Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 20, 2024September 20, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ASUS Tinker Board 3 – A credit-card sized Rockchip RK3566 SBC with 12V to 19V DC input

ASUS Tinker Board 3 is a credit card-sized SBC based on Rockchip RK3566 SoC with an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, gigabit Ethernet, an M.2 socket for WiFi and Bluetooth, four USB ports, and a 40-pin GPIO header with a layout similar to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. When I first wrote about the Tinker Board 3 in 2023, it was a larger (100 x 100 mm) SBC based on Rockchip RK3568 SoC that was later renamed to Tinker Board 3N, now also available as a complete rugged system (more about that in a subsequent post). The new Tinker Board 3 (2024) is a completely different design that competes against Radxa ROCK 3C and Orange Pi 3B boards also based on RK3566 and offered in a business card/credit card form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi 3B. Tinker Board 3 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core […]

September 18, 2024September 18, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

STMicro STM32C071 Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU adds USB FS interface, targets inexpensive GUI implementations

STM32C071 development board graphical user interface

STMicro has just announced the availability of the STM32C071 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller part of the STM32C0 series with 128 KB of flash and 24 KB of RAM suitable for driving a small 320 x 240 display using an SPI interface and building affordable graphical user interfaces (GUI) for appliances. The microcontroller also adds a crystal-less USB FS device interface, additional SPI and I2C interfaces, and extra GPIOs (up to 61) all of which are 5V tolerant. For evaluation and quickly get started with firmware development, STMicro also offers the NUCLEO-C071RB development board and X-NUCLEO-GFX01M2 display expansion board. STM32C071 low-cost Cortex-M0+ MCU for GUI in appliances STM32C071 specifications: MCU Core -Arm 32-bit Cortex-M0+ CPU @ up to 48 MHz Memory – Up to 24KB SRAM with HW parity check Storage – Up to 128KB flash with protection and securable area Peripheral interfaces Up to 61x fast I/Os, all 5V tolerant 5-channel […]

September 17, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Turing Pi 2.5 mini-ITX cluster board for system-on-modules launched along with a mini-ITX enclosure

The Turing Pi 2.5 is a mini-ITX motherboard designed for clusters of system-on-modules such as Raspberry Pi CM4, NVIDIA Jetson modules, or the company’s own RK1 SoM powered by a Rockchip RK3588 AI SoC. A mini-ITX case compatible with both the Turing Pi 2 and 2.5 boards is also available. The Turing Pi 2.5 is an upgrade to the earlier Turing Pi 2 with the main key features, but some updates related to USB, HDMI output, new 8-pin connectors for I2C, audio, and GPIO pins, and BMC upgrades. While the company has just announced the start of Turing Pi 2.5 and the mini-ITX case pre-order, documentation and photos on the store and documentation website have not been updated. Everything is still about the Turing Pi 2 except for the information in the announcement. I won’t go through the specs since they are not available for the latest version, but the […]

September 16, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linux 6.11 Release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.11 is out with Linus Torvalds’ announcement on the Linux kernel mailing list (LKML): I’m once again on the road and not in my normal timezone, but it’s Sunday afternoon here in Vienna, and 6.11 is out. The last week was actually pretty quiet and calm, which is nice to see. The shortlog is below for anybody who wants to look at the details, but it really isn’t very many patches, and the patches are all pretty small. Nothing in particular stands out – the biggest patch in here is for Hyper-V Confidential Computing documentation. Anyway, with this, the merge window will obviously open tomorrow, and I already have 40+ pull requests pending. That said, exactly _because_ I’m on the road, it will probably be a fairly slow start to the merge window, since not only am I on my laptop, there’s OSS Europe starting tomorrow and then the […]

September 15, 2024September 17, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

ESP32-S3-PICO-based OMGS3 is the world’s smallest fully-featured ESP32-S3 module/board

Based on the ESP32-S3-PICO system-in-package (SiP), Unexpected Maker OMGS3 is a small, yet full-featured ESP32-S3 module/board whose designer claims is the world’s smallest in its category at just 25x10mm in size. It replaces the earlier Unexpected Maker NanoS3 based on the ESP32-S3FN8 SoC measuring 28 x 11 mm. The OMGS3’s ESP32-S3-PICO SiP integrates a dual-core ESP32-S3 WiFi and BLE wireless SoC, 8MB QSPI flash, and 2MB QSPI PSRAM. The board itself also includes a 3D antenna, an RGB LED, two LEDs for power and charging, and I/Os are exposed through 26 solder pads. Unexpected Maker OMGS3 specifications: SiP – Espressif ESP32-S3-PICO SoC ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 16 KB RTC SRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE + Mesh Memory – 2MB QSPI PSRAM Storage – 8MB QSPI flash Antenna – High-gain 3D antenna I/Os via 26x solder pads Up to 17x GPIO […]

September 13, 2024September 13, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Cytron IRIV IO Controller – A Raspberry Pi RP2350-based industrial I/O controller

Raspberry Pi RP2350 industrial controller

Cytron IRIV IO Controller is an “Industrial Revolution 4.0” (or Industry 4.0) controller based on the Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller that comes with an Ethernet port implemented through the W5500 chipset, and several isolated interfaces such as DI and DO up to 50V, two analog inputs, and RS232 and RS485 serial interfaces accessible through terminal blocks. Last year, the company introduced the Cytron IRIV PiControl industrial controller based on the Raspberry Pi CM4 module, and the IRIV IO Controller is a much cheaper solution using a subset of the features and a design that looks similar. IRIV IO Controller specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350A CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @150MHz with Arm Trustzone for secure boot Dual-core 32-bit Hazard3 RISC-V @ 150MHz Up to two cores can be used at the same time Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM in 10 banks Storage – 2MB flash memory Networking – 10/100M […]

September 13, 2024September 13, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

NanoPi Zero2 is a tiny headless Arm Linux computer with Gigabit Ethernet, a USB port, and an M.2 Key-E socket for WiFi

FriendlyELEC NanoPi Zero2 is one of the world’s smallest Arm Linux computers with the 45x45mm board featuring a Rockchip RK3528A quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, up to 2GB RAM, microSD and eMMC flash module sockets for storage, a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 jack, an M.2 socket for WiFi, a USB Type-A port, and a 30-pin GPIO FPC connector for expansion. When I went to find more information about the earlier NanoPi Zero, I quickly realized… it did not exist, and the closest thing we have is the ZeroPi released in 2019 with an Allwinner H3 Cortex-A7 processor and an even smaller 40x40mm form factor. The NanoPi Zero2 comes with a 64-bit processor, more memory, and optional support for an M.2 WiFi module among other improvements. It’s designed for headless applications since there’s no video output/display interface. NanoPi Zero2 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3528A CPU – Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2.0 GHz GPU – […]

September 12, 2024September 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Juno Tab 3 is a pricey 12.1-inch Linux tablet powered by an Intel Processor N100 CPU

Juno Tab 3 is a rare Linux tablet running Mobian Phosh, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu on an Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor and equipped with a 12.1-inch touchscreen display with 2160×1440 resolution. We’ve covered many Intel N100 hardware platforms, mostly mini PCs, and the closest thing to a tablet was the Higole F9B Pro mini PC with a 7-inch touchscreen display and a 26mm thick design. The Juno Tab 3 is a proper Linux tablet with an Intel N100 CPU, 12 GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and a 12.1-inch touchscreen display in an 8.7mm thin design. Juno Tab 3 specifications: SoC – SoC – Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics @ 750 MHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – 12GB LPDDR5 4,800MT/s Storage 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB M.2 SATA 2242 SSD MicroSD card reader Display – 12.1-inch […]