Beelink KT03 Client Computer is a $150 Barebone Mini PC with Two COM Ports

Beelink KT03

Beelink launched several Apollo Lake mini PCs in the last few years, and despite moving to Intel Gemini Lake family for some of their more recent models such as Beelink S2 or Beelink X45, the company has just launched a new Apollo Lake model. The new Beelink KT03 “client computer” is powered by an Intel Celeron J3455 processor, but differs from other mini PCs from the company, as it is sold barebone without RAM nor storage (nor OS), comes with two DB9 RS-232 connectors, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports. Beelink KT03 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J3455 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.5 GHz / 2.3 GHz (Turbo) with 12 EU Intel HD graphics 500 @ 250/750 MHz; 6W TDP System Memory – 1x SODIMM DDR3L socket, no EEC, 1333/1600/1867 MHz; supports  up to 8GB RAM Storage – 64Mbit SPI flash for UEFI/BIOS; support for internal 2.5″ SATA drives, […]

Firefly Team Mailbag – Rockchip Development Boards and Accessories

ROC-RK3328-CC

T-Chip Intelligent Technology Co. is a hardware and software technology services company, and a few years ago they setup the “Firefly Team” to provide development boards running Android and/or Linux distributions to the maker community. If I remember correctly the company started with Firefly-RK3288 development board powered, as its name implies, by Rockchip RK3288 processor. Since then they’ve launched several other Rockchip development boards and modules, which I’ve covered on this blog. The company decided to send me some of their recent boards and accessories, so let’s have a look at what I received in my “mailbag”. I’ve also taken a few photos for those who did not watch the video or prefer close up photos. ROC-RK3328-CC “Renegade” Development Board The first board is ROC-RK3328-CC “Renegade” board which was first launched via a crowdfunding campaign by Libre Computer.  Both companies have been collaborating on some boards, and Libre Computer makes […]

LM-902 USB3.1 Gen2 to NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD Enclosure Sells for $43

Yesterday, I wrote about ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.1 Gen2 to PCIe NVMe SSD chip that will allow for connecting NVMe SSD into (largish) USB stick enclosures delivering up to 10 Gbps raw throughput. The post generated several comments including that JMicron Technology was also showcasing their own solution at Computex 2018 with JMS583 USB 3.1 Gen 2 to NVMe PCIe Gen3 bridge controller, and that enclosures were already for sale in China. If it is for sale in China, it should also be for sale on Aliexpress, or at least on Taobao. Bingo! LM-902 “USB 3.1 to PCI-e SSD NVMe” enclosure offers just that for $42.93 including shipping  on Aliexpress. Listed features and specifications: Storage I/F – NVMe M.2 M-key socket with PCIe 3.1a USB – USB 3.1 Gen2 type C up to 10 Gbps Features Supports TRIM to the SSD USB Type-C multiplexer& configuration channel(CC) logic NVM Express 1.3 USB […]

ASM2362 USB 3.1 Gen2 to PCIe Chip is Designed for USB NVMe SSD Drives

ASM2362

Most USB enclosure or expansion drive are designed with a SATA interface that tops out at 6 Gbp. That’s fine in most cases,  but if your host computer comes with USB 3.1 Gen2 SuperSpeed 10 Gbps (SuperSpeed+) port capable of even better performance, ASMedia now has a solution for faster USB drives with their ASM2362 USB 3.1 Gen2 to PCIe NVMe SSD chip. The solution is pretty new, and ASMedia has not setup a product page on their website yet, but they showcased a demo at Computex 2018.  In the photo above a Samsung 960 Pro SSD M.2 is connected to  another USB board  ASMedia – likely based on AS3142 Gen2 xHCI Host Controller – itself connected to a computer with a USB 3.1 Gen2 port.  The photo below shows CrystalDiskMark benchmark results comparing ASM2362 USB to NVMe solution to a standard USB to SATA enclosure. While the USB to […]

RAK833 is an Industrial Grade mini PCIe LoRaWAN Gateway Card

Mini-PCIe-LoRaWAN-Gateway

The most obvious way to setup your own LoRAWAN network is to get an off-the-shelf Gateway such as MatchBox, which can be easily installed, and configured using the built-in web interface. But if you need something more flexible, Rakwireless RAK833 could be an interesting option, as an industrial grade LoRaWAN gateway that you can just insert into an advanced router or computer’s mini PCIe slot. RAK833 card specifications: LoRa Connectivity Semtech SX1301 Digital Baseband Chip for outdoor LoRaWAN macro gateways 2x Semtech SX1255/7 Tx/Rx front-end 49x LoRa demodulators, 10 parallel demodulation paths Frequencies – 433 MHz, 470 MHz, 868 MHz, and 915 MHz Tx Power – Up to 25 dBm Rx Sensitivity – -140 dBm Host Interface – 52-pin mPCIe edge connector with USB and SPI (via FT2232H) signals; Supply Voltage – 3.3V compatible with 3G/LTE mPCIe cards Dimensions – 50.95 x 30 mm The card ships with an external […]

Newport GW6400/GW6404 Arm SBC Comes with 5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports, 2 SFP Fiber Ports, and 4 mPCIe Sockets

Gateworks-Newport-GW6400

Gateworks introduced their Newport SBC family based on Cavium Octeon TX Dual/Quad Core Arm processors at the end of last year, and the company has now announced the availability of the higher end models of their networking single board computers with Newport GW6400 & GW6404, which  provide four mPCIe sockets for expansion, five Gigabit Ethernet ports, and in the case of GW6404, two optional SFP cages for fiber connections. GW6400 / GW6404 specifications: SoC GW6400 – Cavium OcteonTX CN8120 dual core processor up to 800MHz GW6404 – Cavium OcteonTX CN8130 quad core processor up to 1.5 GHz System Memory GW6400 – 1 GB DDR4 DRAM GW6404 – 2 GB DDR4 DRAM Storage – 8 GB eMMC Flash , micro SD card slot, serial configuration EEPROM Connectivity 5x GbE Ethernet ports GW6404 – Up to 2x optional SFP fiber ports (redirect of one or two of the RJ45 ports to SFP […]

NXP QorIQ LayerScape LX2160A is a 16-core Arm Cortex A72 Communication Processor with 100 Gbit/s Ethernet

NXP Semiconductors has been working  on a high-end communication processor with their QorIQ LayerScape LX2160A SoC equipped with 16 Arm Cortex A72 cores, 16 Ethernet ports supporting 1 to 100 Gbit/s, as well as 24 PCIe Gen4 lanes, and four SATA 3.0 ports. NXP LX2160A key specifications / features: Processor – 16x Arm Cortex-A72 CPU cores, running up to 2.2GHz with 8MB L2 cache, 8MB platform cache Memory I/F – 2 x DDR4 72b including ECC, up to 3200 MT/s, maximum capacity of 256 GB Storage – 4 x SATA3.0 Ethernet Up to 16 Ethernet ports Supported Ethernet speeds include 1, 2.5, 10, 25, 40, 50, and 100 gigabits per second 130Gbps Layer 2 Ethernet switch PCIe – Up to 24 PCIe Gen4 lanes, supporting ports as wide as x8 24 SerDes lanes, operating up to 28GHz Acceleration Engines – 50Gbps security accelerator, 100Gbps data compression/decompression engine Security – Secure […]

Hikey 970 Development Board is Now Up for Pre-order for $299.99

Four A.I. development boards compliant with 96Boards specifications were announced at Linaro Connect HK 2018 last month: HiKey 970, Ultra96, as well as ROCK960 PRO & Enterprise Edition. So for we only knew pricing for Ultra96 ($249), but I’ve now noticed Hikey 970 “Super Edge AI Computing Platform”  is now up for pre-order for $299.99 on Lenovator website, with shipping planned for the end of April. [Update: Also found on Seeed Studio for the same price] Hikey 970 specifications: SoC – Huawei/Hisilicon Kirin 970 with 4x Cortex A73 @ 2.36GHz,  4x Cortex A53 @ 1.8GHz, Arm Mali G72-MP12 GPU, NPU (Neural Processing Unit) with 256MAC/cycle @ 960MHz System Memory – 6GB 1866MHz, 4 Channel LPDDR4x Storage – 64GB UFS storage, micro SD card slot, PCIe Gen3 on M.2 M key connector Video Output – HDMI 1.4 type A up to 1080p60 (TBC), 1x 4-lane MIPI DSI (via HS expansion connector) […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC