Category: Broadcom BCMxxxx

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on CM4 Maker Board review – Part 1: specifications, unboxing, and first boot

CM4 Maker Board review – Part 1: specifications, unboxing, and first boot

CM4 Maker Board Review

Cytron CM4 Maker Board is a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM4 Lite system-on-module with plenty of I/Os, support for one M.2 NVMe SSD, and RTC backup battery, a buzzer, and various LEDs for GPIO status that makes the board especially well suited for the education market and prototyping. The carrier board also comes with the usual Gigabit Ethernet and full-size HDMI port, four USB 2.0 ports, five Grove connectors, one Maker port, the omnipresent 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, and support power input from 7V-18V DC jack or 5V via a USB Type-C connector. CM4 Maker Board specifications Cytron CM4 Maker Board specifications: Supported SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 or Compute Module 4 Lite Storage microSD card slot M.2 PCIe 2.0 socket for NVMe 2232/2242 SSD Video Interfaces Full-size HDMI 2.0 port MIPI DSI display connector Camera – MIPI CSI connector connector Audio – […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Pironman review – A Raspberry Pi 4 enclosure with M.2 SATA, safe power off, RGB LED strip, and more

Pironman review – A Raspberry Pi 4 enclosure with M.2 SATA, safe power off, RGB LED strip, and more

Pironman review

SunFounder Pironman is a Raspberry Pi 4 enclosure inspired by Michael Klement’s DIY Raspberry Pi 4 mini server with an OLED display and ICE Tower cooling solution, as well as some improvements such as an aluminum alloy and acrylic enclosure, support for an M.2 SATA SSD, a power button for safe shutdown,  an IR receiver, and an RGB LED strip. The company sent me a Pironman kit without Raspberry Pi 4 for review. I’ll check the package content, go through the assembly, software installation, and testing of the unique features listed above. Pironman unboxing Some of the main specifications are listed on the side of the package. The enclosure comes fully disassembled with the Pironman board, metal and acrylic panels, RGB LED strip, OLED display, heatsink, fan, adapters, flat cables, screws, standoffs, and so on. The top of the Pironman board (JMS580-V1.8) comes with a JMicron JMS580 USB 3.2 Gen […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on $700 Netgear RS700 WiFi 7 router supports up to 19Gbps (combined) speed

$700 Netgear RS700 WiFi 7 router supports up to 19Gbps (combined) speed

Netgear RS700 WiFi 7 router

Netgear “Nighthawk” RS700 is the first WiFi 7 (802.11be) router from the company, with the tri-band router being rated “BE19000” meaning it can deliver a combined ~19Gbps link rate using all three bands. The router is based on the Broadcom BCM67263 Arm processor and with that kind of wireless bandwidth it comes with two 10GbE ports one WAN port to connect to the internet, and one LAN port to connect to the local networks plus four extra Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a USB 3.0 port for network storage. Netgear RS700 specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM67263 quad-core WiFi 7 processor @ 2.6 GHz System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 512MB NAND flash for OS Networking 802.11be WiFi 7 WiFi Coverage – Up to 325 square meters Speed – Up to ~19Gbps combined 2.4GHz BE – 4×4 (Tx/Rx) 4096-QAM 20/40MHz, up to 1.4Gbps 5GHz BE – 4×4 (Tx/Rx) 4096-QAM 20/40/80/160MHz, up […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on RAKwireless programmable 5G & LoRaWAN small cell device runs Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi CM4

RAKwireless programmable 5G & LoRaWAN small cell device runs Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi CM4

RAKwireless 5G small cell

RAKwireless “All-in-One 5G” is a programmable 64-bit Ubuntu indoor device that integrates AGW (access gateway) through a Raspberry Pi CM4 as well as 5G and 4G LTE cellular and LoRaWAN connectivity. The device is powered through its 2.5GbE PoE++ port and designed for private 5G networks for industrial automation, public safety, and transportation, and RAKwireless says you can also “start earning cryptocurrency by providing LTE cellular and LoRa coverage”, but I could not find details about monetization at this time. RAKwireless “All-in-One 5G” specifications: SoM (AGW) – Raspberry Pi CM4 system-on-module with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor with 4GB RAM and 32 eMMC flash, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity 5G/4G cellular connectivity LTE Mode- TDD Frequency Bands – Band 48 (3550 MHz to 3700 MHz); band N78 is also supported for global coverage Channel Bandwidth5/10/15/20 MHz Max TX Power – 24 dBm Receiver Sensitivity – -100 dBm Built-in 2-port […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on LibreELEC 11 released with Kodi 20, brings back Amlogic platforms

