postmarketOS is a Linux operating system designed for phones, notably the PinePhone, and based on Alpine Linux. But now it’s possible to install the Linux distribution on Kobo Clara HD e-Reader (about $115), so you could have your own Linux e-Reader in a way that’s more versatile than with commercial solutions. The image can either be based on the vendor kernel or the mainline kernel. The latter works without modification to the X server, and the framebuffer can be used directly with either kernel, but most free e-reader programs such as koreader, plato, and inkbox are developed for the slightly different framebuffer API used in the vendor kernel. The demo below relies on Sxmo UI optimized for the PinePhone, and Martijn Braam notes that it can be pretty hard notably because only one hardware button is present on the Kobo device while the interface requires 3 hardware input buttons. But […]
MicroMod Teensy brings Teensy 4.0 board to M.2 form factor
Teensy 4.0, a low-cost board based on NXP i.MX RT1062 Arm Cortex-M7 crossover processor, is now getting a little brother with MicroMod Teensy following the same M.2 form factor as other Sparkfun MicroMod boards. Born from a collaboration between PJRC and Sparkfun, MicroMod Teensy has essentially the specs of Teensy 4.0 but with larger flash memory, and the board will be fully supported by the Teensyduino add-on to the Arduino IDE as noted by Paul Stoffregen on Twitter. MicroMod Teensy specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX RT1062 Arm Cortex-M7 processor at 600 MHz with 1024KB RAM (512KB is tightly coupled), Storage – 16MB serial flash (instead of 2MB on Teensy 4.0) M.2 MicroMod connector with USB Device up to 480Mbit/sec: Capable of enumerating as a USB keyboard, mouse, joystick, MIDI, audio, and more USB Host up to 480Mbit/sec: Capable of interfacing to USB flash drives, mice, keyboards, and more 7x Serial […]
Linux-based telematics gateway offers four CAN Bus interfaces, cellular & WiFi connectivity, and more
iWave Systems already provided some Linux-based vehicle diagnostic systems such as their NXP i.MX 7 powered OBD-II dongle with 4G LTE and GPS. But their latest model, the iW-Rainbow-G41 telematics gateway, goes a step further with an NXP i.MX 8 processor controlling four CAN Bus interfaces, and offering both wired (RS232/RS485, automotive Ethernet) and wireless (cellular, Wifi, Bluetooth) connectivity options. iW-Rainbow-G41 telematics gateway specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8 “DXL” Arm processor (Not sure what DXL is exactly, and iWave has yet to reply to our request for more information, but NXP shortly mentions i.MX 8X/XL processors in a page about V2X applications) System Memory – 1GB LPDDR4 (Upgradable up to 2GB) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (Upgradable up to 64GB) Communication Interfaces Cellular – 4G LTE Cat 4, LTE Cat M1/NB1, option to upgrade to 5G; E-Call support 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 with optional support for 802.11ax WiFi 6 […]
Venice GW7100 compact industrial SBC packs one Gigabit Ethernet port, one mPCIe socket
Gateworks introduced the new Venice Industrial IoT SBC Family based on NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor with up to two Ethernet ports and four mPCIe Sockets last September starting with GW7300 board with dual Gigabit Ethernet and three mPCIe sockets. But the US company has now announced the availability of the smallest member of the family with Venice GW7100 SBC equipped with just one Gigabit Ethernet port and one mPCIe socket in a compact 100x35mm form factor. Venice GW7100 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini single, dual or quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.6GHz, with Arm Cortex-M4 at 400+MHz, 3D GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0), 2D GPU, and 1080p VPU System Memory – 1 GB LPDDR4 (up to 4GB) Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash (up to 64GB) Connectivity 1x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port with passive PoE support WiFi/Bluetooth or Cellular connectivity via mini PCIe socket and Nano-SIM […]
Linux 5.13 Release – Notable changes, Arm, MIPS and RISC-V architectures
Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.13: So we had quite the calm week since rc7, and I see no reason to delay 5.13. The shortlog for the week is tiny, with just 88 non-merge commits (and a few of those are just reverts). It’s a fairly random mix of fixes, and being so small I’d just suggest people scan the appended shortlog for what happened. Of course, if the last week was small and calm, 5.13 overall is actually fairly large. In fact, it’s one of the bigger 5.x releases, with over 16k commits (over 17k if you count merges), from over 2k developers. But it’s a “big all over” kind of thing, not something particular that stands out as particularly unusual. Some of the extra size might just be because 5.12 had that extra rc week. And with 5.13 out the door, that obviously means […]
Coral Dev board news – NXP critical firmware update, manufacturing demo, and WebCoral in Chrome
Google Coral is a family of development boards, modules, M.2/mPCIe cards, and USB sticks with support with local AI, aka on-device or offline AI, based on Google Edge TPU. The company has just published some updates with one important firmware update, a manufacturing demo for worker safety & visual inspection, and the ability to use the Coral USB accelerator in Chrome. Coral firmware update prevents board’s excessive wear and tear If you own the original Coral development board or system-on-module based on NXP i.MX 8M processor, you may want to update your Mendel Linux installation with:
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sudo apt update sudo apt dist-upgrade |
The update includes a patch from NXP with a critical fix to part of the SoC power configuration. Without this patch, the SoC might overstress and the lifetime of your board could be reduced. Note this only affects NXP-based boards, so other Coral products such as Coral Dev Mini powered by Mediatek MT8167S […]
UG65 LoRaWAN gateway supports Node-RED, up to 2,000 nodes
Node-RED is a popular flow-based, visual programming development tool originally developed by IBM for wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services as part of the Internet of Things. But despite being designed for the IoT, I’ve seldom seen Node-RED support for LoRaWAN hardware, the only exception being the Axon platform, a tiny WiFi & LoRaWAN board. But there’s at least one more option with Milestone IoT’s UG65 LoRaWAN gateway, launched late last year, getting a firmware update that adds Node-RED support. UG65 LoRaWAN gateway specifications: SoC – NXP quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR4 RAM Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash Connectivity LoRaWAN Semtech SX1302 based Fully Integrated Internal Antenna (Optional: 1 × 50 Ω N-Female External Antenna Connector) 8 channels Frequency Bands – CN470, IN865, EU868, RU864, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923 Sensitivity – -140dBm Sensitivity @292bps Output Power – 27dBm Max Protocol […]
Digi ConnectCore 8M Mini SOM and Mini Development Kit for Industrial IoT Applications
Digi International has announced the Digi ConnectCore 8M Mini System-on-Module (SOM) which is an addition to its ConnectCore family modules. We saw the Android application development kit featuring earlier Digi Wireless modules based Freescale i.MX51 (ConnectCore Wi-i.MX51) and i.MX53 (ConnectCore Wi-i.MX53) in early 2012. The new Digi ConnectCore 8M Mini comes with a built-in Video Processing Unit specialising in vision use cases. The Digi ConnectCore 8M Mini SOM is an industrial i.MX 8M Mini quad-core system-on-module that comes with Arm Cortex-A53 cores, one Cortex-M4 core, and the Cortex-M0-based Digi Microcontroller Assist. This enables optimal power consumption while simultaneous maintenance of highly efficient performance. Main benefits of Digi Connect Core 8M Mini SOM Digi SMTplus form factor (40 x 45 mm) for flexibility and reliability while designing. Power management with both hardware and software support for low-power designs. Display and camera capabilities with graphics and video hardware acceleration make it suitable […]