CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 28, 2023June 4, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

8-inch mini laptop is powered by an Intel Processor N95 Alder Lake-N SoC

A mini laptop with an 8-inch touchscreen display, powered by an Intel Processor N100 N95 Alder Lake-N SoC coupled with 12GB LPDDR5, and an up to 2TB SSD has started to show up on Aliexpress for $350 and up. We’ve covered several devices powered by Intel Alder Lake-N processors including mini PCs, laptops, motherboards, and even a system-on-module, but we had not seen an Alder Lake-N “mini laptop”, so let’s have a closer look at this white brand mini laptop. Specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N95 Alder Lake-N quad-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 16 EU Intel HD graphics @ up to 1.2 GHz; TDP: 15W System Memory – 12GB LPDDR5 4800 MHz RAM Storage – 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD Display – 8-inch 10-point touchscreen display with 300 nit brightness, 180 degrees rotation, tablet mode; resolution: “high definition”, so basically […]

May 27, 2023May 27, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

SenseCAP Indicator D1Pro Review – An ESP32-S3 & RP2040 IoT devkit with a 4-inch display, LoRa connectivity, sensors

The SenseCAP Indicator D1Pro is an IoT development kit based on ESP32-S3 WiFi & BLE chip, a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, and offering LoRa connectivity through an SX1262 RF chip. It also features a 4-inch touchscreen display, two Grove interfaces with ADC & I2C, and two USB Type-C ports including one exposing GPIOs, and the D1Pro integrates tVOC and CO2 sensors, plus the kit ships with an external Grove AHT20 TH sensor for temperature and humidity measurements. SenseCAP Indicator D1Pro Features Dual MCUs and GPIO expansion with the Espressif ESP32-S3 and Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontrollers and support for over 400 Grove-compatible modules. Real-time air quality monitoring thanks to the built-in tVOC and CO2 sensors, and an external Grove AHT20 TH sensor for more precise temperature and humidity readings. Local LoRa Hub for IoT Connectivity thanks to the integrated Semtech SX1262 LoRa chip for connecting LoRa devices to IoT platforms such […]

May 26, 2023July 6, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Olimex ESP32-SBC-FabGL board runs DOS, offers VGA , PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors

Olimex ESP32-SBC-FabGL is an ESP32 single board computer that can serve as the brain of a retro computer with a VGA port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and two PS/2 ports for a keyboard and mouse that are handled by the open-source FabGL graphics library. The board also comes with a microSD card slot, a buzzer, and various expansion interfaces, and can be powered via its USB port or a LiPo battery. FabGL implements several emulators including an Intel 8080 CPU emulator that allows the system to run various versions of DOS among other things. ESP32-SBC-FabGL specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROVER dual-core WiFi and Bluetooth module with 4MB flash, 8MB PSRAM Storage – MicroSD card slot Display – VGA connector, 12-pin LCD HAT connector to enable handheld designs Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, built-in buzzer USB – 1x USB-C port for power and programming User inputs – PS2 keyboard connector, PS2 […]

May 26, 2023May 26, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SMARC 2.1 system-on-module is powered by an Intel Alder Lake-N Atom x7000E, Processor, or Core i3 processor

TQEmbedded TQMxE41S Alder Lake-N system-on-module

TQ-Embedded TQMxE41S is a SMARC 2.1 system-on-module (SoM) powered by an Intel Alder Lake-N Atom x7000E, Processor Nxxx, or Core i3 processor with a TDP ranging from 6W to 15W TDP, up to 16GB LPDDR5-4800 memory and up to 256GB industrial iNAND eMMC flash. The Alder Lake-N system-on-module exposes two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, four PCIe, USB 3.2, and SATA through its 314-pin edge connector as per SMARC 2.1, while the 12th generation Intel UHD Graphics in the SoC supports AVX256 and advanced AI instruction sets (VNNI) making it suitable for fast AI inferencing and media transcoding. The company expects the module to be integrated into applications in healthcare, IoT, industry/robotics, retail, and video & conferencing. TQEmbedded TQMxE41S specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i3-N305 – 8C/8T, (1.8 – 3.8 GHz); 6 MB Smart Cache, 15W TDP or 9W cTDP, 32 EU, Intel UHD Graphics (up to […]

May 26, 2023May 26, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

ARIES FIVEberry – A Community RISC-V SBC powered by Renesas RZ/Five processor

ARIES Embedded has unveiled the FIVEberry 64-bit RISC-V community board for fast prototyping fitted with an OSM-compatible MSRZFive system-in-package (SiP) powered by a 1GHz Renesas RZ/Five microprocessor. The board is equipped with a module with 512 DDR4, a 128MBit SPI NOR flash, a microSD card on the bottom of the board, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a micro USB port for serial console, and a JTAG header for further debugging, as well as a 40-pin GPIO header for expansion. FIVEberry specifications: SoM – ARIES Embedded MSRZFive-A0A system-on-module SoC – Renesas RZ/Five R9A07G043F01GBG single-core RISC-V AX45MP processor @ to 1.0 GHz System Memory – 512MB DDR4 RAM Storage – 128Mbit SPI NOR flash 332 contacts as per OSM Size-S specifications Storage – MicroSD card slot Networking – 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG port Expansion – 40-pin GPIO […]

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Reolink E1 Outdoor Pro 4K smart security camera supports WiFi 6 connectivity

Reolink E1 Outdoor Pro is a 4K smart security camera with PTZ and auto-tracking like the Reolink TrackMix, but instead of relying on PoE or WiFi 4/5, the camera comes with WiFi 6 connectivity for a faster and more stable network connection with less latency. Most of the WiFi security cameras I’ve been using come with 2.4GHz WiFi 4, and I’ve found connectivity to the solar-powered Reolink security cameras I’ve been using to be somewhat unreliable with difficulty connecting to them through the mobile app, although uploads to the cloud don’t suffer from those issues. So I typically prefer PoE or 4G LTE security cameras since the connectivity is more stable, but Reolink E1 Outdoor Pro security camera’s WiFi 6 support could help depending on the environment. Reolink E1 Outdoor Pro specifications: Camera – 4K Ultra HD resolution with 3x optimal zoom Color night vision with spotlight PTZ – 355º […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Snagboot is an open-source cross-vendor recovery tool for embedded targets

Bootlin has just released the Snagboot open-source recovery tool for embedded platforms designed to work with multiple vendors, and currently STMicro STM32MP1, Microchip SAMA5, NXP i.MX6/7/8, Texas Instruments AM335x and AM62x, and Allwinner “sunxi” processors are supported. Silicon vendors usually provide firmware flashing tools, some closed-source binaries, that only work with their hardware. So if you work on STM32MP1 you’d use STM32CubeProgrammer, while SAM-BA is the tool for Microchip processors, NXP i.MX SoC relies on UUU, and if you’ve ever worked on Allwinner processors you’re probably family with sunxi-fel. Bootlin aims to replace all those with the Snagboot recovery tool. The Python tool is comprised of two parts: snagrecover using vendor-specific ROM code mechanisms to initialize external RAM and run the bootloader (typically U-Boot) without modifying any non-volatile memories. snagflash communicates with the bootloader over USB to flash system images to non-volatile memories, using either DFU, USB Mass Storage, or […]

May 25, 2023May 24, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

iW-RainboW-G55M is an OSM-LF compliant module based on TI AM62A Cortex-A53 processor

iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G55M is an OSM Size L compliant system-on-module based on Texas Instruments AM62A single to quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with up to 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, and a wireless module with WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and 802.15.4 radios. The iW-RainboW-G55M can leverage the vision processing and deep learning accelerator and the Arm Cortex-R5F real-time cores for control and device management found in the AM62A processor, as well as its display and camera interfaces, peripheral and networking options, to develop products for “man-machine applications at the edge”. iW-RainboW-G55M SoM specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments AM62A SoC (AM62A3, AM62A3-Q1, AM62A7, or AM62A7-Q1) Application processor – Up to four Arm Cortex- A53 cores @ 1.4GHz Real-time cores 1x Cortex-R5F @ 800MHz (MPU Channel with FFI) 1x Cortex-R5F @ 800MHz to support Device Management C7xV-256 Deep Learning Accelerator up to 2 TOPS System Memory – 2GB (default) to 8GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage […]