sipeed News - Page 7 of 8 - CNX Software

January 6, 2021January 20, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Sipeed MAIX-II Dock is an Allwinner V831 powered AIoT vision devkit

Sipeed introduced MAIX development boards powered by Kendryte K210 dual-core RISCV processor with AI accelerators in 2018, and we tested the Maixduino and Grove AI HAT based on the solution using Arduino and Micropython the following year. It works fine for audio and video project requiring AI acceleration at low power, but performance (resolution/fps) is limited. So if you’d like a bit more oomph for your audio & vision AI projects, as well as proper Linux support, Sipeed has just launched MAIX-II Dock powered by Allwinner V831 Cortex-A7 AI camera SoC clocked at up to 800-1000 MHz and 64MB on-chip DDR2 RAM, as well as a Full HD camera and a small display.MAIX-II Dock specifications: MAIX-II core module SoC – Allwinner V831 single-core Cortex-A7 processor clocked at 800-1000 MHz with 0.2TOPS AI accelerator, H.264/H.265/JPEG video encoder up to 1080p30 System Memory – 64MB DDR2 in package (SiP) Storage – Optional […]

November 9, 2020May 3, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 36 Comments

XuanTie C906 based Allwinner RISC-V processor to power $12+ Linux SBC’s

Alibaba unveiled Xuantie-910 RISC-V core (aka XT910) in 2019 for powerful SoC with up to 16 cores, but an update in 2020 revealed the company planned to have a complete RISC-V core family for a wide range of application from low-power microcontrollers to server SoCs. At the time, I just assumed the company planned to keep their cores to themselves, but time proved me wrong as T-Head, the Alibaba subsidiary in charge of developing RISC-V cores, started to cooperate with Allwinner to develop open-source processors, which should lead to low-cost Linux capable RISC-V SBC very soon according to a tweet from Sipeed. Good News: We get first chip which based on XuanTie C906 (RV64GCV), it have abundant interface (HDMI/RGB/DVP/MIPI/GMAC/…), and will be able to run Debian system.Last and most important, the basic dev board price is start at 12.5$ (1% of HiFive Unleashed)。 pic.twitter.com/EJbXTJ5eMb — Sipeed (@SipeedIO) November 6, 2020 […]

October 24, 2020October 28, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

BL602/BL604 RISC-V WiFi & Bluetooth 5.0 LE SoC will sell at ESP8266 price point

Hisilicon Hi3861 may be the first RISC-V WIFI SoC we’ve reported on, but due to political uncertainties and security concerns, supplies may not be available outside of China. So alternatives are welcomed, and Nanjing-based Bouffalo Lab (not a typo, 博流智能科技 in Chinese) has recently introduced BL602 and BL604 32-bit RISC-V WiFi and Bluetooth LE SoC for low-power IoT applications that are supposed to compete against ESP8266 in terms of price but with higher performance and additional features. The BL602 will also be integrated into an upcoming Sipeed Longan-series board, and potentially a new IoT board from Pine64. BL602 / BL604 key features & specifications: MCU subsystem – 32-bit RISC-V CPU with FPU with dynamic frequency from 1MHz to 192MHz, L1 cache Memory – 276KB SRAM on-chip Storage 128KB ROM, 1Kb eFuse, and optional Embedded Flash on-chip XIP QSPI flash support Wireless Wi-Fi 4 – 802.11 b/g/n @ 2.4 GHz Bluetooth […]

August 24, 2020August 25, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Sipeed Maix Amigo is a Portable 64-bit RISC-V AI Development Kit with Display and Cameras

Earlier this year, Seeed Studio introduced Wio Terminal a portable Arduino devkit with an LCD display, and expansion connectors and headers. The company is now selling a similar looking devkit but for different applications with Sipeed Maix Amigo portable 64-bit RISC-V development kit powered by Kendryte K210 RISC-V AI processor and equipped with an LCD display, two cameras, a few buttons, and several I/O headers and Grove connectors. Sipeed Maix Amigo specifications: SoC – Kendryte K210 Dual-core 64-bit RISC-V (RV64GC) processor with FPU @ 400 MHz (overclockable to 500MHz), 8MB SRAM, built-in AI accelerators for video and audio Storage – 16MB Flash, MicroSD card slot up Display – 3.5-inch TFT capacitive touch screen display with 480×320 resolution Camera VGA front-facing camera up to 30 fps (GC0328 sensor) VGA rear camera up to 60 fps (OV7740 sensor) Audio – Build-in microphone, optional 6-mic array USB – 1x USB Type-C port for […]

June 24, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Sipeed TANG Hex is a Low-Cost Xilinx Zynq-7020 Arm FPGA Board

Last year, Sipeed launched a $5 FPGA board called Sipeed Tang and based on an entry-level Gowin GW1N-1-LV FPGA. But I had not noticed the company had also worked on a more powerful, yet still low-cost Xilinx Zynq-7020 board in a business card form factor not too dissimilar from the Raspberry Pi model B form factor. Meet Sipeed TANG Hex. So far a low-cost Zynq-7010 or Zynq-7020 board met you had to spend $99 to $199 with products such as MyIR Z-Turn and Digilent PYNQ-Z1. But Sipeed Tang HEX can be purchased for as little as $73 shipping on Aliexpress, or 439 RMB ($62) on Taobao for people based in mainland China. It might be tempting to get a low-cost board to get started, but is it worth it? Read on to find out. Sipeed TANG Hex specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq-7020 (XC7Z020-1CLG484) dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor and FPGA with […]

April 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Sipeed MaixCube is a Fully Integrated AI Development Platform Powered by Kendryte K210 RISC-V SoC

MaixCube All-in-one K210 Development Platform

Sipeed has made several boards and kits based on Kendryte K210 RISC-V processor for low-power AI workloads such as face detection or object recognition including Maixduino board and Grove AI HAT that ship with camera and display. The company has now come up with MaixCube all-in-one development platform that houses Sipeed M1 module, a display, a camera, and a battery into a plastic case that’s somewhat similar to MStack M5StickV but with a larger display, and variations in the form factor and features. Sipeed MaixCube specifications: SoC – Kendryte K210 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 400 MHz (overclockable to 600 MHz) with FPU, 8MB SRAM, KPU AI accelerator, APU audio processor, and FFT accelerator Storage – 128 Mbit flash, MicroSD card slot Display – 1.3″ TFT screen with 240×240 resolution Camera – OV7740 sensor (VGA camera) Audio – Built-in microphone, external speakers support; ES8374 audio codec USB – 1x USB […]

March 3, 2020March 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Sipeed M1n is a $10 M.2 Module based on K210 RISC-V AI Processor

Kendryte K210 is a RISC-V processor with AI accelerator found in boards such as Maixduino, Grove AI HAT, or HuskyLens among others, and enabling low-cost, low power AI applications such as face detection or object recognition. You can now add Kendryte K210 AI accelerator to any board or computer with M.2 socket or [Update: the M.2 connector pinout is non-standard] a USB-C port thanks to Sipeed M1n M.2 module that also comes with an M.2 to USB-C adapter. Sipeed M1n specifications: SoC – Kendryte K210 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 400MHz with FPU, Neural-network Processing Unit (NPU), audio processor, built-in 6MB SRAM memory for CPU, and 2MB AI SRAM Storage – 128Mbit SPI flash Camera – 24-pin connector for DVP camera (OV0328 camera module provided as part of the kit) Host Interface – M.2 socket with some IOs and JTAG interface, accessible via Maix Nano M.2 to USB-C […]

February 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

How to Build & Run Linux on Kendryte K210 RISC-V NOMMU Processor

A few months ago, we wrote that Western Digital was working on Linux & BusyBox RISC-V NOMMU, and managed to boot a minimal Linux OS on Kendryte K210 powered Sipeed Maix Go board. RISC-V NOMMU support was scheduled for Linux 5.5, and now that the new kernel has been released, Damien Le Moal has pushed the code allowing to build Linux and a busybox based roofs for RISC-V 64-bit NOMMU platforms using buildroot. I could start the build following the instructions on Github, but it failed as a Linux 5.6 RC1 tarball was missing. But I noticed “Vowstart” picked up on Damien’s work, and wrote detailed instructions. So let’s try the build out using a machine running Ubuntu 18.04. We’ll have to make sure dependencies are installed first:

sudo apt install build-essential device-tree-compiler bison \
    flex file git curl wget cpio python unzip rsync bc texinfo

1 2	sudo apt install build-essential device-tree-compiler bison \ flex file git curl wget cpio python unzip rsync bc texinfo

Then we can retrieve the source code and do some preparations (e.g. extract Linux 5.6 RC1 tarball):

git clone https://github.com/vowstar/k210-linux-nommu.git
cd k210-linux-nommu
export PROJ_ROOT=$(pwd)
sh ./prepare_buildroot.sh

git clone https://github.com/vowstar/k210-linux-nommu.git

cd k210-linux-nommu

export PROJ_ROOT=$(pwd)

sh ./prepare_buildroot.sh

The next step […]