CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Inkplate 5 – A 5.2-inch wireless e-paper display programmable with Arduino or MicroPython (Crowdfunding)

The team at Soldered Electronics has been designing Inkplate ESP32-based e-paper displays ever since the first 6-inch model was launched in 2019. The latest Inkplate 5 comes with a recycled 5.2-inch E-Ink (e-paper) display with refresh times of only 0.19 seconds, and programmable with the Arduino IDE or MicroPython firmware. The WiFi-connected display offers a 960×540 resolution, or 213 DPI pixel density, integrates an RTC with battery for accurate timekeeping, two buttons for power and wake/user, and I/O expansion via headers and an easyC/Qwicc connector. Inkplate 5 specifications: Wireless module – Dual-core ESP32 processor with Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) connectivity, 8MB flash, 4MB PSRAM External storage – MicroSD card socket Display – 5.2-inch, 960×540 e-paper display with 213 DPI pixel density Refresh times: full refresh in just 1.02s (1-bit and 3-bit) and partial refresh in 0.19s (1-bit) USB – 1x USB Type-C port for programming and power Expansion […]

June 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Intel Atom C1100, C1110, C1130 “Arizona Beach” CPUs target low power network appliances

Valencia Network Appliance Intel Atom C1100 Arizona Beach network appliance

Intel Atom C1100, C1110, and C1130 “Arizona Beach” processors have been discreetly launched last year for low-power network appliances and customer-premises equipment (CPE). The C1100 is a dual-core processor clocked at up to 2.10 GHz, the C1110 a quad-core at up to 2.10 GHz, and the C1130 is an octa-core processor running at up to 2.5 GHz. All are manufactured with an Intel 7 process, support up to 32GB LPDDR5 memory with ECC, and offer up to twenty PCIe Gen 4 lanes. You’ll find a more detailed comparison on Intel Ark. They serve the same markets as the Atom Denverton processors introduced several years ago. We could find at least one product using the new Atom C1100, C1110, and C1130 processors with Silicom’s Valencia network appliance that offers up to 16GB LPDDR5, UFS, eMMC, and SSD storage, four native 2.5GbE ports, optional 10G SFP+ and PoE++, support for dual 4G/5G […]

June 11, 2023June 11, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Debian 12 “Bookworm” released with Linux 6.1

Debian 12 “Bookworm” operating system has been released with an update to Linux 6.1 LTS and a new non-free-firmware repository making it possible to separate non-free firmware from the other non-free packages. This follows the Debian 11 “Bullseye” release in August 2021, and the version of Debian will serve as the base for other Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu and derivates, Raspberry Pi OS, and so on. Debian 12 can be downloaded on a choice of desktop environments, namely Gnome 43, KDE Plasma 5.27, LXDE 11, LXQt 1.2.0, MATE 1.26, and Xfce 4.18. Bookworm includes a total of 64,419 packages many of which have been updated the to latest version. Nine architectures are supported by Debian 12 “Bookworm”: 32-bit PC (i386) and 64-bit PC (amd64) 64-bit ARM (arm64) ARM EABI (armel) ARMv7 (EABI hard-float ABI, armhf) little-endian MIPS (mipsel) 64-bit little-endian MIPS (mips64el) 64-bit little-endian PowerPC (ppc64el) IBM System […]

June 10, 2023June 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

T-RGB ESP32-S3 board gets larger 2.8-inch round color display

T-RGB ESP32-S3 board 2.8-inch round display

LILYGO T-RGB ESP32-S3 board was first introduced last year with a 2.1-inch round color touchscreen display, and the company has an update with a T-RGB board with a 2.8-inch display. The new board still offers WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, 8MB PSRAM, and 16MB flash storage, as well as a microSD card socket for storage, a Grove I2C connector for expansion, and LiPo battery support. T-RGB specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 8MB PSRAM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh connectivity Storage – 16MB SPI flash, MicroSD card socket Display – 2.8-inch round 18-bit RGB color IPS TFT display with 480×480 resolution (ST7701S SPI controller), 3-wire SPI touchscreen panel via GT911 controller USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – Grove I2C connector Misc – BOOT and Reset buttons Power Supply […]

June 9, 2023July 28, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

A first look at i-Pi SMARC 1200 (Genio 1200) development kit

ADLINK Technology’s i-PI SMARC 1200 is an industrial prototyping kit for AI IoT and Robotics based on a SMARC 2.1 compliant LEC-MTK-I12000 system-on-module (SoM) powered by the MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 AIoT processor with a 4.8 TOPS AI processor. The company sent me a sample for evaluation and review, and in this first post, I’ll go through an unboxing and how to boot the system with the supported Yocto Linux or Ubuntu. i-Pi SMARC 1200 unboxing The i-Pi SMARC 1200 may be destined for industrial users, but it still comes with a neat retail package. The “i-Pi LEC-MTK-I1200-44-64G/EU” kit features a CPU module with 4GB LPDDR4 memory and 64GB UFS storage. The package includes the board itself preassembled in a desktop frame, a Quick Start Guide, a 19V/2.37A (45W) power adapter with an EU power cord, a micro USB to USB cable for debugging, and two bits for […]

June 9, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Axiomtek AIE110-XNX is an affordable Edge AI Developer Kit based on NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX

Axiomtek AIE110-XNX Edge AI developer kit provides up to 21 TOPS of accelerated AI computing performance thanks to an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX system-on-module with a 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARM v8.2 64-bit CPU and a 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores. The new devkit serves as a relatively low-cost cost development kit with no minimum order, instead of getting full-feature embedded computers such as the company’s AIE900-XNX Edge AI system also based on the same Jetson Xavier NX module. Axiomtek AIE110-XNX specifications: NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX system-on-module with CPU – 6-core NVIDIA Carmel Armv8.2 64-bit CPU with 6 MB L2 + 4 MB L3 cache GPU – 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores AI Accelerator – 2x NVDLA System Memory – 8GB 128-bit LPDDR4x onboard Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Storage – M.2 Key M 2280 with PCIe x4 NVMe SSD slot, microSD slot Video Output […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

June 8, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Epi 32U4 – An Arduino-compatible USB-C development board with ATmega32U4 MCU (Crowdfunding)

Epi 32U4 Arduino USB Type-C development board

Epi 32U4 is a tiny Arduino-compatible development board based on a Microchip ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller with just a USB-Type-C port and 23 I/O pins accessible through castellated holes that can be soldered to headers or another PCB. The board also includes some protection such as a fuse, ESD protection, a ferrite bead, and a low-pass filter for the analog reference voltage. Ping Hobbyelektronik, the developer, says it’s especially useful for compact USB keyboards, but it also has more I/O ports than a standard Pro Micro board, so it’s appropriate for a range of other projects as well. Epi 32U4 board specifications: MCU – Microchip ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller @ 8MHz or 16 MHz with 32 KB flash, 2.5 KB SRAM, 1 KB EEPROM USB 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming USB D+ and D- lines are broken out ESD and surge protection on USB data lines and […]

June 8, 2023August 22, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Silicon Labs FG28 Sub-GHz wireless and 2.4 GHz BLE SoC supports Amazon Sidewalk, Wi-SUN, etc…

Silicon Labs dual-band FG28 Cortex-M33 SoC comes with sub-Gigahertz and 2.4 GHz Bluetooth LE radios that support long-range networks and protocols like Amazon Sidewalk, Wi-SUN, and other proprietary protocols, as well as a built-in AI/ML accelerator for machine learning inference and SiLabs Secure Vault technology. The chip looks to be an update to the sub-GHz FG25 Cortex-M33 microcontroller with an additional 2.4 GHz BLE radio, but somehow less program memory (up to 256KB) and storage (up to 1024 KB). The peripherals implemented in the chip are almost the same, as the microcontroller gains support for predictive maintenance with a small matrix vector processor for AI/ML acceleration. Silicon Labs FG28 (EFR32FG28) specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 78 MHz with DSP instructions and FPU On-chip memory – Up to 256 kB RAM data memory On-chip storage – Up to 1024 kB flash program memory AI accelerator – Matrix Vector Processor […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products