$150 BeagleV-Fire SBC features Microchip PolarFire RISC-V SoC FPGA, supports BeagleBone capes

BeagleV-Fire SBC

BeagleV-Fire is a new single board computer powered by Microchip PolarFire MPFS025T penta-core RISC-V SoC FPGA that follows the BeagleBone Black form factor for compatibility with BeagleBone capes expansion boards. Microchip PolarFire RISC-V SoC FPGA was one of the first Linux-compatible RISC-V SoCs and was found in pricey boards such as the Icicle and TySOM-M-MPFS250 development boards. I also got an Icicle board for review, and while getting started with the Yocto Linux BSP was OK, I really struggled with the FPGA part including just installing Libero SoC in Ubuntu and going through the license, and even I gave up trying to run a bitstream sample on the board due to a lack of time. The BeagleV-Fire makes it much cheaper to try out the PolarFire and hopefully makes it easier to get started with both Linux and the FPGA fabric through easier-to-understand documentation and code samples. BeagleFire-V specifications: SoC […]

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Mini PC features Intel N100 CPU, 16GB DDR5, 512GB NVMe SSD, WiFi 6 module

GEEKOM Mini Air12

GEEKOM Mini Air12 is a new mini PC powered by an Intel Processor N100 CPU with 16GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, a 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD, and a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module from Azureware. The device also comes with a gigabit Ethernet port, support for up to three displays with HDMI 2.0, mini DP 1.4, and USB-C ports, as well as a few USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack, plus a full-size SD card slot and a Kensington lock slot. GEEKOM Mini Air12 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 Alder Lake-N quad-core/quad-thread processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics @ up to 750 MHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – 16GB DDR5-4800 via SO-DIMM socket Storage 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe SSD, upgradeable up to 1TB; note: the socket also supports M.2 SATA drives Full-size […]

Rockchip roadmap reveals RK3576 and RK3506 IoT processors, Linux 6.1 SDK

Rockchip Roadmap 2024

The Rockchip RK3588 processor may remain the most powerful processor from the company for a while as an updated Rockchip IoT processor roadmap reveals the new RK3576 octa-core SoC and RK3506 tri-core Cortex-A7 chip, as well as a Linux 6.1 SDK to be released in Q4 2023. With the limited information we have, the Rockchip RK3576 looks to be a cost-down version of the RK3588 processor with eight cores, a 6 TOPS NPU, a 4K video codec, as well as PCIe and USB-C interfaces. Strangely the Rockchip RK3582 that should serve a similar purpose is not showing up in the roadmap. [Update: The RK3576 is indeed a lower-cost SoC but features four Cortex-A72 and four Cortex-A53 cores instead as per the comparison table reproduced below: That also means we now have the RK3576 specifications (some obtained from another document too): CPU Octa-core Arm processor with 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2 […]

GEEKOM Mini IT13 Core i9 mini PC review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM MINI IT13 review Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM Mini IT13 is a powerful 13th gen Raptor Lake mini PC that was unveiled last August with either an Intel Core i9-13900H, Core i7-13700H, or Core i5-13500H processor, up to 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe, and interfaces such as HDMI 2.0, USB4, 2.5GbE, and so on. The company has sent us a review sample of the Mini IT13 mini PC equipped with a Core-i9 14-core processor, 32GB RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD. We’ll start the review with an unboxing, a teardown to check the hardware design and upgradability of the device, and quickly try out to boot the system with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro. But let’s go through the specifications before that. GEEKOM Mini IT13 specifications SoC – Intel Core i9-13900H 13th Gen Raptor Lake processor with 14 cores, 20 threads up to 5.40 GHz, 24MB Cache, Iris Xe graphics; TDP: 45W System Memory – Dual-channel DDR4-3200 SODIMM, […]

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC benchmarks in Windows and Linux

Snapdragon X Elite reference laptop 23W vs 80W

Qualcomm unveiled the 4.3 GHz 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor for laptops last week since some bold claims about the performance and efficiency. The company has now released benchmarks for the processor verified by third parties such as Anandtech and Notebookcheck showing the new Snapdragon processor performance is quite amazing with the Arm processor indeed matching Apple, Intel, and AMD high-end chips. What’s more is that the new SoC was tested in both Windows and Linux (using Geekbench 6.2), so in hindsight, I was wrong to say the Snapdragon X Lite would be a Windows-only processor when only seeing the DX12 listed in the specifications… Before we look into the benchmark results, we should note that Qualcomm provided two versions of the Snapdragon X Elite laptop prototype both using active cooling: “demo config A” high-performance system configured to run at an 80W TDP, and a low-power, thinner “demo config B” […]

Raspberry Pi 5 Kit Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Assembly and First Boot

Raspberry Pi 5 Kit Review Raspberry Pi OS boot

I’m quite late on that one, but after an extended holiday, I’m now ready to review the Raspberry Pi 5 the company sent me last month. I’ll do so with the latest Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm based on Debian 12 and CNX Software’s “tropical reviews” are usually more demanding than most others due to the higher ambient temperature (usually around 28°C in my room) in Thailand. But since Raspberry Pi did not just send the Raspberry Pi 5, but a full kit with keyboard, mouse, enclosure, and more, I’ll start with a post mostly looking at the hardware with an unboxing, assembly, plus a quick try at Debian 12 on the new SBC. Raspberry Pi 5 Kit Unboxing Besides the Raspberry Pi 5 itself, the package included the active cooler (heatsink + fan), a microSD card preloaded with a pre-release Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm image, a USB-PD power supply, a […]

MediaTek Genio 1200 Arm Cortex-A78/A55 EVK gets official Ubuntu 22.04 support

Mediatek Genio 1200 Ubuntu

Canonical and MediaTek announced optimized Ubuntu images for the Genio 1200 EVK during Embedded Word 2023 last March, but at the time, I could not find any images for download, and there was just an invitation to come check out Ubuntu Core running on the MediaTek Genio platform at the event. But things have progressed well, and Canonical has now announced the availability of Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop and Server for not only the high-end Genio 1200 EVK, but also the mid-range Genio 700 EVK, and the entry-level Genio 350 EVK. That should be good news, as when I tested the i-Pi SMARC 1200 devkit earlier this year (June 2023), the Genio 1200 Arm Cortex-A78/A55 processor (aka MediaTek MT8195) showed really good performance in benchmarks, but at the time, the only option was to use a Yocto image, which is great, but there were still some unresolved software issues and the […]

Linux 6.6 LTS release – Highlights, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.6 release

The Linux 6.6 release has just been announced by Linus Torvalds on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): So this last week has been pretty calm, and I have absolutely no excuses to delay the v6.6 release any more, so here it is. There’s a random smattering of fixes all over, and apart from some bigger fixes to the r8152 driver, it’s all fairly small. Below is the shortlog for last week for anybody who really wants to get a flavor of the details. It’s short enough to scroll through. This obviously means that the merge window for 6.7 opens tomorrow, and I appreciate how many early pull requests I have lined up, with 40+ ready to go. That will make it a bit easier for me to deal with it, since I’ll be on the road for the first week of the merge window. Linus About two months ago, […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC