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LinkStar H28K is a compact travel router with dual gigabit Ethernet based on Rockchip RK3528 SoC

The LinkStar H28K is a compact travel router equipped with a Rockchip RK3528 processor. It offers two Gigabit Ethernet ports and comes with 4GB of memory and 8GB of eMMC storage, which can be expanded to 512GB using a microSD card. Additionally, it features a 12V Type-C connector with Power Delivery (PD) capability. Sadly this router does not offer Wi-Fi capabilities, but the LinkStar H68K does. We’ve also looked at other small yet powerful routers like the NanoPi R5S, FastRhino R68s, and the Radxa E25.  Additionally, we’ve written about the X88Pro 13 8K TV box built around the same RK3528 SoC as found in the H28K router. LinkStar H28K travel router specifications: Processor – Rockchip RK3528 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz Memory – 4GB LPDDR4X Storage: Onboard 8GB eMMC MicroSD card slot (supports up to 512GB) Network: 1x PCIe Gigabit Ethernet port 1x RGMII Gigabit Ethernet Port USB Ports: 1x […]

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NanoPC-T6 LTS SBC adds USB ports, 32MB SPI flash, drops 4G LTE support

NanoPC-T6 LTS is an update to the Rockchip RK3588-powered NanoPC-T6 SBC introduced in May 2023, which removes the mini PCIe socket and SIM card slot for 4G LTE connectivity, but adds two USB 2.0 ports, a USB-C debug port, a 10-pin header with UART and USB 2.0, and comes with 32MB SPI flash by default. The single board computer is offered with up to 16GB RAM and 256GB eMMC flash and also features M.2 sockets for NVMe storage and a wireless module, two 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, two HDMI 2.1 output ports, one HDMI 2.0 input port, MIPI DSI and CSI interfaces, and a 40-pin GPIO header for expansion. NanoPC-T6 LTS specifications with changes in bold or strikethrough: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU with support for OpenGL […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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2023 Year in review – Top 10 posts, statistics, and what to expect in 2024

It’s the last day and last article of the year, so we will look at some highlights of 2023, some traffic statistics on the CNX Software website, and speculate what interesting developments may happen in 2024. Looking back at 2023 The semiconductor shortage that had happened since 2020 started to fade away in early 2023, and supplies for most electronics components and devices seem to be adequate at this time, so that was a bright spot this year, and hopefully, it will stay that way in 2024 despite geopolitical tensions. We did not have any super exciting new Arm application processors from Rockchip, Amlogic, or Allwinner announced this year, although the Amlogic S928X penta-core Cortex-A76/A55 CPU started to show up in some 8K TV boxes. The launch of the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC with a Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A76 processor was probably the main highlight for Arm on this side […]

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Lichee Console 4A RISC-V mini laptop sells for $252 and up

Sipeed Lichee Console 4A is a RISC-V portable Linux console, that I would also call a RISC-V mini laptop, powered by an Alibaba T-Head TH1520 quad-core C910 processor and equipped with up to 16GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash. We first covered the device last August, but Sipeed had started taking pre-ordered by the end of October, and they’ve gone through the first batch of mass production, and should soon ship the mini laptops with the Aliexpress store showing December 31 as the release date, and we’re told some samples may have already been shipped in the first part of the month. Lichee Console 4A specifications: SoM – Replaceable Lichee LM4A system-on-module based on TH1520 quad-core RISC-V C910 processor with up to 16GB LPDDR4X, 128GB eMMC flash Storage – MicroSD card slot, M.2 SSD support Display – 7-inch 1280 x 800 LCD with capacitive touch Video Output – 1x mini […]

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SZBOX DS135D – A dual-screen laptop with an Intel Processor N100 CPU

A few companies have been making dual-screen laptops – where one of the screens is placed where you’d typically find the keyboard and touchpad – for several years, and this type of design was brought back to the forefront with the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i introduced earlier this year with two 13.3-inch displays and a 13th-gen Intel Core Raptor Lake-U processor for $2,000 and up. If you like the concept but don’t quite have that much money to spare, SZBOX DS135D dual-screen laptop is a much cheaper option with two 13.5-inch displays, an entry-level Intel Processor N100 SoC, 16GB DDR5, and 128GB to 2TB NVMe SSD going for $699 and up on Aliexpress. SZBOX DS135D specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 quad-core processor up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics @ 750 MHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – 16GB DD5 Storage – 128GB to 2TB […]

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Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-3 release adds support for PinePhone and PineTab devices

UBPorts has just released Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-3 based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with the latest security updates and beta support for PinePhone, PinePhone Pro, PineTab, and PineTab 2, adding to the smartphones already supported by Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2. As a reminder, Ubuntu Touch was initially handled by Canonical for desktop/mobile convergence, but it was dropped when the company decided to refocus its efforts on cloud and IoT, and the UBPorts community took over and eventually outed the first stable Ubuntu Touch release in June 2017. The developers kept on improving the OS since then with new releases from time to time, but note that it should still be considered experimental only for most devices, and will not be suitable as a daily driver for the majority of people. The PinePhone and PineTab have been supported by Ubuntu Touch for a few years, but they had their own branch […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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Alibaba T-Head TH1520 user manuals released

Further Alibaba T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V processor documentation has been released with nine user manuals covering video and audio processing, peripheral interfaces, memory interfaces, system registers, and the built-in NPU for video acceleration. We first noted the TH1520 RISC-V SoC in the expensive web3-focused ROMA laptop in October 2022, but since then there have been some very interesting developments with the release of Sipeed’s Lichee Pi 4A SBC and various other platforms based on the LM4A system-on-module plus the BeagleBoard.org’s BeagleV Ahead. Both boards also have preliminary support in mainline Linux with the Lichee Pi 4A making it to Linux 6.5, and the BeagleV Ahead was added to the just-released Linux 6.6 kernel. However I had not noticed documentation for the processor was not released publicly until now as both Sipeed and Beagleboard.org have now made available nine user manuals in English, and the Sipeed link has the Chinese versions […]

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Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite – A 4.3 GHz 12-core Arm AI processor for next gen PCs and laptops

Qualcomm has now provided Arm chips for mobile PCs (aka laptops) for several years, but apart from a 20-hour battery life, the performance and price of Snapdragon laptops have often been disappointing. The Snapdragon X Elite aims to change that at least on the performance front. The new Qualcomm 12-core 64-bit Arm processor is clocked at up to 3.8 GHz boosting to up to 4.3 GHz, and is said to deliver up to twice the CPU performance against the competition (Intel/AMD/Apple) or provides the same level of performance at a third of the power consumption. The SoC will also be able to run on-device generative AI with over 13B parameters thanks to 75 TOPS of AI performance and support the latest wireless connectivity technologies such as 5G and WiFi 7 through external chips from the company. Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite specifications: CPU – 12-core 64-bit Armv8 Oryon processor clocked at […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC