CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 4, 2022September 5, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Inexpensive, Snapdragon 410-based “4G LTE WiFi Modem” made to run Debian 11

Some ultra-compact 4G LTE wireless routers housed in what looks like a largish USB dongle are based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 401 (MSM8916) quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and have been hacked to run Debian 11 with Linux 5.15 instead of the pre-loaded Android OS. Soon after Extrowerk had purchased a ~$20 “4G LTE WiFi modem” USB dongle, he noticed it would show as “Android” when connected to his PC. It also turned out that Chinese hacker HandsomeYingYan had already done some work on the device modding the lk2nd bootloader and the Linux kernel for the OpenStick project for “mainline Linux on msm8916-based 4G USB modem”, and documented his work (in Chinese) to run Debian 11 on the “4G USB WiFi Modem” pictured below. Let’s go through some of the specifications of the said wireless router: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) quad-core Arm Corte-A53 processor with System Memory – 512 MB RAM […]

August 4, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series CPUs show up in Micro-ATX motherboard

AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series motherboard

Advantech has announced the AIMB-522 industrial Micro-ATX motherboard with AMD Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series Zen3 processors for AI image processing in automation and surveillance applications. I had never heard about “Ryzen Embedded 5000 Series” processors, but that motherboard comes with a choice of new SKUs such as the 12-core Ryzen 5950E, the 10-core Ryzen 5900E, the 8-core Ryzen 5800E, and the 6-core Ryzen 5600E, as well as existing Ryzen 5000 desktop processors. AIMB-522 Micro-ATX motherboard specifications: Processor (one or the other) Ryzen 5950E 12-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz with 64MB L3 cache; TDP: 105W Ryzen 5900E 10-core processor @ up to 3.7 GHz with 64MB L3 cache; TDP: 105W Ryzen 5800E 8-core processor @ up to 3.7 GHz with 32MB L3 cache; TDP: 100W Ryzen 5600E 6-core processor @ up to 3.6 GHz with 32MB L3 cache; TDP: 65W Ryzen 5950X 16-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz […]

August 3, 2022October 13, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 32GB production module is now available

NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 32GB production module is now in mass production and available after the 12-core Cortex-A78E system-on-module was first announced in November 2021, and the Jetson AGX Orin developer kit was launched last March for close to $2,000. Capable of up to 200 TOPS of AI inference performance, or up to 6 times faster than the Jetson AGX, the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 32GB can be used for AI, IoT, embedded, and robotics deployments, and NVIDIA says nearly three dozen partners are offering commercially available products based on the new module. Here’s a reminder of NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 32GB specifications: CPU – 8-core Arm Cortex-A78AE v8.2 64-bit processor with 2MB L2 + 4MB L3 cache GPU / AI accelerators NVIDIA Ampere architecture with 1792 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 56 Tensor Cores @ 1 GHz DL Accelerator – 2x NVDLA v2.0 Vision Accelerator – PVA v2.0 (Programmable Vision […]

August 3, 2022January 24, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

EncroPi – A Raspberry Pi RP2040 USB key to read, encrypt & store data (Crowdfunding)

SB Components’ EncroPi is a USB key based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller that can be used to log data, encrypt data, or as a secure key, and it also features a DS3231 real-time clock with a backup battery to store the data and time. The USB key also comes with a small 1.14-inch color display to display information such as time and date, and should be programmable like the Raspberry Pi Pico with MicroPython or C/C++. All photo shows a USB Type-A port, but based on user feedback the company will also make a USB Type-C version. EncroPi specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – QSPI flash, MicroSD card slot Display – 1.14-inch color LCD with 240 x 135 resolution USB – 1x USB 2.0 Type-A or Type-C port (should it be USB 1.1 instead?) Misc – Boot […]

August 3, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Milandr MDR32F02FI is a RISC-V microcontroller for (Russian) electricity meters

Last year, we wrote about the Made-in-Russia Mikron MIK32 RISC-V microcontroller with features similar to STM32L0 Arm Cortex-M0+, and I was recently told that the first fully packed samples are expected for the end of autumn. But it turns out there’s another Russian company that makes RISC-V microcontrollers, and for instance, the Milandr MDR32F02FI features the open-source BM-310 RISC-V MCU core and is specially designed for electricity meters. It is the second generation of the microcontroller with the first being based on Arm Cortex-M0 core and produced for over 5 years. Milandr MDR32F02FI specifications: CPU – CloudBEAR BМ-310S 32-bit RISC-V core @ 60 MHz Memory – 112KB Storage – 256+8 KB flash, 16KB OTP Electricity meter function 7-channel 24-bit sigma-delta ADC Hardware unit for calculating power consumption Other Peripherals 5x UART, 3x SPI, 1x I2C Up to 55x GPIOs Instrumental ADC – 10-bit with temperature sensor 4x 32-bit timer blocks […]

August 2, 2022August 10, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Transpeed P10 Android 10 Full HD projector features Allwinner H700 SoC

Transpeed P10 Full HD Android 10 projector

Allwinner H700 is a “new” processor that has found its way into Transpeed P10 Full HD “portable” projector running Android 10. It is sold on Aliexpress for $125 including shipping. Allwinner H700 happens to be yet another derivative of Allwinner H616/H618 quad-core Corex-A53 processor, but adds an RGB LCD interface up to 1080p60 and video input interfaces that make it suitable for projector and smart displays. The processor also has two Ethernet interfaces (1x Gigabit and 1x 10/100M) like the H616, but no built-in PHY, so an additional Ethernet transceiver is needed on the board. Let’s first have a look a the Transpeed P10 projector specifications: SoC – Allwinner H700 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5GHz with Arm Mali-G31 mp2, 6K video decoder, and 4Kp25 H.264 video encoder System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Projector 1920×1080 native resolution LED bulb Brightness – 120 ANSI Lumens Projection […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

August 2, 2022August 2, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

reComputer J101/J202 carrier boards are designed for Jetson Nano/NX/TX2 NX SoM

Seeed Studio’s reComputer J101 & J202 are carrier boards with a similar form factor as the ones found in NVIDIA Jetson Nano and Jetson Xavier NX developer kits, but with a slightly different feature set. The reComputer J101 notably features different USB Type-A/Type-C ports, a microSD card, takes power from a USB Type-C port, and drops the DisplayPort connector, while the reComputer J201 board replaces the micro USB device port with a USB Type-C port, adds a CAN Bus interface, and switches to 12V power input instead of 19V. The table below summarizes the features and differences between the Jetson Nano devkit (B1), reComputer J101, Jetson Xavier NX devkit, and reComputer J202. Note the official Jetson board should also support production SoM with eMMC flash, but they do ship with a non-production SoM with a built-in MicroSD card socket instead. The carrier boards are so similar that if NVIDIA would […]