IBASE AA400-N is an “ultra-compact” fanless edge AI computer powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded 8840U/8640U processor with up to 8 cores, 16 threads, and a combined 39 TOPS of AI performance for machine and robotic vision, autonomous inspection, smart retail, industrial automation, and other data-intensive, space-constrained applications.

The most intriguing part of the specs and announcement is the claim of up to 256GB DDR5 capacity through two SO-DIMM modules, implying availability of 128GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory modules. The system also comes with a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD, features 8K-capable HDMI and DisplayPort video interfaces, two 2.5GbE jacks, M.2 sockets for optional WiFi, Bluetooth and 4G/5G cellular connectivity, a few USB ports and a COM port.

IBASE AA400-N specifications:

• AMD Ryzen Embedded 8000 Series processors
  • AA400-NM  – AMD Ryzen Embedded 8840U
    • CPU – 8-core/16-thread Zen4 “Hawk Point” processor up to 3.3 GHz / 5.1 GHz (Turbo)
    • GPU – AMD Radeon 780M with 12x Compute Units @ 2700 MHz (RDNA3 graphics)
    • AI
      • 16 TOPS NPU (AMD XDNA)
      • Total combined 39 TOPS of AI performance
    • TDP – 15W
  • AA400-N8640M –  AMD Ryzen Embedded 8640U
    • CPU – 6-core/12-thread Zen4 “Hawk Point” processor up to 3.5 GHz / 4.9 GHz (Turbo)
    • GPU – AMD Radeon 780M with 8x Compute Units @ 2600 MHz (RDNA3 graphics)
    • AI
      • 16 TOPS NPU (AMD XDNA)
      • Total combined ~31 TOPS of AI performance
    • TDP – 15W
• Memory – Up to 256GB dual-channel DDR5 5600 MHz via 2x 262-pin SO-DIMM sockets (2x 128GB)
• Storage –  256GB NVMe SSD via M.2 Key-M 2280 (PCIe Gen4 x4) socket
• Video output
  • HDMI 2.1 port up to 8K
  • DisplayPort 2.1 up to 8K
• Networking
  • 2.5GbE RJ45 port
  • Optional WiFi and Bluetooth via M.2 socket
  • Optional 4G LTE/5G cellular via M.2 socket and Nano SIM card slot
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports
  • 4x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• Serial – 1x COM port
• Expansion
  • M.2 M-Key-M (PCIe Gen4 x4) 2280 socket for NVMe SSD storage
    M.2 E-Key 2230 socket for WiFi and Bluetooth (CNVi)
  • M.2 B-Key 3052 socket for 5G/LTE
• Misc
  • Mounting Type – DIN rail, wall mount
  • Enclosure made of zinc-coated cold-rolled steel (SGCC)
• Power Supply – 12V ~ 24V DC via 4-pin DC connector; up to 45W
• Dimensions – 215.6 x 177.6 x 55.2mm
• Weight – 3 kg
• Temperature Range – Operating 0°C ~ 45°C; storage: -20°C~80°C
• Relative Humidity – 0%~ 90% (non-condensing)
• Vibration – 1 grms / 3~500Hz / random operation
• Shock – Operating: 20 g / 11 ms; non-operating: 40 g / 11 ms
• Certifications – CE, FCC, LVD

IBASE claims support for Ubuntu 22.04 and Windows 11 for the embedded system. The closest competitor is probably the SolidRun Bedrock R8000 industrial PC introduced in 2024, which at the time claimed up to 96GB of RAM through two SO-DIMM sockets (2x 48GB).

Let’s have a closer look at the 256GB DDR5 capacity claim using only two SO-DIMM sockets, which would require two 128GB DDR5 SO-DIMM modules. My initial research pointed to higher-capacity DIMM modules available for 128GB or more, but that would not work in a SO-DIMM socket, or the system would be too small to have two DIMM sockets. After a few minutes, I assumed the specs and the press release might have been wrong, but I eventually found the Centron S3-D5SUN2CH-128G.G8 DDR5 SODIMM unbuffered non-ECC module. So 2x 128GB DDR5 SO-DIMM is indeed possible if you have the cash and are a system builder.

IBASE hasn’t provided availability and pricing information, with the company only saying it “debuts the AA400-N”. Additional information can be found on the product page.

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Spark Solder is a compact, USB-C-powered one-handed soldering iron with a built-in motorized solder feeder for convenient one-handed operation. It supports standard TS100 tips, delivers up to 45W of heating power, and features a 1-inch LCD for adjusting the temperature and solder feed speed.

While smart, portable soldering irons are very common these days, using one can still be tricky when you have to handle the iron, solder wire, and components at the same time. Spark Solder solves this by adding a replaceable solder capsule and a two-axis motorized feeding system to the handle, leaving one hand free for easier assembly, prototyping, and repairs.

Spark Solder specifications:

• Display – 1-inch TFT display for adjusting temperature, solder extrusion speed, and tip profiles
• Soldering
  • Power output – Up to 45W
  • Temperature Range – 200°C to 450°C
  • Heat-Up Time – Reaches 300°C in 6 seconds
  • Temperature Stability – ±2°C (via PID control)
  • Tip Compatibility – Standard TS100-series tips
  • Feeder – Integrated solder capsule (comes with 40g of lead-free solder)
  • Precision two-axis solder delivery with a high-torque motor and spring-ball mechanism
• Safety – Overheat and power-safe protection
• Power supply – 20V via USB-C port
• Dimensions – 240 x 25 x 25 mm
• Weight – 100 grams
• Enclosure – Durable plastic body

The main feature of Spark Solder is its two-axis motorized solder delivery system, with which the solder wire can slide and rotate while a spring-ball mechanism keeps it securely in place to help prevent slips and jams. Users can also adjust the solder feed speed through the interface, allowing the wire to flow smoothly only when needed.

Previously, we wrote about other portable USB-C soldering irons such as the Miniware TS100, Pine64 Pinecil, and Pinecil V2, and the Spark Solder iron borrows the TS100 tip and USB-C concept from those devices, but adds an automatic solder wire feeder. What we were not able to find is information about the MCU and the firmware doesn’t seem to be open-source.

The one-handed, self-feeding concept itself is not new. For example, an article from the January 1972 issue of Popular Electronics showcased the Bilectro “One-Hander”, a pistol-grip soldering tool that fed solder when the trigger was pulled. More recently, affordable auto-feed soldering guns like the Saker have also appeared online. But these tools are generally quite bulky, use AC power, and rely on manual triggers that can be tiring and less precise. Spark Solder updates the idea with a lightweight 100-gram pen-style design, motorized solder feeding, digital PID temperature control, and USB-C PD power.

The Spark Solder one-handed soldering iron is available on Kickstarter, starting at a $64.99 Super Early Bird pledge (15% off the planned $79.99 retail price). A regular Early Bird tier is also available for $69.99, along with multi-packs including a 2-pack for $124.99 and a 4-pack for $224.99.

The kit includes the Spark soldering iron, a 40g solder capsule, one TS100 tip, a 45W USB-C wall charger, a high-current USB-C cable, and a user manual. According to the campaign timeline, mass production is scheduled for November 2026, with global backer shipping slated to begin in December 2026. The campaign page explicitly mentions that they used ChatGPT for campaign images and graphics, and MiniMax Audio for the video voiceover; however, the video demo below appears to be using a real prototype.

The post Spark Solder one-handed USB-C soldering iron supports TS100 tips, integrates solder feeder (Crowdfunding) appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Pollen Robotics and Hugging Face have unveiled the Microduck, a 25 cm tall biped robot with 15 motors, a camera, a depth sensor, two motion sensors, and an articulated beak that can pick up objects.

This follows the launch of the Reachy Mini desktop robot earlier this year that featured a Raspberry Pi CM4 module or could interface to a computer instead. In some ways, we may think of the Microduck as a Reachy Mini with legs, but the company says both are different products. The Reachy Mini targets human-robot interaction, while the Microduck focuses on motion/action, although it also features a microphone and a speaker for audio interaction.

Microduck specifications:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3566
  • CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz
  • GPU – Arm Mali-G52
  • NPU – 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator
  • VPU
    • 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder
    • 1080p60 H.264/H.265 video encoder
• System Memory – 1GB RAM
• Storage – 32GB eMMC flash
• Camera – Front camera with a dedicated camera-use indicator
• Audio – Microphones and speaker, with a per-robot generated voice
• Wireless
  • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
  • NFC with 2 antennas, one in the head and one in the beak
•  Sensors
  • 2x IMUs, one in the body and one in the head
  • Compact 8×8 ToF LiDAR (maybe something like VL53L8CX;  we’re also told range is not finalized)
• Motors: 15 degrees of freedom, across articulated legs, head, and neck
• Physical interaction – Articulated grasping beak
• Power Supply – 2600 mAh NP-F550 camera battery, good for around one hour
• Dimensions – It’s complicated, but: 25 cm tall, 14 cm wide
• Weight – < 800 grams

The robot will ship with a game controller, a battery, and a USB cable. It will be playable before writing any code, with seven trained moves at launch.

The open-source Rust software and SDK are hosted on GitHub. On the robot, that stack runs as daemons on the Rockchip RK3566 processor: a 50 Hz control loop for the fifteen servos, plus the radios, camera, depth sensor, and update engine. Simulation and RL training tools (Python code) are in a separate repo.

A Microduck simulator is hosted on Hugging Face to play around before getting the hardware. The companies have probably never heard of Firefox, as both the project’s website and simulator were unusable (as in really slow, Raspberry Pi 1 Model B style), and I had to switch to Chrome to kick a ball with my virtual duck. Instructions are for AZERTY keyboard users, but the simulator also works fine on a QWERTY keyboard using “AWSD” rather than the awkward “ZQSD” combination.

While the Microduck’s software stack is open source, nothing was said about the mechanical and hardware design files, and Pollen Robotics told the press not to refer to the robot as “open-source hardware” (for now).

Pre-orders are open on Pollen Robotics for $399 (use Chrome rather than Firefox), and the Microduck robot is only available in North America and Europe for now. Shipping is scheduled to start before Christmas 2026. A few more details may be found on the product page.

The post Microduck – A duck-like biped robot designed for physical AI experimentation and fun appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

The USB-C Deskradar is an ESP32-C3-based, aviation-themed ADS-B flight tracker that tracks and displays live aircraft positions around your location on a sonar-style circular grid. A 1.28-inch round display and a 3D-printed enclosure provide a real-time view of flights around a configured location.

As we’ll see further below, it appears to be an open-source project that was picked up by Chinese vendors and started popping up on AliExpress as an inexpensive desk gadget.

USB-C Deskradar specifications:

• Wireless module –16-pin ESP32-C3 Super Mini module
  • SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C3FH4, single-core 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller @ up to 160 MHz; 400 KB SRAM; 4MB flash
  • USB – USB Type-C port for programming
  • Ceramic antenna
• Display – 1.28-inch round TFT color LCD with GC9A01 controller; 240×240 resolution; driven via SPI
• Misc
  • Hardware button (connected to GPIO 9 / BOOT pin, active LOW)
  • Short tap – Cycles radar range presets (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 25 km)
  • Long press (3 seconds) – Wipes saved Wi-Fi/location credentials and reboots to setup mode
• Power Supply – 5V via USB Type-C
• Enclosure – Custom 3D-printed housing designed for desktop use (STL files provided)

The software handles flight tracking, radar display, and device setup, making the device easy to use and configure, with features designed to provide a simple way to monitor nearby aircraft. Key features include:

• Live ADS-B flight data from adsb.fi or OpenSky Network
• A sonar-style radar showing aircraft heading, speed, callsign, altitude, and type
• Wi-Fi Manager with a captive portal for Wi-Fi, location, and km/mi settings
• Runway overlays for major airports
• Arduino/PlatformIO firmware using LovyanGFX and ArduinoJson

I first learned about this project through an AliExpress listing, but there was barely any documentation or information on how it works. After searching around a bit, I found two open-source GitHub projects that appear to match the hardware and functionality: arvis91/deskradar and MatixYo/ESP32-Plane-Radar. The AliExpress device may be based on one of these projects, although I couldn’t find anything confirming which firmware it uses.

Once connected to the internet, the ESP32 regularly fetches live flight data from open APIs. The MatixYo firmware updates data from adsb.fi every 5 seconds, while arvis91 uses the OpenSky Network API. The 240×240 display shows a dark blue sonar-style radar with range rings, compass directions, aircraft symbols, speed vectors, and callsigns or ICAO codes. Aircraft outside the radar range are shown as directional dots around the edge.

As mentioned earlier, the device is available on AliExpress for $26.93, but if you prefer a DIY approach, you can build one yourself for less than $10. All you need is an ESP32-C3 Super Mini and a 1.28-inch GC9A01 round display, or a development board like the ESP32-2424S012. Alternatively, you can modify the firmware to add ESP32 support and use displays like Makerfabs ESP32-S3 Round SPI TFT with Touch 1.28 or Waveshare ESP32-S3-LCD-1.28, which includes an onboard ESP32-S3. The 3D-printable case files are available for free on MakerWorld, and once everything is assembled, you can flash the ESP32-Plane-Radar or deskradar firmware directly from your browser using esptool-js.

The post USB-C Deskradar – An ESP32-C3 ADS-B flight tracker with a 1.28-inch round display appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Opener is an open-source reference implementation of the DECT NR+ protocol stack, formally known as DECT-2020 NR, used for massive IoT (mMTC) and low-latency (URLLC) machine-to-machine communication applications.

It is developed by the Opener Initiative, supported by the OpenDECT-X project, and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

The standard itself supports up to one million devices per km², years of battery life for low-power sensors,  non-IP and IPv6 traffic, mesh networking, and random-access operation. It is also designed for ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) with sub-millisecond air-interface latency, a 99.999% reliability target, and scheduled access for bounded latency.

Contrary to 3GPP cellular communication networks, DECT NR+ does not rely on centralized infrastructure and uses context-based rather than fixed device roles. It operates in the license-exempt spectrum in the 1880–1930 MHz range (1.9 GHz), and will be extended to the 3.8–4.2 GHz band, at least in Europe, following the EU’s Decision 2025/2425. Supported topologies include point-to-point links, star networks, and mesh.

Opener implements the MAC (Media Access Control) and upper layers of the NR+ protocol stack up to Application Profiles. It’s written in C, built for Zephyr RTOS, and released under the Apache 2.0 license for both research and commercial use. You’ll find the Opener implementation and code samples in the openener and opener-samples repositories on the Opener Initiative’s GitHub account.

