The Zigbee Alliance renames to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), Project CHIP becomes “Matter”

connectivity-standards association matter

The Zigbee Alliance is/was an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open standards for Zigbee… and other Internet of Things (IoT) standards including Smart Energy, Green Power, JupiterMesh, rf4ce, Dotdot, etc… Since the organization does not reflect its involvement beyond Zigbee, the name has just been changed to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), and while they were at it they also rebranded “Project CHIP” (Connected Home over IP) to “Matter”, maybe because “connectivity standards matter!” 😉 There’s also a new website csa-iot.org but it may not have complete information just yet, and they invite you to access the Full website (https://zigbeealliance.org/about/) for extra details. Nothing much has changed here besides the name. But there’s more to report about Matter. A dedicated website has launched for the new standard, although the code remains under the Project Chip GitHub account at this time. What’s more interesting is that formal […]

Gateworks GW7200 Dual Gigabit Ethernet industrial SBC, also supports WiFi, Cellular, and GPS

Gateworks GW7200 dual GbE industrial SBC

Gateworks GW7200 is a versatile dual Gigabit Ethernet industrial single board computer with an NXP i.MX8M Mini processor, 1GB to 4GB of RAM, mini PCIe expansion sockets for wireless connectivity, serial interfaces, industrial temperature range, wide range input voltage, and long-term supply. The board should be a better match to projects with industrial requirements, for example, an industrial IoT gateway than lower-cost dual GbE alternatives such as NanoPi R2S or Raspberry Pi CM4 IoT Router Carrier Board Mini. Gateworks GW7200 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini quad-core processor @ 1.6GHz with Vivante 2D & 3D GPUs System Memory – 1GB to 4GB DDR4-2133 SDRAM Memory Storage – 8GB to 64GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot, serial configuration EEPROM Connectivity Dual GbE Ethernet ports supporting 802.3at/af and passive PoE Optional 802.11ac/n WiFi 5/4 via mini PCIe socket Optional  Cellular (Cat M1, 4G, 5G) via mini PCIe socket + NanoSIM card […]

Imago “VisionAI” Smart AI Camera supports Tensorflow Lite & AutoML Vision Edge

Imago VisionAI Smart AI Camera

Imago Technologies GmbH “VisionAI” is a programmable Smart AI camera that combines a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.8 GHz together with Google Edge TPU, and designed for embedded image processing applications in the fields of AI, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning. The smart camera supports TensorFlow Lite and AutoML Vision Edge frameworks, and is suited for tasks such as pattern recognition, classification, anomaly or defect detection in inspection applications, code reading, and other machine vision applications. Imago VisionAI (VisionSensor PV3 AI) camera specifications: SoC – Unnamed quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.8 GHz (likely NXP i.MX 8M Mini) AI Accelerator – Google Edge TPU with up to 4 TOPS of AI processing power System Memory – 2 GB DDR4 RAM Storage – MicroSD card up to 32GB Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet M12 connector Camera 1/1.8” 5MP mono or color CMOS sensor with 2560 × 1936 pixels resolution, up to 65 […]

SGET OSM (Open Standard Module) compliant SoM features NXP i.MX 8M Mini SoC

Open Standard Module (OSM) i.MX 8M Mini

The SGET (Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies) non-profit organization ratified another system-on-module standard last November, with the “Open Standard Module” (OSM) standard that instead of relying on edge or board-to-board connectors is meant to be soldered on the carrier board as a solder-on module LGA package. F&S Elektronik has unveiled one of the first SGET OSM compliant SoM with “FS 8MM OSM-SF” equipped with an NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor, up to 8GB DDR4, 32GB eMMC flash or 512MB NAND flash on a 30x30mm “Size-S OSM” form factor. FS 8MM OSM-SF system-on-module FS 8MM OSM-SF module specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini single, dual, or quad-core Arm Cortex-53 processor @ 1.8 GHz with real-time Cortex-M4 core @ 400 MHz,  Vivante 2D & 3D GPU, 1080p60 H.265, VP9, H.264, VP8 video decoder System Memory –  Up to 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – Up to max. 512MB SLC NAND flash or up […]

MYS-8MMX i.MX 8M Mini SBC runs Yocto 3.0 Linux or Ubuntu 18.04

i.MX 8M Mini SBC

MYiR Tech has just launched MYS-8MMX single board computer powered by NXP i.MX 8M Mini Cortex-A53/Cortex-A4 processor with 2GB RAM, 8GB eMMC flash, and designed for embedded applications in areas of consumer electronics, industrial automation, smart healthcare, security monitoring, etc… thanks to its video and graphics capabilities. MYS-8MMX SBC specifications: SoC  – NXP i.MX 8M Mini Quad quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6 GHz (industrial temp.) or 1.8 GHz (commercial temp.), Arm Cortex-M4F realt-time core @ 400 MHz, Vivante 2D and 3D GPU’s, and 1080p VPU System Memory – 2GB DDR4 (supports up to 4GB) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (supports up to 128GB), 32MB QSPI flash, MicroSD card slot, M.2 NVMe SSD support Video Output 40-pin FPC connector for LVDS & capacitive touchscreen interface 1x HDMI output up to 1080p60 Camera I/F – 24-pin FPC connector with MIPI-CSI Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 […]

Linux 5.12 – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS and RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.12

Linux 5.12 release was expected last Sunday, but Linus Torvalds decided to release one more release candidate, namely Linux 5.12-RC8, to “make sure things are all settled down“, so the latest Linux kernel is now expected this weekend.  Tihs should not yield any significant changes, so we can check what’s new in Linux 5.12, notably with regards to Arm, MIPS, and RISC-V architectures often used in SoC’s found in embedded systems. Around two months ago, the release of Linux 5.11 added support for Intel’s software guard extensions (SGX) and Platform Monitoring Technology (PMT), AMD “Van Gogh” and “Dimgrey cavefish” graphics processors, MIPI I3C host controller interfaces, and much more. Some interesting changes in Linux 5.12 include: Added support for ACRN hypervisor designed for IoT & embedded devices Added support for Playstation DualSense & Nintendo 64 game controllers, as well as Nintendo 64 data cartridges Dynamic thermal power management via a […]

Zoom i.MX 8M Mini Development Kit supports power usage monitoring

Beacon EmbeddedWorks iMX8M Som & Devkit

NXP i.MX 8M Mini 14nm Cortex-A53/M4 processor has been around for a couple of years, and several SoM-based development kits are available including Variscite Symphony starter kit, HummingBoard Ripple SBC, or congatec conga-SEVAL007010 evaluation board. Beacon EmbeddedWorks’ Zoom i.MX 8M mini development kit is based on the company’s i.MX 8M Nano System on Module (SOM) and offers features not found on most other devkits or single board computers such as power usage monitoring and control through their Wattson power measurement application. Zoom i.MX 8M mini development kit key features & specifications: System-on-Module SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor with up to four Arm Cortex-A53 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, an Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core at up to 400 MHz, Vivante 3D & 2D GPU’s System Memory – Up to 8GB of 32-bit wide LPDDR4 memory Storage – eMMC flash, QSPI NOR flash Networking Gigabit Ethernet PHY Wireless module […]

Semiconductors lead times in March 2021

As we previously mentioned previously there is a serious chip shortage that will lead to supply issues and higher prices for single board computers and other electronics products. A few days ago, Hardkernel had o increase the price for ODROID boards using DDR4 memory with increases of $3 to $4 for ODROID-N2+, ODROID-C4, and ODROID-HC4 boards. But besides price increase, some semiconductors will not be available at any price with extended periods as lead times of up to 52 weeks have been reported as shown in the table below, obtained from a trusted, anonymous source, which I have translated from Chinese. Every manufacturer is impacted, but items highlighted in red are severely impacted. Since include processors from Qualcomm, STMicroelectronics, and NXP, as well as Broadcom wireless chips which are found in nearly every SBC with WiFi or Bluetooth through Ampak modules. Here’s the source image in Chinese for reference. Jean-Luc […]

Youyeetoo X1 x86 SBC