CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 4, 2022March 4, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

$39 MangoPi-Nezha MQ RISC-V developer board runs OpenWrt, Debian, or RT-Smart RTOS (Crowdfunding)

MangoPi-Nezha MQ tiny developer board with Allwinner F133-A (aka Allwinner D1s) RISC-V processor with 64MB on-chip RAM has just launched on Crowd Supply for $39, and delivery is expected in July 2022. The 4x4cm development board comes with a MicroSD card slot, display and camera interfaces, an on-board microphone, as well as WiFi connectivity, two USB Type-C ports, and two 22-pin headers for expansion. MangoPi-Nezha MQ specifications: SoC – Allwinner F133-A 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 1 GHz with 64 MB DDR2 Storage MicroSD card slot Footprint for SPI NAND/NOR flash Display I/F 15-pin FPC connector Raspberry Pi DSI display 40-pin FPC connector for RGB display with 4-wire resistive-touch interface 6-pin FPC connector for capacitive touch Camera I/F – 24-pin DVP interface (usable as RMII) Audio – On-board microphone, audio output via 2-pin header (unpopulated) Connectivity 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 via Realtek RTL8189 module plus u.FL antenna connector 10/100Mbps Ethernet (RMII) […]

March 3, 2022December 26, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Ultra-low power printed flexible E-paper displays work with Arduino

Ultra-low-power flexible e-paper display

Ynvisible Interactive will soon release upgrades to their printed flexible E-paper displays that consume 50% less energy per switch and can last 10 longer when switched on and off, with the company claiming to offer the lowest energy-consuming displays in the e-paper industry. Those displays are mostly used in specific industries such as digital signage, smart monitoring labels, authenticity & security, and retail. While we have very little information about the new upgrades, I’ve noticed the company is offering a development kit with several “ultra-low-power, thin and flexible Segment E-Paper Displays”, so let’s have a look. Here are some of the specifications of the displays part of the kit: White Reflectance – 40% Contrast Ratio (Yb/Yd) – 1:3 Angle Dependency – No, lambertian Thickness – 300 μm (0.3 mm) Graphical layout – Segments with 1mm to 100mm dimensions Response time – 100-1000 ms Driving voltage – 1.5 V (direct drive) […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

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

UCIe (Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express) open standard for Chiplets with heterogeneous chips

We first heard about Chiplet, chips that gather IP or chips from different vendors into a single chip, in 2020 with the now-defunct zGlue’s Open Chiplet Initiative, but the term recently came back to the forefront last month with Intel’s investment into the “Open Chiplet Platform” that aims to offer a modular approach to chip design through chiplets with each block/chiplet customized for a particular function. It turns out there’s now an official standard called the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) whose specification defines the interconnect between chiplets within a package, and not only backed by Intel, but also AMD, Arm, ASE, Google Cloud, Meta, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, and TSMC. UCIe defines the Physical Layer (Die-to-Die I/O) and protocols to be used for the chiplet interfaces, currently PCIe and CXL (Compute Express Link), but more protocols will be added to the specification in the future. The goal is to provide […]

March 3, 2022July 22, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Banana Pi teases BPI-RK3588 Rockchip RK3588 SoM and development kit

Banana Pi has showcased its first engineering samples of a Rockchip RK3588 SoM (system-on-module) with up to 8GB RAM and 128GB flash, as well as a development kit with dual Ethernet, three HDMI ports, SATA interfaces, PCIe interface, and more. Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor is the most powerful from the company, both in terms of CPU and GPU power, but also with a wide range of high-speed interfaces, and will be found in the upcoming Radxa ROCK5 single board computer, and a yet-to-be-announced board from Pine64. Banana Pi RK3588_CV1 “Core” (BPI-RK3588) board specifications: SoC- Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali G610MC4 GPU, a 6 TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder System Memory – 2GB, 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB eMMC flash 313-pin edge connector for I/Os including PCIe 3.0, […]

March 2, 2022March 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 Cortex-A78/A55 processor to power premium 5G smartphones

MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 Arm Cortex-A78 processors for 5G premium smartphones bring many of the features of the flagship Dimensity 9000 Armv9 processor announced last December, but at a more affordable price point. Designed for gamers, the Dimensity 8100 integrates four Arm Cortex-A78 cores with speeds reaching 2.85GHz instead of 2.75GHz for the Dimenssity 8000, and boosts GPU and AI engine’s frequencies to 20% and 25% respectively. MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 4x Arm Cortex-A78 up to 2.75 GHz (Dimensity 8000) / 2.85 GHz (Dimensity 8100) 4x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz 4MB L3 cache GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MC6 GPU (Dimensity 8100 with 20% frequency boost) with MediaTek HyperEngine 5.0 gaming technologies AI Accelerator – 5th generation MediaTek APU 580 (Dimensity 8100 with 25% frequency boost) Memory I/IF – LPDDR5 6400 Mbps Storage I/F – UFS 3.1 Display Dimensity 8000 – 168Hz Full HD+ Dimensity 8100 – 120Hz […]

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

3.5-inch Elkhart Lake SBC offers dual GbE, 4x M.2 sockets, 5G cellular support

AAEON GENE-EHL5 Elkhart Lake 3.5-inch SBC

AAEON GENE-EHL5 is a 3.5-inch Subcompact board based on Intel Atom x6000E Series, Pentium, and Celeron “Elkhart Lake” processors with four M.2 expansion slots for wireless connectivity (5G, WiFi, etc…) and NVMe modules, as well as two Gigabit Ethernet ports. The single board computer comes with one DDR4 SODIMM slot for up to 32GB IBECC memory, supports SATA and NVME storage, offers DisplayPort and HDMI, and eDP/LVDS video interface, as well as wide DC input from 9-36V, although there’s also a cost-down option for 12V DC input only. AAEON GENE-EHL5 specifications: Elkhart Lake SoC (one or the other) with Intel UHD graphics Intel Atom x6425RE quad-core processor @ 1.90 GHz; 12W TDP Intel Atom x6425E quad-core processor @ 2.00 GHz / 3.00 GHz (Turbo); 12W TDP Intel Atom x6211E dual-core processor @ 1.30 GHz / 3.00 GHz; 6W TDP Intel Pentium J6426 quad-core processor @ 2.00 GHz / 3.00 GHz; […]

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

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

Intel Xeon D network and edge processors find their way into COM Express & COM-HPC modules

Intel has recently launched the Intel Xeon D (Ice Lake-D) processor family with the D-2700 and the D-1700 models designed for software-defined network and edge applications with integrated AI and crypto acceleration, built-in Ethernet, support for Intel Time Coordinated Computing (TCC) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), plus high reliability. The new processors are bringing data center-class hardware to the edge, and at least two embedded systems companies, namely ADLINK Technology and Congatec, have already launched COM-HPC server modules and COM Express Type 7 module based on the new Intel Xeon D family. Intel Xeon D processors Intel Xeon D-2700 and Intel Xeon D-1700 are designed for space- and power-constrained ruggedized environments, feature industrial-class reliability, hardware-based security, and up to 56 high-speed PCIe lanes to support networks with up to 100Gbps Ethernet. While the Intel Xeon D-1700 sub-family is scalable from 2 to 10 cores, the Intel Xeon D-2700 family goes up […]

March 1, 2022March 1, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Snapdragon X70 5G modem leverages “AI” to reach 10 Gbps

Qualcomm has announced their latest 5G modem with the Snapdragon X70 that is said to “uses the power of AI” to enable 5G speeds up to 10 Gbps, wider coverage, low latency, and higher power efficiency. The company explains the Qualcomm 5G AI Suite enables AI-powered optimizations of sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G links on the Snapdragon X70 through various techniques: AI-based channel-state feedback and dynamic optimization AI-based mmWave beam management for superior mobility and coverage robustness AI-based network selection for superior mobility and link robustness AI-based adaptive antenna tuning for up to 30% improved context detection for higher average speeds and coverage That’s about all the details we have about the “artificial intelligence” part, and I’m not convinced neural networks are actually used here. For reference, the previous generation Snapdragon X65 was also sold as a 10Gbps 5G modem, but maybe Snapdragon X70 can achieve high speeds more reliably. […]