SBC News

URVE Board Pi is a single board computer (SBC) powered by a Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, 2GB RAM, 8GB eMMC flash, plus the same interfaces as the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B as well as an RTC with a coin-cell battery and an M.2 SSD socket. More specifically, the Rockchip RK3566 board comes with a 4Kp60 capable HDMI 2.0 port, a MIPI DSI/LVDS display interface, a MIPI CSI camera connector, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0/2.0 ports, a dual-band WiFi 5.0 and Bluetooth 4.2 wireless module, and the usual 40-pin GPIO header. URVE Board Pi specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 Quad Core Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.8 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 GPU, 0.8 TOPS NPU System Memory…

0xDA LLC’s USB Cereal is an open-source hardware development tool with three USB-C ports designed to simplify the testing, development, debugging, and manufacturing of devices with USB Type-C ports. Initially originated at Google, the USB Cereal project has gone through multiple revisions to optimize its quality and lower the BoM cost, and the device can be used for all sorts of USB Type-C debugging using a UART serial communication with the host device through the USB-C sideband use (SBU) pins typically reserved for device-specific applications. USB Cereal specifications: USB Type-C ports 2x USB-C ports for passthrough between the host and device under test (DUT) Note: t…

The USB Promoter Group has just pushed a press release about the “pending release” of the USB4 Version 2.0 specification that promises up to 80 Gbps of data performance over the USB Type-C cable and connector. The group also explains both the USB Type-C and USB Power Delivery (USB PD) specifications will also be updated, and everything will be published right before the USB DevDays developer events planned for November 2022 in the US and South Korea. So that’s basically an announcement about a future announcement, but we were still provided with some highlights of the upcoming USB4 v2 specification: Up to 80 Gbps operation based on a new physical layer architecture, using…

The ISC DHCP server (dhcpd) was traditionally used to set up a DHCP server in Linux, but the software is reaching end-of-life, and the Internet Systems Consortium is now recommending their own Kea DHCP server or alternatives such as Dnsmasq or udhcpd (as found in Busybox) as a replacement. I was unaware of this having just used the isc-dhcp-server package to set up a DHCP server in NanoPi R6C router/mini PC earlier this month. But a blog post on Ubuntu informed us dhcpd was going away, and Canonical plans to switch over the Kea DHCP server instead. The main difference from the user perspective is that Kea relies on JSON configuration files so all your dhcpd files will hav…

We’ve received a sample of the Pico:ed V2 board developed by ELECFREAKS and will show how to use it as a replacement for the BBC micro:bit in a project using CircuitPython. We’ve already covered the board in detail with specifications, block diagram, and pinout diagram before, and it’s basically a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 board with BBC Micro:bit form factor including a 17×7 Dot Matrix LED display, some buttons, a buzzer, but no wireless connectivity, relying only on USB instead. CircuitPython firmware installation on the Pico:ed V2 board The board supports C/C++, MicroPython, and CircuitPython programming languages, and for this review, we’ve decided to download the Circ…

MCU boards, including the $1.5 BluePill board, have been used as cheap logic analyzers for years, notably with Sigrok open-source software. So it should come as no surprise the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico board can also be used as a logic analyzer, with one developer claiming it can deliver 100 Msps, or the performance obtained with a 1.6 GHz CPU, thanks to the PIOs from the Raspberry Pi RP2040. Hackaday reported about a Sigrok driver for the Pico last March, but the topic was brought to our attention via a post on Hackster.io about an open-source Windows program developed from scratch to transform the Raspberry Pi Pico board into a logic analyzer capable of 100 Msps. Agustín Gi…

In the conclusion of our SenseCAP K1100 Sensor Prototype kit review with LoRaWAN and Vision AI, the author suggested that it would be great if SeeedStudio could develop a new firmware that can connect without coding instead of using Arduino programming: I had to rely on my knowledge and experience with LoRaWAN to transmit data wirelessly over long distances. That’s because LoRaWAN has a more complicated connection process than Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It would be great if Seeed Studio could develop a new firmware that can connect without any coding It did not take long, as SeeedStudio very recently released the first version of SenseCraft open source smart sensor software for …

Hello, today I am going to review the UUNA TEK iAuto, an automatic handwriting machine designed to reproduce physical handwriting using a real pen on real paper. It also supports wireless connectivity, spreadsheet-based mail merge, custom fonts, and font variation features that can make the writing look more natural. The machine can handle paper sizes up to A3 and supports pens with a diameter of up to 18 mm. The UUNA TEK iAuto works with the manufacturer’s free iAuto software, which is available for Windows on both x64 and Arm-based systems, as well as for macOS on Apple M1, M2, M3, and Intel-based Macs. Most of the following review focuses on the machine’s writing capab…

V600 mini PC is equipped with an Alder Lake processor from Core i5-1240P up to a Core i9-12900H, up to 64GB RAM, and high-speed interfaces such as Thunderbolt 4 and dual 2.5GbE networking. The mini PC also comes with two M.2 NVMe sockets, one PCIe Gen 4, one Gen 3, and support for SATA drives up to 7mm thick, offers three 4K-capable video outputs with HDMI and DisplayPort video interfaces, and several other USB 3.2/2.0 ports. V600 specifications: Alder Lake-P/H SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i7-1260P 4P+8E (16 threads) processor @ 3.40/4.70GHz with Intel Xe graphics; 28W PBP Intel Core i5-1240P 4P+8E (16 threads) processor @ 3.30/4.40GHz with Intel Xe graphics; 28W PBP…

