CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

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

Star Labs Byte Mk II Processor N200 mini PC is offered with a choice of Linux distributions

Star Labs Byte Mk II is another Intel Alder Lake-N mini PC with an Intel Processor N200 CPU whose main differentiating factor is to ship with Linux pre-installed from a choice between Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Zorin OS, and many others. The hardware features are quite standard with up to 16GB RAM, an NVMe SSD with up to 2TB capacity, HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, an audio jack two Gigabit Ethernet ports, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1, and a few USB ports. Star Labs Byte Mk II specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N200 quad-core processor @ up to 1.0 GHz / 3.7 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel HD graphics @ 750 MHz; TDP: 6W (PL2 set to 25W) System Memory – 8GB or 16GB single-channel DDR4 3200MHz memory via one SO-DIMM socket Storage 480GB “over-provisioned” M.2 2280 PCIe SSD (option for 960GB or 1920GB) Detachable 2.5-inch HDD/SSD […]

July 14, 2023July 14, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

LiFi 802.11bb standard uses light for in-room data transmission up to 224GB/s

The 802.11bb WiFi-like standard, also called LiFi, was ratified in June 2023. It enables data transmission up to 224GB/s at a few meters range within a room using light instead of RF signals used in most other wireless standards. The technology has been worked on for many years, and we first covered (a version of) LiFi in 2014 that was still part of the IEEE 802.15 standard with speeds up to 1 Gbps. But the Light Communications 802.11bb Task Group was only formed in 2018 chaired by pureLiFi and supported by Fraunhofer HHI, and led to be ratification of the IEEE 802.11bb standard last month. In a typical LiFi setup, you’d have a LiFi-capable router connected to your local network and the Internet, a LiFi-enabled light bulb on a ceiling, and one or more LiFi receivers. From the end-user perspective, it would work like accessing a WiFi access point. We’re […]

July 14, 2023July 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GEEKOM MINI IT11 Review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro on an Intel Core i7-11390H mini PC

We’ve previously checked out GEEKOM Mini IT11’s hardware and accessories with some specs, an unboxing, a teardown, and a first boot of the Intel Core i7-11390H mini PC in the first part of the review. We’ve now had time to thoroughly test the Tiger Lake mini PC with Windows 11 Pro, and we’ll go through a software overview, benchmarks, power consumption, and more in the second part of the review. Software overview GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) mini PC ships with Windows 11 Pro version 21H2 OS build 22000.1219. We can further confirm the specifications with the HWiNFO64 program to show the system is based on an Intel Core i7-11390H with four cores and eight threads and Intel Iris Xe Graphics and comes with 32GB dual-channel DDR4 memory, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. The Western Digital hard drive we added to the mini PC also shows up in the list […]

July 13, 2023July 22, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Affordable RTK GNSS receiver supports USB or/and Ethernet interfaces (Crowdfunding)

HYFIX’s RTK Rover is an affordable, centimeter-accurate RTK (Real-time Kinematic) GNSS receiver with either a USB interface or/and Ethernet connectivity with the latter relying on a Raspberry Pi 4 SBC. As a reminder, RTK relies on traditional GNSS networks like GPS and works with a Base station at a fixed location and a Rover station that can be fitted to a drone or mobile robot in order to determine the position with up to one-centimeter accuracy. The RTK Rover from HYFIX is equipped with a dual-band LC29H GNSS module from Quectel and an onboard IMU sensor that tracks position through dead reckoning when GNSS connectivity is lost. RTK Rover specifications: MiniPCIe card with Dual-Band L1/L5 RTK Receiver (Quectel LC29H) Antenna – External antenna (6x5x2 cm) connected to SMA connector Sensor – IMU Interfaces USB Type-C port for power and serial Interface Ethernet Rover Kit only – Gigabit Ethernet and USB ports […]

July 13, 2023July 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

CZUR ET24 Pro book scanner review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, and first try

CZUR ET24 Pro is a professional book scanner with 320DPI optional resolution (delivering up to 24MP images) that works with Windows, macOS, and Linux via a USB port, or even in standalone mode through an HDMI port that could be used for business presentations. When CZUR contacted me about reviewing a scanner, I was not sure it would be interesting, but then I was intrigued because it looks like a bedside light and I had never used this type of scanner. So I decided to give a go, and here I am with a review sample. It looks like it should be especially useful for people scanning a lot of documents or books as it’s designed for speed and should significantly improve productivity over a traditional scanner with a cover, while hopefully keeping the quality. But we’ll check that in the full review. CZUR ET24 Pro specifications Optical resolution – […]

July 13, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

BeagleV-Ahead quad-core RISC-V SBC offers BeagleBone Capes compatibility

Beagleboard.org Foundation’s BeagleV-Ahead is a single board computer powered by the T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V processor and following the form factor of the popular BeagleBone Black board based on a Texas Instruments Sitara AM3359 single-core Arm Cortex-A8 processor. The new board looks better in almost every way with a much faster processor, 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, Gigabit Ethernet, built-in WiFI and Bluetooth, a micro USB 3.0 port, micro HDMI video output up to 4Kp60, etc… and the same 80-pin headers as found on other BeagleBone boards. The main downside is that it comes at a significantly higher price as we’ll see further below. BeagleV-Ahead specifications: SoC – Alibaba T-Head TH1520 CPU – quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910 (RV64GCV) processor @ up to 2.0 GHz, low power Xuantie E902 core GPU – Imagination BXM-4-64 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.2, 50.7GFLOPS DSP – Xuantie C906 audio DSP @ […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

July 12, 2023July 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

smolOS brings a Linux-like command line interface to ESP8266 microcontroller

smolOS (pronounced small OS) is an open-source, lightweight MicroPython program that implements a POSIX-style (Linux-like) command line interface for the ESP8266 WiFi microcontroller. Krzysztof Jankowski (w84death) designed smolOS to be easy to use, allowing the listing and removing of files and also including the smolEDitor which, as its name implies, is a simple text editor. There are currently eight commands with the familiar ls, cat, and rm, plus ed to launch the text editor, welcome to show the welcome screen above, cls to clear the screen, mhz to set the processor speed to 80 or 160 MHz, and info to display some hardware and software information. The project looks to be a work in progress, and the developer highlights the editor is at the alpha stage of development, so more features may be implemented over time by Krzysztof himself or by the community of developers. I also assume other microcontrollers […]

July 12, 2023July 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) mini PC review – Part 1: unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM Mini IT11 is a mini PC based on the 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11390H quad-core Tiger Lake processor with up to 64GB RAM, and up to 2TB NVMe SSD storage. It comes with Windows 11 Pro operating system, supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, and offers plenty of ports. GEEKOM has sent us a Mini IT11 Mini PC with 32 GB RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD for review. Today, we will look at the specifications of the mini PC, check out the package content, do a teardown, and boot it up to make sure it works as expected. We will test the performance on Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 in subsequent parts. GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) specifications We’ve written about the Mini IT11 a few times already, but for reference, here are the specifications again: SoC – Intel Core i7-11390H quad-core/8-thread Tiger Lake processor @ up […]