iKOOLCORE R1 review – A quad 2.5GbE mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04, Proxmox

iKOOLCORE R1 review

When I first saw the iKOOLCORE R1 I was fascinated that a mini PC of similar size to the smallest fully functional ones available (think Chuwi LarkBox, GMK NucBox or ECS LIVA Q Series) could be equipped with four 2.5 gigabit Ethernet (2.5GbE) ports. I approached iKOOLCORE who kindly provided an R1 for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 and dabbled with using hypervisors on this mini PC through Proxmox virtual environment. iKOOLCORE R1 specifications iKOOLCORE list the R1 specifications on their website as: Of note are the ‘EC, FCC, RoHS’ certifications indicating both European conformity and approval for use in the US. Technically ‘EC’ refers to an ‘EC declaration of conformity’ which is not a certificate, however, the ‘EC declaration of conformity’ is called a ‘CE statement’ or ‘CE certificate’ which is why you often see this abbreviated as ‘CE’. The rest […]

conga-STDA4 SMARC 2.1 module features TI TDA4VM/DRA829J Jacinto 7 processor

conga-STDA4 SMARC Module TI Jacinto 7 TDA4VM DRA829J

congatec conga-STDA4 is a SMARC Computer-on-Module (CoM) based on Texas Instruments TDA4VM or DRA829J Jacinto 7 processor with two Cortex-A72 cores, six real-time Cortex-R5 cores for functional safety, accelerated vision and AI processing capabilities, and plenty of interfaces. The first Texas Instruments-powered CoM from the company is designed for industrial mobile machinery requiring near-field analytics, such as automated guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots, construction and agricultural machinery, as well as any industrial or medical solutions requiring energy-efficient computer vision at the edge. conga-STDA4 specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Jacinto 7 TDA4VM/DRA829J with Dual-core Arm Cortex-A72 up to 2.0 GHz 6x Arm Cortex-R5F cores @ 1.0 GHz up to 8 MB of on-chip L3 RAM 1x C7x DSP up to 80 GFLOPs 2x C66 DSPs up to 40 GFLOPs Up to 8 TOPS MMA AI accelerator PowerVR Rogue 8XE GE8430 3D GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenVX, OpenCL […]

Rockchip RK3588M automotive-grade AI SoC supports up to 16 camera inputs

Rockchip RK3588M automotive SBC

Rockchip RK3588M is an automotive-grade variant of the Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC that supports at least 6 Full HD displays and 16 camera inputs and can simultaneously run the car dashboard, in-vehicle infotainment, a digital rearview mirror, headrest monitors, ADAS system, and more. The frequency of the Cortex-A76 cores is limited to 2.1 GHz, and the Cortex-A55 cores to 1.7 GHz, against 2.4 and 1.8 GHz for RK3588, probably to operate in a larger temperature range required by the automotive market. I could not find any RK3588M datasheet yet, but we can find more details through the Firefly AIO-3588MQ automotive mainboard built around the RK3588M processor. Firefly AIO-3588MQ specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588M octa-core processor with CPU 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.1 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.7 GHz Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.2, Vulkan 1.1 support 6 TOPS AI […]

CM4 Maker Board review – Part 1: specifications, unboxing, and first boot

CM4 Maker Board Review

Cytron CM4 Maker Board is a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM4 Lite system-on-module with plenty of I/Os, support for one M.2 NVMe SSD, and RTC backup battery, a buzzer, and various LEDs for GPIO status that makes the board especially well suited for the education market and prototyping. The carrier board also comes with the usual Gigabit Ethernet and full-size HDMI port, four USB 2.0 ports, five Grove connectors, one Maker port, the omnipresent 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, and support power input from 7V-18V DC jack or 5V via a USB Type-C connector. CM4 Maker Board specifications Cytron CM4 Maker Board specifications: Supported SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 or Compute Module 4 Lite Storage microSD card slot M.2 PCIe 2.0 socket for NVMe 2232/2242 SSD Video Interfaces Full-size HDMI 2.0 port MIPI DSI display connector Camera – MIPI CSI connector connector Audio – […]

MIPI CSI camera works with Intel Atom x7000, Processor, and Core i3 Alder Lake-N processors

Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board MIPI CSI camera

Most Intel processors do not come with a MIPI CSI camera, but some Alder Lake-N processors do, and Leopard Imaging has designed the LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H MIPI CSI camera module that is compatible with the Intel ADL-N CRB (Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board) and custom Alder Lake-N boards equipped with a compatible MIPI CSI connector. The 13MP camera supports resolutions up to 3864 x 2176 and works with boards and embedded systems based on Intel Atom processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N processors, and Intel Processors N-Series processors. LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H specifications: Sony IMX415 CMOS image sensor Diagonal – 6.43 mm (Type 1/2.8) Active Pixels – 3864 (H) x 2176 (V) Pixel Size: 1.45 x 1.45 μm Optical Format: 1/2.8″ Effective Focal Length – 4.063 mm Aperture, F/#2.29 ± 5% IR Filter – 650 nm IR cut filter Field of View (FOV) – 81.7˚ horizontal, 44.7˚ vertical; 95.1˚ diagonal Lens Mount – M12 x […]

Framework modular laptop adds Intel Raptor Lake, AMD Ryzen motherboards, 16-inch laptop frame

Framework Modular Laptop Intel Raptor AMD Ryzen 7040 motherboard

When we first covered the Framework modular laptop in 2021 it came with a choice of 11th generation Intel Tiger Lake Core processors, up to 64GB RAM, up to 4TB SSD storage, a 13.5-inch display, a Full HD webcam, and a 55Wh battery. Modular electronic devices have been worked on by several companies over the years, but such endeavors usually result in failure due to costs and other difficulties. Remember Google’s Project Ara?  But Framework may have found something that works, as they’ve now launched 13th Generation Intel Raptor Lake motherboards, AMD Ryzen 7040-series motherboards, updated the 13.5-inch display with a Matte finish, and even unveiled the Framework Laptop 16 with a 16-inch display that should become available in Q3 2023. Intel Raptor Lake and AMD Ryzen 7040 motherboards The Framework modular laptop now supports additional Intel Raptor Lake and AMD Ryzen motherboards with the following processors and key options. […]

OSD62x SiP combines TI AM62x processor with LPDDR4, EEPROM, PMIC, and passives into a single package

OSD62x system-in-package

Octavo Systems OSD62x is a system-in-package (SiP) combining the Texas Instruments AM62x processor with LPDDR4 RAM, EEPROM, power management, oscillators, and passive components, plus optional features such as an RTC and an 8-channel ADC. At least that’s true for the OSD62x Max Integration SiP (22×22 mm BGA), but Octavo Systems also have a smaller 14x9mm package called the OSD62x Size Optimized with “just’ the AM62x processor, LPDDR4 memory, and passive components. OSD62x “Max Integration” specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments AM62x (AM623/AM625) CPU – Up to 4x Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.4GHz MCU – Arm Cortex-M4F GPU – 3D graphics up to 2048×1080 @ 60 fps (AM625 only) Storage I/F – 1x eMMC, 2x SDIO, 1x GPMC Display I/F – 24-bit RGB MIPI DPI and OLDI/LVDS Camera I/F – 1x MIPI CSI-2 with DPHY 1.2 Networking – 2x 10/100/1000M Gigabit Ethernet with TSN support USB – 2x USB 2.0 interfaces PRU-ICSS Other […]

100ASK-T113-Pro Allwinner T113-S3 industrial board, and Allwinner T113-S4 with 256MB DDR3

100ask T113-S3 board

Last year, Jean-Luc introduced the T113-S3 processor and the small MangoPi-Dual board with T113-S3. This time, I will introduce a development board with relatively rich resources, the 100ASK-T113-PRO, which consists of a core board with T113-S3 and a carrier board with a large number of peripheral interfaces, and the upcoming Allwinner T113-S4 SoC with 256MB DDR3. 100ASK-T113-Pro Allwinner T113-S3 industrial board While the T113-S3 and D1s/F133 RISC-V processors are pin-to-pin compatible, the T113-S3 is a dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 processor with HiFi4 DSP, CAN interfaces added (CAN is not mentioned publicly, but can be seen in the T113-S3 Datasheet) and 128MB DDR3 on-chip memory.   100ASK-T113-PRO preliminary specifications: T113-S3 Core Lite: SoC – Allwinner T113-S3 CPU – Dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 with 32 KB L1 I-cache + 32 KB L1 D-cache per core, and 256 KB L2 cache DSP – Single-core HiFi4 Memory – 128 MB DDR3 (SIP) Storage – 16MB SPI NandFlash […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design