Snapdragon X70 5G modem leverages “AI” to reach 10 Gbps

Snapdragon X70 5G AI modem

Qualcomm has announced their latest 5G modem with the Snapdragon X70 that is said to “uses the power of AI” to enable 5G speeds up to 10 Gbps, wider coverage, low latency, and higher power efficiency. The company explains the Qualcomm 5G AI Suite enables AI-powered optimizations of sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G links on the Snapdragon X70 through various techniques: AI-based channel-state feedback and dynamic optimization AI-based mmWave beam management for superior mobility and coverage robustness AI-based network selection for superior mobility and link robustness AI-based adaptive antenna tuning for up to 30% improved context detection for higher average speeds and coverage That’s about all the details we have about the “artificial intelligence” part, and I’m not convinced neural networks are actually used here. For reference, the previous generation Snapdragon X65 was also sold as a 10Gbps 5G modem, but maybe Snapdragon X70 can achieve high speeds more reliably. […]

Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit to ship with Quectel RM50xQ or Telit FN980 modem

Raspberry Pi 5G development kit

SixFab is now taking pre-orders for its “Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit” equipped with either Quectel RM50xQ or Telit FN980 5G modem fitted to SixFab’s Raspberry Pi 5G HAT, all housed in a plastic and acrylic enclosure with four antennas. The selected modems rely on the worldwide 5G NR Sub-6GHz and mmWave frequency bands, and the company says a data throughput of up to 5.0 Gbps (download) and 1.0 Gbps (upload) is possible with the kit. SixFab explained the 5G devkit is designed to help with the development, optimization, and testing of MTC (Machine-type Communication) and M2M projects leading to products such as IoT gateways, indoor and outdoor CPE, high bitrate video streaming, real-time sensor data broadcasting, high-speed mobile 5G hotspot, etc. SixFab Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit specifications: Works with Raspberry Pi 4 or compatible SBC’s with USB 3.0 port Raspberry Pi 5G HAT with M.2 socket optionally fitted […]

Lantronix G520 cellular gateways target industrial communication, cybersecurity, and transportation

Lantronix G520

Lantronix G520-series 4G LTE Cat 4 and 5G cellular gateways are designed to address challenges in Industry 4.0, security, and transportation markets with three/four separate gateways all based on an unnamed ARM926EJ-S-based CPU running at 600 MHz that’s most likely Microchip SAM9X60 processor introduced in 2020. All gateways are from the same base with variation for specific markets: G526 Industrial Gateway with LTE Cat 4 Ethernet, Serial, I/O, Fieldbus conversion, and other industrial protocols G527/G528 Security Gateway with LTE Cat 13 or 5G, built-in cryptographic secure element and PSE-PoE G528 Transportation Gateway (coming soon) with LTE Cat 4, GNSS, accelerometer, CAN Bus reading, and other tracking features Lantronix G520-series specifications: SoC – ARM926EJ-S-based processor running at 600 MHz with 32 KB instruction cache and 32KB data cache System Memory – 256MB DDR2 SDRAM Storage – 8MB SPI flash for OS,  256MB parallel NAND flash, MicroSD slot, or USB flash drive […]

Radxa E25 carrier board, 2.5GbE switch, and WiFi 6 router

Radxa E25 2.5GbE switch-Xiaomi AX6000 WiFi 6 router

I’ve just received an early sample of Radxa E25 dual 2.5 GbE carrier board for Radxa CM3 Plus (RK3568) system-on-module, a 2.5GbE TP-Link switch, and Xiaomi AX6000 WiFi 6 + 2.5GbE router. Here’s the back story before looking into the devices. I’ll soon have to review UP Xtreme i11 mini PC with a 2.5GbE port, and after writing about the upcoming ROCK5 Model B SBC with both 2.5GbE and WiFI 6/6E, I realized I should really get some hardware to test 2.5GHz and WiFi 6. So I started to ask what could be the best options for a $200 budget. While thinking about it, I remember Radxa was working on the Radxa E23 board with 2.5GbE, and adding a WiFi 6 USB dongle might be an option. But they told me Radxa E25 would be a better option with two 2.5GbE ports and support for WiFi 6, although that one […]

Samsung Exynos 2200 SoC features Xclipse 920 GPU with AMD RDNA 2 architecture

Samsung Exynos 2200

Samsung has just unveiled the Exynos 2200 Armv9 SoC equipped with Samsung Xplipse 920 GPU based on AMD RDNA architecture and promising console quality graphics on mobile devices. Manufactured with a 4nm process, the octa-core processor also features Arm Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710, and Cortex-A510 cores, a 5G modem for up to 7.35 Gbps downlink, 8K video encoding and decoding, as well as support for LPDDR5 memory and UFS 3.1 storage. Exynos 2200 specifications: CPU 1x Arm Cortex-X2 3x Arm Cortex-A710 4x Arm Cortex-A510 GPU – Samsung Xclipse 920 GPU built with AMD RDNA 2 technology enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing (RT) and variable rate shading (VRS), a first on mobile according to Samsung VPU Video decode – 8Kp60 10-bit HEVC (H.265), 8Kp30 10-bit VP9, AV1 Video encode – 8Kp30 10-bit HEVC(H.265), VP9 AI – AI Engine with Dual-core NPU and DSP up to 52 TOPS (TBC) Memory – LPDDR5 Storage – UFS […]

Year 2021 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics

cnx software happy new year 2022

As per tradition, we’ll look back at what happened during the year in the last post, and see what 2022 may have in store, plus the usual statistics from CNX Software website. The biggest story of 2021 has to be the worsening of semiconductors shortages with extremely long lead times, prices of some components going up multiple folds, constant complaints on Twitter about availability and prices. I think I even saw a website, hopefully misconfigured, showing an estimated availability of a specific STM32 MCU in 2037. This also gave rise to opportunities and board redesigns, with MotorComm Ethernet chips replacing some Realtek chips in SBCs such as NanoPi R2C and  Orange Pi R1S Plus LTS, and CH9102F showing up as a replacement for CP2104 in some IoT boards. We also got some interesting Arm processors, but sadly the high-expected Rockchip RK3588 got delayed by another year, although it’s getting really […]

Dual 10GbE router supports WiFi 6 (AX3600)

Dual 10GbE router

We’ve just written about a Qualcomm IPQ8072A SBC/reference design with two 10GbE ports and WiFi 6 that’s good for companies wanting to design their own system, but if you’re looking for a dual 10GbE router there are already options, notably QNAP QHora-310W sold for $329 on Amazon. But another dual 10GbE router with WiFi 6 was brought to my attention from a company I had never heard of. Acelink BR-6889AX is a WiFi 6 “AX3600 4T4R 10GE Router” based on Qualcomm IPQ8072A processor that’s suitable for the connected home and office networks including WFH use cases. Acelink BR-6889AX specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Hawkeye IPQ8072A quad-core Cortex A53 @ 2.2GHz with dual-core multi-threaded network accelerator, In-line security engine System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 (2x 256MB) Storage – 4MB SPI NOR flash, 128MB NAND flash Networking Wired 2x 100/1,000/2,500/5,000/10,000Mbps BASE-T Ethernet (RJ45) ports with Link/Act, Speed LED 3x 10/100/1,000Mbps BASE-T Ethernet […]

UP Squared 6000 – AAEON introduces Elkhart Lake SBC and Edge computer

UP Squared 6000

AAEON has unveiled a new single board computer and edge system from the “UP bridge the gap” family with UP Squared 6000 equipped with Intel Atom x6000, Celeron, or Pentium Elkhart Lake processor, up to 8GB DDR4, 64GB eMMC flash, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0b, eDP video interfaces, SATA and M.2 storage, and more. The UP Squared 6000 is available in four different SKUs with notably an industrial SKU powered by the Intel Atom x6425RE optimized for automation, robotics, and industrial applications with support for Intel Time Coordinated Computing (TCC), Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) via its 2.5GbE port. UP Squared 6000 specifications: Elkhart Lake SoC  (one of the other) Intel Celeron N6210 dual-core processor @  1.2 GHz / 2.6 GHz with 16EU Intel UHD graphics; 6.5W TDP Intel Pentium J6426 quad-core processor @ 1.8GHz / 3GHz with 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; 10W TDP Intel Atom x6413E quad-core processor […]

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