Author: Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Nuvoton introduces the first security chip based on OpenTitan open-source silicon Root of Trust

Nuvoton introduces the first security chip based on OpenTitan open-source silicon Root of Trust

OpenTitan demo board Nuvoton open source security chip

Google has announced the start of the fabrication of a Nuvoton security chip featuring OpenTitan open-source silicon Root of Trust (RoT), the first such production-ready chip. It will soon be available in lowRISC’s Voyager 1 demo board, and later this year in Chromebooks and data centers. We first wrote about OpenTitan open-source Root of Trust (RoT) chips in 2020 as a collaboration between Google, Seagate, Nuvoton, Western Digital, lowRISC, as well as some other companies, projects, and universities that aimed at “building a transparent, high-quality reference design and integration guidelines for silicon root of trust (RoT) chips”.  OpenTitan itself reached commercial availability last year, after the first engineering samples were released in 2023, and Google now says the Nuvoton chip (yet to have a proper name) is the first production-ready OpenTitan chip. Hardware Root of Trust (RoT) are small secure microcontrollers that are the equivalent of Certificate Authorities (CAs) to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on CPico RP2350 is another Raspberry Pi Pico 2 alternative with USB-C, 8MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, BConnect I2C & debug ports

CPico RP2350 is another Raspberry Pi Pico 2 alternative with USB-C, 8MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, BConnect I2C & debug ports

iLabs CPico RP2350

iLabs CPico RP2350 is a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 alternative with the same form factor, still based on the Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller but equipped with a USB-C port, 8MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, a Reset button, and Bconnect I2C and debug ports. Apart from that, the CPico RP2350 retains the other features of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 including the two 20-pin PGIO headers, and BOOT button. It joins other Raspberry Pi Pico 2 alternatives like the Waveshare RP2350-Plus adding battery support. CPico RP2350 specifications: SoC – Raspberry Pi RP2350 CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz with Arm Trustzone, Secure boot Dual-core RISC-V Hazard3 @ 150 MHz Up two cores can be used at any given time Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM Security 8KB of anti-fuse OTP for key storage Secure boot (Arm only) SHA-256 acceleration Hardware TRNG Fast glitch detectors Package – QFN-60 Memory – 2 MP […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on FOSSASIA 2025 – Operating systems, open hardware, and firmware sessions

FOSSASIA 2025 – Operating systems, open hardware, and firmware sessions

FOSSASIA Summit 2025

The FOSSASIA Summit is the closest we have to FOSDEM in Asia. It’s a free and open-source event taking place each year in Asia, and FOSSASIA 2025 will take place in Bangkok, Thailand on March 13-15 this year. It won’t have quite as many speakers and sessions as in FOSDEM 2025 (968 speakers, 930 events), but the 3-day event will still have over 170 speakers and more than 200 sessions. Most of the sessions are for high-level software with topics like AI and data science, databases, cloud, and web3, but I also noticed a few sessions related to “Hardware and firmware” and “Operating System” which are closer to what we cover here at CNX Software. So I’ll make a virtual schedule based on those two tracks to check out any potentially interesting talks. None of those sessions take place on March 13, so we’ll only have a schedule for March […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on IBASE IB839 3.5-inch SBC features Intel Atom x7211RE, Atom x7433RE, or Processor N97 CPU

IBASE IB839 3.5-inch SBC features Intel Atom x7211RE, Atom x7433RE, or Processor N97 CPU

IBASE IB839 3.5-inch Atom x7000RE SBC

IBASE Technology IB839 is a 3.5-inch single board computer (SBC) powered by Intel Atom x7211RE or x7433RE Amston Lake processors for industrial temperature range or Processor N97 Alder Lake-N processor for commercial temperature range, and designed for edge computing, IoT, and automation systems. The IB839 supports up to 16GB DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM memory, offers three display interfaces via two DisplayPort (DP++) and eDP or LVDS, dual 2.5GbE, SATA III storage, four COM ports, up to six USB interfaces, and can be expanded through M.2 sockets (M-key, E-key, and B-key) for SSDs, WiFi, and WWAN modules. IBASE IB8939 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x7211RE dual-core Amstom Lake processor @ 2.0 to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 9W Intel Atom x7433RE quad-core Amston Lake processor @ up to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 9W Intel Processor N97 quad-core Alder Lake-N […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on YOLO-Jevois leverages YOLO-World to enable open-vocabulary object detection at runtime, no dataset or training needed

YOLO-Jevois leverages YOLO-World to enable open-vocabulary object detection at runtime, no dataset or training needed

YOLO-Jevois general object detection by typing words

YOLO is one of the most popular edge AI computer vision models that detects multiple objects and works out of the box for the objects for which it has been trained on. But adding another object would typically involve a lot of work as you’d need to collect a dataset, manually annotate the objects you want to detect, train the network, and then possibly quantize it for edge deployment on an AI accelerator. This is basically true for all computer vision models, and we’ve already seen Edge Impulse facilitate the annotation process using GPT-4o and NVIDIA TAO to train TinyML models for microcontrollers. However, researchers at jevois.org have managed to do something even more impressive with YOLO-Jevois “open-vocabulary object detection”, based on Tencent AI Lab’s YOLO-World, to add new objects in YOLO at runtime by simply typing words or selecting part of the image. It also updates class definitions on […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G54S credit card-sized SBC features an STM32MP133/MP135 OSM Size-S module

iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G54S credit card-sized SBC features an STM32MP133/MP135 OSM Size-S module

iW-RainboW-G54S credit card-sized OSM SBC

iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G54S is a credit card-sized SBC fitted with an OSM Size-S (30x30mm) system-on-module based on STM32MP133 or STM32MP135 Cortex-A7 SoC with up to 1GB RAM, and up to 128GB flash. Interfaces include a Gigabit Ethernet port, a USB Type-A port, an 18-bit RGB LCD display interface, and three 100-pin high-density connectors for additional I/Os. The iW-RainboW-G54S SBC is designed for industrial applications with a temperature range of -40 to +85°C. While it’s fitted with an OSM Size-S module, we’ll also notice the carrier board has a footprint for OSM Size-M (45x30mm) and OSM Size-L (45x45mm) modules indicating it will be used with other OSM modules in the future. iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G54S specifications: System-on-Module – iW-RainboW-G54M SoC (one or the other) STMicro STM32MP133 single-core Cortex-A7 with or without Secure boot + Cryptography; for headless applications STMicro STM32MP135 single-core Cortex-A7 with or without Secure boot + Cryptography; supports LCD-TFT parallel […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on OpenWISP open-source solution facilitates the management of OpenWrt router fleets

OpenWISP open-source solution facilitates the management of OpenWrt router fleets

OpenWisp OpenWrt router management platform

Last month, I wrote about the WL-AC1000 AP controller, a hardware-based solution to monitor fleets of routers, and wondered why the company (Wallys) did not provide a software solution instead. It was pointed out to me that software AP controller solutions for OpenWrt routers do exist, but they looked not mature. After a quick search, I found OpenWISP described as an “open-source solution for efficient IT network deployment, monitoring & management” designed for OpenWrt Linux routers. OpenWISP allows organizations with several routers to manage them in a centralized location, get alerts when issues occur, upgrade the firmware of multiple routers with a few clicks, create users with permissions to access specific routers, and so on. OpenWISP Features: Configuration Templates – Manage device settings by defining reusable configuration templates that apply updates system-wide with a single change. Automatic Provisioning – Connect and configure new devices with zero-touch auto registration for rapid […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Ceva-Waves Links200 IP supports Bluetooth LE High Data Throughput (HDT) up to 7.5 Mbps, 802.15.4 for Zigbee, Thread and Matter

Ceva-Waves Links200 IP supports Bluetooth LE High Data Throughput (HDT) up to 7.5 Mbps, 802.15.4 for Zigbee, Thread and Matter

Ceva-Waves Links200 IP Bluetooth LE HDT

Ceva has recently unveiled the Ceva-Waves Links200 multi-protocol platform IP with support for Bluetooth LE High Data Throughput (HDT) technology up to 7.5 Mbps and IEEE 802.15.4 for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter designed for TSMC’s low-power 12nm process. Released in 2016, Bluetooth 5 upgraded Low Energy implementation with four times the range and twice the speed of Bluetooth 4.0 LE transmission which meant up to 2 Mbps over BLE, and even the latest Bluetooth 6.0 specification does not change that. There’s just a new LE 2M 2BT physical layer for Bluetooth Channel Sounding. So I was intrigued when the press release of the Links200 further read: Addressing the rising market demand for faster, more efficient Bluetooth connectivity, particularly for low-power audio and latency-sensitive IoT applications, the breakthrough High Data Throughput mode more than doubles the speed of traditional Bluetooth, delivering a data rate of up to 7.5 Mbps. For this […]

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