Intel Meteor Lake mobile processor highlights leaked

Meteor Lake Block Diagram

Intel Meteor Lake processor family is supposed to succeed the 13th generation Raptor Lake chips itself coming after the current 12th generation Alder lake processors. It is scheduled to launch next year (2023), but we already have some details about the Meteor Lake U, P, and H mobile processors from a leak. Just like most Alder Lake processors, Meteor Lake will be hybrid processors with power and energy-efficient cores, but they’ll also feature new LP E-cores which should stand for “low power efficiency” cores in order to further lower the power consumption while a laptop or mini PC in standby mode. Meteor Lake mobile processors highlights: CPU P cores + E cores + LP-E cores architecture U-series with up to 12 cores P- and H-series up to 14 cores; Up to 6+8 configuration with up to 24MB LLC/core (Note the LP-E cores don’t seem to be part of the main […]

Beelink SER3 & SEi8 mini PCs review – Part 2: Ubuntu 22.04

Previously, I reviewed Beelink’s new SEi8 and SER3 mini PCs running Windows 11, so in this part, I will cover Ubuntu 22.04. Hardware Recap The SEi8 is an actively cooled Intel mini PC that physically consists of a 124 x 113 x 41 (4.88 x 4.45 x 1.61 inches) square metal case with a plastic top and uses Intel’s 14++ nm Coffee Lake Refresh Core i3-8109U processor from 2018 which is a dual-core 4-thread 3.00 GHz mobile processor boosting to 3.60 GHz with Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics 655. In comparison, the SER3 is an AMD mini PC and is physically very similar, consisting of a 126 x 113 x 40mm (4.96 x 4.45 x 1.57 inches) square metal case. It is also actively cooled and uses AMD’s 14 nm Zen Ryzen 3 3200U Picasso processor from 2019 which is a dual-core 4-thread 2.6 GHz mobile processor boosting to 3.5 GHz […]

Ubuntu Core 22 released for IoT devices and embedded systems

Ubuntu Core 22

Canonical has just released Ubuntu Core 22, a containerized variant of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, optimized for IoT devices and embedded systems and supporting Ubuntu’s new real-time kernel. In Ubuntu Core, everything is a snap, including the kernel, OS, and applications both to improve security to sandbox each package and to enable updates of specific packages from the  IoT App Store over-the-air (OTA). If something goes wrong during the update, the system will automatically roll back to the previous version, so the device cannot be bricked. The Snap system also minimizes network traffic through delta updates. Ubuntu Core 22 also provides advanced security features with secure boot, full disk encryption, secure recovery, as well as confinement of the OS and applications as discussed above. Customers also benefit from Canonical’s 10 years (until 2032) of security maintenance of kernel, OS, and application-level code, which can be important for deployments in enterprise and […]

Beelink SEi8/SER3 review – Intel Core i3-8109U and AMD Ryzen 3 3200U mini PCs face off in Windows 11 (part 1)

Beelink sei8 ser3 review

In the past, new mini PCs were released as a result of new processors coming to market. However, with the pandemic and its consequences on the supply chain, some Chinese manufacturers’ survival response has been to source old processors in order to continue presenting new devices. It could be argued that for this approach to be successful these alternative older processors should at least be comparable in performance terms to the latest processors that are currently, or theoretically potentially, now available. In terms of low-end Intel mini PC processor chronology which started with Bay Trail and then Cherry Trail followed by the Lakes of Apollo and Gemini, the current benchmark is Jasper Lake. A good example of this adaptation to market circumstances is Beelink’s release of their latest additions to their SEi and SER product lines which feature the older Intel Core i3-8109U (Coffee Lake) and AMD 3200U processors respectively. […]

Retro-style computer features 5-inch round display, Framework laptop motherboard

Ubuntu 22.04 retro computer round display

After completing a DIY Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W handheld PC earlier this year, Penk Chen has designed another, rather odd but cool-looking, DIY computer. The “Mainboard Terminal” is a retro-style computer with a round display powered by the mainboard found in Framework modular laptop. The computer has been tested to work with Ubuntu 22.04 out of the box with just a few configuration tweaks for the display, but other operating systems should also work considering the mainboard is based on an Intel Core  i5-1135G7, i7-1165G7, or i7-1185G7 Tiger Lake processor. There are four main off-the-shelf electronics components: Framework laptop mainboard ($399 and up) OLKB Preonic Keyboard MX Kit V3 key ($140) 5-inch round LCD with 1080×1080 resolution plus its HDMI adapter board (550 RMB = about $82) So most of the work consisted in designing the enclosure, and Penk released the STL design files on Github under an MIT […]

NVISEN FU01 is a fanless Tiger Lake mini PC with a Thunderbolt 4 port

Tiger Lake Thunderbolt 4

NVISEN FU01 fanless mini PC is offered with a choice of Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Tiger Lake processors, fitted with up to 16GB RAM (upgradeable to 64GB), a 256GB or 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD, and the highlight of the computer is its 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 port with 8K video output support. The Tiger Lake system can drive up to three 4K displays with HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort connectors adding to the Thunderbolt 4 port, offers Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 5 connectivity, plus six USB 3.0/2.0 Type-A ports for expansion. NVISEN FU01 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i3-1115G4 dual-core processor @ 3.0GHz, up to 4.1GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics; 28W TDP Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core processor @ 2.4GHz, up to 4.2GHz (Turbo) with Intel Xe graphics; 28W TDP Intel Core i7-1165G7 quad-core processor @ 2.8GHz, up to 4.7GHz (Turbo) with Intel Xe graphics; 28W TDP System Memory & […]

PICO-TGU4-SEMI is a Tiger Lake mini PC for robotics and industrial IoT applications

Tiger Lake rugged mini PC

AAEON recently launched the PICO-TGU4-SEMI compact, rugged mini PC based on the company’s PICO-TGU4 Pico-ITX SBC powered by a choice of Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Tiger Lake UP3 processors, and designed for robotics and industrial IoT applications. The PICO-TGU4-SEMI embedded computer comes with up to 32GB RAM, SATA storage, support for SATA or NVMe SSD storage, HDMI output, 2.5GbE networking, two USB 3.2 ports, and more. PICO-TGU4-SEMI specifications: Tiger Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i7-1185G7E quad-core/8-thread processor @ 1.8GHz / 4.4GHz (Turbo) with Intel Iris Xe graphics; 15W TDP Intel Core i5-1145G7E quad-core/8-thread processor @1.5GHz /  to 4.1GHz (Turbo) with Intel Iris Xe graphics; 15W TDP Intel Core i3-1115G4E dual-core/4-thread processor @ 2.2GHz / 3.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics; 15W TDP Intel Celeron 6305E dual-core processor @ 1.8GHz with Intel UHD graphics; 15W TDP System Memory – Up to 32GB LPDDR4x 3200 MHz onboard memory with optional […]

Lakka 4.0 game emulator released with LibreELEC 10.0.2 and RetroArch 1.10.1

Lakka 4.0 release

Lakka 4.0 is the latest release of the game emulator based on LibreELEC 10.0.2 and RetroArch 1.10.1 frontend GUI for LibRetro game emulators cores. While Lakka was initially designed for Raspberry Pi boards in a way similar to RetroPie, it also works just fine on many other Arm platforms and PCs. Main changes to Lakka 4.0 compared to version 3.7: Build system based on LibreELEC 10.0.2 RetroArch updated to 1.10.1 Cores updated to their most recent versions superbroswar: added new libretro core sameduck: added new libretro core Mesa updated to 22.0.0 Mainline kernel updated to 5.10.103 (PC, Amlogic, Allwinner, NXP) Raspberry kernel updated to 5.10.95 Most arm devices switched to aarch64 Rockchip RK3288, RK3328 and RK3399 switched to mainline kernel 5.10.76 Added support for additional Allwinner and Amlogic devices (not tested on our side, as we do not own many of these devices) Nintendo Switch: complete rewrite of the port […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC