CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 27, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

ESP32 board with 150Mbps 4G LTE modem also supports RS485, CAN Bus, and relay expansion

LILYGO has designed another ESP32 board with a 4G LTE modem with the LILYGO T-A7608E-H & T-A7608SA-H variants equipped with respectively SIMCom A7608SA-H for South America, New Zealand, and Australia, and SIMCom A7608E-H for the EMEA, South Korean, and Thai markets, both delivering up to 150 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload speeds. The board also supports GPS, includes a 18650 battery holder, and features I/O expansion headers that support an add-on board with RS485 and CAN bus interfaces, in a way similar to the company’s earlier TTGO T-CAN485 board with ESP32, but no cellular connectivity. LILYGO T-A7068E-H/T-A7608SA-H board specifications: Wireless Connectivity WiFi & Bluetooth – ESP32-WROVER-E module based on ESP32 dual-core processor @ 240 MHz with 4MB flash, 8MB PSRAM, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2/5.x connectivity, PCB antenna Cellular connectivity Data transfer speeds 4G LTE – Up to 150 Mbps downlink, up to 50Mbps uplink 3G HSPA+ […]

June 27, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

ICE-V Wireless FPGA board combines Lattice Semi iCE40 UltraPlus with WiFi & BLE module

Lattice Semi ICE40 boards are pretty popular notably thanks to the availability of open-source tools. ICE-V Wireless is another ICE40 UltraPlus FPGA board that also adds wireless support through an ESP32-C3-MINI-1 module with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE connectivity. Designed by QWERTY Embedded Design, the board also comes with 8MB PSRAM, offers three PMOD expansion connectors, plus a header for GPIOs, and supports power from USB or a LiPo battery (charging circuit included). ICE-V Wireless specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi ICE40UP5K-SG48 FPGA with 5280 LUTs, 120 Kbits EBR RAM, 1024 Kbits PSRAM External RAM – 8MB PSRAM Wireless – ESP32-C3-MINI-1 module with 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE through ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor, 4MB flash. USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power, programming, and JTAG debugging of the ESP32-C3 module Expansions 3x PMOD connectors connected to the FPGA I/O connector with 7x ESP32-C3 GPIO lines (serial, ADC, I2C) and […]

June 26, 2022May 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Mixtile Edge 2 Kit mini PC/IoT gateway supports an external 20Ah battery pack

Mixtile Edge 2 Kit is a mini PC/IoT edge computer powered by a Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor coupled with up to 4GB RAM and 32GB flash that features a 12V SATA + SMBUS port that allows the insertion of a 20Ah battery pack lasting up to 12 hours for locations where power may be intermittent. The 3.5-inch industrial mini PC also offers Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 6 connectivity, three USB 3.0 ports, plus expansion with M.2 and mPCIe sockets, as well as a similar U.2 connector found in the company’s Mixtile Blade 3 SBC powered by Rockchip RK3588 processor, but routed to different interfaces. Mixtile Edge 2 Kit specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Mali-G52 EE GPU, 0.8 TOPS NPU, 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder, 1080p100 H.265/H.264 video encoder System Memory – 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4 Storage 16GB or 32GB eMMC […]

June 25, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Bambu Lab X1 – A color 3D Printer with LIDAR and AI for improved accuracy, ease of use (Crowdfunding)

3D printing can be time-consuming and challenging, and even today, it’s still not as easy as using a photocopier, but the team at Bambu Lab has taken it upon itself to make a better, easier-to-use 3D printer with the X1 color 3D printer combining LIDAR and AI technology to level the bed, calibrate the prints, and detect anomalies. The Bambu Lab X1 3D printer supports up to 16 colors, is making removing support easier with snap-away material or dissolvable filament, can handle PC and PA-CF filaments beyond the traditional PLA and PETG filaments, manage up to 500 mm/s prints, and provides better prints with features such as active vibration compensation. Oh, and you don’t need to assemble it, since it comes fully assembled and ready to use out of the box. There are two models of the 3D Printer with X1 and X1 Carbon with the latter featuring more sturdy […]

June 24, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Quectel SG560D 5G & WiFi 6E module runs Android 12, targets AIoT applications

Quectel SG560D 5G Android 12 AIoT module

Quectel SG560D is a 5G Sub-6GHz & WiFi 6E module for AIoT applications that runs Android 12 on a Qualcomm QCM6490 SoC with an octa-core Kryo 670 64-bit Arm CPU and a Qualcomm Adreno 643L GPU. The SG560D module is equipped with 4GB LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB UFS storage by default, supports up to 2520×1080 MIPI display at a refresh rate of 144Hz, and can deliver up to 14 TOPS for AI inference. Quectel SG560D key features and specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QCM6490 octa-core processor with one Kryo 670 Gold plus high-performance core up to 2.7 GHz, 3x Kryo Gold cores at 2.4 GHz, 4x Kryo Silver low-power cores @ 1.9 GHz, Adreno 643L GPU, 6th gen AI Engine delivering up to 14 TOPS, up to 4Kp30 H.265/H.264 video encode, 4Kp60 video decode; 6nm process. System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4X by default Storage – 64GB UFS flash by default Display […]

June 24, 2022June 24, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

A RISC-V laptop or mini PC with Rockchip RK3588-class performance may be coming soon

Mark Himelstein, Chief Technology Officer, RISC-V International, and Dr. Philipp Tomsich, Chief Technologist & Founder, VRULL GmbH hinted that we may see a RISC-V laptop in 2022 in a presentation entitled “From Technology to Product – Maturing the RISC-V Ecosystem” with one of the slides showing what could be a RISC-V laptop prototype and The Register suspected it might come from the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) since it was planning to build 2,000 RISC-V laptops by the end of 2022. But there’s at least one more potential RISC-V laptop project coming our way with StarFive asking users to fill out a survey about a laptop, mini PC, or development board/SBC based on a RISC-V SoC with performance comparable to Rockchip RK3588 or MediaTek MT8192 octa-core Cortex-A76/Cortex-A55 processors. The hardware and software specifications of the device will depend on the answers to the survey. First, it’s […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

June 24, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Renesas SmartBond DA1470x Bluetooth 5.2 LE SoC features a 2D GPU

I would not usually ask myself “is there a GPU?” in a Bluetooth LE SoC, but that’s exactly what Renesas SmartBond DA1470x Bluetooth 5.2 LE microcontroller offers with a 2D GPU used to accelerate the rendering of user interfaces in wearables, healthcare devices, home appliances with displays, industrial automation and security systems, as well as consoles in e-bikes and gaming equipment. The DA1470x also comes with a Cortex-M33 application core, a Cortex-M0+ sensor node controller, 1.5MB SRAM, and an ultra-low-power hardware VAD for always-on audio processing, as well as various peripherals. Specifications: CPU cores Arm Cortex-M33 core @ up to 160 MHz for the application Arm Cortex-M0+ core acting as a sensor node controller (SNC) GPU – 2D GPU for advanced graphics processing Memory – 1.5MB SRAM Storage 4 kB OTG, 32KB ROM on-chip Decrypt-on-the-fly Octa/Quad SPI flash interface Dedicated QSPI PSRAM and QSPI flash interfaces eMMC interface supporting up […]

June 23, 2022October 13, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Mekotronics R58 review – Part 1: Rockchip RK3588 mini PC unboxing & teardown

Mekotronics R58 review Rockchip RK3588 mini PC

Mekotronics R58 is a cost-optimized Rockchip RK3588 mini PC and SBC that sells for as low as $169 with 4GB and 32GB eMMC flash. The company has now sent me a model with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash for evaluation, and in the first part of the review, I’ll do an unboxing, check out the hardware more closely, and boot it up for a quick check. Mekotronics R58 Unboxing There’s no retail package so to speak with just a white box and a sticker reading “MINI 8+64G” indicating the RAM and storage capacity for the device. The mini PC ships with a 12V/3A power adapter and cord, an IR remote control with two AAA batteries, two WiFi antennas, an HDMI cable, and a USB-A to USB-C cable probably to flash the firmware if needed. The mini PC is housed in a metal enclosure with plenty of ventilation holes at the […]

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