Linux 6.10 Release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux Torvalds has announced the release of Linux 6.10 on LKML: So the final week was perhaps not quote as quiet as the preceding ones, which I don’t love – but it also wasn’t noisy enough to warrant an extra rc. And much of the noise this last week was bcachefs again (with netfs a close second), so it was all pretty compartmentalized. In fact, about a third of the patch for the last week was filesystem-related (there were also some btrfs latency fixes and other noise), which is unusual, but none of it looks particularly scary. Another third was drivers, and the rest is “random”. Anyway, this obviously means that the merge window for 6.11 opens up tomorrow. Let’s see how that goes, with much of Europe probably making ready for summer vacation. And the shortlog below is – as always – just the last week, not some kind […]

Meles RISC-V credit card-sized SBC is powered by T-Head TH1520 quad-core SoC

Shenzhen Milk-V Technology’s Meles SBC (single board computer) is powered by a T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V processor and offered in a credit card form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B layout. The board is quite more powerful with a 2.0 GHz quad-core SoC equipped with a modern GPU, a 4K capable video encoder and decoder, and a 4 TOPS NPU. The board also features gigabit Ethernet, a WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0 video output, MIPI CSI and DSI interfaces, and a 40-pin GPIO header. Meles specifications: SoC – Alibaba T-Head TH1520 CPU Quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910 (RV64GCV – Vector Extension version 0.7) processor up to 2.0 GHz Low-power Xuantie E902 core GPU – Imagination BXM-4-64 GPU with support for OpenGL ES3.0/3.1/3.2, OpenCL 1.1/1.2/2.0, Vulkan 1.1/1.2; 50.7GFLOPS DSP – Xuantie C906 audio DSP @ 800 MHz VPU Video Decoder H.265, H.264, […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

The RPGA Feather dev board pairs RP2040 chip with a Lattice iCE40 FPGA for sensor fusion projects

Oak Development Technologies’ RPGA Feather board integrates the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller with the iCE5LP4K FPGA from Lattice Semiconductor into a compact development board in the Adafruit Feather form factor. The iCE5LP4K FPGA is an ultra-low-power chip in the iCE40 Ultra product family designed for mobile applications such as smartphones, tablets, and handhelds, while the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller makes it much easier to program the FPGA using CircuitPython. We have seen Oak Development Technologies’ earlier forays into FPGA Feather-compatible products such as the IcyBlue board (also based on iCE5LP4K FPGA) and the Lattice FeatherWing. RPGA Feather specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM FPGA – Lattice Semiconductor iCE5LP4K FPGA Logic Cells – 3,520 logic cells Memory 80 Kbits of embedded Block RAM (EBR) Distributed RAM: 640 bits 2x hardware I2C blocks and 2x hardware SPI blocks 26 I/Os for customized interfaces […]

Conexio Stratus Pro – A battery-powered nRF9161 development kit with LTE IoT, DECT NR+, GNSS connectivity (Crowdfunding)

Conexio Stratus Pro is a tiny IoT development kit based on Nordic Semi nRF9161 system-in-package (SiP) with LTE-M/NB-IoT, DECT NR+, and GNSS connectivity and designed to create battery-powered cellular-connected electronic projects and products such as asset trackers, environmental monitors, smart meters, and industrial automation devices. Just like the previous generation Conexio Startus board based on the Nordic Semi nRF9160 cellular IoT SiP, the new Conexio Stratus Pro board supports solar energy harvesting and comes with a Feather form factor and Qwiic connector for each expansion. Conexio Stratus Pro specifications: System-in-package – Nordic Semi nRF9161 SiP MCU – Arm Cortex-M33 clocked at 64 MHz with 1 MB Flash pre-programmed MCUBoot bootloader, 256 KB RAM Modem Transceiver and baseband 3GPP LTE release 14 LTE-M/NB-IoT support DECT NR+ ready GPS/GNSS receiver RF Transceiver for global coverage supporting bands: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B17, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28, […]

Canonical releases Ubuntu 24.04 Server image for Milk-V Mars RISC-V SBC

Canonical has been releasing Ubuntu RISC-V images for SBCs and QEMU at least since 2021. The latest addition is an Ubuntu 24.04 Server image for the Mars credit-card-size SBC powered by StarFive JH7110 quad-core RISC-V SoC and designed by Shenzhen Milk-V Technology. That means we now have Ubuntu Server images for the QEMU emulator, AllWinner Nezha SBC, Microchip Polarfire SoC FPGA Icicle Kit, SiFive Unmatched mini-ITX motherboard, Sipeed LicheeRV Dock, StarFive VisionFive 2 SBC, and the Mars SBC. You’ll note there aren’t any Ubuntu Desktop images for now, because the GPU (if any) in RISC-V SoCs is not yet fully supported. Mars SBC specifications: SoC – StarFive JH7110 CPU – Quad-core RISC-V processor (RV64GC) at up to 1.5GHz GPU – Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU with support for OpenCL 1.2, OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2 VPU H.264 & H.265 4Kp60 decoding H.265 1080p30 encoding JPEG encoder / decoder System Memory – 1GB, […]

SECO SBC-3.5-RK3568 – A Rockchip RK3568 3.5-inch SBC with dual gigabit Ethernet

SECO SBC-3.5-RK3568 is a feature-rich 3.5-inch SBC powered by a Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 AI SoC which includes up to 4GB DDR4-3200 memory, 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash, three display interfaces (HDMI, LVDS, eDP), dual gigabit Ethernet, and various expansion headers for industrial applications. Additionally, it also features, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and LTE support via M.2. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.0 Type-A, and multiple USB 2.0 ports with OTG, alongside RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, and TTL UART ports and more. Previously we have written about similar SBCs powered by the Rockchip RK3568 SoC like the AAEON RICO-3568, the RK3568 Tinker Board 3N, the Radxa ROCK 3B and many others feel free to check those out if you are interested in the topic. SECO SBC-3.5-RK3568 Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 CPU – Quad-core Cortex A55 processor at up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Mali G52 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

Linux 6.9 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.9 on LKML: So Thorsten is still reporting a few regression fixes that haven’t made it to me yet, but none of them look big or worrisome enough to delay the release for another week. We’ll have to backport them when they get resolved and hit upstream. So 6.9 is now out, and last week has looked quite stable (and the whole release has felt pretty normal). Below is the shortlog for the last week, with the changes mostly being dominated by some driver updates (gpu and networking being the big ones, but “big” is still pretty small, and there’s various other driver noise in there too). Outside of drivers, it’s some filesystem fixes (bcachefs still stands out, but ksmbd shows up too), some late selftest fixes, and some core networking fixes. And I now have a more powerful arm64 machine […]

Lattice FeatherWing – An iCE40-powered add-on FPGA board for Adafruit Feather

Oak Development Technologies has recently announced Lattice FeatherWing – An iCE40-based development board designed to be controlled by Adafruit Feather. Previously we wrote about the IcyBlue Feather V2, a standalone development built around a Lattice Semi iCE5LP4K FPGA. But this FeatherWing board is designed to add functionality to your existing Adafruit Feather board. The Lattice FeatherWing expands your Adafruit Feather with a Lattice iCE5LP4K FPGA. It connects and gets programmed over SPI so you can use all the FPGA’s GPIO pins through the header blocks. There’s also a built-in RGB LED directly connected to the FPGA’s open-drain pins, for visual feedback. Previously, we have written about many Lattice Semi FPGA-based development boards, such as the tinyVision.ai Pico-Ice board, Silicon Witchery S1, and ULX3S Education Board. Feel free to check those out if you want a standalone FPGA board. FPGA – Lattice Semi iCE40 Family ICE5LP4K-SG48ITR Logic Cells – Approximately 3520 logic cells Memory – 80 Kbits […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC