KiCad 7.0.0 open-source EDA software has just been released with a range of new features from custom fonts to 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse integration to opt-in Sentry crash reporting, and many more changes. It took over three years between KiCad 5.0.0 and KiCad 6.0.0 announcements, but only a little over a year for the release of KiCad 7.0.0. Did KiCad developers acquire superhuman abilities or did AI get involved in the development somehow? Most probably not, and instead they change the release schedule to a yearly one, so we should get annual releases of the open-source EDA suite going forward, with KiCad 8.0.0 to be released in Q1 2024. Some notable changes to KiCad 7.0 include: Custom Fonts support is now available in the schematic, PCB, and worksheet editors to allow the use of any system font. Text box support was added in both the schematic and PCB editors. 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse support […]
InuoMicro G4305L8-S2 fanless industrial PC box offers eight 2.5GbE ports for $203
InuoMicro G4305L8-S2 is a relatively inexpensive fanless industrial PC box powered by an Intel Celeron 4305U Whiskey Lake processor that offers eight 2.5GbE ports making the system suitable for firewall and other networking applications. The barebone computer supports up to 32GB RAM, one mSATA SSD, one 2.5-inch SATA drive, and also provides interfaces such as HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs and a few USB ports allowing the user as a standard computer. Wireless connectivity can be implemented through mini PCIe and/or M.2 4G LTE and WiFi modules. InuoMicro G4305L8-S2 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron 4305UE dual-core Whiskey Lake processor @ 2.0 GHz (base, no turbo frequency) with Intel UHD Graphics 610; 15W TDP System Memory – Up to 32GB DDR4 2133/2400MHz via a single SO-DIMM socket Storage mSATA SSD socket 2.5-inch SATA bay for SSD or HDD Video Output – HDMI and DisplayPort Networking 8x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports via Intel […]
XGO 2 – A Raspberry Pi CM4 based robot dog with an arm (Crowdfunding)
XGO 2 is a desktop robot dog using the Raspberry Pi CM4 as its brain, the ESP32 as the motor controller for the four legs and an additional robotic arm that allows the quadruped robot to grab objects. An evolution of the XGO mini robot dog with a Kendryte K210 RISC-V AI processor, the XGO 2 robot offers 12 degrees of freedom and the more powerful Raspberry CM4 model enables faster AI edge computing applications, as well as features such as omnidirectional movement, six-dimensional posture control, posture stability, and multiple motion gaits. The XGO 2 robot dog is offered in two variants – the XGO-Lite 2 and the XGO-Mini 2 – with the following key features and specifications: The company also says the new robot can provide feedback on its own postures thanks to its 6-axis IMU and sensors for the joints reporting the position and electric current. A display […]
FOSDEM 2023 schedule – Open-source Embedded, Mobile, IoT, Arm, RISC-V, etc… projects
After two years of taking place exclusively online, FOSDEM 2023 is back in Brussels, Belgium with thousands expected to attend the 2023 version of the “Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting” both onsite and online. FOSDEM 2023 will take place on February 4-5 with 776 speakers, 762 events, and 63 tracks. As usual, I’ve made my own little virtual schedule below mostly with sessions from the Embedded, Mobile and Automotive devroom, but also other devrooms including “Open Media”, “FOSS Educational Programming Languages devroom”, “RISC-V”, and others. FOSDEM Day 1 – Saturday February 4, 2023 10:30 – 10:55 – GStreamer State of the Union 2023 by Olivier Crête GStreamer is a popular multimedia framework making it possible to create a large variety of applications dealing with audio and video. Since the last FOSDEM, it has received a lot of new features: its RTP & WebRTC stack has greatly improved, Rust […]
$199+ Morefine M9 mini PC is powered by an Intel Processor N100 Alder Lake-N processor
Morefine M9 is one of the first mini PCs I’ve seen sold with the 6W Intel Processor N100 Alder Lake-N quad-core processor and the price is not too bad with $199 asked for a barebone model on Aliexpress. The mini PC supports up to 32GB DDR4 RAM, is sold up with up to 1TB NVMe SSD, and features two 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 ports, 2.5 Gbps Gigabit Ethernet, a WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.2 module, as well as four USB 3.2 ports. Morefine M9 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics; TDP: 6W System Memory – Up to 32GB DDR4-3200MHz Storage M.2 2280 PCIe/NVMe socket fitted 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD M.2 2242 SATA socket Video Output – 2x HDMI 2.0b ports up to 4Kp60; dual independent display support Audio – 1x audio jack […]
Radxa ROCK 5A SBC – A Raspberry Pi 4 lookalike with up to 16GB RAM, Rockchip RK3588S SoC
Radxa has just unveiled the ROCK 5A single board computer (SBC) following Raspberry Pi 4 form factor and powered by a Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor coupled with up to 16GB of RAM as a way to celebrate Chinese New Year 2023. The Radxa ROCK 5A (aka ROCK5 Model A) closely follows the Raspberry Pi 4 layout, including two micro HDMI ports, a 3.5mm AV port, a microSD card, a 40-pin GPIO header, four USB ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. The MIPI DSI connector is there too, and so is the MIPI CSI camera connector, but in a different location. Radxa also added some features such as an M.2 socket for a wireless module (since there’s none on board) and eMMC flash module connectors, among other smaller changes (e.g. Power button!). ROCK 5A specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to […]
UP Xtreme i12 Edge mini PC features Alder Lake-P SoC up to Intel Core i7-1270PE
AAEON has just launched the UP Xtreme i12 Edge mini PC based on the company’s UP Xtreme i12 SBC equipped with an Intel Core i7-1270PE and other Alder Lake processors, up to 32GB LPDDR5 memory, and support for two M.2 NVMe SSD as well as SATA storage The Xtreme i12 Edge is the successor of the Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit powered by a choice of Intel Tiger Lake processors. It also comes with 2.5GbE and GbE networking, one USB4 port, several USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, plus some COM ports and a terminal block for GPIOs. UP Xtreme i12 Edge mini PC specifications: Alder Lake-P SoC (One or the other) Intel Core i7-1270PE 12-core/16-thread processor @ 3.30GHz / 4.50GHz (Turbo) with 96EU Intel Xe graphics – PBP: 28W, up to 64W MTP Intel Core i5-1250PE 12-core/16-thread processor @ 3.20GHz / 4.40GHz (Turbo) with 80EU […]
Aetina unveils NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano and Orin NX edge embedded systems
Aetina has recently announced several embedded systems based on NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX and Orin Nano which they showcased at CES 2023. We’ll specifically have a look at the AIE-KO21/31 and AIE-KN31/41 edge devices designed for mainstream and entry-level edge AI computing. NVIDIA introduced the NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX SO-DIMM modules in March 2022 and followed up with the lower-cost pin-compatible Jetson Orin Nano modules in September with mass production scheduled for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 respectively. Last week, we covered the first NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX edge AI computer we had seen, namely Seeed Studio reComputer J4012, but it turns out Aetina also announced their own Jetson Orin NX/Orin Nano industrial embedded computers around the same time. Aetina AIE-KO21, AIE-KO31, AIE-KN31, and AIE-KN41 specifications: System-on-module AIE-KO21 – NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 4GB with up to 20 TOPS of AI performance AIE-KO31 – NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB with […]