CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 10, 2021September 14, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Beelink LZX – A Zhaoxin KX-6640MA based x86 Mini PC you may never see

Beyond Intel and AMD, there are other x86 processors in the wild from DM&P and Zhaoxin. We’ve written about the latter in a QNAP NAS earlier this year, but now it turns out there’s also a Zhaxin-based mini PC with Beelink LZX based on a Zhaoxin KX-6640MA quad-core x86 processor that showed up on Shopee Indonesia for 3.86 million Indonesian Rupiahs, or about $270 US. The computer comes with 8GB RAM by default but supports up to 64GB, as well as dual M.2 NVMe and SATA III storage, two 4Kp60 capable HDMI ports, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and more. Beelink LZX specifications: SoC – Zhaoxin KX-6640MA quad-core processor @ 2.1 GHz / 2.6 GHz (Turbo) with 4MB cache, C-960 Graphics (support 4K HD); TDP: 25W System Memory – 8GB DDR4 RAM upgradeable to 64GB via two SO-DIMM memory slots Storage – 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD, additional M.2 2280 slot for NVMe […]

September 10, 2021September 10, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Wio Lite AI – An STM32H725A Cortex-M7 board for AI vision applications

Wio Lite AI is another development board from Seeed Studio’s “Wio Lite” family. The board is based on STMicro STM32H725A Cortex-M7 microcontroller with a dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth module, as well as camera & display interfaces for connected AI vision applications. The board builds upon the earlier Wio Lite and Wio Lite W600 boards with built-in wireless connectivity but offers much more processing power for computer vision or other applications. Wio Lite AI specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32H725AE Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller @ 550MHz with DSP instructions, 512 KB flash, 564 KB RAM Memory – 8MB PSRAM (from AP Memory) Storage – 16MB SPI NOR flash and MicroSD card slot Display I/F – 40-pin FPC connector for LCD RGB565 or RGB888 displays Camera – 24-pin FPC connector for DCMI camera (OV2640) Audio – 12-pin FPC connector for audio Connectivity – Dual-band 2.4GHz / 5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.1 Expansion – Feather […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Argon EON – A 4-Bay NAS for Raspberry Pi 4 (Crowdfunding)

Argon EON is a 4-bay network access storage (NAS) enclosure designed to work with Raspberry Pi 4 that follows other popular Raspberry Pi cases from the company including the Argon One and Argon One M.2. Also known as the Argon EON Pi NAS, the enclosure features four SATA hard drive ports that will fit two 3.5-inch SATA HDD and two 2.5-inch SATA for a maximum capacity of up to 40 TB with consumer-grade drives, although I suppose it’s not a hard limit. Argon EON Pi NAS specifications: Supported SBC – Raspberry Pi 4 SBC with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor, up to 8GB RAM Storage 4x SATA drive bays with up to 2x 3.5-inch HDD, and up to 2x 2.5-inch SSD/HDD with up to 10TB capacity per drive MicroSD card socket (for OS) Video and audio outputs – 2x full-size HDMI 2.0 ports up to 4Kp60, AV jack with composite […]

September 9, 2021April 8, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ESP32 Arduino 2.0.0 release adds ESP32-C3 and ESP32-S2 support

As just noted in my article about LILYGO T-32C3 module, the ESP32 Arduino 2.0.0 release happened a few days ago adding ESP32-C3 and ESP32-S2 support to the Arduino IDE. But the news probably warrants its own post and it is a major release of the Arduino code for ESP32 that also includes other new features and changes namely: Upload over USB CDC. Support for the KSZ8081 Ethernet PHY. LittleFS update for partition label and multiple partitions. Added support for RainMaker. BLE 5 features for ESP32-C3 (ESP32-S3 ready). ESPTOOL update. Added 802.11mc WiFi RTT FTM (Fine Time Measurement) support. Online Documentation added (somehow it requires a login to Readthedocs). USB MSC (Mass Storage) and HID support (ESP32-S2 only). UART refactoring (SerialHardware). New examples, boards added, bugs fixed. You can find a more detailed changelog, including the exact files changes in the source code, on Github. If we want to give it […]

