The Radxa ROCK 5B+ (“ROCK 5B Plus”) is an upgrade to the Rockchip RK3588-powered ROCK 5B Pico-ITX SBC with the same form factor but various changes including a switch from LPDDR4x to LPDDR5, optional built-in eMMC flash, and an onboard WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module instead of one connected through an M.2 Key-E connector. Other changes include replacing the M.2 Key-M PCIe Gen 3 x4 socket with two M.2 Key-M PCIe Gen3 x2 sockets, adding a SIM card slot and M.2 Key-B socket for 4G LTE or 5G cellular connectivity, adding an extra USB-C port for power only (was multiplexed with USB-C Display Port connected in ROCK 5B), and the HDMI input relies on a full-size HDMI port instead of a micro HDMI port. Other small changes can be found in the specifications below with differences highlighted in bold and strikethrough. Radxa ROCK 5B+ specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 […]
Save $150 or even £200 on GEEKOM A8 Ryzen 9 8945HS mini PC! (sponsored)
GEEKOM has yet another discount for us with the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS-powered GEEKOM A8 mini PC with 32GB DDR5 memory and a 2TB NVMe SSD now offered for $699 on GEEKOM US and £699 on GEEKOM UK or savings of respectively $150 and £200 when using the coupon code CNXA8OFF. The mini-computer supports up to four independent 4K displays through HDMI and USB-C ports, fast networking with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E, and plenty of expansion thanks to six USB ports including a USB4 port capable of 40 Gbps speeds. GEEKOM A8 specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU – 8-core/16-thread processor up to 4.0GHz / 5.2 GHz (Turbo) Cache – 16MB GPU – AMD Radeon 780M Graphics AI – NPU performance: 16 TOPS, total: 39 TOPS TDP: 45W System Memory – 32GB dual-channel DDR5-5600 SODIMM, up to 64GB Storage 2TB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen4 x4) Full-size SD […]
Radxa X4 low-cost, credit card-sized Intel N100 SBC goes for $60 and up
Radxa X4 is a credit card-sized Intel Processor N100 single board computer (SBC) that costs almost the same as a Raspberry Pi 5 with the 4GB RAM model going for about $60 and the 8GB RAM variant around $80. The x86 SBC offers many of the same features as the Raspberry Pi 5 including dual micro HDMI output, four USB 3.2/2.0 ports, Ethernet and WiFi networking, and the 40-pin GPIO header handled through a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. Networking is better with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6, M.2 SSD support is built-in and four to eight times faster compared to PCIe HAT for the Pi 5, and the USB 3.2 ports are capable of 10 Gbps speed. So let’s little not too like, and the main downside is the lack of MIPI CSI and DSI connectors for projects requiring those camera and display interfaces. Radxa X4 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor […]
$39 Acelink SM81 MediaTek Filogic 820 WiFi 6 system-on-module runs OpenWrt 23.05 or Debian 11
Acelink SM81 is a compact (50x36mm) system-on-module based on the MediaTek Filogic 820 (MT7981A/B) processor with WiFi 6 and Ethernet connectivity designed for IoT applications such as routers, access points, and gateways. The wireless module ships with up to 1GB DDR4 memory, a 2MB NOR flash for the bootloader, a 32GB eMMC flash for Linux or an optional NAND flash, and exposes various I/Os such as gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, PCIe 2.1, UART, and more through castellated holes. Acelink SM81 specifications: SoC (one or the other) MediaTek MT7981AA (Filogic 820) dual-core processor @ 1.3 GHz MediaTek MT7981BA (Filogic 820) dual-core processor @ 1.3 GHz without PCIe interface System Memory – 1GB DDR4 @ 2133 Mbps Storage 2MB NOR flash for bootloader 16GB or 32GB eMMC flash for main OS (OpenWrt) Footprint for NAND flash Wireless Radio Mode – 2.4GHz 2×2 + 5GHz 3×3 MIMO via MT7976CN RF IC Radio Frequency […]
GEEKOM Mini IT13 Core i7-13620H PC discounted by $100 for Prime Day (Sponsored)
You can now get the GEEKOM Mini IT13 mini PC with a $100/£100 discount when using the coupon code CNX13 on GEEKOM US or GEEKOM UK bringing the price down to $499 and £499 respectively. The offer is valid on the model with an Intel Core i7-13620H 10-core/16-thread Raptor Lake processor, 32GB DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD for storage. The mini PC can drive up to four 4K displays through HDMI and USB4 ports, supports 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E networking, and comes with six USB ports for expansion. GEEKOM Mini IT13 specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-13620H 13th Gen Raptor Lake processor with 10 cores, 16 threads up to 4.90 GHz with 24MB Cache, Iris Xe graphics; PBP: 45W System Memory – 32GB dual-channel DDR4-3200 via 2x SODIMM sockets Storage 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD M.2 2242 SATA SSD slot, expandable up to 1TB […]
Minino ESP32-C6 board is designed for IoT security and penetration testing
Minino security tool is a kitty-shaped ESP32-C6 powered cybersecurity device for analyzing 2.4GHz communications and probing IoT devices. It supports Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi 6, Zigbee, Thread, and Matter, and has a dedicated GNSS radio for receiving signals from various satellite constellations. Minino is compatible with CatSniffer analysis tools and Wireshark software, and can log packet captures on a microSD card. These features make this suitable for applications like assessing IoT device security, network analysis, and wireless protocol research. We have previously written about similar IoT security and pen testing tools like the ESP8266 and ATmega32U4-based Diabolic Drive, the ESP32 Marauder Pocket Unit v2, the ThingPulse Pendrive S3, and many others, feel free to check those out if you are interested in the topic. Minino security tool specifications Wireless Module – ESP32-C6-WROOM-1U SoC – ESP32-C6 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ up to […]
GEEKOM AE7 Review – An AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC tested with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04
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 – […]
conga-SMX95 NXP i.MX 9596 SMARC 2.1 SoM supports M.2 1216 WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 modules
We had already written about NXP i.MX 95 SMARC 2.1 system-on-modules from ADLINK, iWave Systems, Avnet, and Advantech, but congatec has now launched its own with the conga-SMX95 featuring the NXP i.MX 9596 hexa-core Arm Cortex-A55 AI processor and up to 16GB LPDDR5 memory. The conga-SMX95 also comes with up to 256GB flash, is available on both commercial and industrial temperature grade variants, and exposes most of the same interfaces as competing products. What might be different is that the conga-SMX95 is offered with an optional M.2 1216 WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless module. We’ve seen M.2 1216 wireless modules before, and they don’t use any M.2 socket but are LGA packages that need to be soldered to the target board/module. conga-SMX95 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 9596 CPU Up to 6x Arm Cortex-A55 application cores clocked at 1.8 GHz (industrial) or 2.0 GHz (commercial) with 32K I-cache and […]