Apple’s Embedded Swift programming language supports ESP32-C6, Raspberry Pi RP2040, STM32F7, nRF52840 microcontrollers

ESP32-C6 Apple Swift

Apple has released a beta version of Embedded Swift that notably works with Espressif ESP32-C6 wireless RISC-V microcontroller, and the company also built a Matter sample based on ESP-IDF and ESP-Matter SDKs. Embedded Swift is not limited to the ESP32-C6 and supports other microcontrollers from STMicro, Raspberry Pi, Nordic Semi, etc… Apple Swift programming language is mostly designed for mobile app development, but we’ve also seen it being used on Mad Machine’s SwiftIO board powered by a 600 MHz NXP i.MX RT1052 Arm Cortex-M7 crossover processor and the tiny SwiftIO Micro launched a few years later. The company has now decided to create a subset of the Swift programming language better suited to microcontrollers simply called Embedded Swift that’s currently working on STMicro STM32F746, Raspberry Pi Pico, nRF52840, and ESP32-C6. The “Go small with Embedded Swift” presentation at WWDC 2024 shows how to get started with Embedded Swift using Espressif […]

Meles RISC-V credit card-sized SBC is powered by T-Head TH1520 quad-core SoC

Meles credit card-sized RISC-V SBC

Shenzhen Milk-V Technology’s Meles SBC (single board computer) is powered by a T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V processor and offered in a credit card form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B layout. The board is quite more powerful with a 2.0 GHz quad-core SoC equipped with a modern GPU, a 4K capable video encoder and decoder, and a 4 TOPS NPU. The board also features gigabit Ethernet, a WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0 video output, MIPI CSI and DSI interfaces, and a 40-pin GPIO header. Meles specifications: SoC – Alibaba T-Head TH1520 CPU Quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910 (RV64GCV – Vector Extension version 0.7) processor up to 2.0 GHz Low-power Xuantie E902 core GPU – Imagination BXM-4-64 GPU with support for OpenGL ES3.0/3.1/3.2, OpenCL 1.1/1.2/2.0, Vulkan 1.1/1.2; 50.7GFLOPS DSP – Xuantie C906 audio DSP @ 800 MHz VPU Video Decoder H.265, H.264, […]

$20 Zigbee & Z-Wave mPCIe module targets Home Assistant gateways

Mixtile Zigbee Z Wave mini PCIe module

Mixtile’s “2-in-1 Zigbee & Z-Wave mPCIe module” is a relatively inexpensive way to add Zigbee and Z-Wave connectivity to a Home Assistant server without having USB dongles sticking out of the server and taking some of its spare USB ports. The module is compatible with any computer, gateway, or SBC with a spare mini PCIe socket featuring a USB 2.0 interface such as Rockchip RK3568-powered Mixtile Edge 2 Kit gateway. You’ll also need some way of mounting the antennas after connecting them to the IPEX-1 antenna connectors on the module, the Edge 2 Kit comes with multiple antenna holes. Mixtile 2-in-1 Zigbee & Z-Wave mPCIe module specifications: Wireless MCUs Silabs EFR32MG24 Arm Cortex-M33 @ 78.0 MHz with 256 kB RAM, 1536 kB flash Radio Frequency – 2.4 GHz (802.15.4 radio) TX Power – up to +19.5 dBm RX sensitivity – -105.4 dBm at 250 kbps Protocols – Zigbee, Matter, Thread […]

Argon ONE V3 M.2 NVMe case for Raspberry Pi 5 brings all ports on one side, full-size HDMI ports

Argon ONE V3 M.2 NVMe case

The Argon ONE V3 M.2 NVMe case for the Raspberry Pi 5 is an update to the Argon ONE M.2 case for the Raspberry Pi 4 that brings all ports of the Raspberry Pi 5 on one side and features full-size HDMI ports instead of the micro HDMI ports on the Pi 5 SBC. Debashis has just written about the Waveshare Pi5 Connector Adapter board that connects to the micro HDMI and USB-C ports of the Raspberry Pi 5 to bring them alongside the other ports and features two full-size HDMI ports. It’s a good idea, but it lacks an enclosure. The Argon ONE M.2 NVMe case does something similar with an enclosure and supports for NVMe SSD drives. Argon ONE V3 M.2 NVMe case key features: SBC – Compatible with Raspberry Pi 5 Storage – M.2 NVMe SSD via Key-M socket connected to the Raspberry Pi 5 PCIe connector; […]

