CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 2, 2023February 7, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Firefly AIO-1684XQ motherboard features BM1684X AI SoC with up to 32 TOPS for video analytics, computer vision

Firefly AIO-1684XQ is a motherboard based on SOPHGO SOPHON BM1684X octa-core Cortex-A53 AI SoC delivering up to 32TOPS for AI inference, and designed for computer vision applications and video analytics. The headless machine vision board is equipped with 16GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and 128MB SPI flash, and comes with a SATA 3.0 port, dual Gigabit Ethernet, optional 4G LTE or 5G modules, four USB 3.0 ports, and a terminal block with two RS485 interface, two relay outputs, and a few GPIOs. Firefly AIO-1684XQ specifications: SoC – SOPHGO SOPHON BM1684X CPU – Octa-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 2.3 GHz TPU – Up to 32TOPS (INT8), 16 TFLOPS (FP16/BF16), 2 TFLOPS (FP32) VPU Up to 32-channel H.265/H.264 1080p25 video decoding Up to 32-channel 1080p25 HD video processing (decoding + AI analysis) Up to 12-channel H.265/H.264 1080p25fps video encoding System Memory – 16GB LPDDR4x Storage 64GB eMMC flash 128MB SPI […]

August 2, 2023August 4, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Geniatech XPI-3566-ZERO – A Rockchip RK3566 SBC that follows Raspberry Pi Zero form factor

Geniatech XPI-3566-ZERO is a Rockchip RK3566 powered single board computer (SBC) that provides an alternative to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W with a more powerful quad-core 1.8 GHz Arm Cortex-A55 processor, support for 4Kp60 video playback and output, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, a built-in eMMC flash, and so on. Geniatech XPI is a family of SBCs that closely follows the design of various Raspberry Pi boards, and after introducing the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B-sized XPI-3566 board last year, the company has now designed a more small Rockchip RK3566 SBC that follows the Raspberry Pi Zero form factor. Geniatech XPI-3566-ZERO specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 2EE GPU, 1 TOPS AI accelerator System Memory – 512MB LPDDR4 (up to 8GB optional) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (up to 128GB optional) Video Output – mini HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

August 2, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Maxtang MTN-ALN50 – An NUC-inspired mini PC with Processor N100 or Core-i3 N305 Alder Lake-N CPU

Maxtang MTN-ALN50 mini PC features a 12th-generation Intel Processor N100 or Core-i3 N305 Alder Lake-N processor and has a familiar design since it looks very much like an Intel NUC. The mini PC support up to 32GB DDR4 memory and SATA storage, and offers three video outputs via HDMI and USB-C DisplayPort, two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports, support for M.2 wireless modules, and five USB 3.2/2.0 ports. Maxtang MTN-ALN50 specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC Intel Processor N100 quad-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 6W Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 15W Memory – Up to 32GB single-channel SO-DIMM DDR4 Storage – 1x M.2 2280 SATA socket, 1x SATA (FPC) connector, optional eMMC flash Video Output – 2x HDMI 2.0 ports; DisplayPort 1.4 via USB-C port Audio – 3.5mm […]

August 1, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Sudomaker LoShark L1 LoRa USB dongle runs Linux on Ingenic X1501 MIPS processor

Sudomaker LoShark L1 is a USB dongle with Semtech SX1262/SX1268 LoRa transceiver and a Linux-capable Ingenic X1501 MIPS processor with 8MB on-chip memory that serves as a LoRa debug tool that can use a JavaScript interface to access to all SX126x chip registers. The LoShark L1 USB key offers both LoRa connectivity and debugging capabilities such as packet capture (hence the reference to WireShark) and can operate either independently (standalone) or in conjunction with a PC as shown below with a mini laptop. LoShark L1 specifications: SoC – Ingenic X1501 MIPS processor @ 1 GHz with 8MB DRAM, 2200+ CoreMark, Memory – Optional 8MB PSRAM (Lyontek LY68L6400SLIT) Storage – 4GB MLC or 256 MB SLC NAND flash Wireless connectivity HJSIP HJ-68LR LoRa module based on Semtech SX1262/SX1268 with TCXO Support for 433 MHz, 868 MHz, and 915 MHz bands SMA-F antenna connector USB – 1x USB Type-A male […]

August 1, 2023August 1, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

Raspberry Pi supplies are improving, but trust may be hard to rebuild with makers

Last December, Eben Upon provided an update about Raspberry Pi availability and expected “unlimited supplied” by H2 2023. Nine months later, Raspberry Pi supplies have indeed improved a lot. Still, some makers with small-volume production have already moved on, and are using alternative solutions. This seems especially true for products based on Raspberry Pi CM4 modules. Tom’s Hardware has just had a fresh look at the Raspberry Pi supply situation, and based on Eben’s tweets noted an increased number of Raspberry Pi boards had shipped in 2023. Eben said June was the second-best month ever for Raspberry Pi Trading with 788,000 units sold, and July looks to breach if the one million units a month is reached, beating the March 2021 records of 814k units. He further expanded saying 119k Zero boards, of which 33k Zero 2 boards (almost entirely consumer), and estimated around 250-400ku went to the retail market. […]

August 1, 2023August 1, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Qualcomm Iris video decoder & encoder gets Linux V4L2 driver

Qualcomm Iris V4L2 video encoder decoder driver

Qualcomm engineer Vikash Garodia has just pushed a commit to add “Qualcomm Iris V4L2 encoder/decoder driver” to mainline Linux enabling support for H.264, H.265, and VP9 decoding, H.264 and H.265 encoding, as well as M2M and STREAMING capabilities. The Adreno GPUs found in Qualcomm SoC have been supported by the open-source Freedreno driver for several years, but this was not the case with the IP block taking care of hardware video encoding and decoding. The latest patchset addresses this issue for “Qualcomm’s new video acceleration hardware architecture”, meaning it might not work for older Qualcomm processors. The list of features implemented in the Iris V4L2 encoder/decoder driver: Centralized resource and memory management. Centralized management of core and instance states. Defines platform-specific capabilities and features providing a single point of control to enable/disable a given feature depending on specific platform capabilities. Handles hardware interdependent configurations. Handles multiple complex video scenarios involving […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

July 31, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2 adds support for Fairphone 3, Volla Phone X23, F(x)tec Pro1 X smartphones

Ubuntu Smartphone with physical keyboard

UBPorts has just released Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2 based on Ubuntu 20.04 with three new phones supported namely the Fairphone 3, the Volla Phone X23, and F(x)tec Pro1 X with the latter being introduced in 2020 in a crowdfunding campaign claiming Ubuntu Touch support. Ubuntu Touch was initially an initiative by Canonical for desktop/mobile convergence, but when the company decided to refocus its efforts on cloud and IoT, the UBPorts community took over and eventually outed the first stable Ubuntu Touch release in June 2017. Work has continued since then and with the Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2 release, the community-supported distribution now supports 15 smartphones with the Fairphone 4, Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL, Oneplus 5 and 5T, OnePlus 6 and 6T, Vollaphone and Vollaphone X, Vollaphone 22, Xiaomi Mi A2, Xiaomi Poco M3, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 and 7 Pro, besides the three new mobile devices added to […]

July 31, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

e-con systems See3CAM_24CUG USB 3.1 global shutter camera review

e-con Systems See3CAM_24CUG a full HD color global shutter USB 3.1 Gen 1 camera based on an Onsemi AR0234CS CMOS image sensor capable of capturing moving scenes at up to 120 fps. This global shutter camera is especially useful for robotics and other applications that may require a high frame rate such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR), gesture recognition, drones, barcode scanners, factory automation, conveyor monitoring cameras, and traffic monitoring systems. e-con Systems sent a See3CAM_24CUG USB global shutter camera sample to CNX Software for review. I’ll go through an unboxing before testing in Ubuntu with both an AMD Ryzen 7 2700U laptop and a Raspberry Pi 4 single board computer. It happens to be based on the same sensor as the e-CAM20_CURB camera for Raspberry Pi 4 that we reviewed last year. See3CAM_24CUG specifications ON Semiconductor AR0234CS CMOS sensor with 1/2.6″ optical form-factor Global […]

Boardcon Rockchip RK3588S SBC with 8K, WiFI 6, 4G LTE, NVME SSD, HDMI 2.1...