CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 11, 2024September 11, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 1 Comment

The Epi C3 is a tiny ESP32-C3 development board with USB-C and an onboard antenna

The Epi C3 is a small development board based on the Espressif ESP32-C3 microcontroller with a USB-C connector for power and programming and an onboard ceramic antenna for wireless applications. We have previously covered several tiny ESP32-C3 development boards such as the Microflex series, ESP32-C3-0.42LCD, the XIAO ESP32C3, and LOLIN’s C3 Mini and C3 Pico. The Epi C3 claims the title of the “smallest ESP32 dev board with USB-C and an onboard antenna.” It uses a Johanson ceramic antenna with a “surprising range for its size” and the USB-C port is sunk into the board to reduce footprint. The ESP32-C3 microcontroller on the Epi C3 board is much more powerful than the 8-bit AVR chip on its predecessor, the Epi 32U4. The Epi C3, however, retains many of the older board’s protective features, including TVS diodes on the USB data lines and power input, a 500mA on the USB power […]

September 11, 2024September 10, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Khadas Mind 2 portable mini PC gets Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Ultra 7 155H update, USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 interfaces

Khadas Mind 2 is an update to the Raptor Lake-powered Khadas Mind portable mini PC offered with either an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Core Ultra 155H Meteor Lake processor. It ships with up to 64GB LPDDR5, PCIe 4.0 storage, and adds Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 interfaces that were missing from the first model. We reviewed the original Khadas Mind Premium with both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04, and its dock, and it was indeed a pretty cool, albeit pricey, device with features like a small built-in battery to move the computer from one room to another without turning it off, and the Mind Link interface enabling connecting to the Khadas Dock for extra peripherals, the Mind Graphics for higher-end graphics, and more. Limitations included the lack of USB4 and 2.5GbE ports and the Khadas Link was limited to 64GT/s, but the second generation model addresses most of these […]

September 11, 2024September 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

MSI MS-CF13 is a fanless mini-ITX motherboard powered by Intel N97, Core i3-N305, or Atom x7425E Alder Lake-N SoC

MSI MS-CF13 is a low-profile, low-power, fanless mini-ITX motherboard offered with a choice of Alder Lake-N processors namely Intel Processor N97, Intel Core i3-N305, or Intel Atom x7425E SoC. The motherboard supports up to 16GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and SATA III storage, features dual 2.5GbE, six internal COM ports, six USB interfaces, M.2 Key-B and Key-E sockets for wireless expansion, and supports up to three independent display through up to two DisplayPort, one HDMI, LVDS/eDP display interfaces, MSI MS-CF13 specifications: Alder Lake N-series SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x7425E quad-core processor up to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 1.00 GHz; TDP: 12W Intel Processor N97 quad-core processor up to 3.6 GHz with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 1.20 GHz; TDP: 12W Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor up to 3.8 GHz with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 1.25 GHz; TDP: […]

September 10, 2024September 8, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

AAEON introduces NXP i.MX 8M Plus Pico-ITX SBC and mini PC designed for Edge AI industrial applications

AAEON PICO-IMX8PL is a Pico-ITX SBC built around the NXP i.MX 8M Plus Edge AI processor which the company has also released in an enclosed form as the SRG-IMX8PL mini-PC. Both are designed for industrial AIoT/IoT applications. The SBC features various connectivity options including dual Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, 4G LTE, CAN-FD, Audio, LVDS, and support for popular protocols like Modbus, MQTT, and OPCUA. Whereas the mini PC sacrifices some I/O interfaces and the LVDS display output to enable wall or DIN rail mounting. Both products have wide operating temperature ranges, fanless designs, and compact form factors making them ideal for deployment in harsh industrial environments. All these features make this device useful for industrial automation, transportation, and digital signage. AAEON PICO-IMX8PL Pico-ITX SBC and RG-IMX8PL mini-PC specifications SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus AI SoC CPU Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.6 GHz Arm Cortex-M7 real-time core @ 800 […]

September 10, 2024September 8, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - No Comments

Jetway MF32 3.5-inch SBC is offered with Intel Core i5-1335UE or Intel Processor U300, four 2.5GbE, M.2 expansion

Jetway MF32 is a 3.5-inch single-board computer (SBC) offered with either an Intel 13th Gen Core i5-1335UE or an Intel Processor U300. It includes four Intel 2.5GbE LAN ports and optional dual PoE with a max output of 40W. The board supports up to 32GB of DDR5 memory, offers various M.2 expansion slots, and comes with a Nano SIM card slot. This board can be used in networking devices, edge computing, IoT projects, digital surveillance, etc… Jetway offers four variants of their MF32 SBC: The MF32-133E0 and MF32-133E2 models are equipped with the Intel Core i5-1335UE processor, while the MF32-300U0 and MF32-300U2 feature the Intel Processor U300. It’s important to note that the MF32-133E0 and MF32-300U0 do not include TPM 2.0 (dTPM) security features. Jetway is well known for its SBCs, and we’ve previously covered its products like the JMTX-ADN8, JNUC-ADN1 mini-ITX motherboard, and JF35-ADN1 3.5-inch motherboard, all featuring the […]

September 10, 2024September 8, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Mayhem v2 expansion for Flipper Zero adds Wi-Fi, BLE, camera, microSD card slot, and NRF24 or CC1101 radio support

Erwin Ried‘s Mayhem v2 is an all-in-one ESP32 and NRF24L01-based expansion board designed for Flipper Zero. This board adds Bluetooth and Wi-Fi through an ESP32-S module, features 2MP camera with flashlight, a microSD card slot, and support for either an NRF24L01 module (for sniffing and mousejacking) or a CC1101 module (for external radio communication). These features make this Flipper Zero add-on board useful for WiFi and Bluetooth penetration testing, motion detection, QR code reading, and as a nanny cam with remote access. Previously we have written about similar expansion boards like the Flipper Zero ESP8266 Deauther which adds de-authentication capabilities and the Flipper Add-On CANBus which can be used to sniff, send, and log CAN bus packets directly from the Flipper Zero. Feel free to check those out if you are interested in those tools. Mayhem v2 Flipper Zero add-on board specification Wireless Module – ESP32-S WiFi 802.11 b/g/n + […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

September 9, 2024September 9, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - 11 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 8-core – A 4 GHz octa-core processor for entry-level Copilot+ PCs and laptops

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X line of ARM-based processors is designed for Windows laptops, offering CPUs capable of competing with Intel and AMD processors. The Snapdragon X Plus (10 core) and Snapdragon X Elite, announced last year, include high-performance NPUs for AI processing. Qualcomm has now introduced the entry-level Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor, targeting the $700 to $900 laptop market instead of the ~$1,300+ asked for something like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 15. It reduces CPU and graphics performance while maintaining the same AI features as the higher-end models. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus lineup includes two octa-core processors: the X1P-46-100 and X1P-42-100, both built on a 4nm process. These processors come with eight Oryon CPU cores, clocked at 4GHz and 3.4GHz respectively, and are equipped with the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, delivering 45 TOPS for AI tasks like Copilot+ PC. They also integrate Qualcomm Adreno GPUs offering 2.1 TFLOPS for the […]

September 9, 2024September 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-CM5 Pro – A Rockchip RK3576-powered Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with up to 16GB RAM, 128GB flash, a 6 TOPS NPU

Banana Pi BPI-CM5 Pro, also called ArmSoM-CM5, is a Rockchip RK3576 system-on-module electrically and mechanically compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM4 while offering up to 16GB LPDDR5 memory, 128GB eMMC flash, and a 6 TOPS AI accelerator embedded into the RK3576 SoC. It comes with a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless module, a PMIC for power management, and two 100-pin connectors mostly compatible with the pinout of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. ArmSoM also provides a CM5-IO carrier board to make use of the extra USB 3.0 and PCIe interfaces, and the company told CNX Software they tested the module successfully with the official Raspberry Pi CM4 IO board. Banana Pi BPI-CM5 Pro specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU – 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.0, […]