While looking for new and interesting products I found ADLINK’s DLAP Supreme series, a series of Edge AI devices built around the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin platform. But that was not the interesting part, what got my attention was it has support for something called the aiDAPTIV+ technology which made us curious. Upon looking we found that the aiDAPTIV+ AI solution is a hybrid (software and hardware) solution that uses readily available low-cost NAND flash storage to enhance the capabilities of GPUs to streamline and scale large-language model (LLM) training for small and medium-sized businesses. This design allows organizations to train their data models on standard, off-the-shelf hardware, overcoming limitations with more complex models like Llama-2 7B. The solution supports up to 70B model parameters with low latency and high-endurance storage (100 DWPD) using SLC NAND. It is designed to easily integrate with existing AI applications without requiring hardware changes, […]
Disabling VT-d improves Intel Arc GPU Linux performance on Meteor Lake and newer SoCs
In this post, I’ll check whether disabling VT-d virtualization support may improve the performance of the Intel Arc GPU in recent Meteor Lake or Lunar Lake SoC using a Khadas Mind Maker Kit with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU with Intel Arc 140V graphics running Ubuntu 24.10. A few days ago, I read a post on Phoronix about Intel publishing tips to improve the performance of Intel GPUs in Linux: Keep the system updated with the latest kernel and Mesa versions. Ensure SoC firmware is up-to-date. These firmware updates currently require installing the Windows graphics driver; firmware updates via fwupd are in progress. Use Wayland where possible, as it supports additional modifiers for better performance. For MTL (Meteor Lake) and newer integrated GPUs, disable VT-d if virtualization is not needed. For discrete GPUs: Enable ReBAR_ Enable ASPM_ I was especially curious about the line about disabling VT-d virtualization […]
Khadas Mind Maker Kit review – Part 2: Windows 11 Home on an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V AI mini PC
I’ve already gone through the specifications and an unboxing of the “Khadas Mind 2 AI Maker Kit” powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V “Lunar Lake” processor delivering up to 115 TOPS of AI performance and equipped with 32GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD in the first part of the review. I’ve now spent time with the mini PC/developer kit which is now simply called “Khadas Mind Maker Kit”, and I will report my experience with the Windows 11 Home 24H2 operating system in the second part of the review testing features, running benchmarks including an AI benchmark, evaluating networking and storage performance, testing the thermal design while under stress, and taking measurements for fan noise and power consumption. It looks like some AI features may finally be usable on Windows, but I’ll test that in a separate post since everything is new and Microsoft Copilot+, […]
Vulkan 1.4 3D graphics and compute API released
The Khronos Group has just announced the release of Vulkan 1.4 cross-platform 3D graphics and compute API. The new release makes some of the optional extensions and features mandatory, adds streaming transfers, and supports 8K rendering on up to eight targets. Minimum hardware limits have also been increased including at least seven maxBoundDescriptorSets and eight maxColorAttachments. Vulkan 1.4 highlights: Streaming Transfers: new implementation requirements to ensure applications can stream large quantities of data to a device while simultaneously rendering at full performance. Previously optional extensions and features critical to emerging high-performance applications are now mandatory in Vulkan 1.4, ensuring availability across multiple platforms. These include push descriptors, dynamic rendering local reads, and scalar block layouts. Maintenance extensions up to and including VK_KHR_maintenance6 are now part of the core Vulkan 1.4 specification. 8K rendering with up to eight separate render targets is now guaranteed to be supported, along with several other […]
DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8 released with improved support for Rockchip, Amlogic, and Allwinner SBCs
Armbian and DietPi are two separate projects that provide Linux-based OS images optimized for Arm-based single board computers. The last time we had a look at both projects was in June with the release of Armbian 24.5.1 and DietPi 9.4, but there have been several updates since then including the releases of the latest DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8 Yelt just a few days ago. So let’s check out the latest changes. DietPi 9.7 DietPi is a lightweight Debian-based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems that ships as a minimal image but users can install any packages they want, including the ones required for desktop environment, to match the requirements of the applications. It’s notably used by the Linamp project – a Raspberry Pi 4-based project that brings WinAMP to real life – that we covered a few weeks ago. DietPi 9.7 was released on August 25, 2024 with […]
Vecow EVS-3000 AI computing systems combine 14th Gen Intel Core CPUs and MXM Graphics for Edge AI applications
Vecow has introduced the EVS-3000 series, a new line of AI computing systems powered by Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3 (14th Gen) processors with embedded MXM graphics. These systems deliver high computing power, come with multiple PCIe slots for expansion, and support remote monitoring making them ideal for edge AI applications such as autonomous robotics, public security, and machine vision. The EVS-3000 series includes both fan and fanless models: EVS-3100, EVS-3200, EVS-3300, EVS-3400 without fans, and EVS-3100(F), EVS-3200(F), EVS-3300(F), EVS-3400(F) with fans. All systems are powered by Intel R680E chipsets and feature compact NVIDIA or AMD MXM graphics, with support for 2.5GbE LAN, Out-of-Band (OOB) management, and multiple PCIe Gen 4 slots. These systems deliver high performance for AI computing at the edge for applications such as machine vision and robotics. As you may know, we’ve previously covered several Vecow AI computing systems, including the TGS-1000 Series, SPC-9000 fanless embedded system, ECX-3200, […]
Radxa ROCK 5 ITX RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard review – Building an Arm PC and NAS with Debian KDE
In this review, I’ll show how I installed Debian on the ROCK 5 ITX mini-ITX motherboard powered by a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 processor, before building a computer/NAS with the Arm mini-ITX motherboard, testing various features and running benchmarks. In the first part of the review, we checked out the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX (Arm) and Jupiter (RISC-V) mini-ITX motherboards with specifications and unboxing, and the Auriga 6-Bay NAS mini-ITX chassis used in this review. I already built the computer with the Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard, so here I simply switched the RISC-V motherboard with the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX Arm motherboard and installed a few SATA drives. Radxa ROCK 5 ITX first boot – A tricky start… Radxa provides getting started instructions on the documentation website which I mostly follow to hopefully boot within a few minutes. I had to prepare the hardware first. So I installed a […]
Vecow TGS-1000 – A fanless, stackable embedded computer with Intel Core Ultra Meteor Lake SoC
The Vecow TGS-1000 Series is an ultra-compact, fanless, stackable embedded computer that includes the TGS-1000 and TGS-1500 models, powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra Metero Lake processors with integrated CPU, GPU, and NPU. It supports up to 96GB DDR5 memory and stackable expansion options for networking, serial, wireless, and more. This series is optimized for edge AI applications, offering up to 14% increased CPU productivity and enhanced graphics capabilities. The TGS-1000 Series offers up to five independent displays through two HDMI and three DP ports. It features a variety of I/O connections, including up to 5 USB 3.0 ports (4x Type-A and 1x Type-C) and one 2.5GbE LAN supporting TSN, making it ideal for vision and automation applications. Its modular design allows flexible expansion for USB, isolated DIO, COM, LAN, or 4G/LTE, suitable for AI, smart retail, office communication, and gaming. The TG-1500 series adds support for MXM graphics […]