Andes QiLai quad-core AX45MP RISC-V SoC with NX27V vector processor powers micro-ATX Voyager Development Platform

Andes Voyager Development Platform

Andes’ Voyager Development Platform is a micro-ATX motherboard based on the company’s QiLai SoC with four AX45MP 64-bit RISC-V cores and an NX27V vector processor optimized for AI workloads. The Voyager board supports up to 16GB of DDR4 via a UDIMM socket, features 16Mbit SPI Flash for boot code and an SD card socket, includes three PCIe Gen4 slots to connect external devices such as GPU card and SSD,  as well as a JTAG debugger and USB to UART bridge for debugging during Linux software development. Andes QiLai RISC-V AI SoC Before looking at the board itself, let’s check the Andes QiLai SoC specifications: CPU cores Andes AX45MP-4C cluster 4x RV64GC 8-stage superscalar processors clocked at 1.6 GHz (worse) / 2.1 GHz (typ.) Support of MESI cache coherence protocol with Coherence Manager 32KB L1 Instruction and Date cache 2MB L2 cache I/O Coherence Port (IOCP) – Synchronous AXI4 (256 bits […]

SBC Case Builder v3.0 can create thousands of cases for popular SBCs and standard motherboards (mini-ITX, Pico-ITX, NUC…)

SBC Case Builder V3.0

SBC Case Builder V3.0 case design utility has just been released with the ability to create over 1,000 standard cases – not including customization – for popular SBCs from Raspberry Pi, Hardkernel, Orange Pi, Radxa, and others, as well as standard motherboards following Mini-ITX, Pico-ITX, NUC, Nano-ITX, etc.., and SBC adapters following these standards, meaning you could install a Raspberry Pi 5 into a mini-ITX case if needed. SBC Case Builder started as a command line utility for designing DIY case for SBCs relying on OpenSDAD in April 2022, but Edward Kisiel (hominoids) quickly released version 2 with a GUI in October or the same, and has now further improved the utility with the release of SBC Case Builder v3.0. Version 3.0 comes with many improvements but the main focus was to reuse existing and new PC standard form factor cases by creating SBC adapters and custom I/O Shields since […]

Industrial MicroATX motherboards support Intel Core 12th-14th Gen processors with up to four 2.5GbE/10GbE ports

DFI industrial microATX motherboard

DFI has recently unveiled two new Industrial MicroATX Motherboards, the RPS310 and ADS310, that claim to have support for Core 12th Gen (Alder Lake-S), 13th Gen (Raptor Lake-S), and 14th Gen (Raptor Lake-S Refresh) processors. The motherboards can be built around R680E or Q670E chipset and support a range of peripherals including VGA, DP++, HDMI, PCIe, M.2 M key, SATA3.0, and much more. The key difference between the two is that the RPS310 supports DDR5 memory, features 4x Intel 2.5GbE network connections, and has a 10-year CPU lifecycle with optional 5-year extended support. In contrast, the ADS310 supports DDR4 memory, features 2x Intel 10GbE + 2x Intel 2.5GbE network connections, and boasts a longer 15-year CPU lifecycle support. We’ve previously covered motherboards with a similar form factor, including the HiFive Pro P550 and Milk-V Pioneer, both powered by RISC-V CPUs. If you’re interested in alternative architectures, you might also enjoy […]

ASRock Industrial upgrades mini-ITX, micro-ATX, and ATX motherboards for Intel Core 14th Gen Raptor Lake-S Refresh processors

ASROCK Industrial 14th gen mini-ITX micro-ATX ATX motherboards

ASRock Industrial has just announced 25 (twenty-five!) industrial motherboards powered by 14th gen Intel Core Raptor Lake-S Refresh hybrid processors with up to 24 cores and 32 threads introduced last October, and supporting up to 96GB DDR5 4800/5600 memory. The thin and high-rise mini-ITX, micro-ATX, and ATX industrial motherboards support up to four 4K displays, PCIe Gen5 interfaces,  up to three 2.5GbE ports (and 10GbE LAN for the IMB-X1316-10G model), and USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20 Gbps) ports for factory automation, robotics, machine vision, smart retail, kiosks, digital signage, gaming, security, and more. I would usually list the specifications of the motherboards, but since we have 25 different models, I’ll skip that and provide a summary. One reason ASRock Industrial has so many models is that those are existing motherboards with socketed processors and the company offered 12th and 13th gen CPUs so far, and the company simply updated the BIOS […]

64-core RISC-V motherboard and workstation enable native RISC-V development (Crowdfunding)

64-core RISC-V motherboard

There’s now a microATX motherboard and workstation for native RISC-V development based on the SOPHON SG2042 64-core RISC-V C920 processor with up to 128GB DDR4 memory, various SATA and M.2 NVMe interfaces for storage, three PCIe x16 slot for expansion and more. I remember a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about making a workstation for native Arm development instead of relying on x86 machines, cross-compilation, and emulation. So we got hardware like the HoneyComb LX2K, Ampere eMAG, and more recently the ADLINK Ampere Altra Dev Kit to achieve this goal. The RISC-V ecosystem is now getting something similar thanks to the Milk-V Pioneer microATX motherboard and the Pioneer Box that provides a complete 64-core RISC-V workstation with DIMM memory, SATA and NVMe storage, a graphics card, 10GbE networking, a 350W power supply, and more. Pioneer board specifications: SoC – Sophgo SOPHON SG2042 64-core RISC-V processor (T-Head […]

Micro-ATX motherboard takes socketed Raptor Lake CPUs, offers PCIe Gen 5 slots, 2.5GbE, up to 8x SATA ports…

Micro-ATX motherboard Raptor Lake SoC

AAEON MAX-Q670A is an industrial micro-ATX motherboard that accepts socketed 13th Gen Intel Core Raptor Lake processors, supports up to 128GB DDR5, offers eight SATA ports with RAID 0/1/5/10, up to four Ethernet ports (GbE and 2.5GbE), and two 16-lane PCIe Gen 5 slots. Other features include five display interfaces with HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, LVDS, and eDP, four bootable USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, an RS232/RS422/RS485 COM port, and plenty of internals headers for more serial and USB ports, as well as M.2 expansion sockets and a digital I/O port AAEON MAX-Q670A specifications: SoC – 12th/13th Generation Intel Core LGA1700 Socket processors (Alder Lake or Raptor Lake) with  up to 125W TDP Chipset – Intel Q670 Express Chipset I/O Chipset – NCT6126D System Memory – Up to 128GB via 4x DIMM slots for DDR5 4,000MHz non-ECC, un-buffered memory Storage 8x SATA III ports with support for RAID 0, 1, […]

HiFive Pro P550 “Horse Creek” RISC-V motherboard with 16GB RAM to launch this summer

HiFive Pro P550 Horse Creek SBC

SiFive HiFive Pro P550 RISC-V motherboard based on Intel “Horse Creek” quad-core SiFive Performance P550 processor will launch this summer with 16GB DDR5 memory, two PCIe expansion slots, Gigabit Ethernet networking, USB 3.x ports, and on-board graphics. Intel Horse Creek platform was first revealed when SiFive unveiled the SiFive Performance P550 64-bit RISC-core with Cortex-A75 class performance in June 2021. The companies then demonstrated an internal Intel Horse Creek board with 8GB DDR5 and PCIe Gen5 at the Intel Innovation 2022 Developer Conference last October, and it looks like the 7nm RISC-V processor, manufactured with an Intel 4 process, will finally be available to developers this summer with the launch of the HiFive Pro P550 motherboard/development system.   HiFive Pro P550 preliminary specifications: SoC – Intel-SiFive Horse Creek SoC equipped with 4x SiFive Performance P550 RV64GBC RISC-V cores with a 13-stage, 3-issue, out-of-order (OoO) pipeline GPU – “On-board graphics” [Update: […]

AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series CPUs show up in Micro-ATX motherboard

AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series motherboard

Advantech has announced the AIMB-522 industrial Micro-ATX motherboard with AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series Zen3 processors for AI image processing in automation and surveillance applications. I had never heard about “Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series” processors, but that motherboard comes with a choice of new SKUs such as the 12-core Ryzen 5950E, the 10-core Ryzen 5900E, the 8-core Ryzen 5800E, and the 6-core Ryzen 5600E, as well as existing Ryzen 5000 desktop processors. AIMB-522 Micro-ATX motherboard specifications: Processor (one or the other) Ryzen 5950E 12-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz with 64MB L3 cache; TDP: 105W Ryzen 5900E 10-core processor @ up to 3.7 GHz with 64MB L3 cache; TDP: 105W Ryzen 5800E 8-core processor @ up to 3.7 GHz with 32MB L3 cache; TDP: 100W Ryzen 5600E 6-core processor @ up to 3.6 GHz with 32MB L3 cache; TDP: 65W Ryzen 5950X 16-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz […]

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