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

February 5, 2024February 6, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Review of Blackview MP80 Processor N97 mini PC with Fedora 39 Linux (Part 2)

After reviewing the Blackview MP80 (Processor N97) mini PC with Windows 11 in detail, we now had time to test it with Fedora 39 Workstation to find out how well it works in Linux. In this second part of the review, we’ll explain our “choice” of Linux distribution, go through benchmarks and features testing, as well as measure fan noise and power consumption, among other test Finding a Linux distribution that works with Blackview MP80 Last year, we reviewed the Blackview MP80 model equipped with an Intel Processor N95 CPU and after the Windows 11 review, we were unable to install Ubuntu 22.04 on the machine with the company eventually telling us Linux was not supported. But several months after the review, a reader commented he could install Fedora 39 on the Blackview MP80 and that it “worked like a charm“. We thought maybe the BIOS had been updated and […]

February 3, 2024February 4, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Add two M.2 NVMe SSDs to Raspberry Pi 5 with Geekworm X1004 HAT+

We’ve seen a range of PCIe HAT(+) for the Raspberry Pi 5 taking one NVMe SSD, but Geekworm X1004 is different as it can take up to two standard M.2 2280 SSDs over the Pi 5’s PCIe connector and 40-pin GPIO header. The official Raspberry Pi 5 M.2 HAT+ is not available yet, but we already have an embarrassment of choice with products such as the PineBerry Pi HatDrive, Waveshare PCIe To M.2 HAT+, Pimoroni NVMe Base, and the Geekworm X1003. The latest X1004 adds even more options with support for two M.2 SSDs for up to 8TB storage, although this may not make that much sense on the Pi 5 as we’ll discuss further below. Geekworm X1004 specifications: Supported SBC – Raspberry Pi 5 only Chipset – ASMedia ASM1182e PCI express packet switch with 1x PCIe x1 Gen2 upstream port and 2x PCIe x 1 Gen2 downstream ports 2x […]

February 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Nuvoton MA35H0 is a cost-optimized dual Cortex-A35 MPU for industrial HMI applications

Nuvoton MA35H0 is a 650 MHz dual-core Cortex-A35 MPU designed for industrial HMI applications with up to 1280×800 resolution that offers a cost-down alternative to the 800 MHz Nuvoton MA35D1 microprocessor handling up to 1920×1080 resolutions. The MA35H0 integrates 128MB DDR memory, supports 2D graphics acceleration, JPEG and H.264 video decoding up to 1280×800 at 60 FPS, and is equipped with a range of interfaces such as Fast Ethernet, CAN FD, UART, and up to 154 GPIOs. It is designed to operate in an extended temperature range between -40 and 125°C. Nuvoton NuMicro MA35H0 specifications: CPU sub-system – 2x Cortex-A35 cores running at up to 650 MHz Memory sub-system On-chip 384 KB SRAM 128MB Multi-Chip Package (MCP) DDR Storage Quad SPI NAND flash controller Secure Digital Host Controller (SDHC) Display and Video Sub-system 18-bit 24-bit RGB TFT-LCD display interface up to 1280×800 @ 60 Hz 2D Graphic Engine (GFX) H.264 […]

February 2, 2024July 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

GEEKOM A7 mini PC review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM A7 is a compact mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS (or Ryzen 7 7840HS) processor with up to 64GB DDR5, up to a 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD, four 4K capable video outputs, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E connectivity, and six USB ports for expansion. The company sent us a sample of the GEEKOM A7 with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU, 32GB DDR5, and 2TB SSD for review. We’ll do a three-part review starting by listing the specifications, checking out the hardware design and accessories, and quickly trying it in the first part of the review, before testing both Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04 in detail in a few weeks. GEEKOM A7 specifications SoC (one or the other) AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 8-core/16-thread processor up to 4.0GHz with 16MB cache, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics; TDP: 35 to 54W AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-core/16-thread […]

February 1, 2024February 1, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Microsoft open-sources Eclipse ThreadX real-time operating system

Microsoft will soon open-source Eclipse ThreadX real-time operating system that has been deployed on more than 12 billion embedded devices worldwide since its first release in 1997 and, for instance, it is found in Broadcom processors powering Raspberry Pi SBCs. ThreadX was a commercial, safety-certified real-time operating system developed Express Logic which was acquired by Microsoft in 2019 and renamed to Azure RTOS. Last year, Microsoft decided to start the process to fully open-source Azure RTOS under an MIT license and managed by the Eclipse Foundation. Hence its new name: “Eclipse ThreadX“. The Eclipse ThreadX project is not simply comprised of the RTOS itself, but also includes other components: ThreadX – Real-time operating system (RTOS) designed for deeply embedded applications NetX Duo – Industrial-grade TCP/IP network stack designed for deeply embedded real-time and IoT applications FileX – FAT-compatible file system integrated with ThreadX kernel GUIX – Embedded graphical user interface […]

February 1, 2024February 1, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

JellyFin adds support for Rockchip RK3588 MPP hardware acceleration

Jellyfin open-source media server has recently added support for Rockchip RK3588 MPP hardware acceleration, which means the software supports video hardware decoding and encoding, hardware scalers, and other features. The GitHub request lists the following changes: Add full HWA transcoding pipeline for Rockchip RKMPP HW decoder (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H264, HEVC, VP8, VP9, AV1) HW encoder (H264, HEVC) up to 1080p @ 480fps / 4k @ 120fps on RK3588 HW scaler, format conversion, and subtitle burn-in HW HDR-to-SDR tone-mapping (requires OpenCL, RK3588 only) The OpenCL runtime can be downloaded and installed from libmali-valhall-g610-g13p0-x11-wayland-gbm_1.9-1_arm64.deb Support lossless AFBC (Arm frame buffer compression) to save memory bandwidth and improve FPS Support async RGA filter and MPP encoder If indeed decoding and encoding can be performed simultaneously, that would mean video transcoding can be offloaded to the Rockchip RK3588’s VPU. The changes has been tested with Linux 5.10 and Linux 6.1, but do not […]

February 1, 2024January 31, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Renesas RA8T1 Cortex-M85 MCU targets motor control applications

It took a while before Renesas released its first Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller (RA8M1) in October 2023, but the company has now launched the RA8T1 Cortex-M85 MCU for motor control just a few weeks after announcing the RA8D1 for HMI applications. The RA8T1 group is the third Cortex-M85 microcontroller family from Renesas with a feature set optimized for motor control and leveraging machine learning through Arm Helium technology and a DSP for predictive maintenance requirements for motors. Renesas RA8T1 key features and specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M85 clocked at 480 MHz with Helium MVE (M-Profile Vector Extension) with 32KB I/D caches, 12KB data flash Memory & Storage 1MB SRAM including 128KB TCM 1MB to 2MB Flash memory 2x SD/MMC host interfaces (SDHI) Communication interfaces Ethernet MAC with DMA USB – 1x USB 2.0 Full Speed interface 2x CAN-FD Up to 6x SCI (UART, Simple SPI, Simple I2C) 2x SPI up […]

January 31, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Femto Mega 3D depth camera review – OrbbecViewer and Orbbec SDK in Ubuntu 22.04, body tracking in Windows 11

We had a quick look at the Orbbec Femto Mega 3D depth and 4K RGB camera at the end of last year with a look at the hardware and a quick try with the OrbbecViewer program in Ubuntu 22.04. I’ve now had the time to test the OrbbecViewer in more detail, check out the Orbbec SDK in Linux and various samples, and finally test the Femto Mega with a body tracking application using Unity in Windows 11. A closer look at OrbbecViewer program and settings As noted in the first part of the review, the OrbbecViewer program provides color, depth, and IR views for the camera. Let’s go into details for each. The Color mode would be the same as your standard USB color camera. The Femto Mega supports resolution from 1280×720 at 30 fps to 3840×2160 at 25 fps using MJPG, H.264, H.265, or RGB (converted from MJPG). We […]