MSI Cubi N JSL mini PC comes with Celeron N4500 or Pentium N6000 Jasper Lake processor

MSI Cubi N JSL

MSI has announced a new variant of its Cubi N family of mini PCs with the MSI Cubi N JSL mini PC powered by a Jasper Lake processor either an Intel Celeron N4500 or a Pentium Silver N6000. The 0.45L computer also comes with up to 16GB dual-channel DDR4 memory, NVMe and SATA storage, HDMI and VGA outputs, and four USB 3.2 ports. MSI Cube N JSL specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor @ 1.1GHz / 2.8GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP Intel Pentium N6000 Silver quad-core processor @ 1.1 GHz / 3.1GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP System Memory – 2x DDR4 2933MHz SO-DIMMs, Up to 16 GB Storage 2x M.2 SSD combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3x2) 1x 2.5-inch HDD/SSD Video Output – 1x HDMI 1.4 up to 4Kp30 (TBC), 1x VGA Audio Realtek ALC233 audio codec 1x Mic-in/Headphone-out […]

An ESP32-based BBC Micro:bit clone – Meet Mbits

BBC Micro:bit clone ESP32 Mbits

A few years ago, we noted a BBC Micro:bit clone based on ESP32 WiSoC with Banana Pi ‘s BPI:bit board with an array of 25 RGB LEDs and WiFi & Bluetooth LE connectivity. There’s now another such clone with Elecrow Mbits designed in a way that resembles the BBC Micro:bit v2 board, but replacing the Nordic Semi nRF52833 2.4GHz/BLE SoC with the ESP32 dual-core wireless chip with support for both WiFi and BLE. The specifications between Elecrow Mbits and BBC Micro:bit v2 are close enough, although ESP32 is a more powerful processor, and the MBits board comes with more memory and storage. Power consumption of the BBC Micro:bit v2 should be much better, so if anything needs to run on battery for an extended period of time, it may be a better choice, or you’re gonna need a bigger battery.  The GPIO pinout looks different too, so not all Micro:bit […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

Qualcomm IPQ4019 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi system-on-module comes with Dual Gigabit Ethernet baseboard

IPQ4019 system-on-module

Wallys Communication has introduced their lowest cost networking platform with the DR4019S board equipped with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as a Qualcomm IPQ4019 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi system-on-module. The module comes with 32MB NOR flash, and 256MB DDR memory and targets applications ranging from security surveillance to commercial radio coverage to hotel wireless applications, or even forest fire protection engineering. DR4019S board specifications: SoC – Qualcomm IPQ4019 quad-core Arm Cortex A7 at 716.8 MHz System Memory – 256MB DDR Storage – 32MB NOR flash Connectivity 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports 802.11b/g/n/ac Wave 2 WiFi 5 with 2x 5G MMCX connectors, 2x 2.4G MMCX connectors (but we can only see one or two of those on the provided photo) USB – 1x USB 3./2.0 port Misc – Debug UART header Power Supply – 12V via DC jack Power Consumption – 9.6W (max) Dimensions – 65 x 35 x 16mm Temperature […]

LIVA Q1L Review – pfSense, Ubuntu 20.04, Windows 10 tested on a dual Ethernet “Ultra Tiny PC”

pfsense LIVA Q1L review

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) have a series of mini PCs called LIVA which includes the diminutive Q range from which the LIVA Q2 was previously reviewed. Now it is the turn of the LIVA Q1L which although announced over a year ago has just been received for review and the results from various testing are detailed below. Hardware Overview The Q1L physically consists of a 74 x 74 x 34.6 mm (2.91 x 2.91 x 1.36 inches) rectangular plastic case. It is an actively cooled mini PC that uses slightly older Apollo Lake processors and the review model came with an N4200 CPU which is a quad-core 4-thread 1.10 GHz processor boosting to 2.50 GHz with Intel’s HD Graphics 505. The front has a power button, two USB 3.2 Gen 1×1 ports, and one USB 2.0 port whilst the rear includes an HDMI port, two gigabit Ethernet ports, and the […]

Zotac ZBOX C-series nano fanless Tiger Lake mini PCs announced

Zotac ZBOX-C Tiger Lake

Three new Zotac ZBOX C-series nano fanless mini PCs with Tiger Lake processors have just been listed on the Zotac HK website. We wrote about Simply NUC’s Tiger Canyon Porcoolpine fanless Tiger lake mini PC last week, but getting more choices is great with the ZOTAC ZBOX CI625 nano (Core i3-1115G4), CI645 nano (Core i5-1135G7), and CI665 nano (Core i7-1165G7) mini PCs. The new computers are offered barebone with support for up to 64GB DDR4, SATA and NVMe storage, as well as HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 4K video outputs, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, WiFi 5, and more. ZBOX CI6x5 nano specifications: SoC ZBOX CI625 nano – Intel Core i3-1115G4 dual-core processor @ 3.0GHz, up to 4.1GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics; 28W TDP ZBOX CI645 nano – Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core processor @ 2.4GHz, up to 4.2GHz (Turbo) with Intel Xe graphics; 28W TDP ZBOX CI665 nano – Intel […]

Ultra-Low-Power RISC-V System-on-Chip features Adaptive Body Biasing Technology

Ultra-low-power RISC-V Chip

CSEM and USJC together have developed an ultra-low-power RISC-V chip for electronic gadgets such as wearables. The semiconductor companies, from Switzerland and Japan respectively, have been in the market for a while, developing technologies for low-power chips. Their latest collaboration uses Adaptive Body Biasing (ABB) and Deeply Depleted Channel (DDC) to build an ultra-low-power RISC-V chip with all the required and necessary components. Originating from the labs of CSEM, the Adaptive Body Biasing dwells into the operating efficiency of all the modes of ON, Standby, and OFF. There has been the problem of power leakage in Standby and OFF operating modes, but the Adaptive Body Biasing technology helps design to minimize power leakage when the processor is not operating while keeping the best performance in ON mode. For most of the designs, the processor is in Standby mode waiting for the incoming data or the next event to be offered. […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

Review of “4G LTE WiFi Modem” hotspot

4G LTE WiFi Modem review

I’ve purchased a USB dongle acting as a WiFI & 4G cellular router with a generic name “4G LTE WiFi Modem” and listed as “4G LTE WiFi Hotspot Wireless Router USB Dongle 150Mbps Modem Stick Sim Card” on the online store (Lazada) I bought it from. 4G LTE WiFi Modem unboxing It’s a 3-in-1 device that works as a 4G USB dongle connected to a PC or laptop, a 4G USB WiFi cellular router/hotspot, and a USB flash drive when adding a MicroSD card. 4G performance is limited to 150Mbps DL, 50Mbps UL, while WiFi only supports up to 72 Mbps using 802.11n 2.4GHz WiFi. That’s perfectly fine for my use case, as the plan is to use it as a standalone WiFi hotspot with an unlimited 10 Mbps SIM card, and in locations with low population densities so 5GHz WiFi is not a must. The USB dongle ships with […]

Qualcomm QRB5165 system-on-module is made for robotics applications

Open-Q 5165RB SOM

Lantronix Open-Q 5165RB is a tiny System-on-Module (SoM) based on the same Qualcomm QRB5165 octa-core IoT processor we’ve just seen in Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Platform high-end drone reference design. The ultra-compact (50x29mm) module comes with 8GB LPDDR5, 128GB UFS flash, multiple MIPI camera and display ports, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, and various I/Os. Lantronix Open-Q 5165RB module specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QRB5165 SoC built on 7nm technology with Octa-core CPU with 1x Kryo Gold prime @ 2.84 GHz, 3x Kryo Gold @ 2.42 GHz, 4x Kryo Silver @ 1.81 GHz Hexagon 698 DSP with quad Hexagon Vector eXtensions Adreno™ 650 GPU @ up to  587 MHz Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor Adreno 665 Video Processing unit  – Decode up to 4K240/8K60, Encode up to 4K120/8K30, Concurrent 4K60 decode & 4K30 encode for wireless display NPU230 Neural Processing unit SPU240 Secure Processing unit Up to 15 TOPS of combined […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products