MaaXBoard NXP i.MX 8M Raspberry Pi Compatible Board Runs Android 9.0 or Yocto Linux

MaaXBoard

When we looked for information about PICO-PI-IMX8M single board computer, we noticed another Raspberry Pi shaped board powered by NXP i.MX 8M processor: MaaXBoard by Embest, an AVNET company. The board comes with up to 4 GB DDR4 RAM, a MicroSD card slot or eMMC flash for storage, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi & Bluetooth, HDMI 2.0, USB 3.0 port, MIPI CSI & DSI ports, and of course a the 40-pin “Raspberry Pi” expansion header. MaaxBoard specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8MQ quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor, Cortex-M4F real-time core, and Vivante GPU with OpenGL/ES 3.1, OpenGL 3.0, Vulkan, OpenCL 1.2 System Memory – 2GB DDR4 SDRAM (up to 4GB) Storage – MicroSD card slot or optional eMMC flash up to 64GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz, MIPI DSI display connector Video Playback – 4Kp60 with High Dynamic Range (H.265, VP9), 4Kp30 (H.264), 1080p60 (MPEG2, MPEG4p2, VC1, […]

WandPi 8M SBC Comes Back as PICO-PI-IMX8M with SoM & Raspberry Pi Compatible Baseboard

PICO-PI-IMX8M Evaluation Kit

Back in 2017, WandBoard announced the release of an upcoming Raspberry Pi like SBC based around the NXP i.MX8M Quad applications processor, ARM Cortex-A53 + M4 architecture and Vivante  GC7000 GPU called the WandPi 8M. The board was designed around the popular Pi (85 x 56 mm) form factor bringing 4K UltraHD with HDR video quality with pro audio fidelity. WandPi 8M was scheduled for the release in spring of 2018, but ever since WandPi 8M never came to life. It was suggested that the board must have gone to the SBC heaven. Back to 2019,  a similar board was discovered recently on Hacker boards called the PICO-PI-IMX8M with almost similar design and specification. The PICO-PI-IMX8M board shown also features the same NXP i.MX8M Quad-core processor and the Vivante  GC7000 GPU but relies on PICO-IMX8M system-on-module plus a baseboard inspired by Raspberry Pi form factor, and compatible with (most) HAT […]

USB Armory Mk II USB Linux Computer Targets Security Applications (Crowdfunding)

USB Armory Mk II

Back in 2014, Inverse Path launched USB Armory computer dongle running headless Linux from a MicroSD card and designed for security applications. The company got bought by  F-Secure Foundry in 2017, and the latter has now launched another crowdfunding campaign for an upgraded version USB Armory Mk II keeps a similar USB dongle form factor but replaces the NXP i.MX53 Cortex-A8 processor with a more efficiency NXP i.MX 6ULZ Arm Cortex-A7 processor, the USB type-A port with a modern USB-C port, adds 16GB eMMC flash, Bluetooth 5 LE connectivity, and new security features. USB Armory Mk II specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX6ULZ Arm Cortex-A7 @ 900 MHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + external microSD Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 LE + mesh module (U-blox ANNA-B112) with Arm Cortex-M4 MCU (nRF52832) USB – 2x USB type-C ports: 1x DRP (Dual Role Power) receptacle […]

Linux 5.3 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.3 Changelog

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.3: So we’ve had a fairly quiet last week, but I think it was good that we ended up having that extra week and the final rc8. Even if the reason for that extra week was my travel schedule rather than any pending issues, we ended up having a few good fixes come in, including some for some bad btrfs behavior. Yeah, there’s some unnecessary noise in there too (like the speling fixes), but we also had several last-minute reverts for things that caused issues. One _particularly_ last-minute revert is the top-most commit (ignoring the version change itself) done just before the release, and while it’s very annoying, it’s perhaps also instructive. What’s instructive about it is that I reverted a commit that wasn’t actually buggy. In fact, it was doing exactly what it set out to do, and did it […]

Congatec conga-SMX8-Mini is a SMARC 2.0 Module based on NXP i.MX 8M Mini Processor

SMARC 2.0 i.MX 8M Mini SoM

NXP i.MX 8M Mini is the first i.MX processor from the company to be manufactured using a 14nm process, which enabled a higher 2.0 GHz frequency for the Cortex-A53 cores.  While it was announced in 2018, the first systems-on-module were launched earlier this with products such as iWave System’ iW-RainboW-G34M-SM, TechNexion Axon Flex modules, F&S Elektronik Systems PicoCore-MX8MM, or CompuLab UCM-iMX8M-Mini among many others. So far, we had no covered any SMARC 2.0 compatible system-on-module based on the new NXP processor, but some companies had already launched such modules including Embedian and Avnet. Congatec has now joined them with the launch of conga-SMX8-Mini SMARC 2.0 system-on-module which builds on the company’s earlier conga-SMX8 i.MX 8 module. conga-SMX8-Mini SoM specifications: SoC (one or the other) NXP i.MX 8M Mini Quad with 4x Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz, 1x Arm Cortex-M4 @ 400MHz, GC NanoUltra 3D GPU, GC328 2D Graphics NXP i.MX […]

Librem 5 & Pinephone Linux Smartphones to Launch This Fall

Librem 5 vs Pinephone

There are too highly anticipated Linux smartphones currently in development namely Purism Librem 5 and Pine64 Pinephone. The first one, based on NXP i.MX 8M processor is fairly pricey ($699) partly because of better specifications, but mostly because the company handles software development internally, while Allwinner A64 Pinephone has somewhat lower specifications, but a much lower $150 price tag as software development is done by the community. Neither phones are available, and until a few days ago there were no clear launch dates. This has now changed as Purism announced Librem 5 would start shipping on September 24, while Pinephone first batch is scheduled for mid-October, which should also be the date for the launch of pre-orders, and shipment will start in November. This sounds great, but be warned the first phones will be for enthusiasts who do not mind having a few defects and missing hardware/software features, and the […]

NXP i.MX RT106F & RT106A/L Cortex-M7 Processors Target Offline Face Recognition & Smart Audio Applications

NXP i.MX RT crossover processors combine real-time capabilities of microcontrollers with the performance of application processors thanks to an Arm Cortex-M7 core clocked at 528 MHz and more. The performance is indeed impressive as shown by Teensy 4.0 benchmarks, but so far NXP i.MX RT processor targeted general purpose applications. The company has now introduced three new crossover processors designed for AI applications. NXP i.MX RT106F is designed for offline face recognition and expression Identification, while RT106L and RT106A are made for local and cloud-based embedded voice applications. NXP i.MX RT106F Processor Highlights of the processor: CPU – Arm Cortex-M7 @ 600 MHz (3020 CoreMark/1284 DMIPS) Memory – 1 MB On-Chip SRAM plus up to 512 KB configurable as Tightly Coupled Memory (TCM) External memory interface options – NAND, eMMC, QuadSPI NOR Flash, and Parallel NOR Flash Real-time, low-latency response as low as 20 ns Industry’s lowest dynamic power with […]

Gateworks GW5913 Compact NXP i.MX 6 SBC Supports PoE, GPS and 4G LTE Cellular Connectivity

Gateworks has announced a new Ventana SBC similar to their GW5530 board with 4G LTE connectivity, as GW5913 single board computer follows the same factor, and supports 4G LTE connectivity via mPCIe cards, but it replaces the microSIM card slot by a nanoSIM card socket, and adds a Gigabit Ethernet port with 802.11at PoE support. Gateworks GW5913 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 6Dual dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor @ 800MHz System Memory – 512MB DDR3-800 SDRAM Storage – 256MB Flash, serial configuration EEPROM Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet with PoE support Optional 4G LTE via high-power (up to 8W) Gen2 Mini-PCIe socket with USB 2.0 and nanoSIM socket Optional u-blox GPS Receiver with MMCX or U.FL Antenna Connector Expansion Connector – USB, UART, I2C, DAC, DIO Misc – Real-Time Clock with battery backup, voltage and temperature monitor, programmable watchdog timer Power Supply – 8 to 60VDC input voltage range via 2-pin power connector […]

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