Raspberry Pi Holdings Plc debuts on the London Stock Exchange

Raspberry Pi Holdings Plc

You may soon be greeted by a chart when searching for the stock of Raspberry Pi boards simply because Raspberry Pi Holdings Plc is now a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) under the ticker RPI. The Raspberry Pi Foundation was founded in 2008 as a non-profit organization with Eben and Liz Upton (and others) taking a gamble manufacturing a few thousand Raspberry Pi model B boards for $35 apiece for the February 2012 launch. But things got quickly out of hand, and the unexpected success of the board meant Raspberry Pi Trading (then changed to Raspberry Pi Limited) for-profit had to be established to handle sales and retribute most of the profits to the non-profit entity. After having sold over 60  million Raspberry Pi boards, Raspberry Pi Limited is no more, following the listing of Raspberry Pi Holdings Plc. Since the company is now public, there’s […]

GateMate Integrated Logic Analyzer (ILA) deep dive

Cologne FPGA ILA Gateware Design

CNXSoft: This is a guest article by Dave Fohrn, Embedded Software Engineer at Cologne Chip AG, that goes into detail about the company’s open-source integrated logic analyzer (ILA) for GateMate FPGA chips. A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a highly flexible integrated circuit in which complex logic circuits can be configured. They are often used as custom computing units in digital circuits because of their ability to process data quickly and in parallel using individually configured circuits. The digital circuits designed specifically for FPGAs are usually developed in a hardware description language such as Verilog or VHDL and are known as gateware. The term “gate” refers to the configurable digital logic units in the FPGA on which the individual gate circuits are implemented. An effective design can accelerate the computing process by strategically utilizing the various resources available in the FPGA, processing data in parallel, and intelligent implementing pipelining. A […]

GEEKOM A8 Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 tested on an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS mini PC

GEEKOM A8 mini PC Review Ubuntu 24.04 Linux

We’ve already checked out GEEKOM A8 mini PC hardware with an unboxing and a teardown, before testing the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS mini PC in Windows 11 Pro, and we’ll now report our experience with the GEEKOM A8 running Ubuntu 24.04 to see how it performs in Linux. We tested most features of the GEEKOM A8 mini PC on Ubuntu 24.04, ran several benchmarks to compare it to the similar GEEKOM A7 mini PC, performed storage and networking performance testing, ran stress test to check thermal performance, and measured fan noise and power consumption under various conditions. Installing Ubuntu 24.04 on the GEEKOM A8 mini PC As usual, we resized the Windows 11 partition to install Ubuntu 24.04 alongside Microsoft OS using a bootable USB flash drive created with the Ubuntu ISO. But you’ll notice BitLocker is enabled so the Ubuntu 24.04 installation can’t proceed. The installation wizard will ask […]

LattePanda Mu review – Part 1: an Intel N100 Compute Module tested with Windows 11, carrier boards with PCIe slots

LattePanda Mu Full Carrier Windows 11 Review

Last April, DFRobot launched the LattePanda Mu x86 Compute Module powered by an Intel N100 Alder-Lake processor with 8GB RAM and a 64GB eMMC flash along with Lite and Full function carrier boards for evaluation. End customers will typically design their own carrier board without having to take of high-speed signals for the LPDDR5 memory and other complexities during the PCB layout. DFRobot has sent us the LattePanda Mu module for review along with the Lite and Full Function carrier boards, a heatsink for passive cooling, and an active cooler so we can compare both cooling solutions.  Let’s have a look at the LattePanda Mu module and accessories before testing the kit with the Windows 11 operating system, including the PCIe x4 slot. LattePanda Mu kit unboxing The parcel included three retail boxes. The smallest box housed the LattePanda Mu Compute Module, a heatsink, and an active cooler. The second […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC