CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 8, 2022July 8, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Seeed Studio outs $5 XIAO ESP32C3 board with WiFi and BLE, battery support

Seeed Studio’s XIAO family of tiny MCU boards expands with the XIAO ESP32C3 board equipped with ESP32-C3 WiFi and Bluetooth LE (BLE) microcontroller, support for LiPo batteries, and following the same 21 x 17.5mm form factor. If I’m counting right, this is the fifth member following the original XIAO based on Microchip SAMD21G18 Cortex-M0+ MCU, XIAO RP2040, and the nRF52840-based XIAO BLE and XIAO BLE Sense boards which I tested with Edge Impulse. XIAO ESP32C3 specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-C3 single-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 160 MHz with 400KB SRAM, 384KB ROM, 4MB flash Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth LE 5.0 connectivity Antenna – External u.FL antenna USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion I/Os 2x 7-pin headers with 1x UART, 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 11x GPIO (PWM), 4x ADC, I2S 3.3V I/O voltage (not 5V tolerant) Debugging – JTAG pads Misc – Reset button, Boot button, […]

July 7, 2022July 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Intel Meteor Lake mobile processor highlights leaked

Intel Meteor Lake processor family is supposed to succeed the 13th generation Raptor Lake chips itself coming after the current 12th generation Alder lake processors. It is scheduled to launch next year (2023), but we already have some details about the Meteor Lake U, P, and H mobile processors from a leak. Just like most Alder Lake processors, Meteor Lake will be hybrid processors with power and energy-efficient cores, but they’ll also feature new LP E-cores which should stand for “low power efficiency” cores in order to further lower the power consumption while a laptop or mini PC in standby mode. Meteor Lake mobile processors highlights: CPU P cores + E cores + LP-E cores architecture U-series with up to 12 cores P- and H-series up to 14 cores; Up to 6+8 configuration with up to 24MB LLC/core (Note the LP-E cores don’t seem to be part of the main […]

July 7, 2022July 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Flashchip FCM32 is yet another alternative to STM32 microcontroller

Flashchip Microelectronics FCM32 development board

Once upon a time, people tried to avoid STM32 fakes and clones, but in a world where companies are allegedly purchasing washing machines to extract a few unavailable components, people have started to look for alternatives, and last week I wrote about the Geehy APM32 family of STM32 clones. But I had never heard about Flashchip Microelectronics FCM32 microcontrollers, and they are not that easy to find in search engines, so they must be relatively new. The company appears to make both FCM32F clones and FCM32H derivatives with no direct equivalent STM32 part numbers, a higher clock frequency, and faster flash. For example, the FCMF030F4P6 will match the specifications of STMF030F4P6 as far as I can tell. The good news is that the datasheet is available in both Chinese and English. The FCM32H030C8T6 appears to be a higher performance version of STM32F030C8T8 / FCM32F030C8T8 with a 100 MHz frequency, and […]

July 7, 2022July 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

CANBed M4 SAM E51 development board features MCP2542FD CAN transceiver

CANBed M4 development board based on Microchip SAM E51 Cortex-M4 microcontroller and MCP2542FD CAN transceiver provides a more powerful alternative to the CANBed RP2040 with a Raspberry Pi dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller introduced last year. The board supports both CAN 2.0 and CAN FD with a 4-pin terminal block or a DB-9 connector, and offers expansion capabilities though two Grove connectors, and an 18-pin IO header. CANBed M4 specifications: MCU – Microchip ATSAME51G19A Arm Cortex M4 core @ up to 120 MHz with 512KB flash, 192KB RAM CAN Microchip MCP2542FD CAN transceiver with support for CAN 2.0 and CAN FD up to 2+ Mbps Input interface – DB-9 connector or terminal block 120 Ohm terminal resistor USB – 1x Micro USB port for programming Expansion I2C Grove connector UART Grove connector SPI header 18-pin I/O header with up to 12x GPIOs, UART, I2C, 4x analog inputs, 5V, and GND Misc – […]

July 6, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

STMicro VL53L5CP FlightSense ToF sensor enables gesture recognition, human detection for the PC market

STMicro introduced the VL53L8 multi-zone direct Time-of-Flight (dToF) sensor last month, but here’s another ToF sensor with VL53L5CP specifically designed for the PC market with the enablement of features such as user detection, gesture recognition, and intruder alert. STMicro says the ranging sensor continuously scans its field of view to map the scene and gather intelligence without using a camera or recording images. With 64 (8×8) zones within a wide 61-degree field, the VL53L5CP can detect and track multiple targets, calculating at their X/Y/Z coordinates and motion at high speed. VL53L5CP features: 940 nm invisible Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and integrated analog driver 61° diagonal square system field of view (FoV) using diffractive optical elements (DOE) on both transmitter and receiver Receiving SPAD (single-photon avalanche diode) array Parallel multi-zone output – Either 4×4 (16 zones) or 8×8 (64 zones) separate ROIs (regions of interest) Up to 400 cm […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

July 6, 2022July 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Firefly ITX-3568JQ – A Mini-ITX motherboard with Rockchip RK3568 CPU

Firefly ITX3588J mini-ITX motherboard with Rockchip RK3588 SoC now has a little sister/brother based on Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor called ITX-3568JQ, and designed to power Arm PCs, cloud terminals, industrial controllers, edge computers, advanced NVR, NAS devices, and more. The motherboard supports up to 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, offers SATA storage, dual Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, optional 4G or 5G cellular connectivity, can handle up to three independent displays, and offers plenty of I/O options including an RS232/RS485 DB9 connector and a PCIe slot. Firefly ITX-3568JQ specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568J quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52-2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 1.0 TOPS NPU, 8MP ISP, 4Kp60 video decoding, 1080p60 H.265/H.264 video encoding System Memory – 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB eMMC flash 16MB SPI flash 1x […]

July 5, 2022July 5, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Texas Instruments AM6254 powered industrial SBC features dual GbE, CAN Bus, RS485, optional 4G/5G cellular networking

Texas Instruments Sitara AM623 and AM625 Arm Cortex-A53 AIoT processors were just introduced last month, but Forlinx has already introduced the OK6254-C SBC powered by the Sitara AM6254 quad-core processor with up to 2GB DDR4, and an 8GB eMMC flash. The board features two Gigabit Ethernet ports, CAN FD and RS485 interfaces, plus plenty of I/O headers, support for up to three displays via LVDS and parallel RGB interfaces, as well as optional support for 4G/5G cellular connectivity that makes it suitable for all sorts of industrial applications. Forlinx OK6254-C specifications: FET625x-C SoM SoC – Texas Instruments AM6254 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.4GHz with Cortex-M4F real-time core @ 400 MHz, Imagination AXE1-16M GPU @ 500MHz with OpenGL 3.x/2.0/1.1 + Extensions, and Vulkan 1.2 support; Single (AM6251) and dual-core (AM6252) modules are also available System Memory – 1GB (default) or 2GB DDR4-1600 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash 4x 80-pin board-to-board […]