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WRTnode2P, WRTnode2R and WRTnodeHi OpenWRT Boards to Feature M.2 & mini PCIe Edge Connectors, H.265 Camera Support, and More

WRTnode is a small and low cost development board powered by Mediatek MT7620N and running OpenWRT. The developers have been working on three new OpenWRT boards based on Mediatek or Hisilicon processor and featuring either an M.2 connector, a mini PCIe connector, or support for H.265 camera. The first board is WRTnode2P with the following specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7628an MIPS 24KEc processor @ 575 MHz System Memory – 256 MB RAM Storage – 32MB Flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi @ 300 Mbps (2T2R) I/Os via NGFF M.2 connector: PCIe X1, USB 2.0 host, SD-XC 5x 100M Ethernet switch I2S up to 192K/24-bit 2x UART, SPI, I2C 20x GPIO Dimensions – 42 x 22mm The second board, WRTNode2R, features a processor and a micro-controller, and can be connected to a mini PCIe port: SoC – Mediatek MT7688an MIPS24K Processor @ 580 MHz System Memory – 256 MB DDR2 Storage […]

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ODROID-C1+ Board is an Upcoming Upgrade to ODROID-C1 Board

ODROID-C1 board has been relatively popular thanks to its great hardware features and good software support for its $35 price tag. In mid-June however, ODROID-C1 got out of stock due to sudden large orders, and it was only scheduled to sale again in early August because of long leadtime for some components. It turns out ODROID-C1 may never sell again, simply because it will be replaced by ODROID-C1+ with various improvements. It’s still very much based on ODROID-C1 with Amlogic S805 processor, 1GB RAM, and an eMMC sockets, but Hardkernel made the following improvements: HDMI connector change to Type-A from Type-D (micro HDMI). Improved SD card compatibility CEC function whether the RTC backup battery is installed or not ODROID-C1+ can be powered from the USB OTG port as well as DC-Jack I2S signals exposed for external audio DAC All of which are welcomed modifications. The board size will remain the […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Intel Braswell Motherboards (N3150 / N3050) Are Now Available for $60 and Up

Intel recently launched Braswell processors to succeed to their Bay Trail processor family, using 14nm lithography, a newer generation Intel GPU, more L2 cache, and various other improvements. Some ASRock motherboards based on such processors are now listed on Newegg starting at $58.99 with ASRock N3050B-ITX motherboard (dual core processor), and $69.99 for the quad core version (ASRock N3150B-ITX). Apart from the different processors, both mini-ITX motherboard mostly share the same specifications: SoC Intel Celeron N3050 dual core processor @ up to 2.16 GHz with Intel HD Graphics Gen8 @ up to 600 MHz – 6W TDP Intel Celeron N3150 quad core processor @ up to 2.08 GHz with Intel HD Graphics Gen8 @ up to 640 MHz – 6W TDP System Memory – 2x 240-pin DDR3/DDR3L 1600/1066 for up to 16GB RAM Storage – 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug Audio Codec – […]

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Cubieboard 4 Ubuntu Review – Setup, Usability, and Performance

Cubieboard4 is a development board powered by Allwinner A80 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC. I’ve already shown how to get started with the board using the pre-installed Android 4.4 image, and run some benchmarks in Android, so now it’s time to check out the Ubuntu Linaro 14.04 image provided by CubieTech. I’ll show how to install and setup Ubuntu 14.04 on the board using a micro SD card, run desktop applications like Chromium, Libre Office, and son on on the board, and complete the review with some Linux benchmarks. Setting up Ubuntu on Cubieboard4 Firmware images for Cubiebord4 can be downloaded @ http://dl.cubieboard.org/model/cc-a80/Image/. Currently Android 4.4, Debian server, Ubuntu Linaro server, and Ubuntu Linaro desktop with LXDE desktop environment. That’s the latter I’ll use for the experiment, and two images are available: linaro-desktop-cb4-card-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Bootable image from micro SD card linaro-desktop-cb4-emmc-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Installation image to eMMC to […]

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Onion Omega is an Atheros AR9331 Wi-Fi Module Supporting Various Docks and Add-on Boards (Crowdfunding)

There are so many inexpensive Wi-Fi modules running Linux that it would be easy to discard Onion Omega as yet another Wi-Fi module based on Atheros AR9331 WiSoC. However, the developers have tried to bring some added value by making programming easier for web developers, integrating it with a cloud platform (free for non-commercial use), and providing basicor Arduino dock, and add-on boards for Ethernet, OLED, Relay… to make building hardware projects easier too. Let’s go through the hardware first, starting with the module specifications: SoC –  Atheros AR9331 400MHZ MIPS 24K System Memory – 64MB DDR2 400MHz Storage – 16MB Flash Connectivity – 10/100 Mbps Ethernet + 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi up to 150Mbps with PCB antenna w/ uFL connector I/Os –  18 GPIOs USB – 1x USB 2.0 Power Supply – 3.3V; Typ. consumption: 0.6W Dimensions – 28.2mm x 52mm (1.1″ x 2.0″) Since this type of module is not […]

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pcDuino3B Development Board Adds Gigabit Ethernet Support

pcDuino3 development board features Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 SoC with support for SATA, HDMI, LVDS, Wi-Fi, Fast Ethernet, and Arduino compatible headers. Linksprite has now an updated version of the board that adds Gigabit Ethernet, while leaving the rest of the specs unmodified. pcDuino3B (aka pcDuino V3B) specifications: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.0 GHz, with Mali 400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DRAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash, SATA connector, and microSD card slot (up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP support, LVDS header Audio Out –  3.5mm analog audio interface, I2S stereo digital audio interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi USB – 1x USB host, 1x USB OTG Expansion Headers – Arduino UNO extension interface with 14xGPIO, 2xPWM, 6xADC, 1xUART, 1xSPI, 1xI2C. Camera – MIPI camera support Misc – IR receiver Power – 5V, 2000mA, support […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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HiSilicon D02 Server Board Supports up to 64 ARM Cortex A57 Cores

HiSilicon has showcased their latest server SoC and board at Linaro Connect Hong Kong 2015, with up to two processors with 32 Cortex A57 cores @ 2.1GHz, 8 DIMM DDR3 slots (up to 128 GB RAM), 12 SATA ports, 4 PCIe slots, 10GbE / GbE ports. D02 board specifications: SoC – Hisilicon PhosphorV660 Hip05 with 16 to 32 ARM Cortex-A57 cores @ up to 2.1GHz and 1MB L2 cache/cluster, 32MB L3 cache System Memory – 2x Memory channel 4x DDR3 DIMM(4x DIMM per processor) Storage 12x SAS 3.0 ports @ 12 Gbps (8 for the first processor, 4 for the second).  SAS port are compatible with SATA drives. You may want to read SAS vs SATA post for more details about SAS. 2x SPI Flash 158Mb BIOS/UEFI 1Gb NorFlash Connectivity – 2×10/100/1000Mbit/s Gigabit Ethernet ports, 2x xGE SFP+ ports (10Gb/s) Expansion – 2x 8x PCI express interfaces per processor (4 […]

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Orange Pi Plus Development Board Gets Upgraded to Allwinner H3 Processor

Orange Pi boards were recently launched with a form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi Model B+, and featuring Allwinner A20 and A31s processors. Orange Pi Plus was initially fitted with Allwinner A31s processor, but Shenzhen Xunlong Software has now decided to use the latest Allwinner H3 quad core processor instead for this model, adding better CPU performance, and H.265 video decoding up to 4K @ 30 fps, likely at the cost of a slower Mali- 400MP2 GPU against the PowerVR SGX544MP used in Allwinner A31s. New Orange Pi Plus specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.6 GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot, SATA interface (via a USB to SATA chip), unpopulated  8GB eMMC on the back of the board (despite picture, see comments section) Video Output – HDMI, AV port Audio […]

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