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) - 6 Comments on Cervoz unveils tiny M.2 2230 2.5GbE PCIe expansion card

Cervoz unveils tiny M.2 2230 2.5GbE PCIe expansion card

Cervoz M.2 2230 2.5GbE PCIe expansion card

Cervoz MEC-LAN-2631i is a tiny, industrial-grade M.2 2230 (A+E key) PCIe Ethernet expansion card adding 2.5GbE networking to any system with a spare M.2 socket with a PCIe x1 interface. The card could be useful in case you want to add an extra 2.5GbE port, or for a system that lacks wired networking. It’s based on the Intel I226-IT 2.5Gbps Ethernet controller and can operate in the -40°C to 85°C temperature range as an industrial-grade module. Cervoz MEC-LAN-2631i specifications: Host interface – M.2 edge connector with PCIe 2.1 x1 up to 5.0/2.5GT/s Network – 10/100/1000/2500Mbps isolated interface based on an Intel I226-IT controller with an RJ45 port on a separate module Power Consumption – 350mA @ 3.3V Safety – Surge protection up to 2kV Dimensions – 30 x 22 mm; M.2 2230 (A+E key) form factor Temperature Range – Operating: -40°C to 85°C; storage: -40°C to 125°C Mounting – Cervoz’s […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on AAEON AQ7-ADN – A Qseven 2.1 system-on-module with Intel Alder Lake-N CPU, four PCIe Gen 3 x1 interfaces

AAEON AQ7-ADN – A Qseven 2.1 system-on-module with Intel Alder Lake-N CPU, four PCIe Gen 3 x1 interfaces

AAEON AQ7-ADN Alder Lake-N Qseven system-on-module

AAEON AQ7-ADN is a Qseven 2.1-compliant system-on-module based on Atom Processors x7425E, Intel Processor N, or Intel Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N processor equipped with up to 8GB LPDDR5x and 64GB of eMMC flash storage. AAEON has already introduced Alder Lake-N COM Express and SMARC modules with the COM-ADNC6 and uCOM-ADN respectively, and the AQ7-ADN adds another system-on-module standard to its list of Alder Lake N-Series modules with a Qseven 2.1 SoM that offers four PCIe Gen x1 interfaces and a SATA storage interface. AAEON AQ7-ADN 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 N50 dual-core processor up to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 750 MHz; TDP: 6W Intel Processor N97 quad-core processor up to 3.6 GHz with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on SparkFun RTK EVK offers GNSS with centimeter accuracy, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE Cat 1, and Ethernet connectivity

SparkFun RTK EVK offers GNSS with centimeter accuracy, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE Cat 1, and Ethernet connectivity

Sparkfun RTK EVK

SparkFun RTK EVK is a fully-enclosed GNSS platform designed for fixed or mobile high-precision positioning and navigation applications with centimeter accuracy thanks to RTK (real-time kinematic) technology implemented with modules from u-blox. About two months ago, Sparkfun introduced the RTK Torch waterproof GNSS surveyor with Unicore UM980 GNSS module with RTK support, ESP32 for WiFi/Bluetooth, and an STM32WLE5C LoRa SoC. The  SparkFun RTK EVK (evaluation kit) may drop LoRa connectivity, but it’s a more versatile platform with WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and LTE Cat 1 cellular connectivity, besides support for L1 + L2 RTK GNSS with L-Band correction. Sparkfun RTK EVK specifications: GNSS Receiver – u-blox ZED-F9P Concurrent reception of GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou Receives both L1C/A and L2C bands 184-channel u-blox F9 engine Time to First Fix: 25s (cold), 2s (hot) Max Navigation Rate: 20Hz / 25Hz depending on mode Horizontal Position Accuracy: 2.5m without RTK; 0.010m with RTK […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Rockchip RKLLM toolkit released for NPU-accelerated large language models on RK3588, RK3588S, RK3576 SoCs

Rockchip RKLLM toolkit released for NPU-accelerated large language models on RK3588, RK3588S, RK3576 SoCs

Rockchip RK3588 RKLLM

Rockchip RKLLM toolkit (also known as rknn-llm) is a software stack used to deploy generative AI models to Rockchip RK3588, RK3588S, or RK3576 SoC using the built-in NPU with 6 TOPS of AI performance. We previously tested LLM’s on Rockchip RK3588 SBC using the Mali G610 GPU, and expected NPU support to come soon. A post on X by Orange Pi notified us that the RKLLM software stack had been released and worked on Orange Pi 5 family of single board computers and the Orange Pi CM5 system-on-module. The Orange Pi 5 Pro‘s user manual provides instructions on page 433 of the 616-page document, but Radxa has similar instructions on their wiki explaining how to use RKLLM and deploy LLM to Rockchip RK3588(S) boards. The stable version of the RKNN-LLM was released in May 2024 and currently supports the following models: TinyLLAMA 1.1B Qwen 1.8B Qwen2 0.5B Phi-2 2.7B Phi-3 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Linux 6.10 Release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.10 Release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.10 Release Changelog

Linux Torvalds has announced the release of Linux 6.10 on LKML: So the final week was perhaps not quote as quiet as the preceding ones, which I don’t love – but it also wasn’t noisy enough to warrant an extra rc. And much of the noise this last week was bcachefs again (with netfs a close second), so it was all pretty compartmentalized. In fact, about a third of the patch for the last week was filesystem-related (there were also some btrfs latency fixes and other noise), which is unusual, but none of it looks particularly scary. Another third was drivers, and the rest is “random”. Anyway, this obviously means that the merge window for 6.11 opens up tomorrow. Let’s see how that goes, with much of Europe probably making ready for summer vacation. And the shortlog below is – as always – just the last week, not some kind […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Khadas Mind Graphics NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti GPU dock for the Mind mini PC is now available for $999

Khadas Mind Graphics NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti GPU dock for the Mind mini PC is now available for $999

Khadas Mind Graphics Dock

The Khadas Mind Graphics is a dock for the Khadas Mind Raptor Lake mini PC that integrates an NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4060 Ti GPU and enables users to run high-end games, edit videos, design graphics, and experiment with AI while keeping the portability and small size of a mini PC. As we’ve seen in our reviews, mini PCs now match the performance of larger machines in almost all aspects with tools like PassMark Performance showing higher-end models’ CPU, memory bandwidth, and storage in the top 10% or 20% of systems. The exception is 3D graphics performance because integrated GPUs can’t match the performance of higher-end graphics cards. The Khadas Mind Graphics solves that by adding an NVIDIA Geforce RTX 40601 Ti GPU to the Khadas Mind mini PC through its Mind Link connector also bringing out other connectors such as 2.5GbE, USB, SD card, etc… Khadas Mind Graphics specifications: Graphics […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on ODROID-H3/H4 x86 SBCs get M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 expansion cards with two or four M.2 sockets

ODROID-H3/H4 x86 SBCs get M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 expansion cards with two or four M.2 sockets

ODROID-H4 M.2 4x1 card

ODROID-H3 and ODROID-H4 x86 single board computers have gotten two affordable M.2 expansion cards with the M.2 2×2 card adding two PCIe Gen 3 x2 slots and the M.2 4×1 adding four PCIe Gen 3 x1 slots (ODROID-H4 only) to the Intel SBCs. We’ve seen plenty of PCIe HAT+ boards for the Raspberry Pi 5 since the launch of the Arm SBC last year, but it’s limited by its PCIe Gen2/Gen3 x1 interfaces, and Hardkernel now provides two new M.2 cards leveraging the M.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 socket of the ODROID-H3/H4 family allowing users to add up to four M.2 PCIe modules for storage, wired or wireless connectivity, and/or AI acceleration. M.2 2×2 card  for ODROID-H3 and H4 series The M.2 2×2 card also named “M.2 – NVME” adds two M.2 Key-M PCIe sockets for 2280 size modules with each having a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface supporting up to 16GT/s. […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on GEEKOM AE7 Review – An AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC tested with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04

GEEKOM AE7 Review – An AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC tested with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04

GEEKOM AE7 mini PC review Windows 11

Today we’ll review the GEEKOM AE7 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS octa-core processor with up to 32GB DDR5, a 1TB NVMe SSD, four 4K capable video outputs through HDMI and USB-C ports, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E connectivity, and six USB ports for expansion. As its name implies the GEEKOM AE7 is an evolution of the earlier GEEKOM A7 with almost identical specifications that we reviewed with Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04 earlier this year. So we won’t do our usual three-part review and instead focus on differences between the two Ryzen 9 7840HS mini PCs in terms of features, performance, and cooling ability in a shorter review that covers hardware, Windows 11 Pro, and Ubuntu 24.04 testing. GEEKOM AE7 specifications SoC – AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 8-core/16-thread processor up to 4.0GHz with 16MB cache, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics; TDP: 35 to 54W System Memory – […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC