CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 22, 2023April 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

HARDWARIO CHESTER – A configurable Zephyr OS LPWAN IoT gateway with LoRaWAN, LTE IoT, GNSS connectivity

HARDWARIO CHESTER platform is a configurable LPWAN IoT gateway whose main function is to connect as many devices and environments as possible to the Internet using connectivity such as LoRaWAN, LTE Cat M1, or NB-IoT, as well as GNSS for geolocation. Contrary to most IoT gateways, it does not run Linux on an application processor, and instead, the “brain” of the CHESTER IoT gateway is a Raytac Bluetooth 5.0 module based on a Nordic Semi nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller running Zephyr real-time operating system, which connects to LTE IoT modem and a LoRaWAN module through UART, and expansion modules through I2C, 1-wire, and GPIO interfaces. HARDWARIO CHESTER specifications: Wireless modules/chips Raytac MDBT50Q-P1MV2 Bluetooth 5.0 module based on Nordic Semi nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU with 1MB Flash memory, 256kB RAM Nordic Semi nRF9160-SICA-B1A-R7 LTE-M/NB-IoT system-in-package (SiP) with Arm Cortex-M33 MCU, 1024 KB flash, 256 KB SRAM Murata CMWX1ZZABZ-078 LoRa module as […]

April 21, 2023August 2, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Maxtang ALN-10 – An Alder Lake-N mini-ITX motherboard for industrial applications

Maxtang ALN-10 is an upcoming mini-ITX motherboard based on Alder Lake-N processors from the Processor N50 up to the Core i3-N305 SoC and specifically targetting industrial applications with a -20 to +60°C temperature range, six RS232/RS485 serial ports, and 12V to 19V DC input among other features. Since the latest Alder Lake N-Series processors were announced, we’ve seen a range of mini PCs based on the new series, some laptops, as well as a camera devkit and one single board computer, but so far no actual motherboards. Maxtang ALN-10 changes that with the industrial mini-ITX motherboard soon expected to launch for B2B customers. Maxtang ALN-10 specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 15W (Active cooling) Intel Core i3-N300 octa-core processor up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

April 21, 2023April 21, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Offline voice recognition module supports Arduino programming, custom voice commands

We’ve already covered inexpensive offline voice recognition modules based on US516P6 or TW-ASR ONE microcontrollers that allow people to add smarts to their projects without a network connection for improved privacy and lower latency. Those are great in theory, but at the time (April 2022) documentation was lacking or only in Chinese, and they were fairly hard to use based on some of the comments in my earlier posts. But today, I’ve noticed DFRobot is now selling the “Gravity: Offline Voice Recognition Sensor – I2C & UART” module with support for Arduino programming, and it looks fairly easy to customize as we’ll see further below. Gravity Voice Recognition DF2301QG module specifications: Voice recognition module – WS-2520-TR module with MCU – TBD 121 commonly used fixed voice commands, one-fixed wake word Support for 1 learned wake-word, 17 user-defined commands Audio Output – Built-in speaker and external speaker interface Input – Dual […]

April 21, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors launched for networking applications

We first spotted the AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors in a micro-ATX motherboard last August, but AMD has now only announced the availability the of Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series “Zen 3” processors designed for “always on” networking firewalls, network-attached storage systems, and other security applications. AMD also mentions the Ryzen Embedded 5000 are “power-efficient processors”, but that does not mean low power, as those embedded processors are 65 to 105W parts, and offer a step-up in performance from the 10 to 54W AMD Ryzen Embedded V3000 processors also targetting networking and storage applications. As we found out last year, four SKUs are available with the Ryzen 5950E, Ryzen 5900E, Ryzen 5800E, and Ryzen 5600E, but the specifications are a little different, as for instance, there’s no 10-core part. All four are AM4-socket processors, support two DDR4 channels up to 3200MT/s, and come with 24 PCIe Gen4 lanes, and when optionally […]

April 20, 2023April 21, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

ArduPico – An Arduino UNO compatible baseboard for Raspberry Pi Pico

wisdPi ArduPico Raspberry Pi Pico Arduino baseboard

WisdPi ArduPico is an Arduino UNO-shaped baseboard designed for the Raspberry Pi Pico and compatible boards that enables makers to reuse most 3.3V Arduino shields available on the market and also adds for few I/Os and features. ArduPico specifications: Compatible board – Raspberry Pi Pico, Pico H, Pico W, Pico WH, and other Pi Pico compatible board solderable using through holes or castellated holes Expansion Arduino UNO header compatible with a wide range of shields 5-pin and 6-pin headers for additional GPIOs and 3.3V, GND All Raspberry Pi Pico GPIOs are exposed 3.3V only, no 5V tolerant Debugging – SWD header Misc – Pico RESET key, WS2812 RGB LED Power Supply – 7 to 15V DC via DC jack Dimensions – 68.6 x 53.3 x 11.6 mm (Arduino UNO form factor) Weight – 18 grams Compatibility with the Arduino UNO is not 100% percent as, for instance, only three […]

April 20, 2023April 23, 2023 by Sponsored Post - 7 Comments

GEEKOM AS 6 AMD Ryzen 6000 mini PC takes on Intel NUC 13 Pro “Arena Canyon” (Sponsored)

GEEKOM AS 6 is an AMD Ryzen 6000 mini PC developed in collaboration with ASUS that aims to provide a cost-effective alternative to the Intel NUC 13 Arena Canyon mini PC powered by an Intel Core i7-1360P Raptor Lake-P hybrid SoC. The mini PC is equipped with either an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX or Ryzen 7 6800H processor, supports up to 64GB DDR5 memory, three storage options with two NVMe sockets and one 2.5-inch SATA drive bay, and can drive up to four independent displays thanks to two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 output, and two Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 ports. Networking is the same as on the NUC with 2.5GbE, WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2. Here’s how GEEKOM AS 6 specifications compare the ones of the Intel NUC 13 Pro “Arena Canyon”. The performance of the selected AMD Ryzen 9 and Intel Raptor Lake processor is comparable, but […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

April 20, 2023April 19, 2023 by Leo Zachary - No Comments

100ASK-V853-Pro – A feature-rich Allwinner V853 board designed for AI vision applications

The 100ASK-V853-Pro board is a development kit consisting of an Allwinner V853 system-on-module board (SoM) and a feature-rich carrier board with a large number of interfaces. Allwinner V853 supports up to 1TOPS of NPU computing power and is mainly for AI vision application development. The core board contains a DDR and eMMC as well as a PMU chip (AXP2101) and is connected to the carrier board through a board-to-board connector. All the functional resources of the V853 are drawn out through the carrier board. The carrier board comes with 2-channels CSI camera interfaces as well as RGB and MIPI DSI display interfaces. Although 1 TOPS of AI computing power is not outstanding, the NPU can still be used to accelerate AI vision applications at the edge. The board also comes with four USB 2.0 ports (two Type-A, two Type-C), an 100Mbps Ethernet port, a 22-pin header for expansion, and five […]

April 19, 2023April 19, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

AAEON BOXER-8224AI – An NVIDIA Jetson Nano AI Edge embedded system for drones

BOXER 8224AI board AI Edge NVIDIA Jetson Nano embedded system

AAEON BOXER-8224AI is a thin and lightweight AI edge embedded system solution based on NVIDIA Jetson Nano system-on-module and designed for drones, or other space-constrained applications such as robotics. AAEON BOXER products are usually Embedded Box PCs with an enclosure, but the BOXER-8224AI is quite different as it’s a compact and 22mm thin board with MIPI CSI interfaces designed to add computer vision capability to unmanned areal vehicles (UAV), as well as several wafers for dual GbE, USB, and other I/Os. BOXER-8224AI specifications: AI Accelerator – NVIDIA Jetson Nano CPU – Arm Cortex-A57 quad-core processor System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage Device – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash Dimensions – 70 x 45 mm Storage – microSD slot Display Interface – 1x Mini HDMI 2.0 port Camera interface – 2x MIPI CSI connectors Networking 2x Gigabit Ethernet via wafer connector (1x NVIDIA, 1x Intel i210) Optional WiFi, Bluetooth, and/or cellular connectivity […]