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 RAKwireless launches SX1303 based M.2 LoRaWAN concentrator modules and full-duplex gateway

RAKwireless launches SX1303 based M.2 LoRaWAN concentrator modules and full-duplex gateway

Wislink M.2 2242 2280 LoRaWAN SX1303 concentrator modules

RAKwireless has recently introduced two new LoRaWAN products with the RAK5166/67 WisLink M.2 3042/2280 concentrator module based on the Semtech SX1303 RF transceiver and the RAK7285 WisGate Edge Ultra Full-Duplex gateway for high-density network deployments, particularly for smart city infrastructure, metering applications, and other scenarios requiring reliable two-way communication at scale. RAK5166 and RAK5167 M.2 3042 and 2280 LoRaWAN concentrator modules RAK5166/RAK5167 specifications: Wireless Semtech SX1303 baseband processor with 8 x 8 channels LoRa packet detectors, 8x SF5-SF12 LoRa demodulators, 8x SF5-SF10 LoRa demodulators, one 125/250/500 kHz high-speed LoRa demodulator, and one (G)FSK demodulator Tx power up to 27 dBm Rx sensitivity down to -139 dBm @ SF12, BW 125 kHz Supports global license-free frequency band (EU868, IN865, RU864, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923-1, AS923-2, AS923-3, AS923-4) Listen Before Talk (LBT) support Fine Timestamp Built-in ZOE-M8Q GPS module (optional) 2x MHF4 IPEX connectors for the LoRa and GNSS (optional)  antennas Host […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 44 Comments on ODROID-H4 – A Compact Alder Lake N-Series SBC with up to dual 2.5GbE and four SATA III ports

ODROID-H4 – A Compact Alder Lake N-Series SBC with up to dual 2.5GbE and four SATA III ports

ODROID-H4 Ultra SBC

Hardkernel has just launched an upgrade to their ODROID-H3/H3+ Jasper Lake SBC, with the ODROID-H4, ODROID-H4+, and ODROID-H4 Ultra boards powered by Intel Processor N97 or Intel Core i3-N305 Alder Lake N-Series processors. The ODROID-H4 family supports up to 48GB DDR5-4800 memory and NVMe SSD storage, comes with up to two 2.5GbE, four SATA III ports, three 4K capable video output ports (HDMI and DisplayPort), a range of USB ports, and a 24-pin GPIO header. ODROID-H4 specifications compared to previous generation ODROID-H2+ and ODROID-H3 boards. The GPIO header offers the following interfaces for all models except for the ODROID-H2+: 2x I2C, 3x USB 2.0, 1x UART, 1x HDMI-CEC, ext. power button. The H2+ header has similar interfaces, but only one USB 2.0 and two UART. Some may note the maximum RAM capacity numbers differ from the data on Intel Ark, but the latter is not usually correct, and Hardkernel have […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Review of GEEKOM XT12 Pro (Intel Core i9-12900H) Mini PC – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, and teardown

Review of GEEKOM XT12 Pro (Intel Core i9-12900H) Mini PC – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, and teardown

Review GEEKOM XT12 Pro mini PC Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM XT12 Pro is a Windows 11 Pro mini PC powered by a 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H 14-core Alder Lake processor clocked up to 5 GHz with support for 8K video output, up to four 4K displays, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, and a WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module. The mini PC supports up to 64GB DDR4 memory, 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD, and 1TB M.2 SATA SSD, and also comes with multiple USB ports (USB4, USB 3.2, and USB 2.0), a 3.5mm stereo audio headset jack, and a Kensington lock slot. GEEKOM has sent us an XT12 Pro mini PC with 32GB RAM and a 1 TB M.2 NVMe SSD for review. Today, we’ll go through the GEEKOM XT12 Pro specifications, do an unboxing to check the mini PC’s ports and accessories, perform a teardown to understand the hardware design better, and finally give it a try with Windows 11 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform with Qualcomm QCS6490 AI SoC targets robotics, IoT and embedded applications

Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform with Qualcomm QCS6490 AI SoC targets robotics, IoT and embedded applications

Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform Vision Kit

Qualcomm had two main announcements at Embedded World 2024: the ultra-low-power Qualcomm QCC730 WiFi microcontroller for battery-powered IoT devices and the Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform hardware and software solution designed for IoT and embedded applications based on the Qualcomm QCS6490 processor that we’re going to cover today. The kit is comprised of a QCS6490 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 system-on-module with 12 TOPS of AI performance, 6GB RAM, and 128GB UFS flash connected to the 96Boards-compliant Qualcomm RBx development mainboard through interposer, as well as optional cameras, microphone array, and sensors. Qualcomm QCS6490/QCM6490 IoT processor Specifications: CPU – Octa-core Kryo 670 with 1x Gold Plus core (Cortex-A78) @ 2.7 GHz, 3x Gold cores (Cortex-A78) @ 2.4 GHz, 4x Silver cores (Cortex-A55) @ up to 1.9 GHz GPU – Adreno 643L GPU @ 812 MHz with support for Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan 1.x, DX FL 12 DSP – Hexagon […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on ESP32-H4 low-power dual-core RISC-V SoC supports 802.15.4 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE

