Nordic Semiconductor nRF7002 dual-band WiFi 6 companion chip is the first WiFi chip from the company and is designed to add Wi-Fi connectivity to solutions based on nRF52840 and nRF5340 wireless SoCs, and nRF9160 cellular IoT SiP, as well as non-Nordic host microcontrollers. The nRF7002 also adds Wi-Fi-based locationing (SSID sniffing of local Wi-Fi hubs) when used alongside Nordic’s existing products, and the launch means Nordic is now one of the rare companies offering chips for Bluetooth, 802.15.4 (Matter/Thread), Wi-Fi, and cellular IoT (NB-IoT, LTE Cat M). This was made possible with the acquisition of the development team, core Wi-Fi expertise, and Wi-Fi IP assets of Imagination Technologies Group in 2020. Nordic Semi nRF7002 key features specifications: Complies with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz dual-band Wi-Fi 6 Station (STA) 1 Spatial Stream (SS) 20 MHz channel bandwidth 64 QAM (MCS7), 86 Mbps PHY throughput OFDMA (Downlink and Uplink) BSS […]
ACTAMID M8S – An Intel Pentium N6005 palm-sized PC with dual Gigabit Ethernet, 3x HDMI ports (Crowdfunding)
ACTAMID M8S is a palm-sized 3.4-inch mini PC powered by an Intel Pentium N6005 Jasper Lake processor with up to 16GB LPDDR4 memory, 1TB M.2 2242 SSD. The M8S is bigger than the recently announced 2.7-inch PIX NII mini PC based on the same processor, but that’s for a good reason since it offers more ports with three HDMI outputs, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and three USB 3.0 ports. The mini PC also features WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity, a quiet fan, and a 7-color LED backlight for good effects… Win Element Technology Co., Ltd, the Hong Kong company owning the ACTAMID brand, says the mini PC ships preinstalled with an activated version of Windows 11, but also supports Linux distributions such as Ubuntu 20.04. ACTAMID M8S specifications: SoC – Intel Pentium N6005 quad-core processor @ 2.0GHz / 3.3GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics @ up to 900 MHz; […]
Allwinner H618 processor powers Android 12 TV boxes
Allwinner H618 processor has started to show up in several TV boxes running Android 12, and capable of playing 6K/4K VP9 and H.265 videos with devices such as T95Z Plus and T95 Max, which may be confusing, as companies are reusing those model numbers over and over. Featuring a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, an Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, and 6K video support, the Allwinner H618 looks exactly like the Allwinner H616 processor except it can run the more recent Android 12 operating system. There’s not much public information about Allwinner H618 at the time of writing, but let’s check T95Z Plus specifications to see if we can find any other new hidden features: SoC – Allwinner H618 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.5GHz with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB or 4GB RAM Storage – 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card socket Video Output HDMI […]
ZOTAC ZBOX PI336 PICO mini PC gets an Elkhart Lake upgrade with Intel Celeron N6211
The last time we wrote about the ZOTAC ZBOX PICO PI336 mini PC it featured an Intel Celeron N4100 Gemini Lake processor, but the company appears to have launched an upgrade with an Intel Celeron N6211 Elkhart Lake processor instead. The new ZBOX PI336 PICO fanless mini PC also gets more storage up to 128GB eMMC flash, but the rest of the specifications remain pretty much the same with 4GB RAM, HDMI & DisplayPort video outputs, three USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFI, and Bluetooth, although some of the interfaces got a version bump for additional performance. ZOTAC PI336 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N6211 dual-core Elkhart Lake processor up to 1.2/3.0 GHz with 16EU Intel UHD Graphics @ up to 750 MHz; 6.5W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4x 3200MT/s Storage – 128GB eMMC flash, microSD card socket Display HDMI 2.0 up to 3840×2160 @ 60Hz DisplayPort 1.4 up to […]
PIX NII is a pocket-sized mini PC powered by an Intel Pentium N6005 processor (Crowdfunding)
PIX NII pocket-sized mini PC features an Intel Pentium N6005 Jasper Lake processor that should provide a nice upgrade to existing 2.4-inch mini PCs based on Gemini Lake processors such as Larkbox. The tiny computer is slightly larger (2.7×2.6 inch) than the previous 2.4-inch models, but ships with up to 16GB RAM, up to a 1TB NVMe SSD, and offers two 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet & WiFi 6 connectivity, as well as a few USB 3.2 ports, plus a 3.5mm audio jack. PIX NII specifications: SoC – Intel Pentium N6005 quad-core processor @ 2.0GHz / 3.3GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics; 10W TDP System Memory – 8GB or 16GB DDR4 RAM Storage SATA or NVMe SSD with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB capacity (up to 520MB/s with SATA, 1,000MB/s with NVMe) MicroSD card socket Video Output – 2x HDMI 2.0 ports up to 4Kp60 Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, […]
Rock 5B RK3588 SBC preview – What works, what doesn’t in Debian 11
I’ve recently received an early sample of Radxa ROCK5 Model B (aka ROCK 5B) SBC part of the “Developer Edition” batch with 16GB RAM, and already showed the hardware and it booting successfully in Debian 11.
I’ve now spent more time with the board, and as part of the “debug party” tested performance and features in Debian 11. As one would expect, some things work fine, providing excellent performance, but others still need improvements.
Mekotronics R58 review – Part 2: Android 12 on Rockchip RK3588 CPU
I’ve written the first part of Mekotronics R58 review last month with an unboxing, teardown, and first boot with 3D graphics benchmarks. I’ve now had more time to play with Android 12 on the Rockchp RK3588 mini PC, so I’ll report my experience with the device. User interface and settings As already mentioned, the box ships with Android 12 for TV and the stock launcher. The Google Play store is working, and I had no troubles installing all apps I needed for the review. Most of the settings are pretty much standard. While the first time, I used Ethernet, and also tried WiFi 6 connecting the R58 to Xiaomi Mi AX6000 router. It worked but not without some effort, as initially, all I got were messages like “Couldn’t find SSID” both with 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs. It turned out I had to disconnect the Ethernet to make WiFi work, and […]
Intel Meteor Lake mobile processor highlights leaked
Intel Meteor Lake processor family is supposed to succeed the 13th generation Raptor Lake chips itself coming after the current 12th generation Alder lake processors. It is scheduled to launch next year (2023), but we already have some details about the Meteor Lake U, P, and H mobile processors from a leak. Just like most Alder Lake processors, Meteor Lake will be hybrid processors with power and energy-efficient cores, but they’ll also feature new LP E-cores which should stand for “low power efficiency” cores in order to further lower the power consumption while a laptop or mini PC in standby mode. Meteor Lake mobile processors highlights: CPU P cores + E cores + LP-E cores architecture U-series with up to 12 cores P- and H-series up to 14 cores; Up to 6+8 configuration with up to 24MB LLC/core (Note the LP-E cores don’t seem to be part of the main […]