Category: Broadcom BCMxxxx

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on The First 802.11ax WiFI 6 Routers are Now Shipping for $350 and Up

The First 802.11ax WiFI 6 Routers are Now Shipping for $350 and Up

Netgear RAX80 WiFi 6 Router

802.11ax WiFi, to be known as WiFi 6 for consumer, promises a much higher throughput up to 10 Gbps, and a better ability to manage high density scenario (i.e.). crowded places where may users connect at the same time. ASUS announced several 802.11ax routers at CES 2018, and the entry-level model – ASUS RT-AX88U – with a combined maximum throughput of 6000 Mbps (referred to as AX6000) is now sold on Amazon for $349.99. NETGEAR has also unveiled their own WiFi 6 routers with respectively Nighthawk AX80 (RAX80) and Nighthawk AX120 (RAX120) routers. I’ve already covered ASUS routers in a previous post, and the 12-stream RAX120 will only become available in Q1 2019, so I’ll focus on the spaceship looking 8-stream RAX80 router since it’s available now. RAX80 WiFi 6 router specifications: SoC –  Broadcom BCM49408 quad core Cortex-A53 processor @  1.8GHz with network packet co-processor @ 800 MHz WiFi […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Linux 4.19 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architectures

Linux 4.19 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architectures

Linux 4.19 Changelog

With Linus Torvalds taking a leave from the Linux kernel project, Greg Kroah-Hartman was the one to release Linux 4.19 last Sunday: Hi everyone! It’s been a long strange journey for this kernel release… While it was not the largest kernel release every by number of commits, it was larger than the last 3 releases, which is a non-trivial thing to do. After the original -rc1 bumps, things settled down on the code side and it looks like stuff came nicely together to make a solid kernel for everyone to use for a while. And given that this is going to be one of the “Long Term” kernels I end up maintaining for a few years, that’s good news for everyone. A small trickle of good bugfixes came in this week, showing that waiting an extra week was a wise choice. However odds are that linux-next is just bursting so […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Linux 4.18 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architecture

Linux 4.18 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architecture

Linux Changelog 4.18

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 4.18: One week late(r) and here we are – 4.18 is out there. It was a very calm week, and arguably I could just have released on schedule last week, but we did have some minor updates. Mostly networking, but some vfs race fixes (mentioned in the rc8 announment as “pending”) and a couple of driver fixes (scsi, networking, i2c). Some other minor random things (arm crypto fix, parisc memory ordering fix). Shortlog appended for the (few) details. Some of these I was almost ready to just delay to until the next merge window, but they were marked for stable anyway, so it would just have caused more backporting. The vfs fixes are for old races that  are really hard to hit (which is obviously why they are old and weren’t noticed earlier). Some of them _have_ been seen in real […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Raspberry Pi 3 based Retro Arcade Game Console Sells for under $250

Raspberry Pi 3 based Retro Arcade Game Console Sells for under $250

Raspberry Pi 3 Arcade Game Console

When it comes to retro-gaming for the Raspberry Pi 3 board, there’s no lack of option with firmware like RetroPie or Lakka,  a few off-the-self accessories like USB or Bluetooth gamepad, a an HDMI monitor, you can get started in no time. However, if you want to make a retro arcade game console, it may take some more efforts, as you’d normally have have to design the case yourself, source the buttons and controls, the display, extra electronics and so on. But the “DIY classic retro arcade game console” based on Raspberry Pi 3 board currently sold on Banggood for $247.99 should make things much easier, as it’s supposed to be plug and play, while still offering the option to add or remove games, and mess around with the hardware if you wish to. Banggood did not provide the full technical details, but here’s what we know about the specifications: […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on NetBSD ARM64 Images Now Available with SMP for Raspberry Pi 3, Some NanoPi Boards, and Pine64 Boards

NetBSD ARM64 Images Now Available with SMP for Raspberry Pi 3, Some NanoPi Boards, and Pine64 Boards

ROCK64 NetBSD ARM64

NetBSD on Arm started in 2014 with the release of version 7.0, and last year device tree support was implemented and tested on some Allwinner H3 boards. But apparently, so far NetBSD only supported 32-bit Arm, with initial support for 64-bit Arm (ARM64) committed last April, but good progress has been made, and NetBSD ARM64 bootable firmware images are now available with SMP (multi-core) support. Eight different NetBSD ARM64 images can be downloaded: Generic NetBSD 64-bit image for Raspberry Pi 3 and NVIDIA Tegra X1 Two images for FriendlyELEC boards namely NanoPi NEO2 and NEO Plus2 boards Five images for the following Pine64 boards and hardware platforms Pine A64/A64+ Pine A64-LTS / Sopine with baseboard Pine H64 Pinebook laptop ROCK64 (ROCK64Pro not yet supported) The supported hardware matrix shows most features are supported, but there are still a few things missing such as GPU, crypto and MIPI CSI on all […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on 96-Core NanoPi Fire3 Boards Cluster is a DIY Portable Solution to Teach or Develop Distributed Software

96-Core NanoPi Fire3 Boards Cluster is a DIY Portable Solution to Teach or Develop Distributed Software

96-Core NanoPi Fire3 Cluster

Nick Smith has been messing around with clusters made of Arm boards for several years starting with Raspberry Pi boards, including a 5-node RPI 3 cluster, before moving to other boards like Orange Pi 2E, Pine A64+, or NanoPC-T3. His latest design is based on twelve NanoPi Fire3 boards with 8 cores each, bringing the total number of cores to 96.  The platform may not be really useful for actual HPC applications due to limited power and memory, but can still be relied upon for education and development, especially it’s easily portable. Nick also made some interesting points and discoveries. It’s pretty with shiny blinking LEDs, and what looks like proper cooling, and the cluster can deliver 60,000 MFLOPS with Linpack which places it in the top 250 faster computers in the world! That’s provided we travel back in time to year 2000 through 🙂 By today’s standard, it would […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Raspberry Pi Zero (W) Shield for Arduino is an Arduino UNO Baseboard for RPI Zero Board

Raspberry Pi Zero (W) Shield for Arduino is an Arduino UNO Baseboard for RPI Zero Board

There are already various Arduino compatible shields for Raspberry Pi  where the add-on board connect to a Raspberry Pi 3 board to provide  Arduino headers, but Raspberry Pi Zero (W) Shield for Arduino is a little different as it acts as a baseboard with Arduino header for Raspberry Pi Zero (W) RPI Zero (W) shield specifications: Reset switch for the micro-controller LED – Shield power LED,  LED connected to Arduino pin 13,  LED connected to Raspberry Pi GPIO pin 13 Expansion Female headers allowing for full-access to all Arduino pins. ICSP header access for AVR Micro-controllers Misc 3mm mounting holes for securely mounting Raspberry Pi Zero (W) to shield (mounting hardware included) Solder-jumpers to disconnect Micro-controller SDA/SCL pins from pull-up resistors Solder-jumper to disconnect Raspberry Pi GPIO13 from LED Power Supply – 6.5 to 12V power supply (6.5 to 9V recommended) via  2.1mm power barrel jack, or 5V via micro […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on NoCAN IoT Platform Leverages Raspberry Pi & Arduino for CAN Bus Projects (Crowdfunding)

NoCAN IoT Platform Leverages Raspberry Pi & Arduino for CAN Bus Projects (Crowdfunding)

Many IoT projects rely on wireless connectivity through WiFi or Bluetooth, but in some cases it may be more reliable and convenient to use wired connectivity. The CAN Bus is a little like a low bandwidth Ethernet PoE solution for IoT, as it allows to transfer data over a serial connection while provided power at the same time, and can be daisy chain to support multiple boards. Omzlo’s NoCAN IoT platform provides a CAN bus solution leveraging Raspberry Pi 3 board through their PiMaster HAT acting as a CAN bus gateway, and Arduino compatible CANZERO boards to which you can connect sensors and actuators. Omzlo PiMaster HAT specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F042 Cortex-M0 32bit ARM MCU – 48Mhz. Networking –  125000 bps CAN bus up to 300 meters range GPIO – Communicates with Raspberry Pi through SPI + GPIOs Security – Smart power switch with over-current protection. Power Supply – […]

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