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March 31, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 42 Comments

This is what HoneyComb LX2K 16-core Arm Workstation Looks Like (Video)

Back in February 2019, while referring to Arm server, Linus Torvalds famously said: I can pretty much guarantee that as long as everybody does cross-development, the platform won’t be all that stable. Or successful. … If you develop on x86, then you’re going to want to deploy on x86, because you’ll be able to run what you test “at home” (and by “at home” I don’t mean literally in your home, but in your work environment). … Which in turn means that cloud providers will end up making more money from their x86 side, which means that they’ll prioritize it, and any ARM offerings will be secondary and probably relegated to the mindless dregs (maybe front-end, maybe just static html, that kind of stuff). SolidRun had already worked on products with NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 processor and found out it could be a match to make a powerful […]

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SolidRun Janux GS31 Edge AI Server Combines NXP LX2160A & i.MX 8M SoCs with 128 Gyrfalcon AI Accelerators

SolidRun Janux GS31-Edge AI Inference Server

AI inference used to happen exclusively in powerful servers hosted in the cloud, but in recent years great efforts have been made to move inference at the edge, usually meaning on-device, due to much lower latency, and improved privacy. On-device inference works, but obviously, performance is limited, and on battery-operated devices, one also has to consider power consumption. So for some applications, it makes sense to have a local server with much more processing power than devices, and lower latency than the cloud. That’s exactly the use case SolidRun Janux GS31 Edge AI inference server is trying to target using several NXP processors combined with up to 128 Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur SPR2803 AI accelerators Janux GS31 server specifications: CPU Module – CEx7 LX2160A COM Express module with NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 processor @ 2.0 GHz System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR4 RAM via 2x SO-DIMM sockets “Video” Processors […]

November 25, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linux 5.4 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.4: Not a lot happened this last week, which is just how I like it. And as expected, most of the pull requests I got were for the 5.5 merge window, which I’ll obviously start working through tomorrow. What little there is here is mostly some networking updates (mix of network drivers and core networking), and some minor GPU driver updates. Other than that it’s a small collection of random other things all over. The appended shortlog is small enough that you might as well just scroll through it. Anyway, this obviously opens the merge window for 5.5. It’s not ideal timing with Thanksgiving week coming up, but it hopefully shouldn’t be too much of an issue. If I fall behind (not because I’m all that big of a fan of the indiscriminate and relentless turkey-killing holiday) it’s because we’ve got […]

October 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

SolidRun ClearFog GTR A385 NVR Platforms Feature Up to 8 Gigabit Ethernet PoE Ports

A Networking Video Recorder (NVR) is designed to record and playback videos from multiple IP cameras usually connected over Ethernet, and in many cases powered over Ethernet (PoE). The main purpose is for security applications allowing caretakers to monitor multiple cameras at the same time on a mosaic screen. There are plenty of turnkey NVR solutions on the market, but SoliRun, an embedded systems company known for its modules and single board computers, recently introduced the ClearFog GTR A385 family that supports up to eight PoE/PoE+ Gigabit Ethernet Ports. The ClearFog GTR A385 family currently includes two modules with GTR S4 supporting up to four cameras, and GTR L8 up to eight cameras. Specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA A385 dual-core Armv7 (Cortex A9 class) up to 1.3Ghz System Memory – Up to 2GB on-board DDR3L Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (default), 2x 7 pin SATA (optional replacement for 2 x […]

June 5, 2019March 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 59 Comments

Pre-production HoneyComb LX2K 16-Core Mini ITX Arm Workstation is up for pre-order for $550

A few months ago, we wrote that SolidRun was working on ClearFog ITX workstation with an NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex-A72 processor, support for up to 64GB RAM, and a motherboard following the mini-ITX form factor that would make it an ideal platform as an Arm developer platform. Since then the company split the project into two parts: the ClearFog CX LX2K mini-ITX board will focus on networking application, while HoneyComb LX2K has had some of the networking stripped to keep the cost in check for developers planning to use the mini-ITX board as an Arm workstation. Both boards use the exact same LX2160A COM Express module. HoneyComb LX2K specifications: COM Module – CEx7 LX2160A COM Express module with NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 processor @ 2.2 GHz (2.0 GHz for pre-production developer board) System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR4 dual-channel memory up to 3200 Mpts via SO-DIMM […]

June 4, 2019June 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

SolidRun i.MX 8M Mini SoM Includes Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur 2803S AI Accelerator

There are already plenty of NXP i.MX 8M Mini boards and system-on-modules, but so far none of those included a neural network accelerator. But that’s now an option as SolidRun and Gyrfalcon teamed up to design SolidRun i.MX 8M Mini system-on-module that combines NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor with Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur 2803S NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in order to speed up AI workloads at the edge. SolidRun i.MX 8M Mini SoM Specifications: SoC (one or the other) NXP i.MX8M Mini S single core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 core up to 400MHz, GC NanoUltra 3D GPU + GC320 2D GPU NXP i.MX8M Mini D dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 core up to 400MHz, GC NanoUltra 3D GPU + GC320 2D GPU NXP i.MX8M Mini Q quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 core up to 400MHz, GC NanoUltra […]

March 29, 2019March 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 85 Comments

ClearFog ITX Workstation May be the Ultimate Arm Developer Platform

Most people are still doing Arm development work on x86 platforms, because there aren’t really any viable equivalent in the Arm world. Current options include Edge Server SynQuacer E-Series (aka Linaro Developer Box), a $1,250 Arm PC shipping with a 24-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor, 4GB RAM (by default), a 1TB hard drive, and Geforce GT710 graphics cards, as well as the much more powerful GIGABYTE ThunderXStation workstation with up to two Cavium ThunderX 32-core Armv8 processors, 32GB to 128GB RAM configuration, NVMe storage, and more. The former was a good place to get started, but the Arm Cortex-A53 cores clicked at 1GHz provided limited performance, and the GIGAGYTE workstation costs over $12,000, so it’s only suitable for projects with specific needs and/or a high expected return on investment. That’s why there will be a discussion about Designing a next generation ARM Developer Platform at Linaro Connect 2019 next week in […]

January 9, 2019March 31, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

ClearFog CX LX2K Networking Board is Powered by NXP LX2160A 16-core Processor

SolidRun started their ClearFog family of networking boards back in 2015 with Marvell ARMADA based ClearFog Pro board exposing 7 Gigabit Ethernet ports, an SFP cage, mPCIe/mSATA sockets, and more. Since then the company has launched several other ClearFog boards with small variation in the name with the latest being ClearFog CX 8K equipped with a COM Express module based on Marvell ARMADA A8040 quad-core Arm Cortex A72 processor. Today I was made aware that the company leveraged of the flexibility of having a COM Express module by offering a more powerful version of the board – ClearFog CX LX2K – powered by NXP LX2160A networking processor with 16 Arm Cortex-A72 cores, 100GbE support, 24x PCIe Gen4 lanes, and more. The rest of the specifications are pretty much the same since the COM Express carrier board – pictured above – remains the same: COM Module – CEx7 LX2K module with […]