Hardware Category - Page 549 of 1131 - CNX Software

February 9, 2019May 10, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 49 Comments

Wechip R69 Allwinner H3 TV Box goes for $19 Shipped

A few years ago, it was relatively easy to purchase sub $20 TV boxes with some patience, but with the increase in RAM and flash prices, it’s been more difficult to find those ultra-cheap TV boxes. It turns out there’s such a deal now on Aliexpress where Wechip R69 TV box is sold for just $18.99 shipped. Now with an Allwinner H3 processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB flash, I would not necessarily recommend such device for your media needs, but they can be useful for some specific use cases like a simple digital signage, or even to run Linux with some efforts. Wechip R69 also looks to be similar to Sunvell R69 TV box that is officially supported by RetroOrangePi, but with the pin-to-pin compatible Allwinner H2 processor, so it could make an inexpensive retro gaming console as well. Wechip R69 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad-core Cortex A7 processor […]

February 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Pyboard D Series MicroPython Board Features STM32F7 MCU, WiFi and Bluetooth

Micropython is a lightweight implementation of Python for microcontroller which we covered first in 2013. The port is supported by various hardware platforms, and I even tested Micropython on ESP32 a little while ago, but the developer – Damien George – also launched officially supported boards starting with Pyboard in 2014 with an STM32F4 microcontroller. At FOSDEM 2019, the upcoming Pyboard D-series (aka Pyboard D, or just PyBD) board was introduced during the Micropython presentation with a faster STM32F7 Cortex-M7 MCU, as well as built-in WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Pyboard D preliminary specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F7xx Arm Cortex M7 microcontroller at 216 MHz with 512KB RAM, 2MB flash Storage – micro SD card slot, and 2x external flash chips Connectivity – WiFi & Bluetooth with on-board antenna and u.FL antenna connector USB – 1x micro USB port for power, flash disk access, and USB to serial debugging/programming Expansion 2.54mm […]

February 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Adiantum Enables Faster File Encryption in Devices without AES Crypto Accelerator

File Encryption is enabled – even required – by default in most Android devices, as it protects your data would you lose your phone, or have it stolen. Encryption in Android leverages the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and most modern 64-bit processors – like the ones based on Armv8 – come with a crypto accelerator that boosts performance several folds compared to a software only solution. But there are also many low end devices, for example based on Arm Cortex-A7, that lack crypto extensions, and enabling AES encryption would make the devices even slower than they already are. So in order to provide file encryption on entry-level hardware without comprising too much on performance, Google has developed Adiantum encryption optimized to run on targets without crypto accelerator. As explained in a Google Security blog post, Adiantum uses the ChaCha stream cipher – as used in HTTPS – in a length-preserving […]

February 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Ivy5661 Bluetooth 5 + 802.11ac WiFi IoT Board Up for Pre-order for $35

There are many WiFi and/or Bluetooth board designed for the Internet of Things thanks to ESP8266 / ESP32, and other solutions, but usually they all work in the 2.4 GHz frequency band which can be an issue in crowded environments. Last October, we covered ucRobotics Ivy5661 96Boards compliant IoT board that offers a dual core Arm Cortex-M4F MCU with 802.11ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5 connectivity. It was still under development at the time, but today, I’ve noticed it was listed on Seeed Studio for $35 with shipping scheduled for the end of February. ucRobotics Ivy5661 board specifications: SoC – UniSoC UWP5661 dual core Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller @ 416 MHz manufactured with 28nm process Storage – 32Mbit NOR flash Connectivity (built in SoC) Dual band 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO WiFi 5 up to 866MHz; supports repeater mode, RTT indoor positioning Bluetooth 5 with support for high power mode, BT mesh, and […]

February 6, 2019April 15, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Novasom SBC-U1 is a Tiny Industrial grade ESP32 Single Board Computer

Novasom Industries is an international company specializing in SBCs (Single Board Computers) with offices in Romania and the US. Most of their products are based on Arm and Intel processors, and they have two product lines their U-Line for low power IoT devices, and M-Line for applications requiring multimedia processing with various Rockchip, Qualcomm, and Intel processors. One model in the U-Line caught my attention, as beside an NXP i.MX6ULL SBC, the company is also offering an industrial temperature grade ESP32 SBC named SBC-U1 / SBC-U1A. SBC-U1/SBC-U1A board specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32 dual core Tensilica LX6 processor @ 240 MHz, 384KB RAM Storage – 4MB flash, micro SD card slot up to 32GB Connectivity – 802.11 b/n/g WiFi 4, Bluetooth 4.1 LE I/Os – 24-pin 2.54mm pitch header with up to 15 GPIO @ 3.3V, I2C, SPI, 2-ch 12-bit ADC, 2-ch 10-bit DAC, 2x protected inputs up to […]

February 6, 2019February 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Papyr is a Nordic nRF52840 based Bluetooth/802.15.4 ePaper Display

Electronut Labs has designed a Nordic Semi nRF52840 boards featuring a black, red, and white e-Paper display. Papyr board supports both Bluetooth LE (BLE5, BLE Mesh) and 802.15.4 (Thread, Zigbee) connectivity, and can be controlled via an Android app, with iOS support coming later on. Papyr hardware specifications: Wireless Module – Raytac MDBT50 module with Nordic nRF52840 BLE/802.15.4 SoC (as used in Raytac MDBT50Q-RX Bluetooth 5 LE USB adapter) Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 LE/Mesh, 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee), NFC (PCB antenna) Display – 1.54″ 200×200 pixel red/black/white epaper display USB – 1x micro USB device port Expansion – Extra GPIOs via 2.54mm header Debugging – SWD Programming header Misc – RGB LED, push button, USB/Battery power switch Power Supply – 5V via USB, or CR2477 coin cell Dimensions – 65 x 35 mm You can control the board using Electronut Labs app for Android. Three features are supported at this stage: Draw, […]

February 6, 2019February 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ZOTAC Unveils ZBOX PRO Embedded Mini PC Line-up

ZOTAC is known for their ZBOX consumer and business mini PCs, but they are now entering the embedded computing market with the launch of ZBOX PRO line-up based on their commercial offering but with more robust designs for medical equipment, industrial robots, casino game systems, IoT gateways, ATMs, and more. The company launched 5 models features various Intel processors from Celeron to Core-i7, but I’ll focus on the three passively cooled low power models in this post. ZBOX Pro CI329 nano Specifications mostly follow the ones of ZBOX CI329 Nano model with differences highlighted in bold or stricken-through: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad-core processor (1.1GHz up to 2.4GHz, 4MB cache) with Intel UHD Graphics 600 System Memory – 2x DDR4-2400MHz dual-channel SO-DIMM slots, up to 8GB Storage 1x 2.5″ SATA 6.0 Gb/s HDD/SSD bay 1x M.2 2242/2260 key-M socket for SSD SD/SDHC/SDXC card reader Video Output 1x HDMI 2.0, […]

February 5, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

OpenISA VEGAboard Combines RISC-V and ARM Cortex-M Cores

OpenISA has launched an Arduino compatible RISC-V development called VEGAboard that features RV32M1 wireless microcontroller with a RISC-V RI5CY core, a RISC-V ZERO-RISCY core as well as Arm Cortex-M4F and Cortex-M0 cores, and a radio operating in the 2.36 GHz to 2.48 GHz range. An external NXP Kinetis K26 Arm Cortex-M4 MCU is added to the board for OpenSDA (Open-Standard Serial and Debug Adapter) debugging over a single USB cable. The board was offered for free, I’m just not sure when, but they are already out of stock. Hopefully, they’ll start selling the board soon enough. VEGAboard (RM32M1-VEGA) board key features and specifications: Ultra-low-power RV32M1 Wireless MCU supporting BLE, Generic FSK, and IEEE Std 802.15.4 (Thread) platforms IEEE Std. 802.15.4-2006 compliant transceiver supporting 250 kbps O-QPSK data in 5.0 MHz channels, and full spread-spectrum encoding and decoding Fully compliant Bluetooth v4.2 Low Energy (BLE) Reference design area with small-footprint, low-cost […]