CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 9, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

PICO DSP is an Arduino compatible ESP32 development board for audio and DSP applications (Crowdfunding)

ESP32 audio development boards have been around ever since ESP32 boards were introduced starting with Espressif Systems’ own “ESP32-LyraTD-MSC Audio Mic HDK“, and now ESP32 hardware and software have been certified for Amazon Alexa Voice Services. PICO DSP is another ESP32 development board for audio and digital signage processing (DSP) applications. Equipped with a Wolfson WM9878 stereo audio codec, the breadboard-friendly, Arduino compatible board includes two MEMS microphones, audio in and out jacks, a speaker header, plus other audio signals routed to a GPIO header. PICO DSP specifications: SiP – Espressif ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core WiFi 4 & BLE processor, 4MB SPI flash External storage/memory Original Edition – External 64 MB pseudo-static (PSRAM) chip, of which up to 8 MB is currently supported by ESP-IDF. Strawberry Edition – 16 MB of external NOR flash (note: the internal 4MB SPI flash will not be usable after selecting the NOR flash […]

August 9, 2021November 18, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Compact H.265 4K video encoder is made for embedded, medical, and military applications

US-based Z3 Technology has announced the Z3-Q603-RPS, a compact H.265 video encoder system capable of supporting 4K and HD resolutions for embedded, medical, and even military camera applications through NDAA (National Defense Authorisation Act) compliance. The board runs Linux on Qualcomm QCS603 IoT processor for AI and computer vision applications, which we previously found in Microsoft’s Vision AI Developer Kit, supports Ethernet and WiFI 5 connectivity, as well as features such as PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom). Z3-Q603-RPS H.264 & H.265 video encoder system is comprised of an application board and a module with the following specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QCS603 (aka Qualcomm Vision Intelligence 300 Platform) with four Armv8 cores (2x 1.6GHz Kryo 300 Gold cores, 2x 1.7GHz Qualcomm Kryo 300 Silver cores ), Snapdragon neural processing engine, Adreno 615 GPU at 780 MHz System Memory – TBD Storage – NAND flash (capacity TBD) , MicroSD card socket Video Output […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

August 8, 2021August 25, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

How to use PinePhone as a mobile hotspot

I’ve recently started using my Android phone as a mobile hotspot with mixed results so instead, I’ve switched to using PinePhone as a hotspot with Manjaro Arm Linux with Plasma Mobile instead, and performance seems much more stable now. Early this year, I received Pinephone with PostMarketOS beta, and after playing with it a bit I did not do much with it so far. But in recent times, I’ve been staying in various places without WiFi, so I purchased a lost cost SIM card with a one-year cellular data plan to be able to work from any location using my Android 10 smartphone (Huawei Y9 Prime 2019) as a mobile hotspot. It works most of the time, but sometimes I have massive packet loss, and the only way to recover is to turn off and on the hotspot, and in some cases even reboot the phone. Playing with settings on […]

August 7, 2021August 7, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Arduino powered 5-key keypad includes a rotary encoder

JC Pro Macro - Arduino Keyboard with Rotary Encoder

There was a time when people were happy to interact with their computer with a standard keyboard and mouse. But in recent years, we’ve noticed more programmable, custom-designed keyboards with more ergonomy, a built-in touchscreen display, integrated into a multi-function USB dock/hub, as well as tiny keypads with a couple of mechanical keys to speed up specific functions. JC Pro Macro is another one of those compact USB keypads. Powered by an Arduino Pro Micro board, the keypad features five mechanical keyboard keys, and adds a rotary encoder, plus an optional I2C OLED display for debugging, and some I/Os to control external hardware like a fan. JC Pro Macro keyboard’s features and specifications: MCU board – Arduino Pro Micro compatible board with Microchip ATmega32U4 AVR microcontroller User input 5x programmable keyswitches Rotary encoder to control volume or other “rotary-y” elements, plus a 6th input switch, i.e. you can press it […]

August 6, 2021August 6, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

The RISC-V Platform Specification aims to ensure RISC-V hardware and software compatibility

The RISC-V platform specification aims to define a set of rules to make sure operating systems like Linux or the Zephyr Project can boot properly on all RISC-V hardware compliant with the specs. If you’ve ever worked with the Arm Linux kernel over ten years ago, you may remember board files, which were replaced by device tree bindings, and eventually, Arm defined several standards culminating with Arm SystemReady certifications allowing compliant Arm platforms to boot off-the-shelf OS images like in the x86 world. While we are probably a long way from a “RISC-V SystemReady” platform certification program, the RISC-V platform specification is currently being worked on to define requirements for two types of platforms with optional extensions: OS-A Platform: This specifies a rich-OS platform for Linux/FreeBSD/Windows…flavors that run on enterprise and embedded class application processors. Current extension: Server Extension M Platform – This specifies an RTOS platform for bare-metal applications […]

August 6, 2021August 6, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Allwinner H313 HDMI TV Stick runs Android 10, features an Ethernet port

TOX2 is an HDMI TV stick powered by Allwinner H313 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor that we first found in an X96Q TV box. The device runs Android 10 operating systems and happens to provide Ethernet connectivity, a rarity for this form factor. The dongle also comes with 2GB LDRR4 RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, and dual-band WiFi 5, and supports 4Kp60 video output through a male HDMI 2.0 port. TOX2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H313 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.35 GHz with Arm Mali G31 MP2 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card socket Video & audio output – HDMI 2.0a port up to 4Kp60 Video playback H.265 up to 4Kp60 H.264, VP9 Profile 2, AVS2 up to 4Kp30 H.263, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, Xvid, Sorenson Spark, VP8, AVS/AVS+, VC1 up to 1080p60 Video encoding – H.264 […]

August 6, 2021September 3, 2021 by Saumitra Jagdale - No Comments

Microsoft Azure IoT, Balena, Particle, or Toit – Choosing the Right IoT Development Platform

With the ongoing fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), IoT technologies are playing a major role in automating industrial processes. Integrating existing systems with IoT results in an intelligent solution that focuses more on providing better adaptability and resource efficiency. If you start building such systems from scratch while ensuring reliability and other factors, it will surely take a lot of research and time. This is where an IoT development platform steps in to save your time and makes things a lot easier. The main idea behind these platforms is to avoid reinventing the wheel and to provide standardized functions and features, so you don’t waste your time implementing something that someone has already done for you. You can collect data, control and manage apps and connect to their cloud services for better machine-to-machine communication. This article will look at some modern IoT development platforms and finally compare them to help […]

August 5, 2021December 22, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Overview and List of System-on-Module and Computer-on-Module Standards – Q7, SMARC, COM HPC, and More

A System-on-Module (SoM), also known as a Computer-on-Module (CoM), is a small board with the key components of a computer such as SoC, memory, and possibly others components such as PMIC (Power Management IC), an Ethernet PHY, as well as one or more connectors used to connect to a baseboard, also called carrier board, which features standard ports such as Ethernet (RJ45), USB ports, SATA, power jack and so on. The advantages of using of baseboard + SoM design compared to a single board are at least twofold: Most of the PCB design complexity is often around the CPU/SoC and high-speed buses connected to the CPU/SoC. So you could buy an SoM, design your own baseboard and get a complete design relatively in a short amount of time, with reduced development resources and costs. The design is modular, so you could easily upgrade from one SoM to another one. For […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications