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Linux 6.5 release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.5 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): So nothing particularly odd or scary happened this last week, so there is no excuse to delay the 6.5 release. I still have this nagging feeling that a lot of people are on vacation and that things have been quiet partly due to that. But this release has been going smoothly, so that’s probably just me being paranoid. The biggest patches this last week were literally just to our selftests. The shortlog below is obviously not the 6.5 release log, it’s purely just the last week since rc7. Anyway, this obviously means that the merge window for 6.6 starts tomorrow. I already have ~20 pull requests pending and ready to go, but before we start the next merge frenzy, please give this final release one last round of testing, ok? Linus The earlier […]

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ArmSoM-p2 pro is a compact Rockchip RK3308B-S SBC for headless applications

ArmSoM-p2 pro is a compact Rockchip RK3308B-S SBC made by a company called ArmSoM and designed for headless applications with Ethernet, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, a USB port, a headphone jack, as well as two GPIO headers for expansion. The board also comes with 512MB RAM, 8GB eMMC flash and a microSD card slot for storage, extra audio interfaces through the GPIO header, and optional PoE support, all that in a compact 60×52.2mm form factor. ArmSoM-p2 pro specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3308B-S quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz with built-in VAD (Voice Activity Detector) System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot Audio 3.5mm headphone jack Audio Output – 2x Line out and 1xSPDIF out on 40-pin GPIO header Audio Input – 8x MIC and 1xPDM/I2S on 40-pin GPIO header Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet RJ45 port with optional 802.3af PoE […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Radxa ROCK 5B SBC goes fanless with metal case

The Radxa ROCK 5B was one of the first Rockchip RK3588 SBCs, and when we reviewed the developer edition of the board in July 2022 it came with an heatsink and 5V fan that was always on. That’s probably fine for testing, but many people will prefer a fanless solution. It turns out a metal case turning the ROCK 5B SBC into a fanless device has been available since the end of last year, but I’ve only come across it today. The black part is made of metal and the front and back plates are made of green plastic. As with all cases, there are always questions about compatibility with accessories, and for metal cases in particular, whether it’s actually used to cool the processor. Since it’s been around for many months, other users have already tested it out including Radxa forum’s user Deadmeat user who confirmed the SSD and […]

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Banana Pi BPI-CM2 – A Raspberry Pi CM4-compatible Rockchip RK3568 SoM with extra I/Os

Banana Pi BPI-CM2 is another Raspberry Pi CM4-compatible system-on-module, this time based on a Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC and with a twist as besides the two 100-pin high-density connectors, the module adds two 70-pin high-density connectors for the extra I/Os provided by the Rockchip processor such as PCIe 3.0, USB 3.0, eDP, MIPI DSI, and an additional Gigabit Ethernet. The Rockchip RK3568 module comes with many of the same features and options as the Raspberry Pi CM4 with 2GB to 8GB RAM, 8GB to 256GB eMMC flash, optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, and an on-module Ethernet transceiver, in this case, a Realtek RTL8211F. Banana Pi BPI-CM2 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1 AI accelerator – 0.8 TOPS NPU VPU – 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 […]

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DietPi News – v8.20 released, NanoPi Neo Air handheld Linux terminal

The latest DietPi v8.20 release of the lightweight Debian-based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems was outed on July 29, 2023, and on a separate note, a DIY handheld Linux terminal based on the NanoPi Neo Air SBC and running DietPi has been found on the interwebs. DietPi v8.20 release The project team released the new DietPi v8.20 on July 29th, 2023 with the following highlights: Homebridge: New software package bringing Apple Homekit support Kernel updates for Pine64 Quartz64  – Linux 6.4.7 and enabled support for the NFS kernel server FriendlyELEC NanoPi R5S/R5C/R6S series – Linux 5.10.160 StarFive VisionFive 2 RISC-V SBC – Linux 5.15.123 WiFi Hotspot: Enhanced DHCP default settings Fixes and updates for DietPi-LogClear, DietPi-Dashboard, DietPi-LetsEncrypt, PaperMC, vaultwarden, etc… The full changelog can be found on the DietPi website and the source code is hosted on GitHub. NanoPi Neo Air handheld Linux terminal running DietPi While it’s […]

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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 […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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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. […]

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Edgeble AI Neural Compute Module 2 (Neu2) follows 96Boards SoM form factor

Edgeble AI’s Neurable Compute Module 2, or Neu2 for shorts, is a system-on-module for computer vision applications based on the Rockchip RV1126 quad-core Cortex-A7 camera processor that follows the 96Boards SoM form factor. I first found the Neu2 and Neu6 (Rockchip RK3588) in the release log for the Linux 6.3 kernel, but at the time I found there was not enough information about those. The specifications for the Neu6 are still wrong (e.g. “64-bit processor with 4x Cortex-A7 core”) at the time of writing, so I’ll check the Neu2 system-on-module and its industrial version – the Neu2K based on RK1126K – for which we have more details. Edgeble Neu2 SoM specifications: SoC – Rockchip RV1126/RV1126K with CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.5GHz, RISC-V MCU @ 200MHz; (14nm SMIC process) GPU – 2D graphics engine NPU – 2 TOPS with INT8/INT16 VPU 4K H.264/H.265 video encoder up to 3840 x […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC