RM500U-CN Raspberry Pi 5G HAT kit sells for under $200… for the Chinese market

low-cost Raspberry Pi 5G HAT

Waveshare has introduced a new Raspberry Pi 5G HAT kit with a Quectel RM500U-CN 5G module, four antennas, and other accessories that sells for under $200, Raspberry Pi SBC not included. On the face of it, it looks like an incredible deal, considering we’ve previously covered two other 5G development kits for the Raspberry Pi, namely Waveshare SIM8200EA-M2 HAT with a Snapdragon X55 5G modem and Sixfab “Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit” that sold for about $400 to $600. What’s the trick? It’s designed for the Chinese market. RM500U-CN Raspberry Pi 5G HAT kit content: Waveshare Raspberry Pi M.2 TO 4G/5G HAT Quectel RM500U-CN 5G M.2 module 4x antennas plus SMA protective caps and IPEX adapter cables USB 3.0 male to male cable 1x USB 3.0 adapter and 1x USB 2.0 adapter 40-pin header 5V/3A USB Type-C power adapter Screws pack We can find more details about the RM500U-CN module […]

Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 changelog

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.17: So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I’m happy to report that it was very calm indeed. We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it’s all good. And that calm last week can very much be seen from the appended shortlog – there really aren’t a lot of commits in here, and it’s all pretty small. Most of it is in drivers (net, usb, drm), with some core networking, and some tooling updates too. It really is small enough that you can just scroll through the details below, and the one-liner summaries will give a good flavor of what happened last week. Of course, this means […]

OK3568-C SBC provides dual GbE, WiFi 5, 4G/5G connectivity, multiple display interfaces

OK3568-C single board computer

Taking a break from the recent RK3588 news, let’s check out a board based on Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor with the Forlinx OK3568-C single board computer equipped with up to 8GB RAM and 64 GB storage. The board is comprised of the company’s FET3568-C system-on-module and OK3568-C carrier board offering multiple display interfaces, plenty of connectivity options with dual Gigabit Ethernet, WiFI 5, Bluetooth 5.0, as well as optional 4G or 5G cellular connectivity, and PCIe slots. OK3568-C specifications: FET3568-C SoM SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Mali-G52-2EE GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.2, Vulkan 1.0,1.1, OpenCL 2.0, 1 TOPS NPU, 4K H.264, H.265, VP9 VPU System Memory – 2GB (default), 4GB, or /8GB DDR4 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash 4x 80-pin board-to-board connectors with I/Os and power signals Supply Voltage – DC5V Dimensions –  70 x 45mm Temperature range […]

MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 Cortex-A78/A55 processor to power premium 5G smartphones

MediaTek Dimensity 8000 & 8100

MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 Arm Cortex-A78 processors for 5G premium smartphones bring many of the features of the flagship Dimensity 9000 Armv9 processor announced last December, but at a more affordable price point. Designed for gamers, the Dimensity 8100 integrates four Arm Cortex-A78 cores with speeds reaching 2.85GHz instead of 2.75GHz for the Dimenssity 8000, and boosts GPU and AI engine’s frequencies to 20% and 25% respectively. MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 4x Arm Cortex-A78 up to 2.75 GHz (Dimensity 8000) / 2.85 GHz (Dimensity 8100) 4x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz 4MB L3 cache GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MC6 GPU (Dimensity 8100 with 20% frequency boost) with MediaTek HyperEngine 5.0 gaming technologies AI Accelerator – 5th generation MediaTek APU 580  (Dimensity 8100 with 25% frequency boost) Memory I/IF – LPDDR5 6400 Mbps Storage I/F – UFS 3.1 Display Dimensity 8000 – 168Hz Full HD+ Dimensity 8100 – 120Hz […]

3.5-inch Elkhart Lake SBC offers dual GbE, 4x M.2 sockets, 5G cellular support

AAEON GENE-EHL5 Elkhart Lake 3.5-inch SBC

AAEON GENE-EHL5 is a 3.5-inch Subcompact board based on Intel Atom x6000E Series, Pentium, and Celeron “Elkhart Lake” processors with four M.2 expansion slots for wireless connectivity (5G, WiFi, etc…) and NVMe modules, as well as two Gigabit Ethernet ports. The single board computer comes with one DDR4 SODIMM slot for up to 32GB IBECC memory, supports SATA and NVME storage, offers DisplayPort and HDMI, and eDP/LVDS video interface, as well as wide DC input from 9-36V, although there’s also a cost-down option for 12V DC input only. AAEON GENE-EHL5 specifications: Elkhart Lake SoC (one or the other) with Intel UHD graphics Intel Atom x6425RE quad-core processor @ 1.90 GHz; 12W TDP Intel Atom x6425E quad-core processor @ 2.00 GHz / 3.00 GHz (Turbo); 12W TDP Intel Atom x6211E dual-core processor @ 1.30 GHz / 3.00 GHz; 6W TDP Intel Pentium J6426 quad-core processor @ 2.00 GHz / 3.00 GHz; […]

Intel Xeon D network and edge processors find their way into COM Express & COM-HPC modules

Intel Xeon D: D-2700 and D-1700

Intel has recently launched the Intel Xeon D (Ice Lake-D) processor family with the D-2700 and the D-1700 models designed for software-defined network and edge applications with integrated AI and crypto acceleration, built-in Ethernet, support for Intel Time Coordinated Computing (TCC) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), plus high reliability. The new processors are bringing data center-class hardware to the edge, and at least two embedded systems companies, namely ADLINK Technology and Congatec, have already launched COM-HPC server modules and COM Express Type 7 module based on the new Intel Xeon D family. Intel Xeon D processors Intel Xeon D-2700 and Intel Xeon D-1700 are designed for space- and power-constrained ruggedized environments, feature industrial-class reliability, hardware-based security, and up to 56 high-speed PCIe lanes to support networks with up to 100Gbps Ethernet. While the Intel Xeon D-1700 sub-family is scalable from 2 to 10 cores, the Intel Xeon D-2700 family goes up […]

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 […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC