Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Mini Pupper 2 – Raspberry Pi 4 / CM4 robot dog adds ESP32, ROS2 support, servo feedback (Crowdfunding)

Mini Pupper 2 – Raspberry Pi 4 / CM4 robot dog adds ESP32, ROS2 support, servo feedback (Crowdfunding)

Mini Pupper 2

Mini Pupper 2 is an improved version of the Mini Pupper robot dog powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 introduced last year. The new model support either the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC or CM4 module, adds an Arduino programmable ESP32 wireless MCU, support for ROS2, and servo feedback. Two variants are offered with the Mini Pupper 2 implementing position servo feedback, and the Mini Pupper 2 Pro position, velocity, and torque servo feedback. Other changes common to both variants include the addition of an IMU, microphone & speaker, a touch sensor, support for autocalibration, as well as a new mobile app for control. Mini Pupper 2 specifications: CPU module – Raspberry Pi 4 SBC or Raspberry Pi CM4 system on module MCU – ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth dual-core microcontroller programmable with the Arduino IDE Display – 320×240 LCD for facial animation Audio – Built-in Microphone and speaker Camera – Support […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on MaxLinear unveils MxL31712 & MxL31708 Wi-Fi 7 chips for gateways, routers and access points

MaxLinear unveils MxL31712 & MxL31708 Wi-Fi 7 chips for gateways, routers and access points

Maxlinear Wi-Fi 7 chip

MaxLinear has unveiled its first Wi-Fi 7 SoCs with the MxL31712 and the MxL31708 single-chip solutions targeting service provider gateways, Wi-Fi routers, and access points, and delivering more than 70% higher tri-band throughput compared to Wi-Fi 6. The MxL31712 aims at the premium 4×4 tri-band market with a throughput of up to 18.6 Gbps and up to 12 spatial streams, while the MxL31708 will be integrated into mid- to high-range 4×4 dual-band access points and gateways with a throughput of up to 17 Gbps, and up to 8 spatial streams.   MaxLinear MxL31712 and MxL31708 share the following features: Single-chip WFA Wi-Fi 7 R1 certifiable Based on IEEE 802.11be (aka WiFi 7 or Extremely High Throughput “EHT”) backward compliant to IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 Wi-Fi 7 features: Bandwidth up to 320MHz 4096 QAM modulation Multi-Link Operation (MLO) Multi Resource Unit (MRU) Dedicated antenna for Zero Wait DFS (ZWDFS) Enhanced Network […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Google KataOS – A secure OS for embedded systems written in Rust (mostly)

Google KataOS – A secure OS for embedded systems written in Rust (mostly)

KataOS Rust application sel4

Google Research has been working on its own Rust-based operating system called KataOS and designed to secure embedded systems that run Machine Learning (ML) applications. There has been a lot of talk about the Rust programming language in recent times, since it offers about the same level of performance as C programming but helps programmers write more secure code with built-in prevention against buffer overflows for instance. It has gained a lot of traction over the years, and Linux 6.1 will be the first kernel release to include Rust code. Google Research noticed that system security is often treated as a feature that can be added to existing systems either by software or an extra security chip. But in a world, where more and more of our private data is exposed to the world through the Internet, it is not good enough, so the company developed KataOS open-source, secure operating […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Espressif ESP8684 RISC-V WiFi & BLE MCU embeds up to 4MB flash in a 4x4mm package

Espressif ESP8684 RISC-V WiFi & BLE MCU embeds up to 4MB flash in a 4x4mm package

ESP8684-DevKitM-1

Espressif Systems ESP8684 is a single-core RISC-V microcontroller with 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0  LE (BLE) connectivity that also integrates 1, 2, or 4MB flash into a tiny 4x4mm QFN package. The SoC is listed under the ESP32-C2 product family on the Espressif website and can be found in MINI and WROOM modules, as well as the ESP8684-DevKitM-1 development kit. All three parts, namely ESP8684H1, ESP8684H2, and ESP8684H4, are designed to work in the -40 to 105°C temperature range, ESP8684 specifications: CPU –  32-bit RISC-V processor up to 120 MHz;  305.42 CoreMark; 2.55 CoreMark/MHz Memory – 272 KB SRAM (16 KB for cache) Storage – 576 KB ROM, 1 to 4MB flash (SiP) Wireless 802.11 b/g/n-compliant WiFi 4 1T1R Up to 72.2 Mbps link rate Support for 20 MHz bandwidth Station mode, SoftAP mode, Station + SoftAP mode Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) Antenna diversity Bluetooth 5 LE up to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on UP 4000 x86 SBC review with Ubuntu 22.04

UP 4000 x86 SBC review with Ubuntu 22.04

UP 4000 x86 SBC Ubuntu 22.04 review

The UP 4000 is a credit-card / Raspberry Pi-sized single board computer based on an Intel Apollo Lake processor. AAEON sent me the model with an Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad-core processor, 4GB RAM, and a 64GB eMMC flash, and in the first part of the review, I installed Ubuntu 22.04 since the board would initially only boot to the UEFI shell out of the box. I’ve now spent more time with the board, and in this article, I will report my experience with the UP 4000 SBC running Ubuntu 22.04 checking out features, performance, video playback, power consumption, and so on. Ubuntu 22.04 System info Let’s check out some information after I’ve upgraded the system to the latest packages:

Everything looks good with an Intel Atom E3950 processor detected together with 3.68GB RAM and a 56.53GB rootfs EXT-4 partition. UP 4000 features testing There may also be some issues […]

Posted on by Sponsored Post - 2 Comments on roboBeats – Interactive music robot doubles as Bluetooth speaker (Sponsored)

roboBeats – Interactive music robot doubles as Bluetooth speaker (Sponsored)

roboBeats

Elephant Robotics just launched roboBeats interactive music robot & Bluetooth speaker on Kickstarter. The robot is comprised of a display, two arms, as well as touch sensors, and a speaker for user interaction. The company is known for its robots for education such as the myBuddy 280 or MechArm Pi 270 robotic arms based on Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, and while the roboBeats is more like a toy for children and adults alike, the ESP32 wireless microcontroller powering the desktop robot can also be programmed with the Arduino IDE. roboBeats key features and specifications: Wireless MCU – Dual Xtensa 32-bit microcontroller (ESP32) with WiFi and Bluetooth Display – 320×240 display Audio – Full frequency speaker Two arms Touch interfaces on the front body (chest) and top (head) Motors – Brushless (BLDC) motors with near-silent operation USB – 1x USB Type-C port located under the robot for power and programming Misc […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Zynq UltraScale+ SoM with up to 12GB RAM targets LiDAR applications

Zynq UltraScale+ SoM with up to 12GB RAM targets LiDAR applications

Zynq UltraScale+ SoM LiDAR

iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G30M is a system-on-module (SoM) based on AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU4/ZU5/ZU7 FPGA MPSoC specially geared towards LiDAR applications for scientific and military applications. The module comes with up to 12GB of RAM, 4GB for the programmable logic (PL) and 8GB for the Arm Cortex-A53/R5-based Processing System (PS), two 240-pin high-density, high-speed connectors with 142 user I/Os, 16x GTH transceivers up to 16.3Gbps, and four GTR transceivers up to 6Gbps. iW-RainboW-G30M specifications: FPGA MPSoC  – AMD Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU4, ZU5, or ZU7 MPSoC with Processing System (PS) featuring 2x or 4x Arm Cortex-A53 core @ 1.5 GHz, two Cortex-R5 cores @ 600MHz, H.264/H.265 Video Encoder/Decoder (VCU), ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU @ 677MHz, and Programming Logic (PL)/FPGA with up to 504K Logic cells & 230K LUTs System Memory 4GB DDR4 64-bit RAM with ECC for PS (upgradeable up to 8GB) 2GB DDR4 16-bit RAM for PL (upgradeable up to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on $858 Linux mini PC features NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX 8GB module, 128GB NVMe SSD

$858 Linux mini PC features NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX 8GB module, 128GB NVMe SSD

NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX mini PC

Seeed Studio is now selling the “A203 Mini PC” industrial Linux mini PC based on an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX module with 8GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD loaded with JetPack 5.0.2 (Ubuntu 20.04). If the name is familiar it’s because it is based on the Leetop A203 carrier board introduced about a year ago, with HDMI, two USB 3.0 ports, RS232, and other I/Os. The mini PC also offers Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity, and is designed to operate in the -20°C to 80°C temperature range for embedded, industrial, and functional safety applications. A203 mini PC specifications: System-on-Module – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX with hexa-core Armv8 processor, 384-core Volta GPU, 8K/4K video decoder and  4K video encoder, up to 21 TOPS of AI performance, and 8GB LPDDR4x Storage – 128GB M.2 NVMe SSD, MicroSD slot Display – HDMI 2.0 Type-A port up to 4Kp60 Camera – 1x MIPI […]

Boardcon Rockchip RK3588S SBC with 8K, WiFI 6, 4G LTE, NVME SSD, HDMI 2.1...