Variscite VAR-SOM-AM62 is a System-on-Module (SoM) powered by a Texas Instruments Ti AM625x quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.4 GHz with a 400MHz Cortex-M4F cores and 333MHz PRU real-time co-processors to control I/Os. The module also supports up to 4GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash, features a single or dual-band WiFi + BT/BLE5.2 module, and offers up to 3x CAN Bus, dual GbE, audio, camera in, and dual USB, among other interfaces. It is designed for industrial applications with a -40 to 85°C operating temperature range. VAR-SOM-AM62 specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM62x (AM6252 or AM6254) with Up to 4x Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.4 GHz 1x Ar, Cortex M4F up to @ 4…

Variscite VAR-SOM-MX93 is a 200-pin SO-DIMM system-on-module based on NXP i.MX 93 dual-core Cortex-A55/M33 AI processor with up to 2 GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and onboard WiFi & Bluetooth module and audio driver. The Variscite module follows the announcement of two other NXP i.MX 93 system-on-modules, namely the Forlinx FET-MX9352-C with board-to-board connectors and the iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G50M LGA module compliant with OSM Size L form factor to be soldered directly on the carrier board. VAR-SOM-MX93 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 93 with up to 2x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.7GHz, 1x Cortex-M33 real-time co-processor @ 250 MHz, 0.5 TOPS NPU, 2D PxP graphics engin…

Vecow ECX-3200 is an expandable, fanless embedded system powered by Intel 13th generation Core i9/i7/i5/i3 Raptor Lake-S processor or 12th generation Alder Lake-S processor designed for rugged Machine Vision, AMR, Rolling Stock, Smart Retail and Edge AI applications. The ECX-3200 supports up to 64GB DDR5, SATA & NVMe storage, offers four 2.5GbE RJ45 or M12 ports with PoE+ on the rear panel, plus one additional Gigabit Ethernet port and a 2.5GbE port on the front panel, four video outputs up to 8Kp60 resolution, several USB 3.2 ports up to 20 Gbps, some serial ports, as well as isolated I/Os. Vecow ECX-3200 specifications: SoC Up to 24-core 13th Gen Intel Core i9/i7/i5…

Vecow EAC-5000 is a rugged AI computing system powered by NVIDIA’s Jetson AGX Orin 32GB or 64GB system-on-module designed for advanced edge AI applications such as in-vehicle computing, robotic control, machine vision, intelligent video analytics, and mobile robots. The embedded computer delivers up to 275 TOPS of AI performance thanks to the NVIDIA module, supports up to eight GMSL2 cameras, various wireless connectivity options with 6 antennas, 9V to 50V wide range DC power input, and operates in the -20°C to 70°C temperature range. Vecow EAC-5000 specifications: System-on-Module EAC-5000-R32 – NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 32GB with CPU – 8-core Arm Cortex-A78AE v8.2 64-bit p…

Vecow has announced a series of new system-on-modules and development kits based on Mediatek Genio 350, Genio 500, or Genio 1200 processors for AIoT applications ranging from smart security, smart retail, and traffic vision to digital signage. This follows last week’s news about ADLINK LEC-MTK-I12000 SMARC module and devkit powered by MediaTek Genio 1200 Cortex-A78/A55 AIoT processor, but Vecow also offers solutions based on the entry-level Genio 350 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, and the mid-range Genio 500 octa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor. ESOM-MT-350 Genio 350 system-on-module and devkit Specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 350 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 2.0GH…

Videostrong HC1 Home Care Hub is a Smart Home/IoT gateway designed for the elderly that also serves as a smart speaker with 10-meter far-field voice recognition, a video phone with a video built-in camera and speaker, and a 4K Android TV box. The system is based on an Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor coupled with up to 4GB RAM and 64GB RAM, supports Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and LoRa, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity, and offers both HDMI 2.1 video output, and HDMI 2.0 video input. HC1 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 @ 2.0GHz with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2 support System Memory – 2GB or 4GB RAM Storage – 8G…

VVenC and VVdeC are open-source software H.266/VCC video encoder and decoder respectively that are optimized to use SIMD instructions on x86 (SSE42/SIMDe and AVX2) and Arm, and the decoder runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. H.266, aka VCC (Versatile Video Coding) video compression standard was adopted in 2020 promising to reduce data requirements by around 50% compared to the previous H.265/HEVC standard at the same visual quality. H.266 should also outperform the royalty-free AV1 video codec. We hadn’t seen news since the announcement, but this may be changing with the Realtek RTD1319D processor unveiled with support for both 4K H.266 and AV1 video decoding last…

IEI’s WAFER-TGL-U is a 3.5-inch SBC based on a choice of Intel Tiger Lake UP3 processors with up to 32GB RAM, SATA storage, three 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports, four display interfaces including HDMI, DisplayPort, and the company’s custom iDPM 3040 slot for eDP/LVDS/VGA, as well as four USB 3.2 ports. The board also comes with M.2 sockets to add 4G LTE or 5G cellular connectivity, a few RS232/RS422/RS485 ports, and IEI says it is ideal for space-constrained applications such as AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot), and small cabinets in factories. WAFER-TGL-U specifications: Tiger Lake UP3 SoC (One or the other) Intel Core i7-1185G7E quad-core processor…

QuickSpot Walter is an ESP32-S3 development board with built-in WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE/Mesh connectivity, as well as NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GNSS support through a Sequans GM02SP 5G IoT modem that appears to be a variant of the Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S with GNSS support. Walter specifications: Wireless modules ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R2 module ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microcontroller 2MB QSPI PSRAM 16MB QSPI flash 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 150 Mbps with on-board antenna Bluetooth 5 LE up to 2Mbps, Bluetooth Mesh Sequans GM02SP modem LTE Cat M1 (LTE-M) and NB1/NB2 (NB-IoT) GNSS and assisted GNSS using GPS and Galileo constellations NanoSIM for cellular connectivity I/Os 2x 14-pin he…

Microchip WBZ451 Curiosity Board features the company’s Microchip’s WBZ451PE Bluetooth Low Energy 5.2 and Zigbee 3.0 RF module based on the new Microchip PIC32CX-BZ2 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F wireless microcontroller. WBZ451 Curiosity Board (EV96B94A) specifications: Wireless module – WBZ451PE Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee RF Module with Microchip PIC32CX-BZ2 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F wireless microcontroller @ up to 64 MHz, 128KB RAM, 1MB flash, 2.4 GHz radio for Bluetooth LE 5.2 and 802.15.4 (Zigbee 3.0) Tx output power – Up +12 dBm Rx sensitivity – Up to -103 dBm PCB antenna 29x I/O pins Storage – 64Mbit QSPI flash Expansion – mikroBUS socket for MikroElectronika Click adapt…

If the Raspberry Pi Pico’s 2MB of QSPI flash is not quite sufficient for your needs, and you’d not quite a fan of micro USB ports, the WeAct RP2040 clone comes with up to 16MB flash and a USB Type-C port for power and programming. Another improvement is the addition of a reset button, which can be convenient for flashing UF2 firmware, and the pinout remains the mostly the same. The price is not quite as low as the original Raspberry Pi Pico, but the clone sells for an affordable $5.99 with 2MB flash, while the 16MB flash variant goes for $8.99 with shipping included in both cases. WeAct RP2040 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller …

I’ve previously reviewed Weibu’s N10 mini PC, however, they have now extended the range of CPUs available to the N10 through the addition of Alder Lake processors. As a reminder, Weibu is a B2B company that offers total solutions and OEM/ODM services and they don’t sell directly to end users as their target clients are computer manufacturers like Acer and Hisense. Weibu have sent a pre-production sample of their latest N10 based on a Core i3-N305 Alder Lake N-Series processor to showcase its capabilities in this review. I will revisit the specification of the N10 and briefly look at the performance running both Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04. Weibu N10 product specificat…

Weibu is a B2B company offering total solutions and OEM/ODM services. Their target clients are computer manufacturers like Acer and Hisense as they don’t sell directly to end users. With their products both the specifications and accessories can be customized according to their customer’s requirements. One of their product lines is mini PCs and they have sent a pre-production sample of their N10 design to showcase their capabilities. In this review, I will look at the various options available for the N10 and briefly look at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. Weibu N10 hardware overview The key selling feature of this mini PC is the wide range of ports suitable …

While the Rockchip RK3588 processor is advertised as reaching 2.4 GHz, not all RK3588 chips may achieve this frequency. The keyword is PVTM (Process-Voltage-Temperature Monitor), and we’ll try to explain why it does, and why some of the RK3588 processors may only be clocked at about 2.3 GHz, while others will run fine at 2.4 GHz. This all started with Rock 5B SBC debug party, where we noticed our boards did not reach the same frequency. Willy Tarreau noted the “pvtm” value was different between our boards: Willy’s board: (Cortex-A76 cluster 1 @ 2,304 MHz, cluster 2 @ 2,352 MHz) [crayon-62d3b98029e47968049721/] CNXSoft board (Cortex-A76 cluster 1 @ 2,304 MHz, cluster 2 @ 2…

Wi-SUN is a standard (IEEE 802.15.4g) managed by the Wi-SUN Alliance and designed for Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, and other large scale IoT deployments with a large number of devices thanks to the use of IPv6 mesh networking. The organization was founded in 2011 to “support the worldwide development of Wireless Communications Networks for Utilities, Smart Cities and IoT”, but due to the niche nature of target applications, it does not get that much press coverage and was only recently brought to my attention. Wi-SUN stands for “Wireless Smart Utility Networks”or “Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Networks”, and the standard aims to connect streetlights, cameras, weather stat…

WiCAN is an ESP32-C3 CAN bus adapter that works over USB, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth LE, and designed for car hacking and general CAN bus development. The device is available in USB-CAN and OBD-II form factors and comes with firmware that works with RealDash to create nice-looking dashboards with the data. RealDash can be installed on Android, iOS, and Windows 10 operating systems. WiCAN specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-C3-MINI-1 with ESP32-C3 RISC-V microcontroller with 2.4GHz WiFI 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, 4 MB flash, PCB antenna CAN 2.0 A/B interface up to 1 Mbps Host interface WiCAN-OBD – OBD-II connector WiCAN-USB – Mini USB port for USB-to-UART up to 6 Mbps…

Most WiFi HaLow hardware platforms we’ve seen so far are based on Newracom chips, but AsiaRF AP7688-WHM WiFi HaLow IoT gateway features a module based on Morse Micro MM6108 802.11ah SoC instead. The gateway is powered by a 580 MHz MediaTek MT7688 MIPS processor providing 802.11n WiFi 4 and dual Ethernet networking, and features a USB port as well as an RS232 console for industrial control. WiFi HaLow (802.11ah) enables video and data transmission at a range of up to one kilometer and data rates of up to 32.5 Mbps. AP7688-WHM WiFi HaLow gateway specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7688 MIPS SoC @ 580 MHz with built-in WiFi 4 System Memory – TBD Storage – TBD Connectivity 2x E…

Most people will probably want to run Linux on their Arm SBC, but Windows 11 could also be an option with the Rock 5B and other single board computers based on Rockchip RK3588 and other powerful Arm SoCs thanks to the Windows on Raspberry project. The project, also known as “Windows on R” is maintained by Mario Bălănică who recently tweeted a screenshot showing Windows 11 running on the Radxa ROCK 5B SBC powered by a Rockchip RK3588 Arm Cortex-A76A/A55 clocked at 1.2 GHz (instead of the usual 2.2/2.4 GHz), but with USB 2.0/3.0 and display interface apparently working just fine. PCIe appears to be detected, but not working. He also noted that virtualization worked out of t…

Winlink E850-96Board is a 96Boards CE Extended-compliant single board computer (SBC) based on a Samsung Exynos 850 octa-core Cortex-A55 processor plus 64GB flash and 4GB RAM found in a single eMCP (embedded Multi-Chip Package) chip. While the Samsung Exynos 5422 based ODROID-XU4/XU4Q was one of the most popular SBCs when it launched in 2015 thanks to its features set and affordable pricing, we haven’t really seen other interesting Samsung Exynos SBCs in recent years. I did notice a Winlink E850-96Board based on Exynos 850 in the Linux 5.17 release last March, but there was not enough information then. The good news is that the board has now launched so let’s have a closer…

Geniatech SCB32IM is a sensor board based on Silicon Labs EFR32FG14 Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller with a sub-GHz radio enabling wireless M-Bus (Wireless Meter Bus) designed for remote reading of smart meters, and also equipped with a Quectel EC200S “IoT/M2M-optimized” LTE Cat 1 module. The sensor module does not actually come with any sensor on board, but provides a terminal block to connect any sensor you may need for your product. It’s also possible to extend wireless connectivity options with Zigbee 3.0, Z-Wave, Bluetooth LE 5.0, LoRa, and more through the GT-IoT interface with UART, SPI, and one GPIO. Geniatech SBC32IM specifications: Microcontroller – Silicon Labs EF…

Wireless-Tag WT32P4C5-43S (ZX4D30CE405-V1.3) is a fully integrated 4.3-inch touch display development board that combines an ESP32-P4 MCU with an ESP32-C5 wireless module supporting dual-band WiFi 6 (2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 connectivity. Unlike previous ESP32-P4 + ESP32-C5 solutions, this one comes with a built-in touchscreen, so you don’t need to connect a separate display. Designed for industrial automation, smart control panels, and edge AI vision terminals, the board also integrates a 15-pin MIPI CSI camera interface, a microSD card slot, two USB Type-C ports (USB 2.0 High-Speed and Debug/JTAG), and a 14-pin GPIO expansion header. Wireless-Tag WT32P4C5…

Energous WattUp wireless power technology delivers power at various ranges (up to a few meters), and so far, we’ve seen it in wearables like garments, as well as smart glasses and earbuds development kits. The company has now launched a wirelessly powered sensor evaluation kit for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) based on the 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter with Bluetooth LE 5.0, plus two battery-free sensor nodes based on Atmosic ATM3202 Bluetooth LE 5.0 Cortex-M0 microcontroller with energy-harvesting capabilities. Wirelessly powered sensor evaluation kit content & features: 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter Bluetooth LE microcontroller Energous EN4100 transmitter IC …

RAKwireless WisDuo RAK11720 is a LoRaWAN and Bluetooth LE (module) equipped with Ambiq Apollo3 ultra-low-power BLE 5.0 microcontroller and a Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver. The Wisduo RAK11720 is pin-to-pin compatible with the STM32WL-based Wisduo RAK3172 LoRaWAN module, and provides an easy upgrade path for IoT applications that require Bluetooth LE connectivity and more memory. WisDuo RAK11720 specifications: MCU – Ambiq Apollo3 Blue AMA3B1KK-KBR-B0 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller locked at up to 96 MHz with 1MB flash, 348 SRAM, Bluetooth LE 5.0, and an active power consumption of less than < 6 μA/ MHz LoRa Semtech SX1262 sub-GHz radio transceivers LoRaWAN 1.0.3 spec…

RAKwireless has just introduced the WisGate Connect gateway based on Raspberry Pi CM4 system-on-module with support for Gigabit and 2.5Gbps Ethernet plus various optional wireless connectivity option that can be added through Mini PCIe or M.2 sockets as well as expansion through WisBlock IO connectors. Wireless options include LoRaWAN, 4G LTE, 5G, WiFi 6, Zigbee, WiFi HaLoW, and more, while WisBlock modules enable features such as methane sensor, motor current sensor, temperature sensor, pressure control, and valve control among many others. WisGate Connect (RAK7394) specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.5GHz, 1 to…

Wokwi is an online simulator for Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico, and ESP32 boards, or even your own custom microcontroller board designed to learn programming without the actual hardware. My girlfriend’s daughter has just attended a free 5-day online course about AI, IoT, ESP32, MicroPython, and more organized by King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) and IMAKE Innovation, a STEM education company in Thailand. I was told they had some homework for ESP32 as part of the course, so I asked her whether she wanted an ESP32 board. But she said no need. So then I asked how to program the ESP32 without the board, or do they have a simulator? And indeed I was sent t…

We’ve just written about the Notkia phone repurposing Nokia 168x phones with a new PCB featuring an Ingenic X1000E MIPS processor running mainline Linux, but it turns out the developer (Reimu NotMoe, CTO of SudoMaker) has also designed the X1501 Pico SoM, a tiny 16×16 system-on-module equipped with Ingenic X1501 MIPS system-in-package (SiP). The module can be that small because the single-core 1GHz Ingenic 1501 SiP embeds 8MB LPDDR, as well as apparently a 16Mbit NOR flash that stores stripped-down versions of U-boot and the Linux kernel, plus a minimal, busybox-based rootfs. X1501 Pico system-on-module specifications: SoC – Ingenic X1501 MIPS32r2 processor @ 1GHz, a MIPS…

DM&P Vortex86DX3 is an x86 embedded processor launched in 2015 that we’ve previously found in single board computers and mini PCs, but I’ve just noticed ICOP was offering the SOM304D3 system-on-module based on the single and dual-core versions of the Vortex86DX3 SoC. The SOM304D3 is available with 1 or 2GB DDR3 RAM, works in a wide temperature range (up to -40°C to +85°C), and is designed for space-constrained industrial applications, especially those requiring legacy interfaces like ISA, IDE, and/or a parallel port (aka printer port). SOM304D3 specifications: SoC – DM&P Vortex86DX3 single or dual-core x86 processor @ 1 GHz, 2D GPU System Memory – 1GB or 2GB DDR3 …

Rockchip demonstrated the Rockchip RK3528 TV box SoC at Mobile World Congress 2023, and the first Android 13 TV boxes based on the processors are now showing up for sale starting with the LEMFO X88Pro 13 TV box. The device comes with up to 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, supports up to 8Kp25 video decoding, features Fast Ethernet and WiFi 6 networking, as well as a few USB ports, and possibly optical S/PDIF audio output. LEMFO X88Pro 13 (preliminary) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3528 CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor GPU – Arm Mali-450 GPU VPU H.265/HEVC up to 8Kp25 H.264/AVC, VP9 up to 4Kp60 VP8, MPEG-1 MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC1 up to 1080p60 System Memory / Storage conf…

Semtech Corporation and “Connected Development” engineering firm have launched the XCVR development board and reference design based on Sentech SX1261, SX1262, or LLCC68 transceivers with the last one targeting Smart Home applications. The XCVR development board is actually an Arduino shield that’s been tested with Nordic nRF52840-DK board, but should work with most boards equipped with Arduino Uno headers. It can be used for the design of LPWAN IoT applications using SX1262x transceivers such as smart meters, industrial controllers, asset tracking, building automation, smart agriculture, etc… while the LLCC68 model is more useful for Smart Home applications and consumer …

XCY-X66 is a tiny (75 x 75 x 52mm) mini PC based on Intel Celeron N5105 Jasper Lake and equipped with four 2.5GbE ports using Intel i225V controllers that should make it suitable for a range of networking applications. The small actively-cooled computer also comes with 8GB LPDDR4X, an M.2 2242 socket suitable for NVMe or SATA storage, one 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 port, and a few USB ports. XCY-X66 mini PC specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 2.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics 605; 10W TDP System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4X Storage 1x M.2 M-key 2242 socket for NVMe PCIe 3.0 or SATA 3.0 SSD MicroSD card slot Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0…

XGO 2 is a desktop robot dog using the Raspberry Pi CM4 as its brain, the ESP32 as the motor controller for the four legs and an additional robotic arm that allows the quadruped robot to grab objects. An evolution of the XGO mini robot dog with a Kendryte K210 RISC-V AI processor, the XGO 2 robot offers 12 degrees of freedom and the more powerful Raspberry CM4 model enables faster AI edge computing applications, as well as features such as omnidirectional movement, six-dimensional posture control, posture stability, and multiple motion gaits. The XGO 2 robot dog is offered in two variants – the XGO-Lite 2 and the XGO-Mini 2 – with the following key features and specificat…

Last week, we wrote about the new XIAO ESP32S3, a tiny ESP32-S3 board from Seeed Studio. The company has now launched the XIAO ESP32S3 Sense adding a camera and microphone module connected through a board-to-board connector, as well as the Round Display for XIAO that can help people easily create wearable devices with a touchscreen based on any board from the XIAO family. XIAO ESP32S3 Sense XIAO ESP32S2 Sense specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM, Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 5.0 dual-mode (Classic + BLE) connectivity Storage – 8MB SPI flash, microSD card slot Antenna – External …

Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 is the new member of the company XIAO family with an ESP32-S3 dual-core wireless microcontroller with WiFi 4 and BLE 5.0 designed for Smart Home, IoT, wearables, and Robotics applications. It succeeds the single-core ESP32-C3-based XIAO ESP32C3 board with the same form factor, but the new XIAO ESP32S3 offers more performance, vector extension for machine learning, more flash, and improved power consumption in deep sleep mode. Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM, Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 5.0 dual-mode (Classic + BLE) conne…

The XIMEA MU003TG-SY-UC is a miniature industrial Time-of-Flight (ToF) camera with a 0.3MP Sony IMX556 CMOS sensor, global shutter, 640 × 480 resolution, and a 60 FPS frame rate. Its compact 26.4 × 26.4 × 28.67 mm enclosure and 31-gram weight make it suitable for space-limited embedded vision systems, robotics, UAVs, kiosks, 3D scanning, face recognition, and other machine-vision applications. The module uses a USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface through a 14-pin I-PEX Cabline SS connector for data, power, and control. A separate 10-pin Cabline V connector provides synchronization with external VCSEL illumination. The camera does not include an illumination source or optical band-pas…

We’ve written about Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoCs that combine Arm Cortex-A53/R5 cores and Mali-400 GPU with Ultrascale FPGA fabric several times over the course of a few years. But AMD-Xilinx also offers the Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC single-chip adaptable radio platforms that support up to 7.125GHz analog bandwidth. The topic came to my attention because of an upcoming ZU49DR SoM from iWave Systems that seems to be under development but also noticed Avnet had launched a solution last year with the XRF16 Gen3 SoM featuring the same third-generation Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU49DR RFSoC with 16 RF-ADC, 16 RF-DAC channels, and 6GHz RF bandwidth. Avnet XRF16 specifications: Main chip …

Everspin has unveiled EMxxLX xSPI MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) non-volatile memory solution for industrial IoT and embedded systems providing an alternative to SPI NOR/NAND flash with much faster R/W data rates of up to 400MB/s and densities between 8Mbit and 64Mbit. The higher speed is made possible by the new JEDEC expanded Serial Peripheral Interface (xSPI) standard interface and a clock frequency of up to 200 MHz, the maximum supported by the xSPI standard. All chips operate at 1.8V, and the family is offered in 24-ball BGA and 8-pin DFN packages. EMxxLX xSPI MRAM key features and specifications: Density – 8Mb, 16Mb, 32Mb, 64Mb 400MBps sustained throug…

Hey Karl here. I am going to be sharing my experience with the xTool D1 Pro 20W. It is a 20W laser cutter/engraver with a 340x390mm working area. It has been heavily reviewed and I will comment on a few points I have not seen spoken about. I join a lot of Facebook groups for these reviews to get real-world feedback and ideas to write about. With nearly all forms of digital fabrication, I regularly read about misconceptions and frustration that stem from unknowingly purchasing a machine that requires a substantial amount of time and patience to learn. For this review, I kept a daily log and will summarize the time it took me to complete one project. I did get sidetracked o…

At the beginning of the year, we wrote about WCH CH32V307 RISC-V microcontroller and a development board with 8 UART ports controlled over Ethernet. I’ve now been informed of a similar, but much more compact by VCC-GND Studio named “YD-CH32V307VCT6”. Besides the 144 MHz RISC-V microcontroller, the board features a 10Mbps Ethernet port, two USB Type-C ports, SPI flash, EEPROM, a microSD card socket, and four rows of 24 pins each for a total of 96 pins exposing all pins out of the LQFP100 package. YD-CH32V307VCT6 board specifications: MCU – WCH CH32V307VCT6 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller @ 144 MHz with 256K Flash, 64K SRAM Storage – 32Mbit SPI NOR flash (W25Q32), 64kbit EEPR…

It’s the last day of the year and the time to look at some of the highlights of 2022, some traffic statistics from CNX Software website, and speculate on what 2023 may bring us. The semiconductors shortage continued in 2022, but things are looking brighter in 2023 with the full reopening of the world mixed with forecasts of difficult economic times that should keep the demand/supply equation in check. On the Arm processor front the biggest news of the year, at least in this corner of the Internet, was the launch of the Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A78 processor together with interesting single board computers that we’ll discuss below. Announced last year, the Amlo…

Khadas VIM4 single board computer was first unveiled last October with Amlogic A311D2 octa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor, 8GB LPDDR4X, but it’s only been launched today, and you can now buy the Khadas VIM4 board for right under $200. It is an upgrade to Khadas VIM3 Pro launched with Amlogiv A311D hexa-core processor a few years ago, and our testing in Android 11 revealed the main benefit may be the upgrade GPU that delivered a 67% boost in 3DMark, but CPU multi-core performance and memory bandwidth will also see some benefits over Amlogic A311D, even against in overclocked systems like ODROID N2+. Here’s a reminder of Khadas VIM4 specifications: SoC – Amlogic A311D2 octa-…

Yuzuki Chameleon is an open-source hardware single board computer powered by an Allwinner H616 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor that somewhat follows the shape of Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ SBC with a different port layout that should still keep mechanical and electrical compatibility with some Raspberry Pi HATs. The board supports up to 2GB RAM, up to 128GB eMMC flash, features a MicroSD card slot, one 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 port, an audio jack, four USB Type-C ports to keep the design as slim as possible, as well as a wireless module for WiFi and Bluetooth and a connector to optionally add Fast Ethernet through an external module. Yuzuki Chameleon specifications: SoC – Allwinne…

SONOFF has rolled out smart switches in the market for years, and for each iteration, they make their devices smaller and more capable. The latest ZBMINI Extreme Zigbee Smart Switch or ZBMINIL2 or ZBMINI Extreme for shorts is what we will review today. Take note that there are both Zigbee and Wifi versions that come with the same form factor, we will walk through the Zigbee version first and we will review the WiFi version – SONOFF MINI Extreme (MINIR4) – later on. The ZBMINI Extreme is designed to work without a Neutral (N) line. Those who have difficulty wiring the N line to the switch will definitely love this. In many locations, the Neutral (N) line is not wired and w…

ZeroKey’s Quantum RTLS is a 3D real-time location system (RTLS) for millimeter-level accuracy designed for the real-time monitoring of assets and people to optimize workflows in the manufacturing, supply chain, and logistics industries. The company claims that with time and location data, the solution provides the “highest level of accuracy and actionable analytics through its Spatial Intelligence Platform, giving customers 4D operational intelligence that truly delivers on the promise of Industry 4.0”, and the “hyper accuracy of Quantum RTLS empowers companies to solve problems that have never been solved before in industrial environments”. Quantum RTLS works with anchor…

ZigUNO Zigbee development board comes with an Ebyte E18-MS1 module equipped with Texas Instruments SimpleLink CC2530 8051 Zigbee microcontroller and follows Arduino UNO form for Arduino Shield compatibility. The board works with PTVO Zigbee firmware that comes with a graphical configuration tool to select the Zigbee chip used (CC2530), configure I/O behavior (input/output, pull-up, etc…), and more. The developers also suggest using DIYRuZ projects as examples to get started. ZigUNO board specifications: Zigbee module – Ebyte E18-MS1-PCB module with TI SimpleLink CC2530 8051 microcontroller with Zigbee 3.0 (and IEEE 802.15.4) connectivity, 256kB Flash and 8kB RAM, PCB ante…

The last time we wrote about the ZOTAC ZBOX PICO PI336 mini PC it featured an Intel Celeron N4100 Gemini Lake processor, but the company appears to have launched an upgrade with an Intel Celeron N6211 Elkhart Lake processor instead. The new ZBOX PI336 PICO fanless mini PC also gets more storage up to 128GB eMMC flash, but the rest of the specifications remain pretty much the same with 4GB RAM, HDMI & DisplayPort video outputs, three USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFI, and Bluetooth, although some of the interfaces got a version bump for additional performance. ZOTAC PI336 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N6211 dual-core Elkhart Lake processor up to 1.2/3.0 GHz with …

ZPE Systems Nodegrid Mini SR is a compact cloud-orchestrated gateway designed for the secure management of Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technology (OT) infrastructures. Power by a dual-core Intel processor, the Linux-based device is equipped with 4GB RAM, a 16GB encrypted storage device, and whose hardware looks to be very similar to the Compulab Fitlet2 mini PC with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB 3.0/2.0 ports, and optional support for WiFi 6 and 4G LTE. ZPE Nodegrid mini SR specifications: SoC – Unnamed Intel x86 64-bit dual-core processor, most likely Intel Atom x5-E3930 dual-core Apollo Lake processor (upgrades can be provided) System Memory – 4GB DD…

ZSWatch is an open-source hardware smartwatch based on an u-Blox ANNA-B402 module with Nordic Semi nRF52833 Bluetooth 5.1 SoC and running Zephyr real-time operating systems. We’ve seen several open-source hardware smartwatches over the years, as well as open-source firmware projects such as AsteroidOS or InfiniTime with the latter used in the PineTime smartwatch, and the ZSWatch adds to the list of interesting open-source wearables with all source files made public. ZSWatch specifications: Wireless module – u-blox ANNA-B402 based on Nordic Semi nRF52833 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller with Bluetooth LE 5.1 and direction finding support Storage – 8MB flash (MX25R6435FZNIL0)…

Ztachip is an open-source RISC-V accelerator for vision and AI edge applications running on low-end FPGA devices or custom ASIC that is said to perform 20 to 50 times faster than on non-accelerated RISC-V implementations, and is also better than RISC-V cores with vector extensions (no numbers were provided here). Ztachip, pronounced zeta-chip, is not tied to a particular architecture, but the example code features a RISC-V core based on the VexRiscv implementation and can accelerate common computer vision tasks such as edge detection, optical flow, motion detection, color conversion, as well as TensorFlow AI models without retraining. The open-source AI accelerator has be…

Avnet ZUBoard 1CG is a development board featuring the new entry-level AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU1CG dual-core Cortex-A53 MPSoC with 81K FPGA system logic cells, equipped with 1GB LPDDR4 RAM, as well as SYZYGY connectors and mikroBus expansion for Click boards. Priced at $159, the board may offer a good opportunity to get started with Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, as it’s quite cheaper than boards based on ZU3 devices such as Ultra96-V2 or MYD-CZU3EG. Avnet says the board is suitable for artificial intelligence, machine learning, embedded vision, embedded processing, and robotics applications. ZUBoard 1CG specifications: SoC – AMD/Xilinx ZU+ MPSoC ZU1CG with Dual Cortex-A53…

iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G30M is a system-on-module (SoM) based on AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU4/ZU5/ZU7 FPGA MPSoC specially geared towards LiDAR applications for scientific and military applications. The module comes with up to 12GB of RAM, 4GB for the programmable logic (PL) and 8GB for the Arm Cortex-A53/R5-based Processing System (PS), two 240-pin high-density, high-speed connectors with 142 user I/Os, 16x GTH transceivers up to 16.3Gbps, and four GTR transceivers up to 6Gbps. iW-RainboW-G30M specifications: FPGA MPSoC – AMD Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU4, ZU5, or ZU7 MPSoC with Processing System (PS) featuring 2x or 4x Arm Cortex-A53 core @ 1.5 GHz, two Cortex-R5 co…

With less than 12 days to go before Christmas, here are 12 reasons, from 12 different people who became Collaborans this year, on why you should consider joining our team! View the full article

It's been a long road for Wayland's recently landed color management extension. We take a brief look back at how this latest feature was formed. View the full article

Our multimedia engineering team delivered major improvements to GStreamer 1.28: hardware acceleration and zero-copy pipelines, HDR and color support for Wayland, AI inference integration, plus critical codec and RTP/WebRTC interoperability fixes. View the full article

Enhancing the graphic software stack for the Raspberry Pi. View the full article

A testament to its long standing community interest and devote volunteers, FOSDEM will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Join us as we take the stage to discuss BlueZ, GStreamer, Open Source AI models, & more! View the full article

Times are changing: LLVM has become more than a spare to GCC, such that glibc - the last big GCC bastion, is now working towards supporting LLVM as a first-class citizen. View the full article

Mere weeks after the debut of Open Source Summit Latin America, Dublin continues the collaborative momentum with the 2022 hybrid editions of Linux Plumbers Conference and Open Source Summit Europe! View the full article

Differences between pkg-config variables, the use of AX_PKG_CHECK_MODULES, and what to include in custom variables. automake and autoconf snippets are provided View the full article

Released a few months ago, the Google Pixel 3 is the first Android phone running with the mainline graphics stack. A feat that was deemed impossible 10 years ago is now a reality thanks to a lot of hard work from the entire community. View the full article

The past few months have been busy ones on the open-source graphics front, bringing with them Wayland 1.13, Weston 2.0 and Mesa 17.0. Here's a look at some of these developments, including Collabora's behind-the-scenes work on performance improvement. View the full article

Engineers have widely adopted GStreamer to build video analytics pipelines, and while many companies have indeed built their machine learning analysis framework around GStreamer, no one had made the effort to contribute upstream, until now. View the full article

