The Youyeetoo X1 x86 single board computer (SBC) with an Intel Celeron N5105 Jasper Lake CPU differs from a typical Intel or AMD mini PC by its range of IOs including SPI, I2C, UART, NFC connectivity, and support for PoE module that you won’t find in a typical computer, and that’s what we will test in the second part of the X1 SBC review along with power consumption. The Youyeetoo X1 SBC is also different from Arm-based single board computers since we can just install any x86-compatible operating system by ourselves, and w don’t need to flash a board-specific image like we would do with Arm SBCs and peripherals such as SPI, I2C or UART may be or may not usable immediately due to lack of supported drivers. We’ve already installed Ubuntu 22.04 on the Youyeetoo X1 in the first part of the review, so in the second part, we’ll […]
Lenovo Chromebox Micro fanless mini PC runs ChromeOS, targets digital signage applications
There’s a new type of Chromebox in town with the Chromebox Micro with a form factor very similar to the MeLE Quieter4C we’ve just covered, but running Chrome OS instead and designed to be mounted to the back of a display. The Lenovo Chromebox Micro is the first device of this type that I’ve seen. The fanless mini PC is based on an Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor with 8GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash and mostly targets digital signage and interactive retail kiosks. Lenovo Chromebox Micro: SoC – Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor @ 1.1GHz / 2.8GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP System Memory – 8GB Storage – 32 GB eMMC flash Video Output – 1x HDMI port Audio – 1x audio jack, digital audio via HDMI Networking – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port USB – 2x USB Type-C ports, 2x USB Type-A ports Misc – Power […]
LILYGO Mini E-Paper Core IoT controller gets ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller
LILYGO Mini E-Paper Core has gotten an upgrade to the ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller. The IoT controller was first introduced in 2021 with an ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package, a 1.02-inch E-Paper display, and a few GPIOs on the back, and the company kept the same design for the ESP32-S3 model called “Mini E-Paper Core S3”. The tiny ESP32-S3 IoT controller can still be used for integrated into your own project, and the company also provides several shields with nRF24L01 2.4GHz wireless or 433/868 MHz “LoRa” connectivity to transform the device into a longer range IoT device. Mini E-Paper Core S3 specifications Wireless SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN4R2 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 512KB RAM, 2MB PSRAM Storage – 4MB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth Storage – MicroSD card socket Display – 1.02-inch e-paper display with 128×80 […]
MeLE Quieter4C ultrathin fanless Intel N100 mini PC supports up to three displays
MeLE has just launched a new model from its Quieter family with the Quieter4C ultrathin fanless mini PC powered by an Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor, 8GB to 16GB LPDDR4, and 128GB to 512GB eMMC+SSD storage, and supporting up to three independent 4K displays. Intel N100 mini PCs have become popular due to their excellent price/performance ratio, but although a few are fanless, many are actively cooled, and the Quieter4C differentiates itself by its low profile with the system being just 18.3 mm thick. MeLE Quieter4C specifications: 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 – 8GB or 16GB LPDDR4X Storage 128GB or 256GB eMMC flash Optional 256GB M.2 SSD (for 512GB storage in total) via M.2 2280 SATA III/PCIe Gen3 x4 socket MicroSD card reader Video […]
Robustel introduces EG5101 and EG5200 Debian 11 industrial IoT gateways with 4G LTE cellular connectivity
Robustel introduced the EG5101 and EG5200 industrial IoT gateways running Debian 11 a few weeks ago, both with 4G LTE cellular connectivity, but the NXP i.MX 6ULL-based EG5101 has a more compact design, while the NXP i.MX 8M Plus-powered EG5200 provides more I/Os and resources. Expanding the earlier EG5100, EG5120, and LG5100 models from the company, the two edge computing gateways target Industry 4.0 and smart infrastructure applications and enable real-time analytics at the edge with lower latency than running workloads in the cloud. Robustel EG5101 and EG5200 SoC/Memory/Storage EG5101 NXP i.MX 6ULL Cortex-A7 32-bit processor @ 792 MHz 512MB to 1024MB DDR3 8GB eMMC flash EG5200 NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core Cortex-A53 64-bit processor @ 1.6 GHz with 2.3 TOPS NPU 4GB DDR4 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card socket Connectivity EG5101 1x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port 4G LTE with 1x SMA-K antenna connector, 2x Mini SIM (2FF) EG5200 5x […]
nRF7002 Expansion Board adds WiFi 6 to Nordic Thingy:53 devkit
Nordic Semi keeps adding more nRF7002 WiFi 6 boards with the launch of the nRF7002 Expansion Board adding WiFi 6 connectivity to the Thingy:53 IoT prototyping platform and transforming it into an all-in-one wireless devkit with Matter, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, and WiFi 6 support. The new “nRF7002 EB” board follows the nRF7002 DK development kit combining the nRF7002 WiFi 6 with nRF5340 multiprotocol wireless SoCs, and the nRF7002 EK evaluation kit in Arduino UNO shield form factor adding WiFi 6 to existing Nordic development kits. nRF7002 Expansion Board specifications: Chipset – nRF7002 Wi-Fi Companion IC with support for features such as OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), Beamforming, Target Wake Time, and SSID-based locationing Antenna – 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz ceramic antenna I/Os Castellations for all pins on nRF7002 Thingy:53 expansion connector with SPI and a 3-wire coexistence interface to allow seamless coexistence with other wireless protocols Misc […]
Orange Pi AIPro SBC features a 20 TOPS Huawei Ascend AI SoC
Orange Pi AIPro is a new single board computer for AI applications that features a new (and unnamed) Huawei Ascend AI quad-core 64-bit processor delivering up to 20 TOPS (INT8) or 8 TOPS (FP16) of AI inference performance. The SBC comes with up to 16GB LPDDR4X and a 512Mbit SPI flash but also supports other storage options such as a microSD card, an eMMC flash module, and/or an M.2 NVMe or SATA SSD. The board also features two HDMI 2.0 ports, one MIPI DSI connector, and an AV port for video output, two MIPI CSI camera interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 5 connectivity, a few USB ports, and a 40-pin GPIO header for expansion. Orange Pi AIPro specifications: SoC – Huawei Ascend quad-core 64-bit (I’d assume RISC-V) processor delivering up to 20 TOPS (INT8) or 8TOPS (FP16) AI performance and equipped with an unnamed 3D GPU System Memory – 8GB […]
PicoUART6 6x UART to USB bridge supports up to 6 Raspberry Pi 5 boards
PicoUART6 is a small USB to UART bridge board that takes a Raspberry Pi Pico board and exposes six UART ports to connect up to six Raspberry Pi 5 SBC’s over the new 3-pin UART connector. The Raspberry Pi 5 has created a lot of buzz since its announcement in September 2023, and people most talked about its higher performance compared to a Raspberry Pi 4 and its new (non-standard) FCP PCIe connector, but the new Raspberry Pi SBC also features a 3-pin JST UART connector that was not used in earlier and frees 3-pin on the 40-pin GPIO header. The PicoUART6 board makes use of this new connector to interface multiple Raspberry Pi 5 over UART and control them through the USB board of the Pico board. PicoUART6 specifications: Footprint for Raspberry Pi Pico board Serial – 6x 3-pin JST UART connectors Expansion – STEMMA QT/Qwiic I2C connector Debugging […]