Banana Pi BPI-R4, Fibocom FG370, and MediaTek’s Filogic 860 and Filogic 360. These modules offer different features and performance levels, so I recommend checking them out if you’re interested in WiFi 7 technology. The ASUS ROC USB-BE92 is one of the first WiFi 7 USB dongles that made it to market. ASUS ROG-USB-BE92 specifications: Wi-Fi Bandwidth – Tri-band BE6500 Top Speed – Max 2880Mbps […]

August 28, 2024August 27, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Android support for 16KB page size boosts performance by up to 10 percent

Most operating systems are set to use a 4KB page size since that’s what most CPUs support, but Android is often running on Arm CPUs that can support 16KB page size. So Google decided to enable 16 KB page size as a developer option in selected Android devices since it can deliver a 5 to 10% boost in performance, at the cost of using around 9% extra memory. Contrary to 32-bit/64-bit mode, a page size is not an Application Binary Interface (ABI), so once an application is fixed to be page size agnostic, it can run on both 4 KB and 16 KB devices without modifications. Apps written with Java or Kotlin don’t need modifications, but those that use native code (C/C++) or dependencies must be recompiled for compatibility with 16 KB page size devices. Google provides some details about the benefits of 16 KB page sizes on the developer […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

August 27, 2024August 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

platform-espressif32 fork to enable PlatformIO support for ESP32-C6, ESP32-C5, ESP32-H2, and ESP32-P4 SoCs

PlatformIO ESP32-C6 ESP32-C5 ESP32-P4 ESP32-H2

When Espressif Systems released Arduino ESP32 Core 3.0.0 we noted that PlatformIO support was in doubt due to business issues between Espressif and Platform IO developers. There has been no progress since then, and PlatformIO is not even reviewing or merging community contributions to their platform-espressif32 library. So if you want software that’s officially supported by Espressif, you should stick to the Arduino ESP32 Core. But if you are a fan of PlatformIO for ESP32, there’s hope even for the newer chips like ESP32-C6, ESP32-H2, and ESP32-P4 among others, as pioarduino community members have now forked the platform-espressif32 library to keep the project alive. Users can still rely on the official PlatformIO repository for existing ESP32 boards and microcontrollers, but new ESP32-C6, ESP32-H2, ESP32-C5, ESP32-H4, and ESP32-P4 SoC will only be supported by the fork. pioarduino which stands for “people initiated optimized arduino” will maintain the fork, and currently, Arduino […]

August 27, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

reCamera modular AI camera features SG2002 RISC-V AI SoC, supports interchangeable image sensors and baseboards

Seeed Studio’s reCamera AI camera is a modular RISC-V smart camera system for edge AI applications based on SOPHGO SG2002 SoC. The camera is made up of three boards: the Core board, the Sensor board, and the Baseboard. The Core board includes hosts the processor, storage, and optional Wi-Fi. The Sensor board consists of image choice of image sensors, and the Baseboard provides various connectivity options including USB Type-C, UART, microSD, and optional PoE port and CAN bus connectivity options. At the time of writing the company has released the C1_2002w and C1_2002 core boards. The C1_2002w core board includes eMMC storage, Wi-Fi, and BLE modules, and the C1_2002 features extra SDIO and UART connectivity, but not WiFi. Both boards use the SOPHGO SG2002 tri-core processor and can be paired with various camera sensors for applications such as robotics, healthcare, smart home, as well as buildings and industrial automation. […]