Beelink Expand F USB-C dock takes M.2 SSD and 2.5-inch SATA drive

Beelink Expand F USB-C Dock

Beelink has previously introduced USB docks with the Expand X smartphone dock and Expand M with an SSD. The company’s latest Beelink Expand F USB-C dock looks really like a mini PC from the outside with the usual USB, HDMI, Ethernet, and audio ports, and it can also be fitted with an M.2 2280 SATA SSD and/or a 2.5-inch SATA drive. It can be useful to add PC-like connectivity to a smartphone or add additional storage to a laptop without cluttering your desk with multiple USB drives, and/or potentially saving some USB ports on the host machine. Beelink Expand F specifications: Storage Options No storage, i.e. bring your own SATA drive(s) via M.2 socket up to 440 MB/s and/or 2.5-inch SATA bay 512GB SATA III M.2 SSD 512GB SATA III M.2 SSD plus 1TB SATA HDD Video Output – 2x HDMI ports up to 4K resolution Audio – 3.5mm audio […]

UGOOS UT8 PRO – An RK3568 TV box with 8GB RAM, 64GB storage

UGOOS UT8 Pro

UGOOS UT8 PRO is the first TV box I’ve seen with a Rockchip RK3568 processor, if we exclude Firefly Station P2 that’s more like an Arm Linux mini PC. The device runs Android 11 and is equipped with 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and offers WiFi 6 connectivity. There’s also the “UGOOS UT8” with basically the same features except it ships with 4GB RAM and  32GB flash, and a dual-band WiFi 5 and Bluetooth module. We previously had seen TV boxes and mini PCs with the similar Rockchip RK3566 SoC in T95 Plus, H96 Max, and Zidoo M6, and the only reason for going with RK3568 in UGOOS UT8 (PRO) should be the extra USB 3.0 host/OTG interface, adding to the USB 3.0 host interface found in both RK3566 and RK3568 processors. UGOOS UT8 (PRO) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 with a quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.8/2.0GHz, Arm […]

Beelink GTi11 review – Part 2: Ubuntu 20.04 on an Intel Core i5-1135G7 mini PC

Previously I reviewed Beelink’s new GTi11 Intel Tiger Lake mini PC running Windows 11, so in this part, I will cover Ubuntu 20.04. Hardware Recap The GTi11 is a 168 x 120 x 39mm (6.61 x 4.72 x 1.54 inches) actively cooled mini PC and the review model has an i5-1135G7 Intel Tiger Lake quad-core 8-thread 2.50 GHz Core processor boosting to 4.20 GHz with Intel’s Xe Graphics. The review model also includes a 500GB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 SSD drive initially with Windows 10 Pro installed but now successfully upgraded to Windows 11 Pro, two sticks of 8GB DDR4 3200 MHz memory, a soldered WiFi 6 (or 802.11ax) Intel AX201 chip and dual 2.5Gb Ethernet ports. The specifications list four of the USB ports as 3.0 so I retested them on Ubuntu using a Samsung 980 PRO PCle 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD housed in an ‘USB to […]

Beelink GTi11 Review – Part 1: Tiger Lake mini PC with Windows 11

Beelink GTI11 review

Beelink’s GTi11 is the latest offering in their ‘GT’ series of slightly larger mini PCs that are notable for expandable storage configurations together with multiple ports and characterized by including a fingerprint scanner. Featuring Intel’s 11th generation Tiger Lake processors, Beelink kindly sent an i5 version for review which I will undertake in three parts. In this first part, I’ve looked at Windows performance and the second part will cover Ubuntu with the third part looking at various configuration mods. Beelink GTi11 Hardware Overview The GTi11 physically consists of a 168 x 120 x 39mm (6.61 x 4.72 x 1.54 inches) rectangular metal case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s ‘10 nm SuperFin’ Tiger Lake processors and the review model included an i5-1135G7 which is a quad-core 8-thread 2.50 GHz Core processor boosting to 4.20 GHz with Intel’s Xe Graphics. The front panel has an illuminated power […]

Inforce 68A1 SoM supports up to seven 4Kp120 cameras, dual 4Kp120 video encoding/decoding

Inforce 68A1 QCS8250 module

SMART Wireless Computing has announced the Inforce 68A1, a compact system-on-module based on Qualcomm QCS8250 IoT processor with support for up to seven concurrent 4Kp120 camera inputs, and decode/encode two 4Kp120 video streams simultaneously. Equipped with 8GB PoP DDR5 memory, 64GB UFS storage, a wireless module supporting 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1, the module is designed for high-end IoT applications such as smart cameras, video collaboration, AI hubs, connected healthcare, and smart retail. Inforce 68A1 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QCS8250 octa-core Kryo 585 processor up to 2.84 GHz (high-performance cores) or 1.8 GHz (low power cores) with Adreno 650 GPU, Adreno 665 VPU, Adreno 995 DPU, Hexagon DSP with quad HVX, NPU230 neural processing unit, Spectra 480 ISP; 15 TOPS AI processing power System Memory – 8GB LPDDR5 (PoP) Storage – 64GB UFS flash Wireless – Qualcomm QCA6391 with 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi 6 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.1 Audio – […]

Beelink GTI 11 Tiger Lake mini PC offers triple display output, dual 2.5GbE

Tiger Lake Mini PC dual 2.5GbE HDMI, DisplayPort

Beelink GTI 11 mini PC is offered with either Intel Core i5-1135G7 or Core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake processor, coupled with 16GB or 32GB DDR4, a 500 GB NVMe SSD, and provides triple display support via HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C interfaces, two 2.5GbE ports, and more. Beelink first teased the board in June with an upcoming crowdfunding campaign that never happened, but the Tiger Lake mini PC is now available on Banggood for $609.99 (Core i5, 16GB RAM) and $819.99 (Core i7, 32GB RAM). Note those are promotional prices valid until December 28, and initially, I was shown $809.99 and $1,089.99 respectively with an address in Thailand. Switching to a US address lowered the price, so the promotion depends on the warehouse, and YMMV. Beelink GTI 11 mini PC specifications: Tiger Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core/8-thread processor @ up to 2.4GHz / 4.2GHz (Turbo) with 8MB […]

Teledyne FLIR Quartet Jetson TX2 carrier board supports up to four USB 3.0 cameras

Teledyne FLIR Quartet Jetson-TX2 Blackfly S USB3 cameras

There are already plenty of NVIDIA Jetson-based camera solutions from carrier boards to IP67 rugged cameras, but Teledyne FLIR has decided to launch its own with the Quartet carrier board for the Jetson TX2 module. The Quarter board is not designed to work with the thermal cameras the company is known for, but instead FLIR Blackfly S USB3 cameras designed for machine vision. Besides four TF38 USB 3.0 connectors, the carrier board also offers a SATA storage interface, HDMI video output, and extra USB Type-A ports for other peripherals. Teledyne FLIR Quartet (P/N ACC-01-6003) specifications: Supported SoMs – NVIDIA Jetson TX2, Jetson TX2i module Storage – SATA III connector, MicroSD card slot Video Output – 1x HDMI Type-A port up to 4Kp60 Camera Inputs – 4x USB 3.0 TF38 ports Other USB ports –  1x USB 3.0 Type-A port, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A port, 1x micro USB OTG port Misc […]

Amlogic V901D – A quad-core Cortex-A55 processor for in-vehicle infotainment

Amlogic V901D

Amlogic has decided to enter the automotive market with the Amlogic V901D quad-core Cortex-A55 processor designed for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) applications such as car dashboards, multi-camera dashcam systems, automotive multimedia players, and so on. Also equipped with an Arm Mali-G31 MP2, a 1 TOPS NPU, support for 4K AV1 video decoding, and a 12nm manufacturing processor, Amlogic V901D may look like a rebranded Amlogic S905X4 at first glance, but as we’ll see below, it includes some features specific to the automotive infotainment market. Amlogic V901D specifications: CPU – Quad-Core Cortex-A55 GPU – ARM Mali-G31 MP2 AI accelerator – 1 TOPS NPU Memory I/F – 32-bit DDR3/4, LPDDR3/4 Storage I/F – eMMC 5.0, SLC NAND Video I/F Output – V-by-one, LVDS, CVBS, 4K TCON Input – 3x HDMI 2.1 w/ EMP (Extended Metadata Packet), ALLM, 2x CVBS Video Decoding – 4Kp60 10-bit AV1/H.265/VP9 P-2/AVS2, 4Kp30 H.264 Encoding – 1080p30 H.264 HDR […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC