CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 13, 2023November 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Dockcase 7-in-1 USB-C dock features a color information display (Crowdfunding)

Dockcase USB hub with built-in information display

USB-C docks have become somewhat boring, but Dockcase 7-in-1 USB-C dock is a little different with a transparent top cover made of tempered glass and an integrated color display that looks neat and may end up being useful by providing relevant information. The USB-C dock also comes with three 5Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a 4Kp60 capable HDMI 2.0 video output, SD card & microSD card slots, support for 100W USB PD, and a 10 Gbps USB Type-C port for connection to the host. Dockcase 7-in-1 USB-C dock specifications: Display – 1.33-inch color LCD display with 240 x 240 resolution Storage – SD and microSD (UHS-I) card slots HDMI output up to 4Kp60 (3840×2160) USB Input – 10Gbps USB-C port with cable Output – 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports Misc – Control button Power Input – 100W (20V/5A) USB PD Dimensions – 122 x 40 x […]

November 13, 2023November 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Synaptics SYN43711 WiFi 6E & Bluetooth 5.3 chipset targets IoT devices, video streaming, robotics

SYN43711 WiFi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 IoT chipset

Synaptics SYN43711 is a new WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 “SoC” designed for “IoT applications” such as high-end home appliances with video streaming capabilities, surveillance cameras, robots, and other secure smart consumer, industrial, and enterprise systems. It’s a more cost-effective version of the company’s SYN4382 SoC that supports 1,200 Mbps 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 connectivity. Designed for small form factor devices, the new SYN43711 tri-band chipset supports 600 Mbps WiFI 6E, Wi-Fi Sensing (human presence detection), and Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio for multiple concurrent Bluetooth connections and audio streams, including Auracast audio sharing. SYN43711 key features and specifications: Wireless Tri-band (2.4, 5, 6 GHz) Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6, 6E up to 600 Mbps (1×1 antenna arrangement) Bluetooth 5.3 LE with LE Audio support Integrated PAs and LNAs (external PA and LNA optional) with high transmit (Tx) power level and receive (Rx) sensitivity Synaptics Smart Co-Ex […]

November 12, 2023December 1, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GEEKOM A5 AMD Ryzen 7 5800H mini PC review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM A5 is a Windows 11 Pro mini PC based on an eight-core, sixteen-thread AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor with up to 64GB RAM, NVMe/SATA SSD support up to 2TB, and interfaces such as dual HDMI 2.0, five USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps ports, 2.5GbE, as well as support a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module. The company has sent us a review sample of the GEEKOM A5 mini PC with 32GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. Today, we will look at the Mini PC’s specifications, go through an unboxing, followed by a teardown, and quickly check out if it works properly with a first boot to Windows 11 Pro. In the next part of the GEEKOM A5 review, we will test performance and features with Windows 11 Pro, followed by an evaluation of the mini PC with Ubuntu 22.04 in the final and third part of the […]

November 12, 2023November 14, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 247 Comments

Giveaway Week 2023 – i-Pi SMARC 1200 devkit with Mediatek Genio 1200 Cortex-A78/A55 SoC

i-Pi SMARC 1200 Yocto Linux glmark2 benchmark

We’ll end this year’s Giveaway Week with a pretty powerful development kit – ADLINK i-Pi SMARC 1200 – powered by a MediaTek Genio 1200 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores, an Arm Mali Mali-G57 MC5 GPU, 4K hardware video decoding and decoding support, and a 4.8 TOPS NPU. The mainboard is comprised of a SMARC 2.1-compliant system-on-module with 4GB LPDDR4 memory and 64GB UFS storage and fitted with a heatsink for cooling as well as a carrier board with a 4Kp60 capable HDMI 2.0 port, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, two 40-pin headers for I/Os including one compatible with the 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, plus LVDS connectors, MIPI CSI camera connectors, and M.2 expansion slots for storage and/or wireless expansion. I tested the MediaTek Genio 1200 devkit with a Yocto […]

November 11, 2023November 13, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 208 Comments

Giveaway Week 2023 – Elecrow ESP32 Terminal with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display and OV2640 camera

If I remember correctly, Elecrow sent me an end-of-year gift with a notebook (paper style), a pen, and a 3.5-inch ESP32 terminal. I had completely forgotten about it, and while wondering what I would give for Giveaway Week 2023, and looking around in drawers and on shelves, I found an “ESP32 Terminal” package, and I was like “What the F is that and where is it coming from?”. Long story short, the 6th prize of this year’s giveaway week is Elecrow’s ESP32 Terminal with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display that also comes with a front-facing OV2640 camera and six Crowtail connectors for expansion plus a LiPo battery connector. Elecrow ESP32 terminal specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S3 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 (LE) module with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM Storage – MicroSD card slot Display – 3.5-inch TFT LCD display with 480×320 resolution (ILI9488 driver), capacitive touchscreen Camera – 2MP […]

November 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-3 release adds support for PinePhone and PineTab devices

UBPorts has just released Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-3 based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with the latest security updates and beta support for PinePhone, PinePhone Pro, PineTab, and PineTab 2, adding to the smartphones already supported by Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2. As a reminder, Ubuntu Touch was initially handled by Canonical for desktop/mobile convergence, but it was dropped when the company decided to refocus its efforts on cloud and IoT, and the UBPorts community took over and eventually outed the first stable Ubuntu Touch release in June 2017. The developers kept on improving the OS since then with new releases from time to time, but note that it should still be considered experimental only for most devices, and will not be suitable as a daily driver for the majority of people. The PinePhone and PineTab have been supported by Ubuntu Touch for a few years, but they had their own branch […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

November 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Gigadevice GD32VW553 RISC-V microcontroller supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 LE

Gigadevice GD32VW553 is a new 160MHz RISC-V microcontroller for IoT applications with support for WiFi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.2 Low Energy (LE) and available in QFN32 and QFN40 packages with up to 28 GPIOs. As an IoT chip, the chip supports various power modes and target wake time (TWT) for low power consumption, as well as WiFi features such as WPA3 and WiFi direct, while the radio can handle Bluetooth 5.2 LE bit rates of up to 2 Mbps and support the Long Range mode. Gigadevice GD32VW553 specifications: MCU core – 32-bit Nuclei N307 RISC-V core @ up to 160 MHz with RV32I / M / A / F / D / C / P / B instruction extensions Memory – 320KB SRAM Storage – 2048KB or 4096KB flash Wireless WiFI 6 802.11b/g/n/ax HT20 up to 114.7Mbps 802.11e QoS Enhancement (WMM). 802.11i (WPA, WPA2, WPA3). Open, shared key, and […]

November 10, 2023November 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 104 Comments

Giveaway Week 2023 – WCH CH583M-R0 development board and some RISC-V microcontrollers

Early this year, WCH sent me a few of their RISC-V MCU boards and chips to thank me for writing about their products. I gave one for review with some chips but it went to review heaven, or in other words, no review was ever written. I also sold a couple locally, and since I don’t think I’ll ever have time for a review, we are now giving away the remaining boards and chips here and on CNX Software Thailand. Today’s giveaway is the WCH CH583M-R0-1v1 board, also known as CH583EVT or CH583M-EVT-R0, based on the CH583 RISC-V Bluetooth 5.3 LE microcontroller that exposes all I/Os from the chip, a few buttons, and USB ports, and also features an SWD/UART header for debugging. You’ll find the documentation, code samples, an Android app and other resources to get started on GitHub. I’ll also throw all the remaining chips I have left […]