CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Espressif ESP-SR enables on-device speech recognition framework on ESP32-S3 and ESP32 WiSoCs

ESP SR ESP32 on device speech recognition AFE

Espressif ESP-SR is a speech recognition framework enabling on-device speech recognition on ESP32 and ESP32-S3 wireless microcontrollers with the latter being recommended due to its vector extension for AI acceleration and larger, high-speech octal SPI PSRAM. The ESP-SR framework was first released on December 17, 2021 with version 1.0, before the v1.20 update was introduced in March of this year, but I only found out about ESP-SR offline speech recognition solution through a tweet by John Lee showing an ESP-SR demo video by @ThatProject. Comrades of the world, liberate your hands from the chains of typing and touching germy switches! Embrace the revolutionary power of speech recognition with ESP32-S3 + ESP-SR. Let your words flow freely, for the proletariat shall not be silenced by keyboards or bourgeois input… pic.twitter.com/bm3udteB3o — John Lee (@EspressifSystem) July 15, 2023 I initially was confused since ESP32 boards have supported speech recognition for years using […]

July 17, 2023July 17, 2023 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

Selecting Raptor Lake COM-HPC or COM Express modules for your application (Sponsored)

COM Express vs COM HPC Raptor Lake modules

ADLINK Technology introduced the COM-HPC-cRLS (Raptor Lake-S) COM-HPC size C module and Express-RLP Raptor Lake-P COM Express Type 6 module at the beginning of the year, and while we covered the specifications for both in detail at the time of the announcement, we’ll compare the advantages and benefits of the two types of 13th generation Raptor Lake modules in this post and compare 12th gen Alder Lake-S and 13th Gen Raptor Lake-S processor performance to help potential buyers select the right one for their applications. Raptor Lake COM-HPC vs COM Express vs modules The table above provides a high-level comparison between the COM-HPC-cRLS (Raptor Lake-S) and the Express-RLP (Raptor Lake-P) modules. The Raptor Lake-S socketed processor family found in the COM-HPC provides more processing power, supports up to 128GB DDR5, and the COM-HPC standard adds support for PCIe Gen5 which is not possible with the COM Express standard. The Raptor […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

July 17, 2023August 26, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) review with Ubuntu 22.04 Linux (Part 3)

GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) Ubuntu 22.04 review

We’ve already reviewed GEEKOM Mini IT11 (Core i7-11390H) mini PC with Windows 11 Pro, so in the final part of the review, we’ve switched to Ubuntu 22.04 Linux operating system installed alongside Windows 11 on the Intel Core i7-11390H Tiger Lake mini PC. We’ll go through the software overview and test hardware features, run some benchmarks to evaluate the performance of the system, and report our findings with regard to power consumption and thermal performance. We’ve resized the partition in Windows 11 in the Disk Management program in order to install Ubuntu 22.04 from a USB flash drive on the Mini IT11 computer, and the installation went smoothly, and surprisingly fast according to the reviewer. Ubuntu 22.04 system information The About section in Ubuntu 22.04 Settings shows the Mini IT11 mini PC comes with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11390H CPU with eight threads clocked at 3.4 GHz and Intel […]

July 16, 2023July 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Monitor One – A customizable cellular IoT gateway for industrial equipment monitoring

Particle’s Monitor One Developer Edition is a customizable cellular IoT gateway for monitoring industrial equipment packaged in an IP67 rugged enclosure with reference firmware, and suitable for rapid prototyping with support for a range of I/Os and sensors, and even a prototyping area for to solder your own circuitry. Like the company’s earlier Tracker One asset tracker, the Monitor One is based on the Tracker SoM with a Nordic Semi nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4 wireless SoC for Bluetooth connectivity, a Quectel LTE Cat M1 (North America) or Cat 1 with 3G and 2G fallback (EMEA), u-blox Neo-M8U GNSS module, and an ESP32 for WiFi location support. The new customizable cellular IoT gateway still integrates with the Particle IoT PaaS (Platform as a Service), and the company also provides developer tools. The Monitor One Developer Edition is comprised of the following items: Monitor One base model fitted with a Particle Tracker SoM […]

July 15, 2023July 5, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Review of SunFounder Raspberry Pi UPS Power Supply

SunFounder’s Raspberry Pi UPS Power Supply is a complete UPS kit for the Raspberry Pi 3/4 Model B/B+ with a PiPower board, a 2,000 mAh battery, and all accessories requires for the assembly. It also works with other Raspberry Pi-sized boards that support 5V DC input such as Banana Pi BPI-M5, Libre Computer ROC-RK3328-CC, and other similar SBCs. Many years ago, I bought a Raspberry Pi battery pack for review hoping that it would also work as a UPS, but it was not perfect as the board would sometime reboot during power failure simulations. Since then, there have been many UPS kits launched to the market, but I didn’t try any so far, so when SunFounder contacted CNX Software to review their “Raspberry Pi UPS Power Supply”, I took the opportunity, and I will report my finding in this review. Raspberry Pi UPS Power Supply key features UPS module output […]

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 […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

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 […]