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Renesas DevCon Extension Organizes Free One-Day Courses About IoT, Low Power, Sensors and More

I’ve just come across a YouTube video called Ultra-Low-Power Solutions for Wearable Technology and the ‘Internet of Things’ On Renesas channel. The video itself promotes Cymbet EnerChip Solid State Batteries and Kits, working together with Renesas MCUs, and the interesting part is that they’ll provide a free training session for the kit as part of Renesas Devcon Extension 2014. This is not a single event as you may think, but instead the company hosts one-day workshops in various cities in the US and Brazil covering various tracks all year long, as you can see in the simplified schedule below. RTOS & Middleware track is not available anymore, but you can still attend training sessions for Human Machine Interfaces, Low Power designs, the Internet of Things and Sensors. As an example, the following lectures are available for the Low Power track: Renesas Low-Power MCU Lineup (30 minutes) – Updated technology roadmap […]

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Meet Samsung Smart Bike fitted with an Arduino, a Rear Camera, Lasers and More

Samsung Maestros Academy has introduced a Smart Bike prototype integrating various “smart” components within its aluminum frame, such as an Arduino board connected to a Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module, a battery, four laser projectors, and a digital camera controlled by a Samsung smartphone. The camera is fitted at the back just under the seat, and allows the riders to have a real-time rear view image on the phone. The four lasers are used to create a virtual bike lane in case a real one is missing, and remind other drivers to keep a safe distance to your bicycle. The bike can also detect ambient conditions using the smartphone sensors, and modify its behavior. For example, it can switch on or off the laser beams depending on the brightness sensor data from the smartphone. Each bike also tracks daily routes of the riders using GPS, and can let local authorities know where bicycle traffic is most intense, and […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC
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1TB Seagate Expansion Portable Drive USB 3.0 Benchmark

Many upcoming ARM based board and device will support better connectivity with Gigagit Ethernet and USB 3.0 port, and Wi-Fi 802.11ac support. Since my media files are stored in a USB 2.0 hard drive, and my network is still using fast Ethernet and 802.11n, I had to go shopping. I’ve already purchased a 5-port Gigabit switch (D-Link DGS-1005A), and an an external USB 3.0 hard drive (Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive), but I’m still looking for a decent and reasonably priced 802.11ac router (Suggestions welcomed). I’ll plan to use the USB 3.0 drive both to test file transfers over Gigabit, USB 3.0 performance, and file systems compatibility. So I’ve partitioned the drive using four common filesystems: NTFS, EXT-4, FAT32, and BTRFS, and both to make sure the drive is suitable for Gigabit transfer, and as a reference point, I’ve also performed some benchmarks. There are several tools to test […]

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Mele F10 Deluxe Air Mouse with Improved Gyroscope, IR Learning Function Sells for $29.99

In most of my reviews, I don’t use the IR remote control that comes with the device but instead Mele F10 air mouse, because it’s just more convenient for Android as it features one side with a standard remote, one side with a QWERTY keyboard, and a gyroscope that let you move the mouse pointer like a magic wand. Last year Mele released the Pro version with microphone and headphone support, but I’ve heard some people complain as it would just take over the audio output by default, and you’d get no audio via HDMI, until you change the setting manually. Nevertheless, Mele has now another version called Mele F10 Deluxe, without microphone nor headphone support, but instead it’s an improvement over the original Mele F10 air mouse with a better gyroscope and the ability to record some IR codes from another remote control. The 6-axis gyroscope is said to be good enough […]

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Cypress PSoC 4100/4200 (ARM Cortex M0) Prototyping Kits Sell for $4

I just wrote about Cypress Semiconductor PSoC 4 ARM Cortex M0 MCUs last week, as well as their $25 PSoC 4 pioneer development board. I’ve just found out there are cheaper, albeit very basic, evaluation boards called PSoC 4100 Prototyping Kit (CY8CKIT-049-41xx) and PSoC 4200 Prototyping Kit (CY8CKIT-049-42xx) that sell for only $4. PSoC 4×000 boards specifications: MCU PSoC 4100 ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 24 MHz with up to 32 kB of flash, Up to 4 kB of SRAM PSoC 4200 ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 48 MHz with up to 32 kB of flash, Up to 4 kB of SRAM USB – USB port using CY7C65211 USB-serial controller for PC connectivity and serial interfaces such as USB-UART, USB-I2C, USB-SPI, and USB-GPIO Onboard CMOD capacitors to enable CapSense development A bypass capacitor to ensure the high quality ADC conversions Prototyping – Breadboard compatible through holes for access to power, GPIOs, UART, USB etc… Misc – User and power […]

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AMD Introduces Embedded G-Series “Steppe Eagle” SoCs and “Crowned Eagle” CPUs

​AMD has added six new members to is Embedded G-Series family with “Steppe Eagle” SoCs comprising a CPU, GPU and I/O in a single chip, and “Crowned Eagle” CPUs that are not actually CPUs in the old sense, but SoCs comprised of a CPU and I/O chipset, and all of them also include AMD’s ARM based PSP (Platform Security Processor) built upon ARM TrustZone architecture. You may also remember AMD G-Series APUs which are comprised of a CPU and GPU, and connected to an external I/O chipset, but none of these were announced today. The six new AMD G-Series processors are as follows: “Steppe Eagle” SoCs: GX-424CC – Quad core @ 2.4 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, and a GPU @ 497MHz. DDR3-1866 support. TDP: 25W GX-412HC – Quad core @ 1.2 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, ad a GPU @ 300MHz. DDR3-1333 support. TDP: 7W GX-212JC – Dual core @ 1.2 GHz […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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First Tizen 3.0 Common Milestone Released, Developer Program Announced

The Tizen Steering Group has announced the first release of Tizen 3.0 Common. Tizen Common is the common subset of development / build / test platform of the Tizen profiles, used by platform developers to develop the next version of the profiles, and a Tizen 3.0 common release is planned every quarter. This milestone release includes: 64-bit support for both Intel and ARM architectures Crosswalk-based web runtime Multiuser support Systemd Security: three-domain rule system for SMACK and Cynara as authorization framework Wayland display server Pre-built binary releases for can be downloaded @ http://download.tizen.org/releases/daily/tizen/common/common-wayland-x86_64/tizen_20140602.26/ for Intel Atom 3815 NUC Kit and NEXCOM VTC1010 in-vehicle computer based on Intel Atom 3825. However, Tizen 3.0 Common will also be tested on Intel NUC Haswell (core i5),  Lenovo x230 IvyBridge (core i5) and on the ARM side, ODROID-U3 development board. If you want to build your own, refer to the developer guide, using tizen_common_2014.Q2 tag. More details can be found […]

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MediaTek Unveils LinkIt Platform with MT2502 Aster SoC for Wearables and IoT Applications

After Ineda Systems Dhanush SoC and SHASTRA Devkit, here’s another Wearable SoC and development kit for today with Mediatek announcement of their LinkIt platform providing both hardware and software to develop wearables and IoT applications using their Aster SoC for wearables. Key features of LinkIt platform listed on Mediatek Labs: MediaTek Aster (MT2502) measures only 5.4 x 6.2mm and is specifically designed for wearable devices Developer platform supported by reference designs that enable creation of various form factors, functionalities and internet connected services Synergies between microprocessor unit and communication modules, facilitating development and saving time in new device creation Modularity in software architecture provides developers with high degree of flexibility Supports over-the-air (OTA) updates for apps, algorithms and drivers Plug-in software development kit (SDK) for Arduino and VisualStudio; planned (Q4 2014) support for Eclipse Hardware Development Kit (HDK) based on LinkIt board by third party No details have been provided for […]

Boardcon EM3562 Rockchip RK3562 SBC with 8 analog camera inputs