Broadcom unveils WiFi 7 chips for access points and clients

BCM4916 WiFi 7 access point with bcm27263 and bcm6726

We first noticed the new WiFi 7 (802.11be) standard in January 2022 with MediaTek demonstrating Filogic 802.11be processors, and later Qualcomm introduced the FastConnect 7800 WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 solution for wireless clients, but we had not seen anything for WiFi 7 access points yet. Broadcom has now announced four WiFi 7 chips for access points with the BCM67263, BCM6726, BCM43740, and BCM43720 up to 11.5 Gbps PHY rate, plus the BCM4398 Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5 combo chip for mobile handsets with up to 6.05 Gbps PHY rate. We’ve not quite at the theoretical  40+ Gbps PHY rate for WiFi 7, but those solutions will more than double the speed of existing Wi-Fi 6/6E solutions, while simultaneously delivering lower latency and extending range. The BCM67263 and BCM6726 chips are designed for the residential Wi-Fi 7 access point market with the following key features: Support for 4 streams of […]

Raspberry Pi OS removes default “Pi” username, adds experimental support for Wayland

Raspberry Pi Imager username password

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has just released a new version of Raspberry Pi OS that removes the default username (pi) for security reasons, adds experimental support for Wayland, and lets people configure their Raspberry Pi with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Default username no more The most significant change in the new Raspberry Pi OS is the removal of the default “pi” user as several countries have legislation against default credentials for security reasons. That includes the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill (PSTI) in the UK, and California’s SB-327 IoT devices security law. Those laws mostly target default passwords, but removing a default username can be useful too to prevent force brute attacks. One consequence of removing the default username is that you won’t be able to skip the wizard in both the Desktop and Lite versions of Raspberry Pi OS since a new user needs to be created first. […]

Arducam Pi Hawk-eye is a 64MP camera for Raspberry Pi 4/CM4

64MP camera raspberry pi

Arducam Pi Hawk-eye is a 64MP “ultra-high resolution” camera for Raspberry Pi 4 or CM4 with built-in autofocus following the company’s 16MP autofocus camera introduced at the end of last year. The new camera module will allow you to take still images at up to 9152 x 6944 resolution, but videos will still be limited to 1080p30 on the Raspberry Pi 4. The Pi Hawk-eye is also compatible with the official Raspberry Pi v1/v2 cameras, meaning you can reuse your enclosures/mounts, and keep on using the same software, for instance, libcamera. Arducam Pi Hawk-eye specifications: Sensor – Sensor with 9152 x 6944 pixels resolution Still resolution – 64MP Video modes On Raspberry Pi – 1080p30, 720p60, and 640×480 @ 60/90fps Camera module – 1280×720 @ 120 fps, 1080p60, 2312×1736 @ 30 fps, 3840×2160 @ 20 fps, 4624×3472 @ 10 fps, 9152×6944 @ 2.7 fps Optical size – 9.25mm diagonal (7.4×5.5mm) […]

Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S SO-DIMM module is powered by Broadcom BCM2711 SoC

Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S

The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S is an upcoming system-on-module based on the same Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor found in Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, but using the same SO-DIMM connector as found in earlier Raspberry Pi Compute Module boards, instead of the new board-to-board connectors. The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S is not launched yet, but we discovered it will be used on Revolution Pi S and SE series DIN-rail industrial computers via a tweet from Jeff Geerling and his post on Raspberry Pi forums. Apart from the faster processor and support for 4K video output, The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S is quite similar to the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+. Memory bandwidth might be a little better with the LPDDR4 memory too (TBC), but all the rest looks the same. The main advantage of the new Raspberry Pi CM4S module is compatibility with older SO-DIMM carrier […]

Eben Upton expands on Raspberry Pi shortage

Raspberry Pi Shortage

As you may have noticed, Raspberry Pi boards may get hard to get and/or be sold at excessive prices by some resellers. Eben Upton explains the reasons behind the Raspberry Pi Shortage and provides some recommendations to work around the shortage and high prices. Raspberry Pi Trading is still manufacturing around 500,000 Raspberry Pi boards or modules per month despite the global semiconductors shortage, and the issue they face is more of a demand shock than a supply shock with demand for Raspberry Pi products having increased sharply from the start of 2021 and remains unabated as the supply chain can not handle that extra demand at this time. That means distributors have backlogs in almost all products, and it takes time for customers to get their orders. Bots are also involved in making automatic purchases as soon as stock becomes available often in order to resell those boards at […]

Kontron Pi-Tron CM4 mini PC leverages Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 for industrial applications

Kontron AL Pi-Tron CM4

Kontron Pi-Tron CM4 is a single-board computer and mini PC based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module with a Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor, up to 8GB RAM, up to 32GB eMMC flash, HDMI video output, two Ethernet ports, optional WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and an M.2 slot for AI or wireless expansion. Designed for industrial applications, the Pi-Tron CM4 is also equipped with RS232, RS485/CAN FD bus, and GPIO terminal blocks, supports 24V input voltage, and is optionally sold as AL Pi-Tron CM4 in a housing suited for challenging environments. Kontron Pi-Tron CM4 specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @1.5 GHz, VideoCore VI GPU, H.265 (HEVC) up to 4Kp60 decode, 1080p30 encode, up to 8GB LPDDR4, up to 32GB eMMC flash Storage – MicroSD card socket (only for Raspberry Pi CM4 Lite module) Display I/F HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 […]

Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 changelog

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.17: So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I’m happy to report that it was very calm indeed. We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it’s all good. And that calm last week can very much be seen from the appended shortlog – there really aren’t a lot of commits in here, and it’s all pretty small. Most of it is in drivers (net, usb, drm), with some core networking, and some tooling updates too. It really is small enough that you can just scroll through the details below, and the one-liner summaries will give a good flavor of what happened last week. Of course, this means […]

CM4-IO-POE-4G-Box – A Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 box for industrial IoT applications

CM4-IO-PoE-4G-Box

While the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is basically unobtanium, companies keep introducing products based on the Arm system-on-module, and Waveshare CM4-IO-POE-4G-Box is a complete system designed for industrial IoT applications with CAN Bus, RS232 and RS485 interfaces, Ethernet with PoE support, plus optional support for 2G to 5G cellular connectivity. The CM4-IO-POE-4G-Box is based on the “Compute Module 4 PoE 4G” carrier board which itself appears to be an update to the company’s earlier “Compute Module PoE 4G” carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM3 module. CM4-IO-POE-4G-Box / Compute Module 4 PoE 4GB board specifications: Support SoM – All variants of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Storage – MicroSD card socket used for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Lite (without eMMC) Display 2x HDMI ports up to 4Kp30 (I suppose even 4Kp60) 2x 15-pin MIPI DSI connectors + openings in the enclosure for flat cables Camera – 2x internal […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC