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) - No Comments on Elecrow LR1262 development board combines Raspberry Pi RP2040, SX1262 LoRaWAN module, and 1.8-inch LCD

Elecrow LR1262 development board combines Raspberry Pi RP2040, SX1262 LoRaWAN module, and 1.8-inch LCD

LoRaWAN LR1262 Raspberry Pi RP2040 Development Board

Elecrow LR1262 development board combines a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller with the company’s LR1262 LoRaWAN module based on STM32WL LoRa SoC with support for 868 and 915 MHz frequency bands, and a 1.8-inch LCD. The board also offers an RS485 terminal block to connect sensors and actuators, plenty of connectors and headers for further expansion, several buttons for user control, and LEDs for debugging/monitoring. Elecrow LR1262 development board specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ @ 133MHz built-in 264KB SRAM Storage – 4MB flash Display – 1.8-inch 128×160 TFT LCD using ST7735S 4-wire SPI driver Wireless – Elecrow LR1262 LoRaWAN module MCU – STMicro STM32WLE5CCU6 Arm Cortex-M4 32-bit, 256 KB Flash, 64KB RAM RF transceiver – Semtech LX1262 Frequency band – 150 MHz to 930 MHz (Note: the board itself is advertised as supporting 803MHz to 930MHz: IN865, EU868, AU915, US915, KR920, RU864, and AS923) LoRaWAN protocol – […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on HIGOLE F9B Pro Intel N100 mini computer comes with a built-in 7-inch touchscreen display and 5,000 mAh battery

HIGOLE F9B Pro Intel N100 mini computer comes with a built-in 7-inch touchscreen display and 5,000 mAh battery

HIGOLE F9B Pro mini PC with 7-inch touchscreen display

HIGOLE F9B Pro is a mini PC powered by an Intel Processor N100 quad-core CPU and equipped with a built-in 7-inch touchscreen display, a 5,000mAh battery, and full-size ports that could be confused with a 7-inch tablet if it was not so thick… GOLE/HIGOLE has made many such mini PCs with integrated displays over the years initially to lower the Windows license fee, but they’ve kept making those with new Intel families, for example with the Gemini Lake-powered GOLE1 Pro mini PC with a 5.5-inch display introduced in 2022. The HIGOLE F9B Pro is just the latest iteration with a modern Alder Lake-N CPU and a 7-inch touchscreen display. HIGOLE F9B (Pro) 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 – 16GB LPDDR4 Storage 256GB or […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on NUMA emulation patch boosts Geekbench 6 benchmark results by up to 189 on Raspberry Pi 5

NUMA emulation patch boosts Geekbench 6 benchmark results by up to 18% on Raspberry Pi 5

Raspberry Pi 5 NUMA emulation

Igalia Engineer, Tvrtko Ursulin has recently submitted a patch to the Linux kernel adding a NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) emulation implementation for arm64 platforms that boosts the performance of 64-bit Arm targets by “splitting the physical RAM into chunks and utilizing an allocation policy to better utilize parallelism in physical memory chip organization”.

The NUMA emulation implementation was tested on a Raspberry Pi 5 SBC and the Geekbench 6 single-core score improved by 6%, while the multi-core score boosted by 18% after splitting into four emulated NUMA nodes. In other words, that’s like having a Broadcom BCM2712 CPU overclocked from 2.4 GHz up to 2.83 GHz.

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Quectel FLM263D 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 and BLE 5.2 RISC-V module supports Amazon Alexa Connect Kit (ACK) SDK for Matter

Quectel FLM263D 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 and BLE 5.2 RISC-V module supports Amazon Alexa Connect Kit (ACK) SDK for Matter

Quectel FLM263D WiFi 6 Smart Home module

Quectel Wireless FLM263D is a standalone WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 LE module with a 320 MHz RISC-V microcontroller that supports Alexa Connect Kit (ACK) SDK for Matter for connectivity with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, Apple HomeKit, and other Matter-compliant Smart Home devices. The module also implements security standards such as secure boot and Mbed TLS encryption. The FLM263D offers certifications such as Works with Alexa (WWA) and supports features such as Matter Simple Setup (MSS) that allows zero-touch setup of Matter-compliant smart home devices through Alexa. Quectel FLM263D specifications: MCU – RISC-V wireless microcontroller up to 320 MHz, with 512KB SRAM and 4MB flash (likely Beken BK7235) Wi-Fi 6 & BLE 5.2 WLAN Protocol – IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ax Wi-Fi Frequency Band – 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Modulation Mode – CCK, BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM Wi-Fi Operating Mode – AP, STA, STA + AP WiFi Rx sensitivity – Up to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on FourThirdsEye is an open-source hardware 10.7MP IMX294 camera module for the Raspberry Pi 5/CM4

FourThirdsEye is an open-source hardware 10.7MP IMX294 camera module for the Raspberry Pi 5/CM4

FourThirdEyes IMX294 camera module Raspberry Pi 5

Will Whang’s FourThirdsEye project is an open-source hardware camera module designed for Raspberry Pi 5 SBC and Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 SoM using a Sony IMX294 Type 4/3 CMOS image sensor. The camera module can capture 10.7 MP images and 4K (4096 x 2160) videos with improved low-light performance and dynamic range (4.63 um pixel size) compared to existing Raspberry Pi camera modules. Will claims it’s perfect for photography enthusiasts, developers, and makers who want a more powerful camera for their Raspberry Pi projects. FourThirdsEye camera module specifications: Sony IMX294 sensor Output image size – Diagonal 21.63 mm (Type 4/3) aspect ratio 17:9 & 4:3 Number of effective pixels 4168 (H) × 2176 (V) approx. 8.93M pixels (aspect ratio 17:9) 3792 (H) × 2824 (V) approx. 10.71M pixels (aspect ratio 4:3) Unit cell size – 4.63 μm (H) × 4.63 μm (V) Optical blacks Horizontal – Front: 0 pixels, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Pine64 Oz64 RISC-V+Arm SBC to support NuttX RTOS and Debian Linux

Pine64 Oz64 RISC-V+Arm SBC to support NuttX RTOS and Debian Linux

Pine64 Oz64

Pine64 Oz64 is an upcoming credit card-sized SBC based on the SOPHGO SG2000 RISC-V+Arm(+8051) processor that currently runs NuTTX RTOS, and a Debian Linux image is also in the works. With a name likely inspired by the earlier Pine64 Ox RISC-V SBC, the Oz64 is a more powerful embedded board with 512 MB of DRAM integrated into the SG2000, a microSD card, an eMMC flash module connector, Ethernet port, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, a USB 2.0 Type-A host port, and a 26-pin GPIO header. Pine64 Oz64 specifications: SoC – SOPHGO SG2000 Main core – 1 GHz 64-bit RISC-V C906 or Arm Cortex-A53 core (selectable) Minor core – 700 MHz 64-bit RISC-V C906 core Low-power core – 25 to 300 MHz 8051 MCU core with 8KB SRAM NPU – 0.5 TOPS INT8, supports BF16 Integrated 512MB DDR3 (SiP) Storage MicroSD card slot eMMC flash module connector Display – Optional 2-lane […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on GOWIN GW5AT-15 low-cost FPGA provides high-speed video interfaces up to 4K at 120 FPS

GOWIN GW5AT-15 low-cost FPGA provides high-speed video interfaces up to 4K at 120 FPS

GOWIN GW5AT-15 FPGA

GOWIN Semiconductor has just announced the “Arora V” GW5AT-15 FPGA designed for high-speed video interfaces up to 4K at 120 FPS in space-constrained consumer and automotive applications. Manufactured with TSMC’s 22nm LP process, the new FPGA offers high-performance 12.5 Gbps SerDes, PCIe 3.0, MIPI CPHY, and DPHY interfaces. The GW5AT-15 FPGA also provides 15K LUTs of programmable logic, 118kbit of shadow SRAM, 630kbit of block SRAM (BSRAM), optional 64Mbit or 128Mbit of pseudo-SRAM (PSRAM), and optional 8Mbit of NOR Flash in a tiny 4.9mm x 5.3mm WLCSP package. Target applications include AR/VR headsets, 4K gaming tablets, and car infotainment systems. GOWIN GW5AT-15 FPGA specifications: FPGA Fabric 15120 logic elements (LUT4) 118kbit of shadow SRAM 630kbit of block SRAM (BSRAM) arranged as 35 x 18kbit 28x DSP slices, 12x DSP Lite slices  PSRAM GW5ART-15: 64Mbit (in MG132P package) or 128Mbit (in CM90P package) of pseudo SRAM (PSRAM) GW5ANRT-15: 64Mbit PSRAM DDR […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on SiFive announces Essential Gen4 RISC-V CPUs for embedded applications

SiFive announces Essential Gen4 RISC-V CPUs for embedded applications

SiFive Essential Gen4 RISC-V CPU IP

As the RISC-V Summit Europe 2024 is underway, SiFive has announced the fourth generation of its “Essential” RISC-V CPUs (Essential Gen4) with improved power efficiency and more flexible interfaces for SoCs used in embedded devices. The update covers 32-bit and 64-bit RISC-V cores including the U6 and U7-series 64-bit application processors, the S2, S6, and S7 64-bit real-time embedded processors, and the E2, E6, and E7 32-bit real-time embedded processors. Essential Gen4 IP keys features: Up to 40% runtime power reduction 8x different baseline embedded 32-bit and 64-bit cores From 2-stage single-issue to 8-stage superscalar Improved L2 cache and enhanced L1 memory Configuration and integration options CPU type, profile, and options On-chip memories selection System, peripheral, and front ports Advanced power management and security Debug and trace Software support includes embedded Linux and FreeRTOS operating systems and Eclipse-based IDE for C/C++ development. That’s another low-quality, light-on technical details announcement from […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design