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March 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

The One Smart AI Pen – A ballpoint pen with Bluetooth and a microphone for translation, LLM integration, note taking (Crowdfunding)

You may have seen the “Sell me that pen. It’s AI-powered” meme if you are a social media user. It may have started as a joke, but Zakwan Ahmad made the meme become reality with “The One Smart AI Pen” which is basically a standard ballpoint pen with a battery, Bluetooth connectivity, a microSD card, and a microphone. The AI part is not exactly inside the pen per se, but in a smartphone’s app called Hearit.ai that allows the user to translate his/her voice input, use a range of LLMs such as ChatGPT, recording a meeting, or taking notes, for example, to schedule events or meetings. The One Smart AI Pen specifications: “AI chip” – Not clear why it’s needed here… unless it transcribes audio into text inside the pen (as opposed to inside the phone) Storage – MicroSD card slot inside the pen Wireless – Bluetooth 5.2 with up […]

February 25, 2025February 25, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Imagination DXTP GPU promises 20% higher power efficiency compared to DXT GPU for mobile devices and laptops

Imagination has announced the DXTP GPU for mobile and power-constrained devices with up to 20% greater power efficiency than its predecessor, the D-Series DXT GPU for longer battery life for AI applications or complex games. The company says the GPU is suitable for gaming, user interfaces, graphics-rich applications, computer vision, generative AI, and other AI applications designed to run on smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, or non-safety automotive products. Imagination DXTP highlights: Two off-the-shelf configurations: DXTP-48-1536 48 GPixel/s 1.5 TFLOPS FP32 (1536 FLOPs/Clock) 3 TFLOPS FP16 6 TOPS INT8 48 ppc Bilinear 3D Textured Up to 96 ppc 2D Dual Rate Mode DXTP-64-2048 64 GPixel/s 2 TFLOPS FP32 (2048 FLOPs/Clock) 4 TFLOPS FP16 8 TOPS INT8 64 ppc Bilinear 3D Textured Up to 128 ppc 2D Dual Rate Mode Bus Interface – AXI, ACE-Lite Compression PVRIC5 Lossless and Lossy Framebuffer Compression ETC and ASTC LDR and HDR Support Microarchitecture improvement – […]

February 25, 2025February 25, 2025 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 9 Comments

Rimer SBC is a Microchip SAMD51 Cortex-M4-based development board with a built-in LCD, keyboard, audio, and battery

The Rimer SBC is a development board based on a Microchip SAMD51 Cortex-M4 microcontroller and designed as a complete standalone playground with a built-in display, keyboard, audio input and output, a few I/Os, and a 60x20mm LiPo battery or an optional 18650 battery holder. It is specifically based on the Microchip ATMSAMD51J20A microcontroller, running at 120MHz with 1MB of flash memory and 256KB of RAM, and utilizes many of the peripherals available in the TQFP64 package. The board includes a 3.2-inch 320 x 240 IPS TFT LCD connected via high-speed SPI and a 40-key mechanical keyboard scanned via an I2C GPIO expander. It also features an amplified 700mW speaker output and buffered analog input and output is routed via the 3.5mm audio jack. The Rimer SBC’s standalone nature makes it suitable for on-the-go development, rapid prototyping, and educational purposes without the need for external hardware. The maker also plans to […]

February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Renesas RA4L1 ultra-low-power MCU family offers 168 µA/MHz operation, dual-bank flash, capacitive touch

Renesas has recently introduced the RA4L1 ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33 MCU family along with two evaluation/development boards. This new lineup consists of 14 ultra-low-power devices based on an 80 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor with TrustZone support and designed for metering, IoT sensing, smart locks, digital cameras, and human-machine interface (HMI) applications. The RA4L1 MCU family offers high power efficiency at 168 µA/MHz while active and a standby current of 1.70 µA while retaining SRAM. Additionally, they support segment LCD, capacitive touch, USB-FS, CAN FD, low-power UART, multiple serial interfaces (SPI, QSPI, I2C, I3C, SSI), ADC, DAC, real-time clock, and security features like the RSIP security engine with TRNG, AES, ECC, and Hash. Renesas RA4L1 microcontroller Renesas RA4L1 specifications MCU core Arm Cortex-M33 core (Armv8-M) Up to 80 MHz operating frequency Arm Memory Protection Unit (MPU) 8 secure regions (MPU_S) 8 non-secure regions (MPU_NS) CoreSight ETM-M33 Dual SysTick timers (secure & non-secure) […]

February 21, 2025February 20, 2025 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Femtofox Pro v1 LoRa and Meshtastic development board runs Linux-based Foxbuntu OS on Rockchip RV1103 SoC

Femtofox Pro v1 kit LoRa and Meshtastic development board

The Femtofox Pro v1 kit is a compact, low-power LoRa and Meshtastic development board running Linux specially designed for Meshtastic networks. Built around the Luckfox Pico Mini (Rockchip RV1103) SBC, this compact development platform supports USB host/device functionality, Ethernet, WiFi over USB, GPIO interfaces, I2C, UART, and a real-time clock (RTC). The most unique feature of this board is that it operates at very low power (0.27-0.4W), making it ideal for solar-powered applications. Additionally, Femtofox supports native Meshtastic client control, USB mass storage, and network reconfiguration via a USB flash drive. It also includes user-configurable buttons for WiFi toggling and system reboot, enhancing its usability. These features make Femtofox particularly useful for applications such as emergency response and off-grid messaging. Femtofox Pro v1 kit specifications Mainboard – Luckfox Pico Mini A SoC – Rockchip RV1103 SoC CPU – Arm Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.2GHz + RISC-V core Memory – 64MB DDR2 […]

February 20, 2025February 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Solar-powered LLM over Meshtastic solution may provide live-saving instructions during disasters and emergencies

People are trying to run LLMs on all sorts of low-end hardware with often limited usefulness, and when I saw a solar LLM over Meshtastic demo on X, I first laughed. I did not see the reason for it and LoRa hardware is usually really low-end with Meshtastic open-source firmware typically used for off-grid messaging and GPS location sharing. But after thinking more about it, it could prove useful to receive information through mobile devices during disasters where power and internet connectivity can not be taken for granted. Let’s check Colonel Panic’s solution first. The short post only mentions it’s a solar LLM over Meshtastic using M5Stack hardware. On the left, we must have a power bank charge over USB (through a USB solar panel?) with two USB outputs powering a controller and a board on the right. The main controller with a small display and enclosure is an ESP32-powered […]

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Silicon Labs unveils low-cost BG22L BLE 5.4 and BG24L BLE 6.0 SoCs

Silicon Labs has unveiled the BG22L and BG24L SoCs for low-cost, ultra-low-power Bluetooth LE connectivity. These are Lite versions of the company’s BG22 and BG24 SoC families introduced in 2020 and 2022 respectively. The 38.4 MHz Silabs BG22L Arm Cortex-M33 SoC targets high-volume, cost-sensitive Bluetooth 5.4 applications like asset tracking tags and small appliances. In comparison, the 78 MHz BG24L Cortex-M33 SoC offers an affordable entry-level solution with AI/ML acceleration and Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding to locate items or implement access control in crowded areas such as warehouses and multi-family housing. Since the specs for the BG22L and BG24L are similar to the ones for the BG22 and BG24 chips I won’t reproduce those here, and instead highlights the main features and cost-saving measures. Silicon Labs BG22L Bluetooth LE 5.4 SoC Silicon Labs BG22L highlights: MCU – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 38.4 MHz with DSP and FPU (BG22 is clocked at […]

January 28, 2025January 28, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Altair ALT1350 based HL7900 5G LPWA module supports Wi-SUN, GNSS, and NB-IoT over non-terrestrial networks

The HL7900 5G LPWA module from Semtech (Sierra Wireless) is a globally certified solution built around Sony’s Altair ALT1350 chip and designed for low-power IoT applications. It is certified by major U.S. carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, as well as Japan’s KDDI, and has achieved global regulatory certifications (FCC, CE, ISED, etc.) and industry certifications (PTCRB, GCF) for carrier interoperability. This chip features an ultra-low-power sensor hub MCU for efficient environmental monitoring. Additionally, it includes integrated sub-GHz and 2.4GHz radios supporting short-range protocols such as Wi-SUN including U-Bus Air, NB-IoT, and 5G NTN along with GNSS and Wi-Fi-based indoor/outdoor tracking. Furthermore, this chip supports embedded SIM support, secure edge-to-cloud connectivity, and over-the-air updates. These features make this chip useful for applications such as asset tracking, urban navigation, and other IoT solutions requiring reliable, low-power connectivity with global reach. Semtech HL7900 specifications: MCU – Sony ALT1350 5G cellular IoT chip […]