Tropic Square TROPIC01 is an auditable, open architecture, tamper-proof RISC-V based secure element (SE) designed to interface with microcontrollers in products such as hardware wallets, authentication solutions, biometric wallets, medical devices, and other IoT solutions. There are plenty of secure elements on the market, but their design is usually closed-source, so the design can’t be easily verified by third parties and flaws may remain hidden even when discovered. With its open designs, potentially flaws in the TROPIC01 can easily be found, disclosed, and fixed by the community, and such verifiable design improved trust in the security of the solution. TOPIC01 secure element specifications: CPU core – RISC-V IBEX Controller Core with secure firmware updates and customizable FW upon request Memory OTP to store x.509 certificate and keys Flash to store general purpose and PIN verification data Memory address scrambling On-the-fly encryption Error correction code protection Communication Interface SPI application control […]
Giada DN25 fanless 4K digital signage player features Raspberry Pi CM5 Lite module and eMMC flash
Most products based on Raspberry Pi CM5 make use of the eMMC flash version, but Giada DN25 fanless 4K digital signage player relies on the Raspberry Pi CM5 Lite module instead, but still uses 32GB or 64GB flash. This looks like a contradiction at first since the CM5 Lite module has no eMMC flash, but more on that later. The media player uses a CM5 Lite module with 2GB RAM and a wireless module, and features two full HDMI ports to drive up to two 4K displays, a 3.5mm audio jack, a Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB ports, and an RS232 port for peripheral connection (e.g. barcode scanner). Giada DN25 specifications: Compute Module – Raspberry Pi CM5 Lite Module SoC – Broadcom BCM2712 CPU – Quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor @ 2.4GHz GPU – VideoCore VII GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1 graphics, Vulkan 1.3 VPU – 4Kp60 HEVC decoder […]
PCIe x1 slot adapters let the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC interface with standard PCIe cards
Waveshare has recently launched the PCIe TO PCIe x1 Board (C) which is a PCIe FFC connector to standard PCIe x1 slot adapter board for the Raspberry Pi 5. But while searching for more details about the board, I also found out about other solutions from 52Pi and Spotpear, which are a bit older, but still worth taking a look because of their unique features and low cost. These Raspberry Pi PCIe x1 slot adapters allow users to connect expansion cards such as network cards, storage controllers, and other PCIe peripherals to the Raspberry Pi 5. Additionally, the board features a dedicated 12V power header and DC jack, which supplies power to the 12V pins of the PCIe slot, for power-hungry devices. These features allow for applications like AI acceleration, high-speed networking, and storage expansion. Waveshare PCIe TO PCIe x1 Board (C) The Waveshare PCIe FFC to PCIe x1 Adapter […]
NComputing RX540 Raspberry Pi CM5-powered thin client supports Citrix, Microsoft AVD, WIndows 365, RDS, and more
NComputing RX540 is a thin client powered by the Raspberry Pi CM5 that works with Citrix, Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Windows 365, Remote Desktop Services (RDS), and NComputing’s own vSpace Pro and VERDE VDI platforms. Omnissa Horizon integration is expected in March 2025. We first covered NComputing when the company released the RX300 Raspberry Pi 3-based Thin Client in 2017, which we reviewed with Windows Server 2016 the same year. Since then, the company introduced the RX420(HDX) Raspberry Pi 4 Thin Client compatible with Citrix HDX in 2020, and now they’ve introduced their first Raspberry Pi Compute Module-based hardware with the CM5-powered NComputing RX540 thin client, and there’s also an RX580 model with 8GB RAM and internal storage available upon request. Ncomputing RX540 specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 SoC – Broadcom BCM2712 CPU – Quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor @ 2.4GHz GPU – VideoCore VII GPU […]
TouchEye dual round touch display module features Raspberry Pi RP2040 or ESP32-S3 MCU (Crowdfunding)
Last December, Debashis wrote about the Waveshare Double Eye LCD module comprised of two round displays that can be useful for robotics or art projects since they can be made to look like googly eyes. The module is designed to be connected to a host MCU via an SPI interface. The TouchEye looks similar but offers larger 1.28-inch round displays (instead of 0.71-inch), and also adds a touch function. Instead of being connected to a host MCU via SPI like the Waveshare model, the TouchEye dual touch display module is a complete board with an onboard MCU that can be either a Raspberry Pi RP2040 or an Espressif ESP32-S3 that also offers WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Both boards also feature a USB-C port for power and programming, a microSD card slot, a GPIO breakout connector, and programmable buttons. TouchEye module specifications: MCU (one or the other) Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core […]
Armbian v25.2 and DietPi v9.11 released with updated Ubuntu and Debian-based Linux images for single board computers
Vendor-provided Linux images for single board computers are not always working optimally, so this post is a regular reminder that users may want to check out Armbian and DietPi projects mostly supported by the community but also backed by some of the vendors who offload some (repackaging) software work to them. Armbian and DietPi are separate projects, but this month, Armbian v25.2 and DietPi v9.11 were almost released simultaneously. I don’t report on each release (should I?), but they release an update every few months. The last time we had a look at both projects was in September 2024 for the releases of DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8. Let’s see what the new releases have to bring. Armbian v25.2 Main changes: New Boards – Rock 2A and 2F, NanoPi R3S, Retroid Pocket RP5, RPMini, Rock 5T, GenBook, MKS-PI, SKIPR, Armsom CM5, NextThing C.H.I.P, Magicsee C400 Plus Rockchip 3588 Improvements – […]
The OpenVoiceOS Foundation aims to enable open-source privacy and customization for voice assistants
The OpenVoiceOS Foundation, or OVOS Foundation for shorts, is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing open-source voice assistant technology and offers an open-source privacy-focus alternative to voice assistant by large companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple. One of the founders, Peter Steenbergen (j1nx), explained to us it all started when he read an article on CNX Software about Mycroft Mark II voice assistant hardware in 2018. He ended up being involved and created “MycroftOS“, later renamed to “OpenVoiceOS – Mycroft Edition”, as a Just Enough OS utilizing Buildroot and working on the Mark II. There were some tensions with the open-source community at some point, and the Mycroft project went south from there and the company had to close in 2023. Eventually, OpenVoiceOS took over the codebase of Mycroft A.I. and managed to merge lingering PR from the open-source community. Together with NEON A.I., they took over the Mycroft A.I. community […]
Raspberry Pi Pico SDK 2.1.1 release adds 200MHz clock option for RP2040, various Waveshare boards, new code samples
The Raspberry Pi Pico SDK 2.1.1 has just been released with official 200 MHz clock support for the Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU, several new boards mostly from Waveshare, but also one from Sparkfun, as well as new code samples, and other small changes. Raspberry Pi RP2040 gets official 200 MHz clock support When the Raspberry Pi RP2040 was first released along with Raspberry Pi Pico in 2021, we were told the default frequency was 48 MHz, but the microcontroller could also run up to 133 MHz. Eventually, I think the Cortex-M0+ cores were clocked at 125 MHz by default, although some projects (e.g. PicoDVI) would boost the frequency up to 252 MHz. Frequencies higher than 133 Mhz were not officially supported so far, but the Pico SDK 2.1.1 changes that since the Raspberry Pi RP2040 has now been certified to run at a system clock of 200MHz when using a […]