Posted on

Orange Pi 4 Metal Enclosure Launched for $10

Orange Pi 4 and Orange Pi 4B, the latter further adding a Gyrfalcon 2801S AI accelerator chip, were launched in late 2019 for as little as $50 with 4GB RAM making those some of the most affordable Rockchip RK3399 SBC’s on the market. Since then, Shenzhen Xunlong Software launched some extra accessories for the board including a PCIe expansion board with a mini PCIe socket, and a SIM card slot, and very recently a Rockchip RM310 4G LTE modem to go along. The latest addition is a metal enclosure made of aluminum alloy and suitable for either version of the board. The enclosure is fairly compact with fins on top for cooling and openings for the 40-pin GPIO header and PCIe connector. Talking about PCIe, it would have been nice if they also make a case capable of taking their PCIe adapter board, but that would be for another time. […]

Posted on

Raspberry Pi Zero Sized Kimχ Micro SBC is Equipped with a Quad-Core Processor, an mPCIe Slot

The Raspberry Pi Zero (W/WH) board is great because of its size, price tag, and software support, but processing power is limited with Broadcom BCM2735 SoC only offering a single ARM11 core clocked at 1 GHz. There are already some more powerful boards in a similar form factor include Banana Pi M2 Zero or FriendlyELEC NanoPi Duo2 both equipped with an Allwinner quad-core Cortex-A7 processor, but there’s another upcoming board with NXP i.MX 8M Mini quad-core 64-bit Cortex-A53 processor. Meet Kimχ Micro (pronounced Kimchi Micro). Kimχ Micro (preliminary) specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini single to quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz, Cortex-M4F real-time core @ up to 400 MHz, Vivante GC NanoUltra 3D GPU + GC320 2D GPU, VPU for 1080p60 video decoding and encoding; (Single and dual-core version of NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor are also compatible) System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 Storage – 8GB […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
Posted on

Raspberry Pi 4 Gets 8GB RAM, Raspbian 64-bit (Beta)

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B was launched in June 2019 with Broadcom BCM2711 Arm Cortex-A72 processor coupled with either 1, 2, or 4GB LPDDR4 RAM. But there were expectations that a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB RAM or an 8GB eMMC flash may be eventually launched, as some of the user guides read “Product name: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB + 8 GB variants”. We now know the answer as the Raspberry Pi Foundation has just introduced Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB RAM. Raspberry Pi 4 8GB specifications are the same except for the RAM capacity: SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARMv8) @  1.5GHz with VideoCore VI GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – MicroSD card slot Video Output  & Display I/F 2x micro HDMI ports up to 4Kp60 3.5mm AV port with composite video (and […]

Posted on

TQMa65xx Embedded Module Features TI Sitara AM65xx SoC, Six TSN Ethernet Interfaces

Texas Instruments Sitara AM654 Cortex-A53/R5 SoC was launched in 2018 as the first 64-bit processor from the company and specifically targetting Gigabit industrial Ethernet networks with support for Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). Since the processor launch, we’ve seen a couple of Sitara AM65xx modules such as PHYTEC phyCORE-AM65x SoM and Mistral AM65x Industrial SOM. There’s now another option with TQ Embedded TQMa65xx embedded module featuring a choice of 5 AM65xx dual-/quad-core processor, up to 4GB RAM, up to 64GB eMMC flash, and various I/Os via a 560-pin connector that includes six Gigabit TSN Ethernet interfaces. TQ Embedded TQMa65xx embedded module specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM6526, AM6527, AM6528, AM6546, or AM6548 with dual-core or quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.1 GHz, dual Cortex-R5 dual-lockstep processor @ 400 MHz, optional Imagination SGX544 GPU (AM6xx8 SKU) System Memory – Up to 4GB DDR4 SDRAM with optional ECC Storage – Up to 64GB eMMC […]

Posted on

Banana Pi BPI-M4 SBC Gets 2GB RAM, Sells for $43

First unveiled in February 2019, Banana Pi BPI-M4 is a single board computer based on Realtek RTD1395 quad-core Cortex-A53 4K media processor and following Raspberry Pi 3B+ form factor pretty closely. BPI-M4 officially launched in June 2019 for just $38 with 1GB DDR4 RAM, but despite the 2GB RAM option being listed in the specification, the 2GB version of the board was not available, at least on Aliexpress. The good news is that Banana Pi BPI-M4 with 2GB RAM has just started selling for $43 plus shipping on Aliexpress, or in Taobao if you based in China. Banana Pi BPI-M4 2GB specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1395 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Mali-470 MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot up to 256GB, M.2 NVMe SSD Video Output – HDMI 2.0b port up to 4K @ 60 Hz, HDR support Video Decode […]

Posted on

DFI GHF51 AMD Ryzen Embedded SBC Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Assembly

Earlier this year, Taiwan based DFI launched GHF51 Ryzen Embedded R1000 SBC offering some similarities with Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, including a business card form factor, two Micro HDMI ports, and Gigabit Ethernet. But the comparison stopped there, as DFI GHF51 board will vastly outperform the Raspberry Pi 4 boards both in terms of CPU and graphics performance due to AMD Ryzen processor, and DFI embedded board does not target hobbyists nor students, but instead business and industrial customers. The company recently contacted CNX Software, and send GHF51 board with all accessories for review. I was pretty excited since it’s the first AMD Ryzen Embedded SBC that I’ll review, so it should be particularly interesting.  I’ve just received the sample and will do a two-part review starting with unboxing and kit assembly, before publishing the second part of the review reporting on my experience with Windows 10 and/or Ubuntu 20.04. […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
Posted on

n-Fuse SX1302 Mini PCIe LoRaWAN Concentrator Card to Sell for 100 Euros

Semtech SX1302 LoRa transceiver was announced in Q3 2019 as an updated to the company’s SX1301 LoRaWAN gateway chip with improved efficiency, lower BoM costs, and the ability to handle more traffic. At the time, the company also showcased a mini PCIe LoRaWAN concentrator card reference design pairing SX1302 with SX1250 sub-GHz RF front end, and that could be connected to a Raspberry Pi board via an interface board. n-Fuse has now come up with a commercial product adapted from the reference design with LRWCC2-MPCIE SX1302 Mini PCIe concentrator card designed for LoRaWAN gateways. n-Fuse LRWCC2-MPCIE key features and specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32 (no details provided) LoRa Connectivity Semtech SX1302 digital baseband processor with 2xSX1250 and 1xSX1261 Tx/Rx front-ends Frequency Range – 863 to 870 MHz or 915 to 928 MHz Sensitivity <= -124dBm at SF7, BW 125KHz <= -138dBm at SF12, BW 125kHz <= -125dBm at SF7, BW […]

Posted on

DFI GHF51 Ryzen Embedded R1000 SBC is about the Size of a Raspberry Pi

We’ve seen a fair amount of AMD Ryzen Embedded boards over the last few months including 3.5″ Ryzen Embedded SBC‘s such as Kontron SBC-VR1000 and IBASE Technology IB918, as well as larger boards such as SAPPHIRE FS-FP5R 5×5 motherboard. The most compact Ryzen Embedded board we covered so far must have been the upcoming Sapphire NP-FP5 based on Ryzen R1305G processor with a 4″x4″ (10.16 x 10.16 cm) form factor. But DFI GHF51 1.8″ SBC takes the crown of the smallest Ryzen Embedded SBC, with the business card / Raspberry Pi sized board measuring just 84 x 55 mm, and featuring an AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000-series processor combined with up to 8GB RAM. DFI GHF51 specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 Series with Radeon Vega 3 GPU; 12W CPU System Memory – 2GB/4GB/8GB single-channel DDR4 3200MHz Storage 1x 16GB/32GB/64GB eMMC flash 64Mbit SPI Flash for BIOS (supports UEFI boot […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC