GL.iNet Puli AX (also known as GL-XE3000) is a WiFi 6 and 5G cellular router with an integrated 6,400 mAh battery and running a fork of OpenWrt 21.02 on a MediaTek Filogic 820 dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 router SoC. If the design looks familiar it’s because it’s based on the same platform as the GL.iNet Spitz AX 2.5GbE, WiFi 6 and 5G cellular router that we reviewed last May, except the new Puli AX model comes with a 6,400 mAh which makes it even more convenient as a travel router. Puli AX (GL-XE3000) specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7981A (Filogic 820) dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot Networking 1x 2.5GbE WAN Ethernet port 1x Gigabit Ethernet LAN port Dual-band IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 up to 574Mbps (2.4GHz), 2,402Mbps (5GHz) RM520N-GL 5G cellular modem and 2x Nano SIM […]
Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini – A low-profile 2.5GbE router board powered by MediaTek Filogic 830 SoC
Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini router board is powered by MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with 2GB DDR4, an 8GB eMMC flash, two low-profile 2.5GbE ports, and WiFi 6 support. It also comes with an M.2 PCIe socket that can be used with an NVMe SSD or a 5G cellular module. The BPI-R3 Mini is based on many of the same chips as found on the Banana Pi BPI-R3 board, but with a much more compact design that makes it suitable as a 2.5GbE firewall, wireless router or repeater, home security gateway, home automation gateway, NAS device, and more. Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7986A (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with hardware acceleration engines for Wi-Fi offloading and networking System Memory – 2GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, 128MB NAND flash, M.2 2230 NVMe SSD socket Networking 2x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports via […]
Feature-rich, low-profile Rockchip RK3588 SBC is made for digital signage displays, industrial PCs, NVR, and more
Shenzhen Runwelltec RWA027-RK3588 is a low-profile SBC powered by a Rockchip RK3588 and equipped with plenty of connectors and ports. Those make the 11mm thin RK3588 board suitable for network video recorders (NVR), smart digital signage displays, industrial PCs, face recognition solutions, etc… The ultrathin board comes with up to 16GB RAM and up to 256GB eMMC flash, supports NVMe and SATA storage, provides HDMI 2.1 video output and five other LCD interfaces with optional USB/I2C touchscreen support, as well as two 4K-capable HDMI input ports, offers Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, up to nine USB interfaces, six UART, and so on. RWA027-RK3588 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Arm Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU with support for OpenGL ES3.2, OpenCL 2.2, Vulkan1.1 AI Accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU VPU […]
Khadas Mind Raptor Lake portable mini PC supports desktop dock, laptop dock, and external GPU dock
Khadas Mind “portable workstation” is an ultrathin mini PC powered by an Intel Core i7-1360P 12-core Raptor Lake processor, with 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, and a “Mind Link” connector with a PCIe 5.0 interface designed for docking to a desktop dock, a laptop shell, an external GPU for gaming, and so on. The mini PC itself has a limited number of ports with two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.0 video output, and two USB 3.0 ports, but that’s sufficient when traveling, and the Mind Dock can add extra ports at home for multiple display setups and 2.5GbE networking, while the Mind xPlay battery-powered portable display can convert it into a 2-in-1 laptop, and the Mind Graphics eGPU into a high-end gaming station. Khadas Mind specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-1360P 12-core/16-core Raptor Lake processor with 4 performance cores @ up to 5.0 GHz, 8 efficiency cores @ up to […]
GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) review with Ubuntu 22.04 Linux (Part 3)
We’ve already reviewed GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) mini PC with Windows 11 Pro, so in the final part of the review, we’ve switched to Ubuntu 22.04 Linux operating system installed alongside Windows 11 on the Intel Core i7-11390H Tiger Lake mini PC. We’ll go through the software overview and test hardware features, run some benchmarks to evaluate the performance of the system, and report our findings with regard to power consumption and thermal performance. We’ve resized the partition in Windows 11 in the Disk Management program in order to install Ubuntu 22.04 from a USB flash drive on the Mini IT11 computer, and the installation went smoothly, and surprisingly fast according to the reviewer. Ubuntu 22.04 system information The About section in Ubuntu 22.04 Settings shows the Mini IT11 mini PC comes with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11390H CPU with eight threads clocked at 3.4 GHz and Intel […]
“Fixing” WiFi 6 on Linux in Alder Lake-N mini PCs (Intel N95, N100, Core i3-N300…)
Alder Lake-N mini PCs based on Processor N95, N100, and Core i3-N300/N305 SoCs are pretty popular these days due to their good performance/price proposition, and when Ian reviewed the Beelink EQ12 mini PC with an Intel N100, he seemed pretty happy about it, except the WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 AX101 module was not recognized in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. It’s not an isolated issue, as one person commented WiFi 6 and Bluetooth were not working in Linux on a Beelink mini PC with the N100 in an article about the T9 Plus, and I found out many people complained about the lack of Linux drivers for the AX101 on Intel community forums. They also left various solutions some of which work, some don’t. If you are using Ubuntu or Debian, the easiest way seems to update the kernel to the latest Linux 6.4 as follows:
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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cappelikan/ppa sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade sudo apt install mainline |
This will […]
WeAct launches $6 ESP32-C6 development board, ESP-IDF 5.1 framework released
As expected, Espressif has just released the ESP-IDF 5.1 framework with ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 support, so more ESP32-C6 boards should become available, and after Olimex ESP32-C6-EVB launched earlier this week, we’ve noticed WeAct had introduced a low-cost ESP32-C6 development board that sells for just $6.43 plus shipping a few weeks ago. WeAct ESP32-C6 board The WeAct board offers 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE 5.0., and Zigbee/Thread connectivity through the ESP32-C6-WROOM-1 module, two USB-C ports, two 16-pin headers for GPIOs, and if it looks familiar, it’s because it closely follows the design of the official ESP32-C6-DevKitC-1 development kit, albeit with some small modifications. WeAct ESP32-C6 board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-C6-WROOM-1 with ESP32-C6 single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz, with 320KB ROM, 512KB SRAM, low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee 3.0 and Thread. […]
$26 WiFi 6 router board features Triductor TR6560 & TR5220 chips
Banana Pi BPI-Wifi 6 is an ultra-low-cost WiFi 6 router board with five Gigabit Ethernet ports based on Triductor Technology TR6560 dual-core Cortex-A9 router SoC and TR5220 WiFi 6 chipset and that sells for just $26.32 plus shipping on Aliexpress, or $39.99 as part of a kit with the board, four antennas, and a 12V power supply. The board is equipped with 512MB RAM and a 128MB SPI flash for OpenWrt, comes with four antenna connectors for WiFi, and can also take an optional 12V PoE module for power instead of relying on a 12V power adapter via a DC jack. Banana Pi BPI-WiFi 6 board specifications: SoC – Triductor TR6560 dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz with LSW (Line-Card Switching) and hardware NAT up to 5 Gbps WiFi chipset – Triductor TR5220 WiFi 6 chipset System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 128MB SPI NAND flash Networking […]