router News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Giveaway Week 2024 winners announced!

We’re now ready to announce the winners of CNX Software’s Giveaway Week 2024. We offered some of the review samples we tested (and some we did not test) in the last year, and for the fourth year running, RAKwireless also gave away two IoT development kits shipped directly to winners. This year’s prizes also included a RISC-V motherboard, a 3D depth camera, a few Arm development boards, two touchscreen displays, and an Alder Lake-N mini PC/router. All those products can be seen in the photo, minus some accessories. You’ll find more than seven devices because we organized the third Giveaway Week on CNX Software Thailand simultaneously with four prizes. We had seven winners on CNX Software: Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard – François-Denis, Canada Orbbec Femto mega 3D depth and 4K RGB camera – Reifu, Japan RAKwireless Blues.ONE LoRaWAN, LTE-M, and NB-IoT devkit – OldCrow, Portugal Mixtile Core 3588E development kit […]

November 10, 2024November 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 369 Comments

Giveaway Week 2024 – iKOOLCORE R2 Core i3-N300 mini PC and quad 2.5GbE router

Let’s end CNX Software’s Giveaway Week 2024 with a bang! The last prize is an iKOOLCORE R2 mini PC and router powered by an Intel Core i3-N300 Alder Lake-N CPU, equipped with 8GB RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD, and featuring four 2.5GbE ports. The tiny PC also comes with HDMI and USB-C ports for dual 4K video output, an M.2 E-Key socket to install a wireless module for WiFi and Bluetooth, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C port with DisplayPort Alt. mode, and a not-so-useful USB-C audio port using Realtek ALC987 codec. My review of the iKOOLCORE R2 last year was a learning experience as it was the first time I used Proxmox VE and pfSense, and since I wanted to use the system both as a mini PC running Ubuntu 22.04 desktop and a router/firewall running pfSense […]

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 […]

October 25, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 31 Comments

SONOFF ZBMINIR2 review – A mini Zigbee switch & Zigbee router tested with eWeLink and Home Assistant

We have received another Zigbee device from SONOFF for review, namely the ZBMINIR2 which we’ll review with both eWelink adn Home Assistant. Many people may be familiar with the first-generation mini Zigbee Switch that SONOFF released in 2020, known as the ZBMINI. ZBMINI was one of the early Zigbee Switch models, which also acted as a Zigbee Router. The ZBMINIR2 is SONOFF’s second-generation mini Zigbee Switch including both software and hardware upgrades compared to its predecessor. Improvements include a smaller size, better signal quality, an increase in the number of supported devices (2x), wider coverage (5x), and additional features. Let’s dive into the details. Unboxing ZBMINIR2 Zigbee switch Inside the box, you’ll find a small user manual and the ZBMINIR2 device as usual. It is notably smaller than the predecessor model, which makes installation much easier in many cases. For example, it can now fit into the wall box behind […]

October 10, 2024 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Networking Pro A7 Elite is a WiFi 7 SoC with a 40 TOPS NPU for AI-optimized traffic and range

The Qualcomm Networking Pro A7 Elite platform is a new wireless networking platform that integrates WiFi 7 with edge AI. The wireless networking platform can deliver up to 33 Gbps of throughput and features an AI coprocessor that provides up to 40 TOPS for AI workloads. AI features are designed to enhance Wi-Fi and networking user experience and include Smart Traffic Classifier, Range Boost, and Networking AIOps. The platform also includes 10Gbps Fiber (XGS-PON), Ethernet, front-end modules, and filters into an integrated platform. All these features are designed to streamline system development and reduce design complexity by integrating key elements—from broadband to antenna—into an integrated platform. Qualcomm Networking Pro A7 Elite platform specification Qualcomm’s Wireless Networking Platform CPU – Unnamed quad-core processor, built on a 14 nm node, and clocked at 1.8 GHz NPU – Up to 40 TOPS (AI coprocessor featuring Qualcomm Hexagon NPU) System Memory – DDR3L/DDR4 Storage […]

October 2, 2024October 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

OpenWrt One WiFi 6 router with Filogic 820 SoC launched for $89

The “OpenWrt One/AP-24.XY” is a Filogic 820-based WiFi 6 router board manufactured by Banana Pi whose software is directly managed by OpenWrt developers with assistance from MediaTek. The router was first announced in January 2024, and developer samples became available sometime in April with some early units auctioned away at the OpenWrt Summit which took place in Cyprus on May 18-19. The good news is that the OpenWrt One is now available to anyone on Aliexpress for $89 including a metal enclosure, a PoE module, three antennas, and a power supply. Here’s a reminder of the OpenWrt One router specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7981B (Filogic 820) dual-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz System Memory – 1GB DDR4 Storage 128 MB SPI NAND flash for U-boot and Linux 4 MB SPI NOR flash for write-protected (by default) recovery bootloader (reflashing can be enabled with a jumper) Two types of flash devices […]

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 […]

August 28, 2024August 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

NanoPi R3S – A low-cost Rockchip RK3566 SBC and dual gigabit Ethernet router

FriendlyELEC NanoPi R3S is a low-cost Rockchip RK3566 SBC and router with two gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB 3.0 host ports, a USB-C port for power and data, a microSD card slot, Reset and Mask buttons, and a few LEDs. It also features a MIPI DSI connector for people wanting to connect a display. Its design and size are similar to the NanoPi R5C dual 2.5GbE SBC and router, so it could be viewed as a low-cost alternative with dual GbE, no M.2 socket for WiFi & Bluetooth, only one USB 3.0 port, and no HDMI video output. The company promotes it as an inexpensive platform for IoT applications, basic NAS solutions, and so on. NanoPi R3S specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU NPU – 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator VPU 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder 1080p60 […]