low power News - Page 29 of 43 - CNX Software

December 28, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

NOVELDA UWB X4 sensor can detect submillimeter movements

We’ve just written about an ESP32 UWB board equipped with an ultra-wideband module designed for indoor positioning with about 10 centimeters accuracy, which should be good enough for many applications, but it turns out UWB sensors can be made to be much more accurate. NOVELDA has just announced the UWB X4/X4F103 sensor and development kit that can detect submillimeter micro-movements such as breathing for human presence detection and does so at a really low power consumption of under 2mW. NOVELDA UWB X4 (X4F103) highlights: High-precision ranging for accurate distance measurement and absolute range bounding based on patented impulse radar technology Low power consumption below 2mW, and no co-existence issues with other sensors Wide detection zone for accurate detection with up to 180-degree field of view Up to 5m range Works through plastic and glass or layers of clothing Package – 12 x 12mm sensor A big difference compares to Decawave […]

December 24, 2021December 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Newt 2.7-inch wireless display offers high refresh rate with SHARP’s Memory-in-Pixel (MiP) technology (Crowdfunding)

Newt is a battery-powered, always-on, ESP32-S2 wireless display with a 2.7-inch display leveraging SHARP’s Memory-in-Pixel (MiP) technology to provide an experience similar to E-Ink displays but with a much faster refresh rate. The wireless display can connect to the Internet to retrieve weather, calendars, sports scores, to-do lists, quotes, and whatever you’d like. Since it is powered by an ESP32-S2 microcontroller you can program with the ESP-IDF framework, Arduino, MicroPython, or CircuitPython. Newt display specifications: WiFi module – Espressif ESP32-S2-WROVER module with ESP32-S2 single-core Xtensa LX7 processor @ 240 MHz with 4 MB flash and 2 MB PSRAM Display – 2.7-inch, 240 x 400 pixel SHARP MiP LCD with “high-contrast, high-resolution, low-latency content with ultra-low power consumption”, reflective mode to eliminate the need for a backlight. USB – 1x USB Type-C port for programming, power, and charging Expansion – I2C Qwiik connector Misc Micro Crystal RV-3028-C7 RTC (45nA power consumption) […]

December 9, 2021December 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments

A deep dive into Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W’s power consumption

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Power Consumption measurements with Otii Arc

When I completed my review of Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, I mentioned I would test the power consumption of the board later. It took a while, but I’ve finally come around it using Otii Arc from Qoitech and Otii software to provide some pretty power consumption charts, and even energy consumption. Since the Raspberry Pi Foundation recommends a 5V/2.5A power supply, I’ll first try to get as close as possible as 2.5A, then I’ll go through tricks to reduce idle power consumption to less than 75 mA / 375 mW, and finally check the energy consumption under various CPU core count and frequency. Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Power consumption under load, with accessories I started with the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite “Bullseye” image and connected my Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board to Qoitech Otii Arc tools as shown below. It used to cost around $500, but […]

November 23, 2021November 23, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Entry-level Alder Lake Pentium G7400 and Celeron G6900 processors show up online

Intel recently formally announced the 12th generation Alder Lake hybrid processors family with some high-end processors like the 125W Core i9-12900K processor designed for gaming. But we know some low-power parts are also expected, and @momomo_us recently shared a screenshot showing listings for the boxed version of Intel Pentium Gold G7400 and Celeron G6900 processor. The screenshot contains limited information revealing the $123 Pentium Gold G7400 comes with a 6 MB cache and clocks at up to 3.70 GHz, while the $91 Celeron G6900 features 4M of cache and a 3.40 GHz maximum CPU clock speed. Both are available in an (FC-)LGA16A package. What we do not know for sure from the screenshot is whether the two processors are indeed part of the Alder Lake family. and media reports like the NotebookCheck.net article that tipped us of the leak suspect they could either be an Alder Lake SoC, or Comet […]

November 22, 2021November 22, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Renesas introduces sub 50 cents FPGA family with free Yosys-based development tools

Renesas has just unveiled the ForgeFPGA family of low-cost low-power FPGA’s to go for under 50 cents in (large) volumes following their acquisition of Dialog Semiconductors last August, who previously designed the GreenPAK programmable mixed-signal matrix. The company says its FPGAs consume half the power of competing FPGAs with a standby current of under 20uA, the price point will enable the use of FPGA in new markets and IoT products, and the tools will be free, at least as in beer, without any license to acquire or install. The full specifications are not available yet, but the ForgeFPGA Family will come with a maximum of 5,000 gates of logic, and the first devices ship with 1K and 2K Look Up Tables (LUTs), and as just mentioned, will operate at ultra-low power as low as 20 microamps in standby. ForgeFPGA is expected to target the same market as GreenPAK notably embedded […]

November 18, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 105 Comments

Save the planet! Program in C, avoid Python, Perl

As a former software engineer who’s mostly worked with C programming, and to a lesser extent assembler, I know in my heart that those are the two most efficient programming languages since they are so close to the hardware. But to remove any doubts, a team of Portuguese university researchers attempted to quantify the energy efficiency of different programming languages (and of their compiler/interpreter) in a paper entitled Energy Efficiency across Programming Languages published in 2017, where they looked at the runtime, memory usage, and energy consumption of twenty-seven well-known programming languages. C is the uncontested winner here being the most efficient, while Python, which I’ll now call the polluters’ programming language :), is right at the bottom of the scale together with Perl. The study goes through the methodology and various benchmarks, but let’s pick the binary-trees results to illustrate the point starting with compiled code. To the surprise […]

October 22, 2021February 25, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

BrainChip AKD1000 SNN AI SoC gets Raspberry Pi and x86 development kits

Brainchip Akida Raspberry Pi & Mini PC devkits

BrainChip has introduced two development kits for its Akida AKD1000 neuromorphic processor based on Raspberry Pi and an Intel (x86) mini PC in order to enable partners, large enterprises, and OEMs to begin testing and validation of the Akida chip. BrainChip Akida neural relies on spiking neural networks (SNN) which enable high-performance, real-time inference at ultra-low power, notably much lower power than traditional AI chips relying on CNN (convolutional neural network) technology. Akida Development Kit based on Raspberry Pi CM4 Specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM4 Lite with SoC: Broadcom BCM2711C0 quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 (ARMv8-A) 64-bit @ 1.5GHz plus Broadcom VideoCore VI GPU RAM – 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4 SDRAM Storage – MicroSD card for CM4 Lite, or 2GB to 32GB eMMC for CM4 Networking – Optional 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, Gigabit Ethernet PHY Carrier board – Official Raspberry Pi […]

September 28, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Bangle.js 2 JavaScript smartwatch gets an nRF52840 MCU, a new design (Crowdfunding)

The Bangle.js 2 is an upgraded, improved version of the Bangle.js hackable, JavaScript smartwatch based on NordicSemi nRF52832 SoC that was introduced in 2019 with ESPruino open-source firmware. The new watch comes with a new rectangular design, a Nordic Semi nRF52840 SoC that offers four times the RAM, twice the on-chip and external flash, plus an always-on sunlight-readable screen with full touchscreen support, and improved Bluetooth signal strength. Bangle.js 2 specifications: MCU – Nordic Semi nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4 MCU @ 64MHz with Bluetooth LE, 256kB RAM, 1MB on-chip flash Storage – 8MB flash Display – 1.3-inch 176×176 always-on 3-bit color LCD display (LPM013M126) with backlight, full touchscreen Connectivity Bluetooth 5.0 LE with advertising, central and peripheral mode support GPS/Glonass receiver Sensors Heart rate monitor 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer Air pressure/temperature sensor Misc – Vibration motor Debugging/Programming – Full SWD debug port on the rear of the watch Battery – 200mAh […]