GEEKOM AE7 Review – An AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC tested with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04

GEEKOM AE7 mini PC review Windows 11

Today we’ll review the GEEKOM AE7 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS octa-core processor with up to 32GB DDR5, a 1TB NVMe SSD, four 4K capable video outputs through HDMI and USB-C ports, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E connectivity, and six USB ports for expansion. As its name implies the GEEKOM AE7 is an evolution of the earlier GEEKOM A7 with almost identical specifications that we reviewed with Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04 earlier this year. So we won’t do our usual three-part review and instead focus on differences between the two Ryzen 9 7840HS mini PCs in terms of features, performance, and cooling ability in a shorter review that covers hardware, Windows 11 Pro, and Ubuntu 24.04 testing. GEEKOM AE7 specifications SoC – AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 8-core/16-thread processor up to 4.0GHz with 16MB cache, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics; TDP: 35 to 54W System Memory – […]

Microchip PIC64GX is a quad-core 64-bit RISC-V microprocessor for real-time processing

Microchip PIC64GX

Microchip has introduced its first 64-bit RISC-V microprocessor family with the PIC64GX pin-to-pin compatible with the company’s PolarFire SoC FPGA devices and designed for edge designs for the industrial, automotive, communications, IoT, aerospace, and defense segments. The PIC6GX MPU supports asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) to run Linux, real-time operating systems, and bare metal in a single processor cluster with secure boot capabilities. The company further claims the PIC64GX MPU is “the first RISC-V multi-core solution that is AMP capable for mixed-criticality systems”. The first member of the PIC64GX RISC-V family is the PIC64GX1000 microprocessor. Microchip PIC64GX1000 specifications: CPU Quad-core SiFive U54 64-bit five-stage, single-issue, in-order pipeline RISC-V (RV64GC) processor at up to 625 MHz with AMP and deterministic latencies, PMP and MMU units Single-core SiFive E51 64-bit RISC-V (RV64IMAC) monitor processor core at up to 625 MHZ with PMP unit Cache L1 memory subsystem with Single-Error Correct, Double-Error Detect (SECDED) Flexible […]

Banana Pi BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 WiFi 7 module for BPI-R4 SBC launched for $74

Banana Pi BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 WiFi 7 Module

The Banana Pi BPI-R4 was introduced last year as a WiFi 7 router board with two 10GbE SFP cages and four GbE ports based on MediaTek Filogic 880 SoC. The only issue is that WiFi 7 is implemented through a dual mini PCIe module that was not available until now. The good news is that the tri-band Banana Pi BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 WiFi 7 module for the Banana Pi BPI-R4 board can now be purchased for $73.69 on Aliexpress. It is based on MediaTek MT7995AV WiFi 7 chipset, MT7976CN dual-band (2.4GHz and 5 GHz) chipset, and MT7977IAN 6GHz chipset. Banana Pi BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 specifications: MediaTek MT7995AV WiFi 7 – IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be compliant 32-bit RISC-V MCU for Wi-Fi protocols and Wi-Fi offload Embedded SRAM and ROM UART interface with hardware flow control MediaTek MT7976CN dual-band 2.4GHz 2×2 MIMO and 5GHz 3×3 MIMO MediaTek MT7977IAN 6GHz 3×3 MIMO Bandwidth 2.4 GHz – 20 and […]

$60 coupon code for the GEEKOM Mini IT12 mini PC with Intel Core i7-12650H, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD (Sponsored)

GEEKOM Mini IT12 $60 discount coupon code

GEEKOM is offering a $60 discount coupon code as part of a Prime Day promotion for the GEEKOM Mini IT12 mini PC powered by an Intel Core i7-12650H 10-core Alder Lake processor and equipped with 32GB DDR4 memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and an Intel AX211 WiFI 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 module. US customers can make use of the CNXIT12 $60 off coupon on GEEKOM US to get the mini PC for $489, and British users can also benefit from the same coupon on GEEKOM UK to purchase the mini PC for £489. GEEKOM Mini IT12 specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-12650H 10-core/16-thread Alder Lake hybrid processor up to 4.70 GHz with 24MB Cache, 64 EU Intel UHD Graphics @ up to 1.4 GHz; PBP: 45W System Memory – 32 GB dual-channel DDR4-3200 via SODIMM sockets upgradeable up to 64GB Storage 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD, expandable […]

