networking News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 12, 2025March 13, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

5th Gen AMD EPYC Embedded 9005 Series Zen 5 processors supports up to 6TB DDR5 memory, up to 160 PCIe Gen 5 lanes

AMD has just introduced the 5th Gen AMD EPYC Embedded 9005 Series “Zen 5” processors designed for embedded systems with a focus on longevity (7 years), reliability, and system resiliency, and targeting networking, storage, and industrial edge systems with support for up to 6TB of DDR5 memory, up to 160 PCIe Gen5 lanes with CXL 2.0. The EPYC Embedded 9005 Series processors are offered with 8 to 192 cores in a single socket and deliver up to a 1.3x faster networking process and 1.6x faster storage. The company also claims a 1.3x increase in socket throughput and 1.3x better performance/Watts compared to the competition thanks to the new Zen 5c architecture. AMD EPYC Embedded 9005 highlights: CPU sub-system AMD EPYC Embedded 9745 to 9965 – Zen 5c architecture up to 12x core complex dies (CCDs), 192x cores, 384x threads AMD EPYC Embedded 9015 to 9655 – Zen5 architecture up to […]

March 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Orange Pi RV2 – A $30+ RISC-V SBC powered by Ky X1 octa-core SoC with a 2 TOPS AI accelerator

While the Orange Pi RV RISC-V SBC introduced at the Orange Pi Developer Conference 2024 last year is yet to be launched (should be up in a few days), the company has just launched the Orange Pi RV2 powered by the Ky X1 octa-core RISC-V SoC with a 2 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 8GB LPDD4X, optional eMMC flash moduyle, two M.2 sockets for storeage, dual gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5, and more. While RISC-V has made a lot of progress over the years, Linux RISC-V SBCs were often synonymous with relatively expensive hardware for developers, since software is often unsuitable for production, at least for applications using graphics. The Orange Pi RV2 addresses the cost issue since the octa-core RISC-V SBC sells for just $30 to $49.90 depending on the configuration. Orange Pi RV2 specifications: SoC – Ky X1 CPU – 8-core 64-bit RISC-V processor GPU – Not mentioned VPU […]

February 15, 2025February 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ODROID-H3 and H4 SBCs get NetCard 3 card with four 5Gbps Ethernet ports

Hardkernl NetCard 3 is an expansion card with four 5Gbps Ethernet ports designed for the ODROID-H3 and ODROID-H4 SBCs and adding to the two 2.5GbE ports on the Intel Jasper Lake and Alder Lake-N single board computers. It follows the H2 Net Card with four 2.5GbE ports introduced in 2021 for the ODROID-H2, and tested by Ian with the ODROID-H3+ SBC in 2023. Hardkernel ended up selling more than expected, so they designed the Netcard 3 with 5GbE ports as an upgrade. It remains to be seen whether 5Gbps networking will be as popular as 2.5GbE or users will prefer moving to 10GbE hardware instead… NetCard 3 specifications: 4x 5Gbps Ethernet ports via RealTek RTL8126 5GbE controllers. M.2 edge connector with PCIe Gen3 x4 signaling Cooling with a long heatsink on RTL8126 controllers Compatible with ODROID-H3/H3+ and ODROID-H4/H4+ only, and not earlier ODROID-H2/H2+ boards You may need to flash a […]

January 24, 2025January 24, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

WL-AC1000 AP controller can manage large fleets of wireless routers and access points

Wallys Tech WL-AC1000 is an access point (AP) controller designed to manage and optimize the operation of multiple access points (APs) within large-scale wireless networks that you may find in factories, airports, hotels, train stations, etc… The WL-AC1000 is powered by a quad-core Arm processor coupled with 1GB RAM, 8MB NOR flash, and 256MB NAND flash. It is equipped with four GbE ports and one 2.5GbE port to connect the access points through switches. It’s available as a desktop version and a 1U enclosure to mount in a rack. Wallys Tech WL-AC1000 specifications: SoC – Quad-core ARM 64-bit A53 @ 1 .8 GHz processor (likely some Qualcomm QCS part) System Memory – 1GB (2x 512MB) DDR3L Storage 8MB NOR flash 256MB NAND Flash Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port with PoE 3x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports 2.5Gbps Ethernet RJ45 port Power Supply – 24V DC Dimensions WL-AC1000-E – 192 x 122 […]

January 15, 2025January 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Siflower SF21H8898 is a quad-core 64-bit RISC-V SoC for industrial gateways, routers, and controllers

Siflower SF21H8898 SoC features a quad-core 64-bit RISC-V processor clocked at up to 1.25 GHz and a network processing unit (NPU) for handling traffic and is designed for industrial-grade gateways, controllers, and routers. The chip supports up to 2GB DDR3, DDR3L, or DDR4 memory, offers QSGMII (quad GbE), SGMII/HSGMII (GbE/2.5GbE), and RGMII (GbE) networking interfaces, and USB 2.0, PCIE 2.0, SPI, UART, I2C, and PWM interfaces. Siflower SF21H8898 specifications: CPU – Quad-core 64-bit RISC-V processor at up to 1.25 GHz Cache 32KB L1 I-Cache and 32KB L1 D-Cache per core Shared 256 KB L2 cache Memory – Up to 2GB 16-bit DDR3/3L up to 2133Mbps or DDR4 up to 2666Mbps Storage – NAND and NOR SPI flash support Networking 1x QSGMII interface (Serdes 5Gbps rate) for 4x external Gigabit Ethernet PHYs 1x SGMII/HSGMII interface (Serdes1.25/3.125Gbps rate) supporting Gigabit and 2.5Gbps modes 1x RGMII interface for Gigabit Ethernet 1x MDIO interface […]

January 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

IBASE INA1607 is a fanless uCPE/SD-WAN appliance powered by an Intel Atom x7405C Amston Lake SoC

IBASE Technology’s INA1607 is a fanless uCPE (universal Customer Premises Equipment) and SD-WAN (Software-defined WAN) appliance powered by an Intel Atom x7405C Amston Lake processor coupled with up to 16GB ECC or non-EEC DDR5 memory. The embedded computer comes with offers up to 64GB eMMC flash, features a 2.5-inch SATA bay, offers four 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, two dual-function GbE ports (RJ45/SFP), and supports wireless expansion for WiFi 6 or 4G LTE/5G modules through mini PCIe and M.2 slots and up to six antennas. IBASE INA1607 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom X7405C quad-core Amston Lake processor @ up to 2.2GHz with 6MB cache; TDP: 12W System Memory – Up to 16GB DDR5 4800MHz ECC/Non-ECC via SODIMM socket Storage 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash M.2 2280 B-Key 3042/3080 socket for SATA III or PCIe SSD 2.5-inch SATA drive bay Networking 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports via Intel i226-V controllers 2x GbE RJ45 […]

January 7, 2025January 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

FOSDEM 2025 schedule – Embedded, Open Hardware, RISC-V, Edge AI, and more

FOSDEM 2025 will take place on February 1-2 with over 8000 developers meeting in Brussels to discuss open-source software & hardware projects. The free-to-attend (and participate) “Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting” grows every year, and in 2025 there will be 968 speakers, 930 events, and 74 tracks. Like every year since FOSDEM 2015 which had (only) 551 events, I’ll create a virtual schedule with sessions most relevant to the topics covered on CNX Software from the “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “Open Hardware and CAD/CAM” devrooms, but also other devrooms including “RISC-V”, “FOSS Mobile Devices”, “Low-level AI Engineering and Hacking”, among others. FOSDEM 2025 Day 1 – Saturday 1 10:30 – 11:10 – RISC-V Hardware – Where are we? by Emil Renner Berthing I’ll talk about the current landscape of available RISC-V hardware powerful enough to run Linux and hopefully give a better overview of what to […]

January 4, 2025January 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

Radxa Cubie A5E – A compact Allwinner A527/T527 SBC with HDMI 2.0, dual GbE, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4

Radxa Cubie A5E is an SBC powered by Allwinner A527/T527 octa-core Cortex-A55 SoC and featuring HDMI 2.0, dual GbE, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, an M.2 socket for NVMe SSD, USB 3.0 Type-A and USB 2.0 OTG (Type-C) ports, and a 40-pin GPIO form factor in a compact 69x56mm form factor. Long-time readers may remember the Allwinner A10-powered Cubieboard launched in 2012 as an alternative to the hard-to-get Raspberry Pi development board or the various TV boxes like the MeLE A1000 we tried to use to run Linux on Arm hardware. At the time, Allwinner SoCs became popular in SBCs but the company management eventually failed to deliver on software, so some members of CubieTech decided to split and founded Radxa to design Rockchip SBCs that looked more promising in terms of software support. It eventually ended up being a good move after a few difficult first years. However, Allwinner […]