radxa News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 11, 2024November 13, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Palmshell SLiM X4L is a low-cost, ultrathin mini PC based on Intel N100 Alder Lake-N SoC

Radxa Palmshell SLiM X4L is a low-cost, ultrathin mini PC powered by an Intel N100 Alder Lake-N SoC, equipped with 8GB to 32GB LPDDR5 RAM and a 128GB to 1TB NVMe SSD, and with a design that somewhat reminds me of the MeLE Quieter4C fanless mini PC. It’s also an update of the Palmshell SLiM X2L based on the Radxa X2L SBC powered by an Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core Gemini Lake Refresh processor and the X4L features the exact same port layout with two USB ports on the side, a USB-C port for power, a low-profile Ethernet RJ45 port, two more USB 3.2 Type-A ports on the rear panel, two HDMI outputs, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Kensington lock. Palmshell SLiM X4L specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 CPU – Quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) GPU – 24EU Intel HD Graphics @ up to […]

November 8, 2024November 8, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

Radxa E52C – A Rockchip RK3582 router with dual 2.5GbE, USB 3.0 port, USB serial console port

Radxa E52C is a compact router based on Rockchip RK3582 hexa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC and featuring two 2.5GbE ports, a USB 3.0 port, and a USB-C port for serial console access which will make some readers happy… It’s an update to the earlier Radxa E20C “Mini Network Titan” router, which was limited to two Gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB 2.0 port, and powered by an entry-level Rockchip RK3528A quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC. The Radxa E52C is better in every way with a much faster CPU, higher maximum memory and flash storage capacities, faster networking, and support for USB 3.0 storage or wireless dongles leading the company to call it an “Enhanced Mini Network Titan”. Radxa E52C specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3582 CPU Dual-core Cortex-A76 with up to 2.4 GHz Quad-core Cortex-A55 at up to 1.8GHz GPU – None (all good since we are talking about a router here…) AI accelerator – 5 […]

September 29, 2024September 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Radxa X4 review – An Intel N100 alternative to Raspberry Pi 5 tested with Ubuntu 24.04

We already looked at the Radxa X4 kit featuring an Intel N100 SBC with a design similar to the Raspberry Pi 5 and accessories including a Radxa Power PD 30W power adapter, an NVMe SSD, and a USB-C to USB-C cable, in the first part of the review, before installing Ubuntu 24.04 on the board.

In the second part of the review, we will test Ubuntu 24.04 in more detail with some benchmarks and power consumption measurements to show how well it works (or not) compared to a Raspberry Pi 5. We will also test the 40-pin GPIO header on the Radxa X4 controlled through a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller.

September 16, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linux 6.11 Release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.11 is out with Linus Torvalds’ announcement on the Linux kernel mailing list (LKML): I’m once again on the road and not in my normal timezone, but it’s Sunday afternoon here in Vienna, and 6.11 is out. The last week was actually pretty quiet and calm, which is nice to see. The shortlog is below for anybody who wants to look at the details, but it really isn’t very many patches, and the patches are all pretty small. Nothing in particular stands out – the biggest patch in here is for Hyper-V Confidential Computing documentation. Anyway, with this, the merge window will obviously open tomorrow, and I already have 40+ pull requests pending. That said, exactly _because_ I’m on the road, it will probably be a fairly slow start to the merge window, since not only am I on my laptop, there’s OSS Europe starting tomorrow and then the […]

September 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8 released with improved support for Rockchip, Amlogic, and Allwinner SBCs

Armbian and DietPi are two separate projects that provide Linux-based OS images optimized for Arm-based single board computers. The last time we had a look at both projects was in June with the release of Armbian 24.5.1 and DietPi 9.4, but there have been several updates since then including the releases of the latest DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8 Yelt just a few days ago. So let’s check out the latest changes. DietPi 9.7 DietPi is a lightweight Debian-based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems that ships as a minimal image but users can install any packages they want, including the ones required for desktop environment, to match the requirements of the applications. It’s notably used by the Linamp project – a Raspberry Pi 4-based project that brings WinAMP to real life – that we covered a few weeks ago. DietPi 9.7 was released on August 25, 2024 with […]

August 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

DeskPi RackMate T1 is a U8 desktop rack designed for Raspberry Pi, NVIDIA Jetson, mini-ITX motherboards, and more

Rackmount for Raspberry Pi 4, Jetson Nano

DeskPi RackMate T1 is a U8 desktop rack especially suited to SBC users with support for Raspberry Pi SBCs, NVIDIA Jetson developer kits, Raxa ROCK 5B pico-ITX SBC, mini-ITX motherboards, and more. The RackMate T1 chassis is made of aluminum alloy and acrylic frame and its 8U form factor (406 (H) x 280 (L) x 200 (W) mm) allows it to be placed either on a desk or a floor of a home lab. DeskPi RackMat T1 highlights: Mounting holes on all trays Raspberry Pi 3B, 3B, +4B, and DeskPi aux board bring HDMI and USB-C to the front (M2.5 screws) – star holes NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kit (M2.5 screws) – square holes Radxa ROCK 5B pico-ITX SBC (M3 screws) – round holes 2.5-inch drives Screw kits with M2.5 screws and standoffs, M3 screws, and a screwdriver Dimensions – 406 x 280 x 200 mm (H x L x […]

August 19, 2024September 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Radxa X4 SBC kit review – Part 1: Unboxing, case assembly, Ubuntu 24.04 installation

The Radxa X4 is a single-board computer that uses an Intel N100 processor instead of an Arm-based SoC found in most SBCs and also embeds a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller for GPIO control. What’s interesting is that the Radxa X4 is a small computer board with a similar form factor as the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC, but benefits from the higher performance of Intel “Alder Lake-N” Processor N100 CPU and out-of-the-box compatibility with most operating systems, except for specific features such as GPIOs. The Intel N100 board also comes with a built-in M.2 M-key socket (so no need for an extra HAT) that supports higher speed storage thanks to a PCIe 3.0 x4 interfaces, as well as WiFi 6 connectivity, making the Radxa X4 an interesting option for those looking for a small, capable computer board for home, IoT, or industrial use. The company sent us a full kit with […]

August 18, 2024August 19, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Radxa ROCK 5 ITX RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard review – Building an Arm PC and NAS with Debian KDE

ROCK 5 ITX Review: Build Arm Computer NAS

In this review, I’ll show how I installed Debian on the ROCK 5 ITX mini-ITX motherboard powered by a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 processor, before building a computer/NAS with the Arm mini-ITX motherboard, testing various features and running benchmarks. In the first part of the review, we checked out the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX (Arm) and Jupiter (RISC-V) mini-ITX motherboards with specifications and unboxing, and the Auriga 6-Bay NAS mini-ITX chassis used in this review. I already built the computer with the Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard, so here I simply switched the RISC-V motherboard with the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX Arm motherboard and installed a few SATA drives. Radxa ROCK 5 ITX first boot – A tricky start… Radxa provides getting started instructions on the documentation website which I mostly follow to hopefully boot within a few minutes. I had to prepare the hardware first. So I installed a […]