CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 29, 2024February 28, 2024 by Debashis Das - 14 Comments

LuckFox Pico Pro and Pico Max – Rockchip RV1106 powered boards with 10/100M Ethernet and camera support

LuckFox Pico Pro and Pro Max Rockchip RV1106 Powred Dev Board

The LuckFox LuckFox Pico Pro and Pico Max are two new Rockchip RV1106-powered development boards that offer a Linux-based development platform for IoT applications. The boards feature 10/100M Ethernet, up to 256MB DDR2 memory, and a 0.5TOPS NPU for AI tasks. With support for Buildroot and Ubuntu 22.04, this board can be used for smart homes, remote monitoring, and other AI-enhanced projects. Last year, we covered the LuckFox Core3566, a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 alternative, and the LuckFox Pico with its RV1103 SoC which has a similar form factor and similar features to these new modules. But the new modules are built around the RV1106 SoC which features an Arm Cortex-A7 processor (up to 1.2GHz), a RISC-V co-processor, a 0.5 TOPS NPU for AI tasks, and a 4M @ 30fps ISP for high-quality image processing. LuckFox Pico Pro and Pico Max Specifications SoC – Rockchip RV1106G2 CPU – Arm Cortex […]

February 29, 2024February 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Arduino Nano 33 BLE Rev2 board features BMI270 six-axis IMU and BMM150 magnetometer

Arduino Nano 33 BLE Rev2 is an update to the Arduino Nano 33 BLE board launched in 2019 that features two IMU sensors instead of one with the BMI270 6-axis accelerometer and gyroscope and the BMM150 3-axis magnetometer and also comes with a few changes made after feedback from users. The new board is still powered by an nRF52840 Bluetooth LE module (u-Blox NINA B306) and remains Arduino Nano compatibility with two rows of 15-pin headers, but replaces the 9-axis IMU with the BMI270 and BMM150 chips, adds new pads and test points for USB, SWDIO, and SWCLK, a new VUSB soldering jumper, and brings changes to the power circuitry. Arduino Nano 33 BLE Rev2 specifications: Wireless Module – U-blox NINA B306 module SoC – Nordic Semi nRF52840 MCU Core – Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller @ 64MHz Memory and storage – 1MB Flash, 256KB RAM Bluetooth 5.0 LE Up to 2 […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

February 28, 2024February 28, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 5 Comments

STMicro VL53L9 is a high-resolution, direct Time-of-Flight 3D LiDAR sensor module

The STMicro VL53L9 sensor is the latest addition to the company’s FlightSense product family. The direct Time-of-Flight (ToF) 3D LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensor offers a resolution of up to 2,300 zones. The module is described as all-in-one and easy to integrate. It comes in a small, reflowable package that contains all the necessary components for sensing objects and processing images. The sensor features an array of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) for photon detection, a post-processing SoC, and two vertical surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) powered by a dedicated bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) VCSEL. The VL53L9 is a multi-zone ToF sensor similar to the VL53L7CX and the VL53L8, meaning that it offers multi-zone distance measurements up to 54 x 42 zones with a wide 54° x 42° field-of-view. Unlike most IR sensors, the VL53L9 sensor uses backside illumination direct ToF technology to ensure absolute distance measurement, regardless of the target color […]

February 28, 2024February 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Intel Core Ultra 5 134U and Core Ultra 7 164U are 9W Meteor Lake processors

Intel Core Ultra 5 134U and Core Ultra 7 164U are new 12-core Meteor Lake processors with 9W PBP (Processor Base Power) and 30W Max Turbo Power (MTP) that appear to have recently been added to Intel Ark. Intel just announced Intel vPro Platform support for the Core Ultra Meteor Lake processors to make those more suitable to business customers with improved security through AI-powered Intel Threat Detection Technology, better manageability with the Intel Device Discovery comprised of cloud-based tools for managing PCs remotely, and enhanced stability thanks to Intel’s Stable IT Program aiming to validate and ensure Windows 10 and Windows 11 compatibility. But Liliputing also notes that Intel has added some 9W parts besides the existing 15W parts such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U or Core Ultra 7 165U, namely the Core Ultra 5 134U and Core Ultra 7 164U. They are quite similar to the […]

February 28, 2024February 27, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Inventia MT-058 cellular IoT telemetry module is powered by Nordic Semi nRF9160 SiP

MT 058 – battery powered telemetry module

A few days back, Inventia introduced the MT-058 cellular IoT telemetry module built around Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9160 System in Package (SiP) module with support for LTE-M/NB-IoT connectivity with GNSS. The device is designed for low-power, battery-operated industrial applications such as water metering and environmental monitoring. The module is IP68-rated and offers a combination of digital and analog inputs. It also comes with a battery that can last up to 5 years and there is also support for external sensor attachment for data logging applications. MT-058 Cellular IoT telemetry module specification: Nordic nRF9160 SiP with 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 application processor with 1 MB flash, and 256 KB RAM Connectivity – LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT SIM card options – Standard 2FF SIM card slot, with an option for a soldered Machine Identification Module (MIM). Antenna – SMA connector for attaching an external antenna. Inputs – 5 inputs for counters, up […]

February 28, 2024February 27, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Waveshare RP2040-BLE is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 module with Bluetooth LE connectivity

If you could not care less about WiFi, the Waveshare RP2040-BLE module combines a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller with an unnamed Bluetooth 5.1 dual-mode chip, and supports a USB-C add-on board useful during development. There are several Raspberry Pi RP2040 boards with a WiFi and Bluetooth module including the Raspberry Pi Pico W, but if you are only interested in using Bluetooth, the RP2040-BLE board from Waveshare may be more power-efficient and its design may be more suitable for integration into products. Waveshare RP2040-BLE specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ microcontroller up to 133 MHz with 264KB of SRAM Storage – 2MB of onboard Flash memory. Connectivity Bluetooth 5.1 dual-mode function (BLE and classic) Controlled by serial AT commands Ceramic antenna Expansion 24x through and castellated holes with 14x multi-function GPIO pins. 2x SPI, 2x I2C, 2x UART, 3x 12-bit ADC, 14 x PWM FPC connector […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

February 27, 2024February 27, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Testing AI and LLM on Rockchip RK3588 using Mixtile Blade 3 SBC with 32GB RAM

We were interested in testing artificial intelligence (AI) and specifically large language models (LLM) on Rockchip RK3588 to see how the GPU and NPU could be leveraged to accelerate those and what kind of performance to expect. We had read that LLMs may be computing and memory-intensive, so we looked for a Rockchip RK3588 SBC with 32GB of RAM, and Mixtile – a company that develops hardware solutions for various applications including IoT, AI, and industrial gateways – kindly offered us a sample of their Mixtile Blade 3 pico-ITX SBC with 32 GB of RAM for this purpose. While the review focuses on using the RKNPU2 SDK with computer vision samples running on the 6 TOPS NPU, and a GPU-accelerated LLM test (since the NPU implementation is not ready yet), we also went through an unboxing to check out the hardware and a quick guide showing how to get started […]

February 27, 2024March 1, 2024 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

$20 coupon codes for the GEEKOM Mini IT13 mini PC with Core i7-13620H, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD (Sponsored)

GEEKOM is offering a $20 discount for the powerful GEEKOM Mini IT13 mini PC with coupon codes for Amazon (code CNXSWIT13) and the official GEEKOM store (code cnxsoftware) bringing the price down to just $609. The mini PC features an Intel Core i7-13620H 10-core/16-thread Raptor Lake processor, 32GB DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD for storage. It can drive up to four 4K displays through HDMI and USB4 ports, supports 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E networking, and comes with a total of 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, 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 2.5-inch SATA HDD (7mm) slot, […]