September 9, 2021September 15, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

LILYGO T-32C3 – A small ESP32-C3 WiFi & BLE IoT module with 4MB flash

We’re slowly starting to see more hardware-based on ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor, and LILYGO T-32C3 is a compact module based on the WiFi & Bluetooth LE processor that includes 4MB flash and a PCB antenna. I’d expect T-32C3 to be eventually found in the company’s smartwatches and development boards, and it joins other ESP32-C3 modules from AI Thinker. LILYGO T-32C3 module specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor @ 160 MHz with 400 KB SRAM, 384 KB ROM, 8KB RTC SRAM, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4, Bluetooth 5.0 LE & Mesh Storage – 4MB flash On-board PCB antenna I/Os – 22x castellated holes with GPIO, 3x ADC, SPI, UART, I2C, Boot, Reset, 5V, 3.3V, GND Dimensions – 23 x 11 x 3.5 mm (4-layer PCB) Note the USB interface is not listed in the specs, but USB DN and DP signals are located on GPIO18 and GPIO19 so USB should also be […]

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

$150 Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 mini PC runs Android 10

Azulle Ally is an Android 10 mini PC powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor coupled with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM. Equipped with an HDMI port, wired and wireless networking, as well as a pair of USB 3.0 ports, the small-form factor computer is mostly designed for businesses and applications such as digital signage, IoT, edge computing, wayfinding machines, and more. Azulle Ally mini PC specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core Arm Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with Adreno 506 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL 2.0 Full, DirectX 12, Hexagon 546 DSP, and 1080p60 video decoder/1080p90 video encoder for H.265, H.265, VP8, and (decode-only) VP9 System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Video Output – Micro HDMI 1.4 port up to 1080p60 Connectivity Ethernet RJ45 port Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 LE USB – 2x […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

September 8, 2021September 25, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

iBASE MI989 – 5G-ready Ryzen V2000 Mini-ITX motherboard offers PCIe x16 & M.2 expansion

We’ve written about Ryzen Embedded V2000 mini-ITX motherboards in the past, but here’s another one with iBASE MI989 equipped with four 4K-capable DisplayPort 1.4 video output, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, three M.2 sockets including a 5G-ready M.2 3052 socket, and a PCIe x16 slot for expansion. iBASE MI989 also supports up to 64GB ECC memory, one SATA III port, multiple USB 3.1/2.0 ports, four serial ports, and more, for embedded applications in retail, healthcare, industrial automation, casinos, and smart cities. iBASE MI989 specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen V2000 Series Processors either: AMD Ryzen Embedded V2748, 8C/16T up to 2.9GHz (4.25GHz) with 4MB cache, 7 CU Radeon Vega graphics; 45W TDP AMD Ryzen Embedded V2718, 8C/16T up to 1.7GHz (4.15GHz), with 4MB cache, 7 CU Radeon Vega graphics; 15W TDP System Memory – Up to 64GB dual-channel DDR4-3200 (ECC/non-ECC) via 2x SODIMM sockets Storage – 1x SATA 3.0 (up to 6GB/s) […]

September 8, 2021February 8, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

OpenSSL 3.0 released with pending FIPS 140-2 validation

OpenSSL 3.0 has just been released after three years of development, and over 7,500 commits and contributions from over 350 different authors with a new FIPS module that awaits FIPS 140-2 validation by the end of the year, improved documentation, and a change to an Apache License 2.0. OpenSSL’s reputation took a serious hit in 2014 with the Hearbleed bug that allowed attackers to steal the information protected by the SSL/TLS encryption used for most secure Internet communication. The bug was introduced in 2012, and it took almost two years to be fixed. Yet, despite the fix, many projects switched to other SSL libraries like LibreSSL, WolfSSL, or mbedTLS. But it’s good the project is still very much active, and OpenSSL 3.0 succeeds OpenSSL 1.1.1 released in September 2018. Who knows what OpenSSL 2.0… One of the main changes is support for the Provider concept, and OpenSSL 3.0 comes with […]