LibreELEC 11 released with Kodi 20, brings back Amlogic platforms

LibreELEC 11

LibreELEC 11 lightweight media center Linux distribution based on Kodi 20 “Nexus” has just been released with various improvements on x86 and Arm platforms. Kodi 20 was released and available for download in January with AV1 hardware video decoding in Android and x86 (VAAPI) platforms with AV1-capable GPU or VPU, FFMPEG 4.4, Pipewire support in Linux, and a few others. LibreELEC 11 enables you to have a dedicated, and fast booting, HTPC based on a mini PC, a Raspberry Pi SBC, or an Arm-based TV box with all features from the latest Kodi release. LibreELEC 11 supports Raspberry Pi 2 to 4 SBCs, 64-bit x86 hardware, various Allwinner, Rockchip, and Amlogic SBCs and TV boxes with x86, Raspberry Pi, and Rockchip hardware considered more stable and feature complete. LibreELEC 10.0 did away with Amlogic TV boxes and single board computers because of driver issues, but LibreELEC 11.0 brings Amlogic back […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments on Armbian 23.02 out with Linux 6.1, DietPi 8.14 adds experimental RISC-V support

Armbian 23.02 out with Linux 6.1, DietPi 8.14 adds experimental RISC-V support

Armbian 23.02

Two of the most popular projects providing images for Arm and RISC-V single board computers have released new updates with Armbian 23.02 adding Linux 6.1-based Debian and Ubuntu images, and DietPi 8.14 adding experimental RISC-V support for the StarFive VisionFive 2 SBC and new Arm boards. Armbian 23.02 Quoll Linux 6.1 is the latest LTS kernel, so Armbian is now providing Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy and Debian 11 Bullseye images based on Linux 6.1.y for boards that support it, as well as the first development images based on Debian 12 Bookworm and Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar. I could not find any new boards added in the changelog, but the release brings several improvements and bug fixes to some of the already supported SBCs including the Raspberry Pi 3, Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS, ROCK Pi S, ROCK Pi 4,  NanoPi R2S, NanoPi NEO3, and Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro. The announcement also highlights […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Auspicious Machine modular handheld Linux PC with keyboard takes various Arm-based SoMs

Auspicious Machine modular handheld Linux PC with keyboard takes various Arm-based SoMs

Auspicious Machine

The “Auspicious Machine” may look like a Blackberry phone, but it’s actually a handheld Linux PC with a built-in QWERTY keyboard and a 3.5-inch display that can be powered by a range of system-on-modules (SoM). The computer, whose name can also be translated as the “Auspicious Phone”, can be used as a Linux terminal with GPIO control, and for gaming with Linux distributions such as Batotera or RetroBat with the D-Pad and ABXY buttons found on the device. Auspicious Machine specifications: Supported SoMs Bigtreetech CB1 with Allwinner H616 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and 1GB DDR4 Raspberry Pi CM4 with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor, up to 8GB LPDDR4, up to 32GB eMMC flash Radxa CM3 with Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor, up to 4GB LPDDR4, up to 64GB eMMC flash Banana Pi BPI-CM4 with Amlogic A311D octa-core Cortex-A73/A55 processor with 4GB LPDDR4 and 16GB eMMC flash Storage – MicroSD card socket […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Raspberry Pi 400 powers dual-display retro-gaming console

Raspberry Pi 400 powers dual-display retro-gaming console

DIY Enclosure Raspberry Pi 400 console

“Block after Block” has designed a dual-display tabletop retro-gaming console using plywood edge grain and a Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard PC that allows players to physically face each other during a fight or other gameplay. While there’s a galore of projects based on Raspberry Pi SBCs, the Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard PC is more like a consumer product due to its form factor, but Block after Block integrated the PC into its own retro-gaming console which involved a lot of woodworking skills and installing RetroPie on the Pi 400 device. This DIY project mostly involves spending time in a workshop cutting wood, and once you’re done with this part, it should be pretty straightforward. The following items are required for the project: A Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard PC Two monitors (second-hand monitors will do) An HDMI splitter to mirror the output from the Pi 400 along with a micro HDMI […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design