embedded world 2018 News - CNX Software

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Diamond Systems Zeta is a Miniature SBC Based on Bay Trail/Apollo Lake COM Express Mini Modules

Diamond Systems, a Silicon valley based company providing embedded computing solutions for transportation, energy, aerospace, defense, manufacturing, medical and research market, has recently introduced Zeta single board computer comprised of a baseboard, a choice of COM Express Mini type 10 modules based on Intel Bay Trail or Apollo Lake processor, and a heatspreader for cooling. The company explains the small size and high feature density of the solution make it particularly suitable for mobile applications. The SBC also supports a wide range 6-36VDC input voltage, and works in -40 to +85°C temperature range. Zeta SBC specifications: COM’s Processor and System Memory Intel Atom Bay Trail E3825 dual core processor @ 1.33GHz with 2GB RAM Intel Atom Apollo Lake E3940 quad core processor @ 1.6GHz with 4GB RAM Intel Pentium Apollo Lake N4200 quad core processor @ 1.1GHz (burstable to 2.5GHz) with 8GB RAM Storage – 1x mSATA socket , 1x […]

March 7, 2018March 7, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Emcraft Introduces NXP i.MX 8M SoM and $299 Starter Kit

I first discovered Emcraft Systems in 2011 through their work porting uCLinux to Arm Cortex M3/M4 microcontrollers, and since then the company has kept on working microcontroller software and hardware, but also moved to Arm Cortex A class solutions. Like most embedded systems companies, Emcraft engineers have also designed their own NXP i.MX 8M system-on-module, but while many have still not announced pricing, and/or show “in development” or “early product announcement” in their product page, Emcraft has started taking pre-order for their i.MX 8M SoM Starter Kit for $299, with shipping scheduled for May 21, 2018 or before. Let’s check out SOM-IMX8M specifications first: SoC – NXP i.MX8M Quad processor with 4x Cortex A53 cores, 1x Cortex-M4F core, and a Vivante GC7000Lite GPU System Memory – 512MB to 4GB DDR3L/LPDDR4 SDRAM Storage – 4 to 64GB eMMC flash Connectivity – Wireless module supporting 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2×2 MIMO WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, […]

March 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

VIA SOM-9X20 Module Powers Smart Recognition and Smart Machine Vision Platforms

At the end of last year, VIA launched SOM-9X20 system-on-module powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor coupled with 4GB PoP LPDDR4 RAM, 64 GB eMMC flash, as well as WiFi + Bluetooth module, and a GNSS/GPS receiver. The company introduced two software platform for the SoM and development kit at embedded world 2018: a Smart Machine Vision Platform for manufacturing management and control systems, and a Smart Recognition Platform for facial recognition, object detection, people counting & tracking, etc… VIA SOM-9X20 module specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad- core processor with 2x high-performance Kryo cores up to 2.15GHz, 2x low power Kryo cores up to 1.593GHz, and Adreno 530 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.1/ GEP, GL4.4, DX11.3/ 4, OpenCL 2.0, Renderscript-Next System Memory – 4 GB POP LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 64 GB eMMC 5.1/ UFS 2.0 flash On-module Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ b/ g/ n/ ac + Bluetooth […]

March 1, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

NXP Unveils A71CH Secure Element Chip for Secure Peer-to-Peer or Cloud Connections

The industry clearly has an issue at hand with the security of the Internet of Things, and the problem is complex as some devices are easily accessible due to bad configuration (e.g. default username/password), while others may have security flaws at various levels of the software stack from the low level bootloaders to the operating systems, and applications. Nowadays, devices also need to be upgradeable, and communicate with the cloud, and that introduces other attack vectors in case malignant firmware is installed instead, or a man-in-the-middle attack occurs. While some people may claim security can be achieved by software only, we are seeing security evolving towards combined software and hardware solutions, for example with Arm Trustzone built into SoCs, but some companies are also introducing Secure Element chip, which Samsung has already done and integrated into their Artik modules to secure data from the hardware to the cloud. NXP has […]

March 1, 2018March 1, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Silicon Labs WF200 WiFi Transceivers & WFM200 WiFi Modules are Designed for Battery Powered Devices

When it comes to power consumption, WiFi is not the best wireless standard around, and even the most power efficient WiFi SoCs/modules consume several times the power required for Bluetooth LE Tx or Rx. Yet we still have plenty of battery powered devices relying on WiFi, so companies are working on improving efficiency, and Silicon Labs has recently announced the WF200 transceivers and WFM200 modules that support 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and are said to slash power consumption in half. WF200 / WFM200 highlights: Low transmit (Tx: 138 mA) and receive (Rx: 48 mA) power 200 µA average Wi-Fi power consumption (DTIM = 3) Link budget of 115 dBm for long-range Wi-Fi transmissions Excellent antenna diversity and wireless coexistence in crowded 2.4 GHz environments Security – Secure boot and host interface, hardware cryptography acceleration supporting AES, PKE and TRNG Packages – 4 mm x 4 mm QFN32 transceiver and […]

February 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

NXP i.MX 8M Mini Low Power Cortex A53/Cortex M4 Processor to be Manufactured using 14LPC FinFET Process Technology

NXP i.MX 8, i.MX 8M, and i.MX 8X processors are barely available, but the company has already announced another member of their i.MX8 family with i.MX 8M Mini processors with one to four Cortex A53 application cores, one Cortex-M4F real-time core, 2D/ 3D graphics accelerator, and support for 1080p video playback and output. Apart from the lack of 4K support, that looks about the same as i.MX 8, but there’s one important difference: the manufacturing process. i.MX 8M Mini processors are manufactured using 14LPC FinFET process technology allowing the Cortex A53 cores to reach 2.0 GHz, and the Cortex-M4F core can be clocked up to 400+ MHz. Some video interfaces have also been removed from the new processor such as embedded DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0a. NXP i.MX 8M Mini key features: Application cores – One to four Arm Cortex-A53 cores up to 2GHz Real-time core – Arm Cortex-M4 at speeds […]

February 27, 2018April 14, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

GreenWaves GAP8 is a Low Power RISC-V IoT Processor Optimized for Artificial Intelligence Applications

GreenWaves Technologies, a fabless semiconductor startup based in Grenoble, France, has designed GAP8 IoT application processor based on RISC-V architecture, and optimized for image and audio algorithms including convolutional neural network (CNN) inference with high energy efficiency thanks to an 8-core computational cluster combined with a convolution hardware accelerator. The design is based on RISC-V based Parallel Ultra Low Power (PULP) computing open-source platform. The new processor targets industrial and consumer products integrating artificial intelligence, and advanced classification such as image recognition, counting people and objects, machine health monitoring, home security, speech recognition, consumer robotics, wearables and smart toys. Some of GAP8 processor specifications: 1x extended RISC-V fabric controller core with 16 kB data and 4 kB instruction cache for system control 8x extended RISC-V compute cores with 64 kB shared data memory and 16 kB shared instruction cache 1x Hardware optimized synchronization unit 1x Hardware Convolution Engine (HWCE) Multi […]

February 23, 2018February 23, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Neutis N5 is a $49 Allwinner H5 SoM with WiFi and Bluetooth

Allwinner, Amlogic and Rockchip SoCs can be found in many single board computers or development boards, but contrary to processors from Texas Instruments, NXP or Atmel, there aren’t that many system-on-modules based on the low cost SoCs with companies like Pine64, Olimex, or Theobroma providing some options in that space. There soon will be more, as Emlid will launch Neutis N5 module based on Allwinner H5 processor in the next couple of months with the module also including WiFi and Bluetooth, beside the processor, memory, and storage. Neutis N5 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H5 quad core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Mali-450MP4 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash Connectivity – Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n. BT: 4.0 dual-mode BLE with on-board antenna and U.FL connector for optional external antenna HW Security – Tamper-resistant dedicated crypto chip for storing cryptographic keys, unique ID, random number […]