$150 Axelera M.2 AI accelerator module claims to deliver up to 214 TOPS

Axelera M.2 AI accelerator

Axelera M.2 AI accelerator module is said to deliver up to 214 TOPS of AI inference and up to 3200 FPS with ResNet -50 in a compact M.2 2280 form factor. Few details are available at this time, but the module is based on the company’s Metis AIPU (AI Processing Unit) using in-memory computing based on arrays of SRAM memory devices used to “store a matrix and perform matrix-vector multiplications “in-place” without intermediate movement of data”. This technology is said to “radically” increase the number of operations per computer cycle with without suffering from issues such as noise or lower accuracy. The Metis AI platform delivers 50+ TOPS per core (RISC-V-controlled dataflow engine), offers FP32 equivalent accuracy, and has a 15 TOPS/W energy efficiency. The last point is impressive, but that means 214 TOPS won’t be reachable with the module shown above, since the M.2 form factor is designed to […]

MECOOL KM7 Plus runs Google TV OS on Amlogic S905Y4 SoC

MECOOL KM7 PLUS Google TV box

MECOOL KM7 Plus is a TV box powered by an Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor and running Google TV OS based on Android 11 TV OS, instead of just the more common Android 11 TV OS. Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor was first unveiled in January 2021 for 4K Android TV dongles with AV1 support, but we had not seen many hardware platforms with the process apart from Khadas VIM1S SBC for which we just published a review with Ubuntu 22.04. MECOOL KM7 PLUS specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR4-2400 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot Video Output HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10+, HRD10, HLG, CEC, HDCP 2.2/2.3 AV port with compositive video (and analog audio) Video Decoder H.265, AV1, VP9, AVS2 up to […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

Walter ESP32-S3 board supports NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GPS

ESP32-S3 board NB-IoT LTE-M GPS

QuickSpot Walter is an ESP32-S3 development board with built-in WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE/Mesh connectivity, as well as NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GNSS support through a Sequans GM02SP 5G IoT modem that appears to be a variant of the Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S with GNSS support. Walter specifications: Wireless modules ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R2 module ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microcontroller 2MB QSPI PSRAM 16MB QSPI flash 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 150 Mbps  with on-board antenna Bluetooth 5 LE up to 2Mbps, Bluetooth Mesh Sequans GM02SP modem LTE Cat M1 (LTE-M) and NB1/NB2 (NB-IoT) GNSS and assisted GNSS using GPS and Galileo constellations NanoSIM for cellular connectivity I/Os 2x 14-pin headers with up to 24x GPIO, UART, VIN, 3.3V, and GND 23x test points 3.3V I/O voltage Power Supply 5V (3.0 to 5.5V) DC via VIN pin 5V via USB Type-C port Dimensions – 55 x 24.8 mm Temperature Range – -40°C to +85°C […]

Year 2022 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics

CNX Software Happy New Year 2023

It’s the last day of the year and the time to look at some of the highlights of 2022, some traffic statistics from CNX Software website, and speculate on what 2023 may bring us. The semiconductors shortage continued in 2022, but things are looking brighter in 2023 with the full reopening of the world mixed with forecasts of difficult economic times that should keep the demand/supply equation in check. On the Arm processor front the biggest news of the year, at least in this corner of the Internet, was the launch of the Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor together with interesting single board computers that we’ll discuss below. Announced last year, the Amlogic A311D2 octa-core Cortex-A73/A53 was finally made available in a few SBC’s, and we finally got some news about the Amlogic S928X Cortex-A76/A55 SoC showcased in 8K TV boxes, but we have yet to see it in action. […]

Khadas VIM1S review – Ubuntu 22.04 tested on an Amlogic S905Y4 SBC

Khadas VIM1S review

In this review of Khadas VIM1S SBC, we’ll install Ubuntu 22.04, and report our experience testing the performance such as memory speed and eMMC flash performance, and 3D graphics capabilities. Installing Ubuntu 22.04 on Khadas VIM1S Just like Khadas VIM4 and Edge2, the Khadas VIM1S SBC ships with the OOWOW firmware that allows easy installation of operating systems by downloading the images, and flashing them directly to the eMMC flash.  You need just to connect a monitor and a USB keyboard and have an Internet connection through either LAN or Wi-Fi. Let’s start by installing Ubuntu 22.04 on Khadas VIM1S together. If no OS is installed, OOWOW will boot automatically, but if there’s already another OS installed, you can press and hold the Function button, press the Reset button, and release the Function button. After a few seconds, the OOWOW Wizard as shown in the picture below should show up. […]

Bouffalo Lab BL616/BL618 RISC-V MCU supports WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and Zigbee

Sipeed BL616 module

Bouffalo Lab BL616/BL618 is a 32-bit RISC-V wireless microcontroller with support for 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 dual-mode, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter designed for IoT applications. We first spotted the BL616 RISC-V IoT MCU during the BL602/BL606 announcement in November 2020, but we had virtually no additional information about it so far. It appears both BL616 and BL618 will be launched next month with the main difference between the two being that BL616 has 19 GPIOs and BL618 comes with 35 GPIOs. Bouffalo Lab BL616 and BL618 specifications: MCU core – 32-bit RISC-V CPU (RV32IMAFCP) @ up to 320 MHz with FPU and DSP, 32KB instruction cache & 16KB data cache VPU – MJPEG video encoder Memory – 480KB SRAM, 4KB HBN RAM, embedded 4 or 8MB pSRAM (optional) Storage – 128KB ROM, 4Kb eFuse, embedded 2, 4, or 8MB flash (optional), XIP QSPI […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

Pico-ITX SBC features NXP i.MX 93 LGA system-on-module

NXP i.MX 93 SBC

iWave Sytems iW-RainboW-G50M is an NXP i.MX 93 OSM-L compliant LGA module with up to 2GB RAM, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2 module that is found in the company’s iW-RainboW-G50S Pico-ITX SBC designed for industrial applications. The NXP i.MX 93 single and dual-core Cortex-A55 processor with an Ethos U65 microNPU was announced in November 2021, but we had yet to see any hardware based on the new NXP i.MX 9 processor family. The iW-RainboW-G50M and iW-RainboW-G50S change that with a system-on-module and single board computer. iW-RainboW-G50M NXP i.MX 93 system-on-module Specifications: SoC (one or the other) NXP i.MX 9352 dual-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.7 GHz with Arm Cortex-M33 @ 250 MHz,  0.5 TOPS NPU NXP i.MX 9351 single-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.7 GHz with Arm Cortex-M33 @ 250 MHz, 0.5 TOPS NPU NXP i.MX 9332 dual-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.7 GHz Arm Cortex-M33 @ […]

Banana Pi BPI-Pico-RP2040 – Raspberry Pi Pico replica gets USB-C port, I2C connector, and RGB LED

Banana Pi Pico

Banana Pi BPI-Pico-RP2040 is basically a clone of the original Raspberry Pi Pico, but with the addition of an RGB LED and a 4-pin I2C connector, and the company replaced the micro USB port with a Type-C connector. The rest of the board, also called Banana Pi Pico, is exactly the same up to the through holes and castellated holes for the I/Os, and has a similar form factor as the Banana Pi BPI-PicoW-S3 that adds WiFi and Bluetooth through the ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller. Banana Pi BPI-Pico-RP2040 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – 2MB QSPI flash USB – 1x USB 1.1 Type-C port used for power and programming Expansion 2x 20-pin 2.54mm pitch header and castellated holes with 26 GPIOs, 3x 12-bit ADC up to 500 Kbps, 2x UART, 2x I2C, 2x SPI, 16x PWM, 2x programmable […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications