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Radxa E25 carrier board, 2.5GbE switch, and WiFi 6 router

I’ve just received an early sample of Radxa E25 dual 2.5 GbE carrier board for Radxa CM3 Plus (RK3568) system-on-module, a 2.5GbE TP-Link switch, and Xiaomi AX6000 WiFi 6 + 2.5GbE router. Here’s the back story before looking into the devices. I’ll soon have to review UP Xtreme i11 mini PC with a 2.5GbE port, and after writing about the upcoming ROCK5 Model B SBC with both 2.5GbE and WiFI 6/6E, I realized I should really get some hardware to test 2.5GHz and WiFi 6. So I started to ask what could be the best options for a $200 budget. While thinking about it, I remember Radxa was working on the Radxa E23 board with 2.5GbE, and adding a WiFi 6 USB dongle might be an option. But they told me Radxa E25 would be a better option with two 2.5GbE ports and support for WiFi 6, although that one […]

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$499 BrainChip AKD1000 PCIe board enables AI inference and training at the edge

BrainChip has announced the availability of the Akida AKD1000 (mini) PCIe boards based on the company’s neuromorphic processor of the same name and relying on spiking neural networks (SNN) which to deliver real-time inference in a way that is much more efficient than “traditional” AI chips based on CNN (convolutional neural network) technology. The mini PCIe card was previously found in development kits based on Raspberry Pi or an Intel (x86) mini PC to let partners, large enterprises, and OEMs evaluate the Akida AKD1000 chip. The news is today is simply that the card can easily be purchased in single units or quantities for integration into third-party products. BrainChip AKD1000 PCIe card specifications: AI accelerator – Akida AKD1000 with Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core @ 300MHz System Memory – 256Mbit x 16 bytes LPDDR4 SDRAM @ 2400MT/s Storage – Quad SPI 128Mb NOR flash @ 12.5MHz Host interface – 5GT/s PCI […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Horizon X3 AI development board is powered by Sunrise 3 AI Edge Arm processor

Horizon X3 AI development board is powered by Horizon Robotics Sunrise 3 (aka X3) quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with a 5 TOPS NPU, and multiple camera support with the chip apparently designed for the automotive industry. [Update January 25, 2022: A third-party company, Finsbury Glover Hering, claiming to represent Horizon Robotics informed CNX Software the chip is not designed for the automotive market, and that Horizon’s AIoT business is actually limited to the domestic China market and not overseas.] The devkit is comprised of a Sunrise 3 system-on-module with 1GB LPDDR4 & 16GB EMMC memory, as well as a baseboard with Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi, HDMI up to 1080p60 and MIPI DSI interface, a camera interface, and a 40-pin header for expansion. Horizon X3 AI development board specifications: SoC – Horizon Robotics Sunrise 3 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz, one Cortex-R5 core, a 5 TOPS NPU (2x “Bernoulli” BPU) System […]

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Year 2021 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics

As per tradition, we’ll look back at what happened during the year in the last post, and see what 2022 may have in store, plus the usual statistics from CNX Software website. The biggest story of 2021 has to be the worsening of semiconductors shortages with extremely long lead times, prices of some components going up multiple folds, constant complaints on Twitter about availability and prices. I think I even saw a website, hopefully misconfigured, showing an estimated availability of a specific STM32 MCU in 2037. This also gave rise to opportunities and board redesigns, with MotorComm Ethernet chips replacing some Realtek chips in SBCs such as NanoPi R2C and  Orange Pi R1S Plus LTS, and CH9102F showing up as a replacement for CP2104 in some IoT boards. We also got some interesting Arm processors, but sadly the high-expected Rockchip RK3588 got delayed by another year, although it’s getting really […]

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Sipeed Lichee RV RISC-V module gets $5+ carrier board with HDMI and USB ports, optional WiFi

Sipeed introduced the Lichee RV Allwinner D1 Linux RISC-V board going for just $17 with 512MB RAM last month. While with a USB-C port it could be used as a standalone part, its dual M.2 connector makes it more like a module and we noted a tiny carrier board was in the works at the time. The baseboard is now available and known as the Lichee RV Dock adding HDMI and USB ports, as well as a 40-pin GPIO header for just $5, or $8 if you’d like to get Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity through a Realtek RTL8723DS module. Sipeed Lichee RV Dock specifications: Supported system-on-module (SoM) – Lichee RV module with Allwinner D1 RISC-V processor @ 1 GHz, 512MB DDR3, MicroSD card slot, and USB Type-C OTG port Storage – Optional SPI flash Display interfaces HDMI port up to 4Kp30 Optional RGB interface for up to 720p30 […]

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MYIR introduces i.MX 8M Plus module and devkit with AI/ML capabilities

There are already plenty of i.MX 8M Plus systems-on-module, but here’s one more courtesy of MYIR Tech with MYC-JX8MPQ i.MX 8M Plus module with as well as MYD-JX8MPQ development board for evaluating the solution. The module is especially well suited to applications leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) with the NXP Cortex-A53/M7 integrating a 2.3 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU). The module comes with up to 6GB LPDDR4, 128GB eMMC flash, 32MB QSPI flash, a PMIC for power management, as well as a 314-pin MXM 3.0 connector exposing the I/Os from the processor. MYC-JX8MPQ module specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus (MIMX8ML8CVNKZAB) quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6 GHz, real-time Arm Cortex-M7 co-processor @ 800 MHz, 2.3 TOPS AI accelerator, 2D/3D GPU, HiFi4 Audio DSP, and 1080p VPU System Memory – 3GB LPDDR4 (option up to 6GB) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (option up to 128GB), 32MB QSPI […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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Reolink Go Plus 4G smart security camera with solar panel – Unboxing and first setup

I’ve received several Reolink IP cameras either connected over WiFi or Ethernet, but the company has just sent me Reolink Go Plus 4G security camera together with a solar panel that would let me access the camera from anywhere with cellular network connectivity. Reolink Go Plus integrates a 4MP camera and supports person and vehicle detection, just like Reolink RLC-810A model I reviewed earlier this year. I have three Reolink cameras, and I’m somewhat satisfied except that the connection to WiFi cameras is often unreliable, and I have to rely on Cloud backup to play video captures most of the time. The Ethernet-connected Reolink RLC-810A has a much more reliable connection. So I’ll have to see if the Reolink Go Plus camera is more accessible over 4G LTE than WiFi cameras. I’ll start the review by checking out the packages and going through the initial setup for the Reolink Go […]

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UP Squared 6000 – AAEON introduces Elkhart Lake SBC and Edge computer

AAEON has unveiled a new single board computer and edge system from the “UP bridge the gap” family with UP Squared 6000 equipped with Intel Atom x6000, Celeron, or Pentium Elkhart Lake processor, up to 8GB DDR4, 64GB eMMC flash, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0b, eDP video interfaces, SATA and M.2 storage, and more. The UP Squared 6000 is available in four different SKUs with notably an industrial SKU powered by the Intel Atom x6425RE optimized for automation, robotics, and industrial applications with support for Intel Time Coordinated Computing (TCC), Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) via its 2.5GbE port. UP Squared 6000 specifications: Elkhart Lake SoC  (one of the other) Intel Celeron N6210 dual-core processor @  1.2 GHz / 2.6 GHz with 16EU Intel UHD graphics; 6.5W TDP Intel Pentium J6426 quad-core processor @ 1.8GHz / 3GHz with 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; 10W TDP Intel Atom x6413E quad-core processor […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products