Firefly EC-R3576PC FD is an Embedded Large-Model Computer based on Rockchip RK3576 processor

Firefly RK3576 Embedded Large Model Computer

Firefly EC-R3576PC FD is described as an “Embedded Large-Model Computer” powered by a Rockchip RK3576 octa-core Cortex-A72/A53 processor with a 6 TOPS NPU and supporting large language models (LLMs) such as Gemma-2B, LlaMa2-7B, ChatGLM3-6B, or Qwen1.5-1.8B. It looks to be based on the ROC-RK3576-PC SBC we covered a few weeks ago, and also designed for LLM. But the EC-R3576PC FD is a turnkey solution that will work out of the box and should deliver decent performance now that the RKLLM toolkit has been released with NPU acceleration. However, note there are some caveats doing that on RK3576 instead of RK3588 that we’ll discuss below. Firefly EC-R3576PC FD specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU 4x Cortex-A72 cores at 2.2GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz Arm Cortex-M0 MCU at 400MHz GPU – ARM Mali-G52 MC3 GPU clocked at 1GHz with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.0, and […]

A closer look at Raspberry Pi RP2350’s HSTX high-speed serial transmit interface

Raspberry Pi RP2530 HSTX interface

The Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller adds an HSTX (High-Speed Serial Transmit) interface adding the PIOs (Programmable IOs) introduced on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 three years ago. The RP2350 MCU now has three PIOs and one HSTX interface going over 8x GPIOs. So let’s try to better understand what HSTX is exactly, what it is used for, and how it differs from PIOs. We’ll also check out some programming examples in C and MicroPython. The high-speed serial transmit (HSTX) interface is detailed in the RP2350 datasheet starting on page 1118 where it reads “The high-speed serial transmit (HSTX) interface streams data from the system clock domain to up to 8 GPIOs at a rate independent of the system clock”. Reading further, we also learn that it runs at 150 MHz enabling up to 300 Mbps per pin with DDR output operation, or a combined 2,400 Mbps over 8 pins if I […]

Akeana unveils 10 RISC-V cores suitable for microcontrollers up to data center chips

Chip Diagram Akeana 5000

Founded about three years ago, Akeana has just officially launched and announced three 32-bit and 64-bit RISC-V processor lines and SoC IP with the Akeana 100 series for 32-bit microcontrollers, the Akeana 1000 series for 64-bit processors with MMU, and the Akeana 5000 series with much higher single-thread performance and designed for laptops, data centers, and cloud infrastructure. The company also introduced Scalable Coherent Interconnect, Interrupt Controller, and IOMMU IP for building out compute subsystems based on the aforementioned RISC-V cores,  as well as AI-targeted Vector RISC-V Cores and Matrix Computation IP. The design team is said to have previously worked on Marvell’s ThunderX2 server chips. Akeana 100 Series The Akeana 100 Series is a line of highly configurable processors with 32-bit RISC-V cores that support applications from embedded microcontrollers to edge gateways, to personal computing devices. Four Akeana 100 RISC-V cores are available Akeana 110 for area- and power-constrained […]

Google Pigweed SDK now supports Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 (RP2350) with Enviro+ pack hat.

Google Pigweed, a collection of open-source libraries for embedded software development, now supports the Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCU and comes as a software development kit (Google Pigweed SDK). These libraries, also called modules, are building blocks that make embedded software development faster and more reliable. It targets tiny 32-bit microcontrollers such as STMicro STM32L452, Nordic Semi nRF52832, and the Raspberry Pi Pico line of microcontrollers. The library components have shipped in Google Pixels, Nest thermostats, robots, satellites, and drones. On August 8, the Pigweed project was released as a software development kit (SDK) in developer preview with official support for Raspberry Pi RP2350 and the associated Pico 2 development board. The new release uses the Bazel build system – a feature upstreamed into the Pico SDK by the Google Pigweed team – and a complete, open-source Clang/LLVM toolchain. The Google Pigweed SDK includes sample code, modules, and a comprehensive tutorial […]

Efinix introduces the low-power Topaz RISC-V SoC FPGA family for “high-volume, mass-market applications”

Efinix Topaz RISC-V SoC FPGA

Efinix Topaz is a new low-power RISC-V SoC FPGA family manufactured with the same 16nm TSMC process as the Efinix Titanium SoC FPGA, but optimized for high-performance in a low-power footprint, and targetting high-volume, mass-market applications. The Topaz SoC FPGAs provide fewer features than the Titanium family but still offer up to four RISC-V hard cores, PCIe Gen3, MIPI interfaces, LPDDR4, LVDS, and 12.5 Gbps transmitter with most features being optional and depending on the exact SKUs selected. Efinix Topaz key features and specifications: FPGA compute fabric Up to 326,080 logic elements (LEs) Up to 19.22 Mbits embedded memory Up to 1,877 10-Kbit SRAM blocks Up to 1,008 embedded DSP blocks Memory – 10-kbit high-speed, embedded SRAM, configurable as single-port RAM, simple dual-port RAM, true dual-port RAM, or ROM FPGA interface blocks Optional 32-bit quad-core hardened RISC-V block (RISCV32I with M, A, C, F, and D extensions and six pipeline […]

SparkFun Pro Micro – RP2350 development board comes with 16MB flash, 8MB PSRAM

SparkFun RP2350 Pro Micro DEV

The SparkFun Pro Micro – RP2350 is a compact and powerful development board built around the RP2350 chip from Raspberry Pi and equipped with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM. It follows the updated Pro Micro design and includes a USB-C connector, Qwiic connector, WS2812B RGB LED, Boot and Reset buttons, resettable PTC fuse, and both PTH and castellated solder pads. Last week, besides the Raspberry Pi Pico 2, we wrote about more boards with the Raspberry Pi RP2350, like the XIAO RP2350, Solder Party’s RP2350 Stamp, and Cytron MOTION 2350 Pro. Feel free to check them out if you are interested in these boards. SparkFun Pro Micro – RP2350 specification Microcontroller  – Raspberry Pi RP2350A MCU CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @150MHz with Arm Trustzone for secure boot Dual-core 32-bit Hazard3 RISC-V @ 150MHz Up to two cores can be used at the same time Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM […]

LILYGO T-QTC6 – An ESP32-C6 IoT controller with a 0.85-inch touchscreen LCD

ESP32-C6 IoT controller

LILYGO T-QTC6 is a cute little IoT controller based on an ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4 LE, and 802.15.4 wireless microcontroller and a 0.85-inch touchscreen color LCD that can be powered via USB-C or a LiPo battery with the board also supporting charging. The device, sometimes called “T-QT C6” (with a space), also comes with an 8-pin female connector with five GPIOs and a Qwiic connector for UART modules. It’s another addition to the T-QT family with ESP32 wireless microcontrollers and a tiny 0.85-inch display such as the T-QT Pro or the T-QT V1.1. But note that those are development boards, while the T-QTC6 feels more like a complete device. LILYGO T-QTC6 specifications: Wireless Module – Espressif Systems ESP32-C6-MINI-1U SoC – ESP32-C6-FH4 32-bit RISC-V microprocessor up to 160 MHz with 320KB ROM, 512KB HP SRAM, 16KB LP SRAM, 4MB flash Memory – 4MB PSRAM (TBC) Wireless 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 […]

Challenger+ RP2350 WiFi6/BLE5 board combines Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCU with ESP32-C6 WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE module

Raspberry Pi RP2350 board ESP32-C6 WiFi module

You don’t need to wait for the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W to get a Raspberry Pi RP2350 board with WiFi and Bluetooth thanks to the Challenger+ RP2350 WiFi6/BLE5 board that combines an RP2350A microcontroller with an ESP32-C6 module offering 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE connectivity. The board follows the Adafruit Feather form factor with 28-pin through holes for I/Os making it compatible with FeatherWings add-on boards. It comes with a USB-C port for power and programming, and a JST connector plus a charging circuit for people wanting to connect a LiPo battery. Challenger+ RP2350 WiFi6/BLE5 specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350A MCU CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 processor @ 150MHz Dual-core 32-bit RISC-V processor @ 150MHz Only two cores can be used at a given time Memory – 520KB internal RAM 8KB OTP Storage Package – QFN-60; 7×7 mm Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 8MB SPI […]

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