ces 2020 News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 15, 2020January 15, 2020 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 8 Comments

Introducing the Intel NUC 9 Compute Elements, Mini PC Kits, and 3rd-Party Ecosystem

Intel’s NUC mini PC range is familiar to anyone who has looked for a very small compact and functional PC. But they, and similarly sized mini PCs in general, have a notable limitation when compared to desktops and also many high-end laptops in that the graphics performance is somewhat restricted because it is typically provided by the processor’s integrated graphics. Whilst these integrated graphics are suitable for browsing, video playback, and the office style applications that the devices have been marketed towards, they are normally insufficient for gaming as only low framerates are obtainable. Intel initially tried to address this gaming shortfall through the introduction of the Intel Skull Canyon (NUC6i7KYK) NUC which came with a 6th-gen Skylake Core i7-6770HQ that included Iris Pro Graphics 580 and at the time with their 72 EUs (Executions Units) was Intel’s most powerful integrated GPU. Additionally, the Skull Canyon also featured a (USB-C) […]

January 15, 2020March 6, 2020 by Stephen Vicinanza - 3 Comments

MediaTek Rich IoT SDK v20.0 Released, Pumpkin i500 SBC Announced

MediaTek Rich IoT SDK v20.0 is Available MediaTek has announced its Rich IoT SDK v20.0 is already available for the i300 and i500 chipset series. The SDK was developed in collaboration with BayLibre, the French developer of Linux and Android embedded systems software, which is also known for helping mainlining Amlogic processors to Linux. The i300A, i300B, and i500 hardware platforms are supported and the features are focused on IoT and the emerging generation of smart devices. Supported OS’es and Test Applications The Rich IoT SDK v20.0 supports Yocto 3.0 Linux and Android 10 to let third-party customers and members of the MediaTek Ecosystem test Computer Vision algorithms, AI models and custom software on top of the base layer. Updates and Maintenance The SDK is receiving updates quarterly, with security updates and patches being delivered over-the-air (OTA) on a regular basis. The chipset series has a timeline for updates to […]

January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 by Ayo Ayibiowu - 6 Comments

STMicro STM32WL is the World’s First LoRa SoC

There is no denying that the Internet of Things is going to disrupt a lot of markets and it’s already happening to some extent. The question being asked is: “What IoT connectivity technology will lead this disruption era?”. One major technology in this connectivity race is LoRa. LoRa’s long-range, low-power, small footprint, simplicity, and the amazing community backing it, have allowed it to find its way into various applications while gaining for the top LPWAN IoT connectivity technology. STMicroelectronics, one of the biggest semiconductor manufacturer, also believes in the potential of LoRa with the launch of STM32WL, making it the World’s first die-integrated LoRa System-on-Chip. Traditional LoRa embedded platforms usually involve the need for a separate MCU chip and different LoRa transceiver chips either coupled together in one single package or separately. This undoubtedly adds extra design complexity, size, and even cost. STMicro hopes to address this with their STM32WL SoC. […]

January 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

OmniVision OA805 4K Video Camera SoC Supports 100 ms Boot Time, 4K HEVC Encoding

OmniVision OA805 Arm Cortex-A5 4K video camera processor is specifically designed for battery operated security and surveillance cameras, including video doorbells, with the ability to encode 4K30p video streams with HEVC/H.265 video codec at very low power consumption. The processor also has a very short boot-up time of just 100ms, meaning it can go from completely powered off to fully functional upon trigger by a motion detection sensor. That short boot time removes the need for standby or sleep mode further lowering the power consumption and allowing the camera to have up to two years of battery life (albeit no mention of battery capacity was made…). OmniVision OA805 specifications: CPU Main CPU – Arm Cortex-A5 processor with NEON, 32KB I-cache, 32KB D-cache Secondary CPU (SPU) – Arm Cortex-A5 processor with NEON, 32KB I-cache, 32KB D-cache Media Processing Unit (MPU) – 32-bit RISC MCU with 8KB I-cache, 8KB D-cache System Memory […]

January 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Silicon Labs BG22 Secure Bluetooth 5.2 SoC Promises 10-Year Coin-Cell Battery Life

Yesterday, we wrote about the new Bluetooth LE Audio standard which promises smaller Bluetooth audio devices, or longer battery life, as well as support for multi-stream and broadcast audio. But there has been some other Bluetooth developments with the release of Bluetooth 5.2 specification on December 31st, and the announcement of the first Bluetooth 5.2 SoC courtesy of Silicon Labs. Bluetooth 5.2 Main Changes Bluetooth 5.2 builds upon Bluetooth 5.1 with the following key changes: Enhanced Attribute Protocol (EATT) – Improved version of the Attribute Protocol (ATT), which supports concurrent transactions, allows the interleaving of L2CAP packets relating to ATT packets from different applications and allows the ATT Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) to be changed during a connection. This can reduce latency and improves the responsiveness of Bluetooth LE applications. LE Power Control – Devices can dynamically optimize the transmission power used in communication between connected devices with BLE receivers […]

January 8, 2020June 10, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Arduino Portenta H7 STM32H7 Cortex- M7/M4 Industrial Board Runs Arduino Code, Python and JavaScript

Arduino is now at CES 2020 promoting its Arduino Pro all-in-all IoT solution for professionals with the Arduino Pro IDE, Arm Pelion IoT platform for device management, and a new Portenta industry-grade board family starting with Arduino Portenta H7 board powered by STMicro STM32H7 dual-core Arm Cortex-M7/M4 microcontroller. Arduino Portenta H7 Specifications: Microcontroller – STMicro STM32H747XI Cortex-M7 @ 480 MHz + M4 @ 200 MHz MCU with 2MB dual-bank Flash memory, 1 MB RAM, Chrom-ART graphical hardware accelerator System Memory – 2MB SDRAM (upgradeable up to 64MB) Storage – 16MB QSPI NOR Flash (Upgradeable up to 128MB) Connectivity 2.4GHz WiFi 802.11b/g/n up to 65 Mbps and Bluetooth 5.1 BR/EDR/LE via Murata 1DX module On-board 10/100M PHY Video I/F – MIPI DSI & 8-bit camera interfaces via 80-pin expansion connector, DisplayPort over USB-C port USB – 1x USB 2.0 Type-C port for power (PD), programming, and DisplayPort output I/Os Arduino MKR […]

January 7, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Bluetooth LE Audio Supports LC3 Codec, Multi-stream & Broadcast Audio, Nordic Semi Evaluation Kit Unveiled

I first heard about Bluetooth LE (Low Energy)- part of Bluetooth 4.0- in 2013 with RFDuino board, and it came to prominence once Android 4.3 added support later this year. Bluetooth LE is using to transmit messages using as little as energy as possible for example to synchronize data between a smartphone and a smartwatch. But if you ever had to transmit audio, you had to rely on Bluetooth Classic which, albeit considering low power, consumes more energy. But you should soon have much longer battery life on your Bluetooth headphone or battery-operated speaker, as the Bluetooth SIG has just announced Bluetooth LE Audio which adds a new codec and support for multi-stream and broadcast audio. The new high-quality, low-power audio codec used in the new Bluetooth standard is called the Low Complexity Communications Codec (LC3). The chart above shows the results of listening tests between LC3 and SBC codecs […]

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Raspberry Pi 4 Powered Open Source Hardware Robot Paves the Way for Robot Maids

Raspberry Pi 4 Open Source Hardware Robot

Eventually, we all expect robots to do chores and other manual tasks performed by humans such as preparing and serving food at restaurants, carry objects over rough terrain as opposed to just inside the warehouse with a flat floor, or even moves pieces on a chessboard when other humans are no here to play with us. I’m fully expecting to eventually own a robot maid of sorts to wash dishes, mop the floors, and perform other tasks on my behalf. We are not there yet, but Raspberry Pi 4 powered Pollen Robotics’ Reachy open source-hardware robot is getting us closer to the goal as it can handle small objects and via two robotic arms and a dual-camera head, and can also interact with humans using a microphone and a speaker. Key features and specifications of Reachy robot: Main body SBC – Raspberry Pi 4 SBC with 2GB according to a […]