Arduino has recently announced the Opta micro PLC with industrial IoT capabilities adding yet another solution to the Arduino Pro family. Arduino used to focus on the hobbyist crowd, but with the launch of the Arduino Pro family in 2020 starting with the Portenta H7 board, the company switched its main focus to the more profitable enterprise market. Since then they’ve launched several other boards designed in-house, and last year started collaborating with the introduction of the Arduino WisGate Edge LoRaWAN gateways based on RAKwireless hardware. The Arduino Opta is another one of those collaborations as it was designed together with Finder, who calls their devices PLR (Programmable Logic Relays). Arduino Opta key features and specifications: MCU – STMicroelectronics STM32H747XI microcontroller with 1x Arm Cortex-M7 core up to 480 MHz, 1x Arm Cortex-M4 core up to 240 MHz, 2MB flash, 1MB SRAM (as found in all Portenta H7 boards, and […]
AMD unveils low-cost Artix UltraScale+ AU7P FPGA and Zynq UltraScale+ ZU3T MPSoC
AMD has added two new low-cost, low-power members to its UltraScale+ family with the Artix UltraScale+ AU7P FPGA and the Zynq UltraScale+ ZU3T MPSoC. Both devices are manufactured with the 16nm FinFET process and offer entry points to the transceiver-based UltraScale+ family with features such as high I/O-to-logic density, UltraRAM, DSP, and more. AMD Artix UltraScale+ AU7P FPGA The new AU7P FPGA is the smallest from the Artix UltraScale+ family with four 12.5Gbps transceivers, up to 82K system logic cells, 216 DSP slices, 4.9 Mbit RAM, and 248 I/Os. It is offered in a 10.5 x 8.5mm InFO package. The company says the chip provides up to 50% lower static power, 20% more I/O-to-logic ratio, and twice as many 3.3V HDIO compared to the AU10P device. The AU7P is designed for space-constrained and/or power-sensitive applications such as medical imaging, machine vision, professional cameras/monitors, and automotive radar/lidar. More details may be […]
Wi-SUN: An LPWAN standard for Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, large scale IoT deployments
Wi-SUN is a standard (IEEE 802.15.4g) managed by the Wi-SUN Alliance and designed for Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, and other large scale IoT deployments with a large number of devices thanks to the use of IPv6 mesh networking. The organization was founded in 2011 to “support the worldwide development of Wireless Communications Networks for Utilities, Smart Cities and IoT”, but due to the niche nature of target applications, it does not get that much press coverage and was only recently brought to my attention. Wi-SUN stands for “Wireless Smart Utility Networks”or “Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Networks”, and the standard aims to connect streetlights, cameras, weather stations, smart metering, utility transmission systems, and others to enable data-sharing between city services to improve their efficiency, save costs, and offer improves services to citizens. Wi-SUN FAN (Field Area Network) is the latest protocol managed by the Wi-SUN Alliance with over 95 million units shipped […]
Robustel industrial IoT gateways run Debian-based OS, offer 5G, 4G LTE, LoRaWAN connectivity
Robustel has launched three Arm-based industrial IoT gateways namely the EG5100, EG5120, and LG5100 that offer 5G, 4G LTE, and/or LoRaWAN connectivity, and runs Debian 11-based RobustOS Pro Linux operating systems The edge gateways also feature two Ethernet ports, two RS232/RS485 ports for connection to industrial devices, digital inputs and outputs for simple monitoring and control, and support a wide 9 to 60V DC power input through a 2-pin terminal block. Robustel LG5100, EG5100, and EG5120 specifications: SoC/memory/storage LG5100 and EG5100 Unnamed quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 792 MHz (possibly NXP i.MX 7ULP) 512MB DDR3 8GB eMMC flash EG5120 Unnamed quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6 GHz with 2.3 TOPS NPU (very likely NXP i.MX 8M Plus) 2GB DDR4 16GB eMMC flash, microSD card socket Connectivity LG5100 2x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports with support for 802.3af PD feature on eth0 LoRaWAN connectivity with 1x SMA antenna connector, support for EU868, AU915, CN470 […]
ASRock Industrial iEPF-9010S/iEP-9010E Edge AIoT platforms feature Alder Lake S CPU, up to 128GB RAM
ASRock Industrial has released the iEPF-9010S and iEP-9010E high-end, rugged Edge AIoT platforms powered by 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake S processors, equipped with up to 128GB RAM, 4G LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, and real-time TSN/TCC networking. The I/O rich embedded computers are designed for highly demanding workloads and mission-critical industrial applications such as factory automation, machine automation, robotic control, AI-enabled AOI (automated optical inspection), autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and more. The ASRock iEPF-9010S Expandable AIoT Edge platforms come with the following specifications: SoC – Intel 12th Gen Core, Pentium or Celeron “Alder Lake S” hybrid processor with up to 16 cores and 24 threads, Intel Xe or UHD Graphics fitting in an LGA 1700 socket Chipset iEPF-9010S-EY4 model – Intel R680E iEPF-9012S-EY4 model – Intel H610 System Memory iEPF-9010S-EY4 model – 4x 260-pin SO-DIMM DDR4 3200MHz up to 128GB (32 GB per SO-DIMM) iEPF-9012S-EY4 model – […]
Morse Micro MM6104, MM6108 Wi-Fi HaLow SoCs support up to 32.5 Mbps data rate
Australian company Morse Micro MM6104 and MM6108 Wi-Fi HaLow SoCs should offer some competition to the Newracom NRC chips found in all 802.11ah WiFi HaLow boards and devices released so far. Both MM610x chips have similar features, but the MM6104 SoC supports 1/2/4 MHz channel bandwidth for up to 15 Mbps data rate – just like the Newracom NRC7292 chip – while the more powerful MM6108 can handle a data rate of up to 32.5 Mbps thanks to 1/2/4/8 MHz channel bandwidth. MM6104/MM6108 specifications: Optional 32-bit RISC-V Host Applications Processor (HAP) Single-Chip IEEE802.11ah Wi-Fi HaLow transceiver for low-power, long-reach IoT applications Worldwide Sub-1 GHz frequency bands (850MHz to 950MHz) On-chip power amplifier with support for external PA option MM6104 – 1/2/4 MHz channel bandwidth for up to 15 Mbps data rate (Note: the datasheet reads “single-stream max data rate up to 40 Mbps”, but it appears to be a mistake […]
TurboX C7230 SOM integrates Qualcomm QCS7230 SoC for WiFi 6 & 5G 8K AI cameras
Thundercomm TurboX C7230 SOM is a system-on-module powered by the just-announced Qualcomm QCS7230 hexa-core processor with 7 TOPS of AI performance and designed for WiFi 6 and 5G connected smart cameras with up to 8K resolution. The TurboX C7230 module comes with 8GB LPDDR5 (PoP), 128GB UFS storage, six MIPI CSI camera interfaces, two MIPI DSI display interfaces, as well as a QCA6391 chip for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, plus optional 5G cellular connectivity through an optional Snapdragon X55 module that connects to the TurboX C7230 development kit. TurboX C7230 SOM system-on-module specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon QCS7230 hexa-core processor with 1x Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77) core @ 2.84 GHz, 3x Kryo 585 Gold cores @ 2.4 GHz, and two Kryo 585 Silver (Cortex-A55) cores @ 1.8 GHz, 4 MB L3 cache, Adreno 650 GPU, Adreno 665 VPU, Adreno 995 DPU, Hexagon DSP with dual-HVX, and Spectra 480 […]
Ai-Thinker Ra-08 LoRaWAN module features ASR6601 chip (Sponsored)
Ai-Thinker Ra-08/08H are new LoRaWAN modules based on ASR Microelectronics ASR6601 module featuring a 48MHz ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller and Semtech SX1262 transceiver allowing long-range, low power communication for the Internet of Things. Both LoRaWAN modules share most of the same specifications, but the Ra-08 module operates in the 410-525MHz frequency band, while the Ra-08H module works in the widely used 803MHz to 930MHz band. Ai-Thinker also provides a development kit for each module. Ai-Thinker Ra-08/Rs-08H key features and specifications: Programmable embedded Arm Cortex-M4 MCU with 128 KB of Flash and 16 KB of SRAM LoRa radio Sensitivity – -138 dBm @ SF12/125KHz Tx power – Up to +22dBm Frequencies Ra-08 – 410 MHz to 525 MHz Ra-07H – 803 MHz to 930 MHz Spread spectrum factor – SF5, SF6, SF7, SF8, SF9, SF10, SF11, SF12 LoRa, (G)FSK, BPSK, and (G)MSK modulation Bit rate up to 62.5 Kbps in LoRa […]