CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

IOL HAT adds an IO-Link compatible master to Raspberry Pi for industrial IoT sensors and actuators

Pinetek Networks’ IOL HAT is a Raspberry Pi expansion board using the IO-Link (IEC 61131-9) protocol to interact with industrial sensors. It’s based on the Analog Devices MAX14819 IO-Link master transceiver and offers two SDCI (“Single-Drop Digital Communication”) connectors. While work on the IO-Link communication protocol started in 2006, and the IEC 61131-9 “Single-drop digital communication interface (SDCI) for small sensors and actuators” standard was adopted in 2013, it only recently came onto our radar with products like the STMicro EVLIOL4LSV1 IO-Link actuator board and Renesas CCE4511 IO-Link master and ZSSC3286 IO-Link sensor signal conditioner. The IOL HAT brings the IO-Link standard for industrial IoT communication to the Raspberry Pi. IOL HAT specifications: IO-Link chip – Analog Devices MAX14819 dual IO-Link master transceiver with integrated framers and L+ supply controllers 2x SDCI ports for IEC 61131-9 (IO-Link) sensors and actuators Host connection (one or the other) PT-1201 model – 40-pin […]

April 9, 2025April 10, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Antenna hack more than doubles the range of cheap ESP32-C3 USB-C boards

There are plenty of small ESP32-C3 IoT boards with a USB-C connector on the market, and while they all look very similar, antenna designs differ, and less thought-out ones may severely impact the WiFi and Bluetooth range. Peter Neufeld decided to hack one of those cheap ESP32-C3 boards by adding a custom antenna, and this resulted in the board having more than twice the range and almost three times in some cases. Those tiny boards are cramped, so there’s very little space around the ceramic antenna typically used, leading to poor RF performance. To work around that issue, Peter added a 31mm long antenna made of silver-plated wire, making a loop of about 8mm in diameter outside of the board and soldered on the ceramic antenna’s solder joints, and the rest of the wire (about 15mm) points upwards. As you can see from the photo above, he didn’t remove the […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

April 9, 2025April 11, 2025 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

Microchip SAMA7D65 Cortex-A7 MPU comes in SoC and SiP packages with up to 2Gbit integrated DDR3L memory

Microchip has recently released the SAMA7D65 MPU, a high-performance Arm Cortex-A7 embedded processor designed for HMI and connectivity applications across industrial, home, medical, and appliance markets. The MPU is available in both System-in-Package (SiP) and System-on-Chip (SoC) variants and features various display interfaces, including MIPI DSI, LVDS, and 8-bit Serial RGB interfaces, along with a 2D GPU for graphical acceleration. Memory and storage options include support for 16-bit DDR2/DDR3/DDR3L and LPDDR2/3 memory, optional 1 Gbit or 2 Gbit DDR3 RAM, NAND Flash, eMMC Flash, and SD card. It features dual Gigabit Ethernet with TSN support, an I3C controller, five CAN-FD interfaces, and three high-speed USB ports. Additionally, it comes with various security features, including physically unclonable function (PUF), secure boot, key storage, and cryptographic accelerators for AES, SHA, RSA, and ECC. Microchip SAMA7D65 SoC/SiP specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-A7 core up to 1 GHz Arm TrustZone, NEON, FPU 32KB L1 I-cache […]

April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Samsung 32″ EMDX color e-paper display runs Tizen 8.0, offers 2560×1440 resolution, up to 200 days of battery life

Samsung 32" EM32DX color E-paper Display

Samsung has unveiled a 32-inch color e-paper display with WQHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution and a built-in 4,600mAh battery that can last up to 200 days on a charge if the display is updated once a day. The Samsung 32″ EMDX color e-paper display is mainly designed for digital signage applications in shops, restaurants, public transportation, and public spaces. Like other e-paper displays, it does not consume any power if the image is unchanged. I was initially surprised at the bright colors of the EMDX display from the photos shared by Samsung, but after a closer look, I’m not convinced those are photos of the actual display. Samsung 32″ EMDX color e-paper display specifications: 32-inch E-Ink Spectra 6 Color ePaper with 2,544 x 1,400 resolution, up to 54,600 colors with dithering, 178° H/V viewing angle Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash Wireless – WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 Ethernet – […]

April 8, 2025April 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ADLINK COM-HPC-mMTL – A COM-HPC Mini Computer-on-Module with up to 16-core Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor

COM-HPC-mMTL 16-core Intel Core Ultra COM-HPC Mini

ADLINK COM-HPC-mMTL is an industrial-grade COM-HPC Mini Computer-on-Module based on Intel Meteor Lake processors up to the 16-core Intel Core Ultra 7 165H featuring Intel Arc Graphics with eight Xe cores, Intel AI Boost NPU up to 8.2 TOPS, and 16x PCIE Gen4 lanes. The COM-HPC R1.2-compliant Mini size module also supports up to 64GB LPDDR5x memory soldered directly onto the board, an optional NVMe BGA SSD, and features two SATA interfaces, two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, multiple DDI/USB4, and USB 3.0/2.0 through the standard 400-pin board-to-board connector of the 95x70mm CoM. ADLINK COM-HPC-mMTL specifications: Meteor Lake H/U SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 7 165H 16-core (6P+8E+2LPE) processor @ up to 5.0 / 3.8 / 2.5 GHz with 24MB cache, 8x Xe-cores Intel Arc graphics @ 2.35 GHz, Intel AI Boost NPU; TDP: 28W Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 16-core (6P+8E+2LPE) processor @ up to 4.8 / 3.8 […]

April 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Bosch magnetic-field quantum sensors leverage synthetic diamonds, lasers, and microwaves for ultra-precise measurements

Most people have heard about quantum computers, but quantum sensors? I’ve just come across those as Bosch is developing magnetic-field quantum sensors harnessing “the power of quantum physics to enable measurements with unmatched precision” while being much more compact than other quantum sensors using techniques like SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference device), vapor cells, or optical traps. Bosch Quantum Sensing (that’s the full company name) further explains its magnetic-field quantum sensors surpass the capabilities of conventional sensors by offering a wider measurement range, higher sensitivity, and higher spatial resolution. They currently have an internal quantum sensor prototype/evaluation board that’s about the size of a smartphone, so they are still quite larger than traditional sensors. Bosch quantum magnetometer can measure tiny magnetic field variations with accuracy, including the Earth magnetic’s field, and even analyze the direction of and magnetude of magnetic fields giving the equivalent of a 3D-point magnetic representation. This notably […]

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

April 8, 2025April 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Aerium Lumen – An NVIDIA Jetson carrier board for drones and robots

Aerium System’s Lumen is a carrier board for NVIDIA Jetson SO-DIMM modules designed specifically for drones and robots with a range of low-profile connectors for I/Os for USB, UART, I2C, etc…, and three M.2 sockets for storage and wireless expansion. It targets the same applications as ARK Electronics’ NDAA-compliant Jetson Orin Nano/NX carrier board for drones we covered last year, but it’s not sold as a full kit and lacks NDAA-compliance. On the positive side, it is quite smaller and lighter, so it might be better suited to smaller and/or less complex drones or robots that may still benefit from Vision AI acceleration. Aerium Lumen specifications: Compatible system-on-modules NVIDIA Jetson Nano NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX Potentially other Jetson-compatible SO-DIMM modules like the Mixtile Core 3588E, but those are not listed by the company. Storage MicroSD card slot M.2 Key-B […]

April 8, 2025April 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

STMicro STM32MP23 Cortex-A35/M33 MPU features a 600 GOPS NPU for industrial IoT and ML applications

STMicroelectronics STM32MP23 is a dual-core Cortex-A35 general-purpose microprocessor (MPU) with a Cortex-M33 real-time core, and 600 GOPS of performance operating at up to 125°C and designed for industrial and Internet-of-Things (IoT) edge computing, advanced HMI, and machine-learning (ML) applications. It follows the STM32MP25 series unveiled in 2023 and launched the following year as the first member of the STM32MP2 family. The STM32MP23 is a cost-down version of the STM32MP25 with similar specifications (and pin-to-pin compatible packages), but the new family has a weaker 0.6 TOPS NPU, and tops at two Ethernet ports for the high-end parts instead of three. Ditto for CAN Bus interfaces (2x vs 3x). Other changes include a 16-bit memory interface and the lack of PCIe and USB 3.0 interfaces. STM32MP23 specifications: CPU – Single or dual Arm Cortex-A35 cores running at up to 1.5 GHz or 1.2 GHz with 512KB L2 cache Real-time MCU – Arm […]