With over 350 patches authored and nearly 200 reviewed and tested in multiple subsystems, 2021 was a great year for Linux kernel development at Collabora. Here is a look at some of our achievements during the year. View the full article

Collabora continues to relentlessly shift the needle to make high-quality open-source software not just an aspiration, but an expectation. We're pleased to announce an extension of our collaboration with Arm, providing more surety and capability for Panfrost. View the full article

We're reflecting on the steps taken as we continually seek to improve Linux kernel integration. This will include more detail about the tests used to enhance the quality of testing processes and coverage. View the full article

Simplifying AGL's existing Wayland-based graphical stack and avoiding the use of modules that aren't maintained upstream has lead to the creation of a new compositor based on libweston, bringing more reliable and fine-grained system control. View the full article

Last month I gave a short talk about the Chamelium board from the ChromeOS team, a board that is getting more and more usage outside of Google as it can help you automate the testing of your display (and not only!) code and hardware. View the full article

Venus is a virtual Vulkan driver based on the Virtio-GPU protocol, which defines the serialization of Vulkan commands between guest and host. Here's a closer look at Venus, its components, and their relations in the context of extensions. View the full article

The latest enhancements to the DRM subsystem have made mainline Linux much more attractive, making drivers easier to write, applications portable, and a much more friendly and collaborative community than we've ever had. View the full article

Following on from part 1 in the series, part 2 covers more developments in low-level graphics, including support for buffer modifiers in the kernel, Mesa, Wayland, Weston, Mutter and GNOME Shell, and X.Org. View the full article

The KernelCI project, which powers kernelci.org with automated testing for the upstream Linux kernel, has found a new home after sailing through uncharted waters for over five years. View the full article

As we continue improving the kernel integration landscape on multiple fronts, this also means making better tests available for all. Working closely with the community, we have now landed a new, ready-to-use, kselftest upstream in mainline Linux. View the full article

Panfrost, a project that delivers an open source implementation of a driver for the newest versions of the Mali family of GPUs, now includes support for running Wayland compositors and zero-copy GPU-accelerated clients. View the full article

My work on Wayland and Weston color management and HDR support has been full of learning new concepts and terms. Many of them are crucial for understanding how color works, and what the values in a pixel actually mean. View the full article

Getting into kernel development can be daunting. There are layers upon layers of knowledge to master, but no clear roadmap, especially when it comes to debugging drivers or navigating userspace-kernel issues. View the full article

How is an uncompressed raster image laid out in computer memory? How is a pixel represented? What are stride and pitch and what do you need them for? How do you address a pixel in memory? How do you describe an image in memory? Pekka discusses the essential digital imaging concepts for programmers. View the full article

Powered by Rust, the video codec stack on ARCVM is now bringing faster and more reliable video decoding on ChromeOS. Here's how Collabora has been helping shape video virtualization for Chromebooks, and what it means for end users. View the full article

This second installment explores the Rust libraries Collabora developed to decode video and how these libraries are used within the ARCVM codec stack to eventually replace CrosVM's dependency on the Chrome codec stack through libvda. View the full article

The final installment of a series explaining how Collabora is helping shape the video virtualization story for Chromebooks with a focus on the future plans for cros-libva and cros-codecs. View the full article

After rigorous debugging, a new unit testing framework was added to the backend compiler for NVK. This is a walkthrough of the steps taken to achieve this. View the full article

This week marks two years since the OpenGL implementation on Vulkan was initially announced. Since then, and especially over the past few months, much has progressed with many new features being added and performance now close to native (95%!). View the full article

Our ongoing work on improving WebKitGTK+ performance brought us to take a closer look as to why GTK+ was experiencing significant speed issues when used with Wayland and HiDPI screens, revealing the root cause to be within the lower level toolkit. View the full article

Three demos. One stand. From end-to-end HDR and a brand-new SoC running PanVK, to NVK and WebGPU out of the box — discover how Collabora pushed open source graphics forward at Embedded World 2025. View the full article

With the LLVM toolchain seeing increasing development and adoption alongside the older, more established GNU toolchain, projects needing to support both, in particular the GNU C library (glibc), are facing challenges and questions. View the full article

Adding a variety of expertise from across the globe, the departments of Core, Multimedia, Kernel, XR, People Operations, and DevOps now have more hands on deck. Discover a snapshot of our newest teammates! View the full article

Earlier this month, Collabora took part in the very first KernelCI hackfest, initiated as a joint effort with the Google Chrome OS team. Here's a look at what led to our participation and what was accomplished. View the full article

After several months of work, we are excited to announce a first proposal for a Wayland driver for Wine. The proposal is in the form of an RFC, in order to explore how to best move forward with the upstreaming and further development of the driver. View the full article

Collabora has been working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation on various projects including a web browser optimised for the Raspberry Pi. Since the first beta release we have made huge improvements; now the browser is more responsive, it’s faster, and videos work much better (the first beta could play 640×360 videos at 0.5fps, now we can play 25fps 1280×720 videos smoothly). View the full article

With Black Valley in Norway, and Akademy in Greece, this weekend's plans are all set or computer enthusiasts! Collabora is proud to sponsor both of these events as a chance for communities to come together and strengthen their bonds. View the full article

Collabora will be at NeurIPs this week to dive into the latest academic findings in machine learning and research advancements that are changing the industry. View the full article

Collabora is headed to Stuttgart for XR Expo 2026! Visit us in Hall 2, booth 2C22, to experience the latest around Monado and ElectricMaple, and catch our 2 talks! View the full article

Visit us at the STMicroelectronics booth, where Collabora will highlight how the STM32MP2 chip empowers edge AI solutions for industrial applications. View the full article