ESP32-H4 low-power dual-core RISC-V SoC supports 802.15.4 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE

ESP32-H4 block diagram

Espressif Systems has formally announced the ESP32-H4 low-power dual-core 32-bit RISC-V wireless microcontroller with support for 802.15.4 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE portfolio after having unveiled it at CES 2024. It’s the first Espressif chip to support Bluetooth 5.4 LE with previous models such as ESP32-H2 or ESP32-C6 only supporting Bluetooth 5.0/5.2. Besides BLE 5.4 support, the new ESP32-H4 dual-core RISC-V WiSoC is an evolution of the ESP32-H2 single-core chip with PSRAM support (up to 4MB built-in), additional GPIOs (36 vs 24), touch sensing GPIOs, and some extra security features such as a power glitch detector also found in the recently announced ESP32-C61. ESP32-H4 specifications: CPU – Dual-core 32-bit RISC-V core (at up to 96 MHz) RAM – 320KB KB SRAM, optional PSRAM up to 4MB Storage – 128KB ROM, External flash support Wireless connectivity IEEE 802.15.4 radio with Zigbee and Thread support, Matter protocol Bluetooth 5.4 (LE) radio designed in-house, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Qualcomm QCC730 low-power Arm Cortex-M4F WiFi 4 SoC targets battery-powered IoT applications

Qualcomm QCC730 low-power Arm Cortex-M4F WiFi 4 SoC targets battery-powered IoT applications

Qualcomm QCC730 dual WiFi IoT microcontroller

Qualcomm has unveiled the “micro-power” QCC730 Arm Cortex-M4F dual-band WiFi 4 microcontroller for the IoT market that targets similar applications as the Espressif ESP32 microcontrollers but potentially at lower power consumption with claims of up to 88% lower power than “previous generations” making it suitable for battery-powered industrial, commercial and consumer applications. To highlight the low-power consumption, the company also mentions that QCC730 devices could become high-performance alternatives to Bluetooth IoT solutions with direct cloud connectivity. Qualcomm QCC730 specifications: CPU core – Arm Cortex-M4F @ 60 MHz Memory/ Storage 1.5 MB RAM, including 600KB for user app (On-chip RRAM (NVM) to host application without the need for an external NOR flash) 640 KB SRAM, including 260KB for user app XiP over QSPI Flash Wi-Fi Standards: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11a Spectral Bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz Channels: 20 MHz Antenna Configuration: 1×1 Features: up to MCS3 Interfaces – Master I2C, 15x […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on ADLINK unveils Intel Atom x7000RE & x7000C Amston Lake COM Express and SMARC 2.1 modules

ADLINK unveils Intel Atom x7000RE & x7000C Amston Lake COM Express and SMARC 2.1 modules

Intel Amston Lake COM Express module

ADLINK has released two Intel Atom X7000RE & x7000C Amston Lake-powered modules with the cExpress-ASL COM Express Type 6 Compact module and the LEC-ASL SMARC 2.1 system-on-module both offered with up to 16GB LPDDR5 soldered-down memory and 2.5GbE networking. The modules are designed for high-performance, low-power, and ruggedized edge solutions running 24/7, and with support for Intel TCC and Time Sensitive Networking (TSN), the modules are also suitable for hard-real-time computing workloads required by use cases such as industrial automation, AI robots, smart retail, transportation, network communication, and more. Intel Atom x7000RE and x7000C Amston Lake processors The announcement came as a surprise because I had never heard about Intel Amston Lake processors so far. It might be because they were just announced and all seven SKUs are embedded parts with two to eight cores, and as a result, they may not quite get as much coverage as consumer processors. […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments on Orange Pi 5 Pro – A low-cost Rockchip RK3588S SBC with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, dual HDMI video output

Orange Pi 5 Pro – A low-cost Rockchip RK3588S SBC with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, dual HDMI video output

Orange Pi 5 Pro

As mentioned in the Orange Pi Developer Conference 2024 article, the Orange Pi 5 Pro launch was just around the corner, and the latest Rockchip RK3588S SBC is now available on Amazon or Aliexpressfor $109 and up with 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, but cheaper 4GB ($60) and 8GB ($80) variants are coming soon. One would think the Orange Pi 5 Pro would be an evolution of the Orange Pi 5 SBC with LPDDR4 memory, and in some ways it is, but there are enough changes to display ports, storage, wireless, GPIO header, and even the form factor that make a direct comparison challenging. Orange Pi 5 Pro specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2,  OpenCL 2.2, and Vulkan 1.2 support VPU – […]

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UP 7000 x86 SBC