Cincoze DS-1402 review: Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 tested on an Intel Core i9-12900E embedded system

Cincoze DS-1402 Ubuntu 24.04 review

In part one of the Cincoze DS-1402 review, I checked out the hardware of the modular rugged computer before testing the Intel Core i9-12900E embedded computer with Windows 11 Pro in the second part, and I’ve now had time to test the Cincoze DS-1402 embedded system with Ubuntu 24.04. I’ve tested most features in Linux, ran some benchmarks, evaluated the gigabit Ethernet performance of some of the ten Ethernet ports, checked CPU temperature under a stress test with and without the fan, measured power consumption, and more. Ubuntu 24.04 system information I installed Ubuntu 24.04 with the official x86_64 ISO in dual boot configuration with Windows 11 Pro. The installation process was smooth, and I have nothing specific to report here. Going to the Settings->About window confirms we have a CINCOZE-DS-1400 system (DS-1402 is part of the DS-1400 family) with a 24-thread 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900E processor and 64GB […]

GEEKOM GT13 Pro Core i9-13900H mini PC review with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04

GEEKOM GT13 Pro mini PC review Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM GT13 Pro is a Windows 11 mini PC powered by a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H or Core i7-13620H processor with Intel Xe Iris graphics, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 2.5GbE port, WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. GEEKOM sent us a review sample of the GEEKOM GT13 Pro mini PC with a Core i9-13900H 14-core/20-thread processor, 32GB RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD. We would usually do a three-part review, but the GEEKOM GT13 Pro uses the same motherboard as the GEEKOM Mini IT13 reviewed at the end of last year. So we’ll do a more condensed one-part review focusing on the differences between the two models in terms of features and performance in both Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 24.04. GEEKOM GT13 Pro specifications SoC – Intel Core i9-13900H 13th Gen Raptor Lake processor with 14 cores, 20 threads up to 5.40 GHz, 24MB Cache, Iris Xe […]

Banana Pi BPI-M5 Pro low-profile SBC features Rockchip RK3576 octa-core Cortex-A72/A53 AIoT SoC

Banana Pi BPI-M5 Pro

Banana Pi BPI-M5 Pro, also known as Armsom Sige5, is a low-profile single board computer (SBC) powered by the Rockchip RK3576 octa-core Cortex-A72/A53 SoC for the AIoT market that offers a mid-range offering between Rockchip RK3588 and RK3399 SoCs. The board comes with 16GB LPDDR4X and 128GB eMMC flash by default, offers dual GbE, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, an M.2 2280 PCIe socket for expansion, HDMI and MIPI DSI display interfaces, two MIPI CSI camera interfaces, a few USB ports, and a 40-pin GPIO header. Banana Pi BPI-M5 Pro specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU 4x Cortex-A72 cores @ 2.2GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores @ 1.8GHz Arm Cortex-M0 MCU at 400MHz GPU – ARM Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.0, and Vulkan 1.1 NPU – 6 TOPS (INT8) AI accelerator with support for INT4/INT8/INT16/BF16/TF32 mixed operations. VPU Video Decoder: […]

Orange Pi CM5 – A Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with up to 16GB RAM, 256GB eMMC flash

Orange Pi CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative

Orange Pi CM5 is a system-on-module mostly compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM4 (and upcoming Raspberry Pi CM5?) powered by a Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor that supports up to 16GB LPDDR4 and 256GB eMMC flash compared to the Pi CM4 module that is limited to 8GB RAM and 32GB flash. Since the Rockchip RK3588S has more interfaces than the Broadcom BCM2711 found in the Raspberry Pi CM4, the company added an extra 100-pin board-to-board connector with extra interfaces such as native USB 3.0, SATA III, CAN Bus, and an additional PCIe 2.0 x1 interface for a total of two. Orange Pi CM5 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S octa-core processor with 4x CortexA76  cores @ up to 2.4GHz, 4x CortexA55 core @ 1.8GHz Arm Mali-G610 MP4 “Odin” GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.2 and Vulkan 1.2 Video decoder – 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC, 4Kp60 AV1, […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design