While the project is designed to be vendor- and application-agnostic, you need to start somewhere, and Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF91 series is currently the only off-the-shelf integrated hardware for DECT-2020, and Dresden, Germany-based Last Mile Semiconductor will soon enter the DECT NR+ market.  Looking at the code sample repository, the Opener dectnrp driver specifically relies on the Nordic Semi nRF9151 DK, but should work on the nRF9151 SMA DK (same as the DK but with SMA connectors) and third-party nRF9151 boards like the Makerdiary nRF9151 Connect Kit, Norik Systems DECT NR+ USB dongle, Conexio Stratus Pro nRF9151 IoT development kit, and so on.

A few more details may also be found on the Opener Initiative website.

The post Opener is an open-source reference implementation of the DECT NR+ massive IoT, low-latency standard appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

We’ve gotten a sample of the LUNYEE 3020 Nova desktop CNC router for review. The machine features a 710W trim router spindle suitable for carving wood, acrylic, and aluminum. The drive system relies on dual HG15 linear guides and 1204 ball screws for enhanced rigidity and motion accuracy, and the machine integrates NEMA 17 stepper motors with 0.89 N·m torque. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac systems and works with GRBL-compatible CNC software such as UGS, Fusion 360, VCarve, Easel, and LightBurn.

LUNYEE sent us the CNC router with a dust shoe and a CNC vise worktable for review. We will cover the specifications, go through an unboxing, and show how to assemble and set up the machine before testing it with UGS and Easel programs using wood and acrylic as test materials suitable for the bits provided by the company.

LUNYEE 3020 Nova desktop CNC router specifications

• Control Board – 32-bit 4-axis GRBL firmware-compatible controller
• Stepper Motor – NEMA 17 (60 mm size, 2.3A current, 0.89 N·m torque)
• Working Area – 300 x 200 x 80 mm
• Accuracy – ≤ ±0.05 mm
• Maximum Working Speed – 5,000 mm/min
• Spindle Power – 710W trim router with 6-speed adjustment
• Spindle Speed – 6,000 – 30,000 RPM
• Drive System – Dual HG15 Linear Guides and 1204 ball screws
• Safety Features – Limit Switches for X/Y/Z axes and emergency stop switch
• Power Supply – 48V DC up to 10A
• Dimensions – 52 x 41 x 39.3 cm
• Product Weight – 19.2 kg
• Frame Material – Full aluminum structure
• Supported Software – GRBL-compatible firmware such as Easel, Candle, UGS, Fusion 360, LaserGRBL, LightBurn

Compared to the LUNYEE 3018 Pro Ultra CNC Router 500W reviewed last year, the LUNYEE 3020 Nova ships with a higher power 710W spindle with six manually adjustable speeds from 6,000–30,000 RPM, providing a wider speed range than the 3018 Pro Ultra rated up to 12,000 RPM. The Y-axis working area is expanded from 180 to 200 mm, the drive system is upgraded from lead screw to 1204 ball screw, while dual HG15 linear guides are used on all 3 axes. Additionally, the NEMA 17 motor torque is increased from 0.55 to 0.89 N·m, making the machine more rigid and accurate, at the cost of increased weight from 14 to 19.2 kg.

Unboxing

Let’s start the review with an unboxing of the LUNYEE 3020 Nova.

The CNC machine comes almost fully assembled with the STOP (emergency) button attached to it, a 65 mm spindle mounting bracket with screws, a 710W trim router, a CNC vise worktable, manual and installation documents, an AC power cable, a USB data cable, an accessory box, ER11 1/8-inch collet set with bits, a USB flash drive, lubricating grease, one flat-head screwdriver and one wrench set, a cleaning brush, a 15 cm steel ruler, two workpiece clamps, cable ties, and a dust shoe. Spoiler: we now consider the latter a must when working with wood.

LUNYEE 3020 Nova assembly

While the LUNYEE 3018 Pro Ultra CNC router required some work for the assembly and cabling was sort of a mess, the 3020 Nova model comes mostly preassembled and wired out of the box, so users can get started in a few minutes.  We still had to install and secure the Z-axis bracket by tightening the hex screws.

After that, we inserted and secured the spindle mounting bracket to it before installing the trim router. We initially placed it roughly in the middle as per the photos in the user manual, but what you’d really want to do is lower the Z-axis to the maximum and adjust the Z-position of the trim router so that the end mill reaches the worktable in its lowest position, or even goes slightly lower than the worktable level and dips in the T-slots for straight cuts without a wasteboard.

One interesting note: the M1P-3701 trimmer is rated 220V, 50Hz, 800W, Ø6mm, with a maximum speed of 30,000 RPM, rather than the 710W advertised by the company.  The trimmer has a separate power cable and is not electrically connected to the controller, so it’s not controlled by the software, but manually by the user.

The next step is to connect the Z-axis motor to the control board with the black cable as shown below.

The dust shoe is an optional accessory we requested with the unit, since wood carving typically leaves dust everywhere, and it’s not fun to clean it up afterwards, and not ideal for health reasons.

Insert the dust shoe into the trimmer and secure it with the green lock.

Assemble the brush with the two magnetic rings, then install the brush set by aligning it with the magnets. We’ll remove these each time we adjust the X, Y, Z position before starting a job, and reinstall them before starting it.

Connect the dust extraction hose to your vacuum cleaner.

The whole assembly should take around 5 minutes or even less.

Preparing and setting up the CNC router

The LUNYEE 3020 Nova has a working area of 300 x 200 mm and an 80 mm Z-axis travel

The workplate features T-slots that we will use to install clamps to keep the workpiece (or the vise) secure.

The kit only includes 5 bits: 2x pointed tips and 3x 1/8-inch spiral flat nose end mills (3.175 mm). These work well for wood and acrylic, but are not ideal for aluminum.

To install an end mill, insert the ER11 1/8-inch collet into the nut, then insert the end mill into the collet and loosely screw it onto the spindle.

Finally, properly install the end mill and tighten it using two wrenches.

After that, connect the power adapter and check the emergency stop switch. Good news: it works fine, contrary to our experience with the LUNYEE 3018 Pro and 4040 PRO CNC routers… It has a larger design and immediately stops the machine when we press it.

We can now turn on the machine by pressing the power switch to get started.

Testing the LUNYEE 3020 Nova CNC router with the UGS Program

We’ll start testing with the UGS program as recommended in the wiki. UGS is an open-source, cross-platform G-Code sender for GRBL that works on Windows, Linux (x86 and Arm/Raspberry Pi), and macOS. A Windows laptop was used for this review, so we started by installing the driver (CH341SER.EXE) from the USB Flash Drive before installing the program, but you can also download it from the official CH340 website.

We will test the machine with one of the provided sample files using a 1/8-inch spiral flat nose end mill we’ve just installed. Connect the CNC machine to your computer via a USB cable, then open the UGS program, open an .NC file, and in the top bar, set Firmware to GRBL, select the COM Port, and set the baud rate to 115200.

It’s also possible to access the machine from your smartphone using a local web dashboard

If the machine status changes to ALARM when clicking on the connect icon, click Unlock to change the status to IDLE. Then open the G-code file, and check the sample G-code toolpath in the Visualizer window on the right.

Then go to the Jog Controller to move the bit to the starting point. The correct gap between the end mill and the workpiece is about the thickness of a sheet of paper: the paper should slide under the bit with slight resistance.

Click Reset Zero in the Toolbox window to set the zero point.

Alternatively, you could make use of the Z-Probe to calibrate the Z-axis.

Select Window -> Plugins -> Probe Module

Click Z, measure the Z-Probe thickness with a caliper, and enter the value in the Touch plate thickness field, then enter -10 mm in the Probe Distance/Direction field or another suitable value to indicate how far the Z-axis can move down. Click the “Probe and zero Z” button to complete the process.  We used the paper method during this review as we found it more convenient.

After placing the workpiece in the work area and securing it with two clamps, we installed the magnetic parts of the dust shoe, turned the spindle on (speed 3), turned the vacuum cleaner on, and clicked the Send/Start icon to start engraving.

The job completed successfully, and the dust shoe and vacuum cleaner did their job effectively with practically no dust on the machine or around. The only downside is that we couldn’t clearly see the job in action.

Nevertheless, the engraving came out beautifully.

Using the Easel Program for custom designs

The UGS program only sends G-code to the machine, so we need to use another program to create our own designs or parts. We went with Easel, created an account, and selected the free 30-day trial. It’s a web-based interface, so it works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

We will test engraving the text “CNX” on a 62 x 32 x 5 mm plywood sample provided with the kit. Instead of using clamps on this small sample, we secured it with the CNC vise worktable, itself secured to the T-slots of the workplate with two screws.

Back to the Easel program, we set the dimensions of the workpiece, designed a “CNX” logo with the text tool, selected the material type (Birch Plywood), bit type ( 1/8-inch Spiral Flat Nose End Mill), and set the engraving depth to 3 mm. After creating it and running the simulation, it was time to click “Carve” to connect to the machine.

Select the USB Serial (COM6) port and click Connect. Note that we found that part to be fairly unreliable in Easel, so we had to either disconnect and reconnect the USB cable or/and connect and disconnect the machine in UGS before it worked in Easel. The root cause is unclear, but basically, if the Carve button is blue, that means the machine is not detected, and if it turns green, that’s a very good sign!

Once the connection is successful, we go through the Easel software wizard to confirm the material, check whether it is securely clamped, adjust the zero position with the Jog Machine, turn the spindle on (speed 3), turn on the vacuum cleaner, then click “Carve!” to start the job. While the machine is working, closely monitor it, listen for abnormal sounds or strong vibrations, and press the emergency stop button if any problem occurs.

This small job took about 3 minutes to complete. The result is not too bad, although we had to use some sandpaper to clean it up.

Next up, we cut the large wood plank in our very first test to get a smaller 116 x 114 workpiece for our next design. We cut it by having the end mill work its way in one of the T-slots and rotating the wood plank for the second pass. We then loaded a Linux Tux design from the Design Library in the Easel program using the same parameters, except for the engraving depth, which was set to 4 mm.

The size was perfect to use with the CNC vise worktable, and again we used the dust shoe for a clean job.

This design took about 11 minutes to complete.

The cut left some fuzzy edges and raised fibers, which we removed with sandpaper, and the final result looks much better.

We also tried to adjust the feed rate and the spindle rotation speed, but it didn’t change the results much.

Next, we will try using a different type of wood. We were unsure of the type, so we asked ChatGPT, which identified it as Burl wood (burl/eye wood). It is not available in the program, and the closest type is “Walnut” in Easel. We loaded a horse sample from the Design Library.

We set the engraving depth to 5 mm, but due to the uneven material thickness, the engraving result looked as shown in the image.

Normally, we’d flatten the piece first with a large end mill, but we didn’t have any, so it would have taken quite a long time. So instead, we used a spirit level to adjust it, but that was obviously not good enough.  It’s still kind of “artsy”.

Let’s now switch to a 200 x 200 x 3 mm acrylic plate with an engraving depth set to 1 mm using a Linux Tux design.

It took nearly 10 minutes, and the result came out beautifully.

Someone requested that we make a teak wood sign from a material around 790 mm long. The workpiece has uneven width (maximum 190 mm) and uneven thickness (maximum 50 mm). The goal was to cut Thai text “สวนสองสี่หก” (Garden Two Four Six) with a character height of 80 mm, width of 50 mm, and engraving depth of 10 mm.

However, Thai is a funny (complex) language from a computer perspective with vowels on the left, right, bottom, and top, and potentially tone marks above. The first time, we selected a random font that rendered the Thai text properly on the left side of the program, but showed rectangles (like characters not found) on the simulation side on the right. We didn’t pay attention, and after a while we noticed the rectangle on the workpiece; at which point we stopped the job. The lesson here is to always run the simulation before starting a carving job.

We fixed the Thai text somewhat by loading Thai fonts. However, there was still an issue. One of the consonants came with a vowel and a tone mark (mai ek) on top, and while the text shows correctly on the left side of the program, the tone mark was missing on the right side. Moving or resizing the text didn’t help, so we suspect the program cannot render a font with two glyphs on top of a vowel. One solution is to design the text in another program like Inkscape, export it as SVG, and import it in Easel. However, that’s a premium feature. Instead, it just cut the tone mark later after the main job was complete.

A 790 mm piece (and 600 mm artwork) is too long for a 3020 CNC machine, so we enabled tiling in Easel to divide the job into three parts, each with three characters.

Due to the uneven wood thickness, we used a spirit level and various supports to keep it horizontal as much as possible. We also used a pencil to mark the orientation of the workpiece on the workplate.

Each section took a little over 2 hours. Teak is hardwood, and the Z-axis was set to go down 1 mm at a time. The dust shoe was also really helpful for this job. Just make sure your vacuum cleaner is designed to work for several hours at a time without overheating. We did turn off the vacuum cleaner for a while during the first section, which explains why some dust shows up in the photo below.

After each section, we moved the wooden plank,  made sure it was parallel to the workplate as much as possible, and oriented it properly before securing it with two clamps. The job took around 7 hours in total.

Conclusion

The LUNYEE 3020 Nova is a capable CNC Router with a 300 × 200 × 80 mm working area and a powerful 710W trim router suitable for various types of wood, acrylic, and even aluminum. We tested it with UGS and Easel and could engrave wood, plywood, acrylic, as well as harder and larger teak wood.

Compared to the earlier 3018 Pro model, the LUNYEE 3020 Nova comes mostly pre-assembled and ready to be used within minutes, and it features a larger emergency stop button (that actually works). We highly recommend getting the dust shoe, especially if you plan to work with wood. By default, the machine comes with 5 small end mills that are fine with wood and acrylic, but not really designed for aluminum (except small, superficial jobs), so you’d need to bring your own, or add an end mill kit to your order.

On the software side, we had no issue with UGS, but it’s limited to sending G-code files. For designing projects, Easel is great and easy to use, but we experienced reliability issues when connecting to the machine. That’s only for the initial step when clicking the Carve button, and it doesn’t happen once the job is in progress.

We’d like to thank LUNYEE for sending the 3020 Nova CNC router for review along with a dust shoe and a vise. It’s sold for $569 on Amazon or $599 on the LUNYEE store, where you can also add the dust shoe ($45.99) and the CNC vise worktable ($69.99) among other options.

CNXSoft: This article is a translation – with some additional insights – of the original review on CNX Software Thailand by Suthinee Kerdkaew.

The post LUNYEE 3020 Nova review – A desktop CNC router with 710W spindle tested with UGS and Easel software appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

The HomeMaster MiniPLC is an ESP32 PLC controller in a compact DIN-rail form factor with ESPHome pre-installed for Home Assistant integration, and designed for residential and light industrial automation.

The device features relay outputs, four isolated 24V digital inputs, 0–10V analog inputs, one 0–10V analog output, PT100/PT1000 RTD channels, 1-Wire buses, and an RS-485 Modbus RTU interface. It also includes a 128 × 64 OLED display, four buttons, 12 LEDs, a buzzer, RTC, microSD slot, and optional 10/100Mbps Ethernet, with support for 24 V DC or 85–265 V AC power.

HomeMaster MiniPLC specifications:

• Wireless Module  – ESP32-WROOM-32D-N16 (soldered on the backside of the PCB)
  • SoC –  ESP32 dual-core wireless microcontroller
    • CPU – Dual-core Xtensa 32-bit microprocessor @ 240MHz
    • Memory –  520KB internal SRAM
    • Storage – 16 MB flash
    • Wireless – Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and Bluetooth (4.2 and BLE)
  • External Wi-Fi antenna (SMA)
• Storage – MicroSD card slot
• Display – 128 × 64 OLED display
• Networking
  • 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (built into ESP32)
  • Optional 10/100Mbps Ethernet via on-board LAN8720 PHY (ESPHome does not allow both WiFi and Ethernet to be active simultaneously)
• I/Os
  • Relays – 6x HF115F SPDT relays (rated for up to 3 A @ 250 V AC )
  • Digital Inputs – 4x isolated 24V digital inputs, dry contact (IEC 61131-2 compliant with ISO1212 front end)
  • Analog Inputs – 4x 0–10V analog inputs, 16-bit (via ADS1115)
  • Analog Output – 1x 0–10V analog output, 12-bit (via MCP4725)
• Serial – RS-485 Modbus RTU master port (equipped with 3x SMAJ6.8CA TVS diodes, 1.5 A PTCs, common-mode choke, and fail-safe biasing)
• Temperature sensor interfaces
  • 2× PT100/PT1000 RTD channels (Driven by MAX31865)
  • 2× 1-Wire buses for DS18B20 sensors
• Misc
  • 4x front-panel buttons
  • 12x status LEDs
  • Onboard buzzer
  • PCF8563 RTC (battery holder included, battery unpopulated)
• Power Supply – 24 V DC or 85–265 V AC (supports one input at a time)
• Dimensions – 157.4 × 91 × 58.4 mm (9 DIN modules wide; DIN-rail mountable IP20 enclosure)
• Weight – 300 grams
• Temperature Range – Operating: 0°C to +40°C; storage: -10°C to +55°C
• Certifications – CE marked with a signed EU DoC; EMC tested by Idvorsky Laboratories (EN 55032 Class B emissions, EN 55035 immunity)

The controller comes with ESPHome pre-installed and connects directly to Home Assistant over the local network, without cloud services. It is also officially recognized by the Open Home Foundation as “Made for ESPHome,” confirming its compatibility with the ESPHome ecosystem. The hardware is open-source under the CERN-OHL-W v2 license, and the firmware/configurations are available under the MIT license. The schematics, documentation, and EU Declaration of Conformity are also available on GitHub.

For security, the MiniPLC supports EN 18031-1 and uses an encrypted native API. Each device generates its own encryption key during setup instead of using a shared key, while initial configuration is only allowed within a 15-minute window after powering on. HomeMaster also lists several limitations. The device is designed for indoor installations from 0 to +40 °C, while its 3 A relay limit means heavier or inductive loads require an external contactor. The RTD inputs also share GPIOs with the USB serial interface, so enabling RTD disables the USB serial logger.

The HomeMaster MiniPLC is available on Tindie for $324 plus shipping. The package includes the MiniPLC controller, an external Wi-Fi antenna, and a user manual. Shipping is currently limited to the EU, so buyers outside the region cannot order it directly from the store. The MiniPLC is just one brick of the HomeMaster ecosystem, and as the screenshot above shows, the company also offers add-ons such as a 3-phase energy meter, the ALM-173-R1 with 17x inputs and 3 relays, the AIO-422-R1 with 4x analog inputs, 2x analog outputs, and 2x RTD channels, and so on. These are designed to work with the MicroPLC or the smaller, cheaper MicroPLC ESP32 DIN-Rail controller.

The post HomeMaster MiniPLC – An ESP32 DIN-rail PLC controller for Home Assistant appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Banana Pi BPI-AI2N is a system-on-module (SoM) powered by a Renesas RZ/V2N quad-core Cortex-A55 microprocessor with a 15 TOPS (sparse) DRP-AI3 accelerator for Vision AI workloads.

The module features 8GB LPDDR4x, 32GB eMMC flash, 64MB SPI flash, two Gigabit Ethernet controllers, a PMIC, and exposes all I/Os through a 260-pin SO-DIMM connector. The company also provides a Jetson Nano-inspired carrier board with a MIPI DSI connector, two MIPI CSI connectors, two GbE RJ45 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, an M.2 socket for NVMe SSD storage, a 40-pin GPIO header, and more.

Banana Pi BPI-AI2N-Core SoM specifications:

• SoC – Renesas RZ/V2N
  • CPU
    • Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz
    • Arm Cortex-M33 @ 200 MHz
  • GPU – Arm Mali-G31 3D graphics engine (GE3D) with OpenGL ES 3.2 and OpenCL 2.0 FP
  • VPU – Encode & decode
    • H.264 – Up to 1920×1080 @ 60 fps (Renesas specs, but SOMDEVICES also mentions up to 4K @ 30 FPS)
    • H.265 – Up to 3840×2160 @ 30 fps
  • AI accelerator – DRP-AI Up to 4 dense TOPS / 15 sparse TOPS
• System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4X
• Storage
  • 32GB eMMC flash
  • 64 MB SPI NAND flash
  • EERPOM
• Networking – 2x RealTek RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet controllers
• 260-pin SO-DIMM edge connector for I/Os
• Misc – Bootstrap switch
• Power Supply – On-module PMIC
• Dimensions – 69.6 x 45 mm

Banana Pi BPI-AI2N carrier board specifications:

• Supported SoM – BPI-AI2N-Core described above
• Storage
  • M.2 Key-M 2280 socket for NVMe SSD
  • MicroSD card slot
• Display Interface – MIPI DSI connector
• Camera Interfaces – 2x MIPI CSI connectors
• Networking
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
  • WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 via RTL8821CU USB module
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.0 Type-A ports
  • 1x USB-C OTG and power port
• Expansion
  • 40-pin GPIO header
• Debugging
  • 3-pin Debug UART header (unpopulated)
  • USB Type-C console port
• Misc
  • Sleep, Power, and Recovery buttons
  • 3-pin fan connector (5V, PWM)
  • RTC + CR1220 battery holder
• Power Supply – 12V via USB-PD or DC jack
• Dimensions – 100 x 79 mm

While the carrier board looks like an NVIDIA Jetson Nano carrier board, the BPI-AI2N module and carrier are not compatible with the Jetson Nano/NX pinout. The carrier board is also designed to work with the upcoming Renesas RZ-V2H-based Banana Pi BPI-AI2H module, delivering higher AI performance (8 TOPS, 80 TOPS sparse) and supporting additional USB ports. Documentation for that one is limited at this stage, and it’s not for sale, so we’ll check it out in more detail another time.

Documentation for the BPI-AI2N module and carrier board is better (although not quite perfect), with basic specifications, PDF schematics, and links to Yocto and Armbian images and BSPs based on Linux 6.1. To get an idea of the capabilities and performance of the module and devkit, you can check out the review on Mehatronika (in Serbian), which includes various benchmarks and tests of Armbian and Yocto images. The review is positive, except that the fan and camera didn’t work on Armbian. I reckon the latter is quite an issue for a “Vision AI” system….

Banana Pi sells BPI-AI2N hardware on AliExpress as follows:

• BPI-AI2N-Core system-on-module – $266
• BPI-AI2N-Carrier board – $26.70
• Heatsink and fan combo – $6.70
• Camera module – $21.28
• Optional MIPI to HDMI adapter board – $14.36

We’ve covered other Renesas RZ/V2N modules from Geniatech, SOMDEVICES, and IMD Technologies, but these embedded systems companies typically focus on B2B business. Banana Pi makes it easier to purchase without going through the sales team or an FAE…

The post Banana Pi BPI-AI2N – A Renesas RZ/V2N-based SoM and carrier board for Vision AI applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Lantronix Open-M 720G and 520G are compact (43x44mm) LGA system-on-modules (SoM) powered by 6nm MediaTek Genio 720 and Genio 520 SoCs, offering an AI performance of 10 TOPS, and designed for Edge IoT applications running low-power Vision AI and GenAI tasks.

The Genio 720 dual-camera module ships with 8GB LPDDR5 and the Genio 520 single-camera module with 4GB LPDDR5. Both offer 128GB UFS storage, Gigabit Ethernet, optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, dual display support, audio inputs/outputs, USB 3.2/2.0 interfaces, PCIe Gen2 x1, and more.

Lantronix Open-M 720G/520G specifications:

• SoC (one or the other)
  • MediaTek Genio 520 (MT8371)
    • CPU – 2x Cortex-A78 up to 2.2GHz,  6x Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz
    • GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC2 up to 880 MHz
    • VPU
      • Video Decode – Up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60fps
      • Video Encode – Up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60fps
    • ISP – 1x ISP
    • NPU – NPU850 AI accelerator up to 10 TOPS
  • MediaTeck Genio 720 (MT8391)
    • CPU – 2x Cortex-A78 up to 2.6 GHz,  6x Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz
    • GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC2 up to 1.1 GHz
    • VPU
      • Video Decode – Up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60fps
      • Video Encoder – Up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60fps
    • ISP – 2x ISP
    • NPU – NPU850 AI accelerator up to 9 TOPS
• System Memory – 4GB (Genio 520) or 8GB (Genio 720) LPDDR5
• Storage – 64GB UFS 3.1
• Wireless – Optional Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5.x
• LGA pads
  • Storage – SD card interface
  • Display Interfaces
    • 4-lane MIPI DSI
    • 4-lane eDP, 4-lane DP (multiplexed with USB3.0)
    • 4-lane LVDS (multiplexed with DSI)
    • Single display – Up to 5120 x 2160 @ 60 fps, or 3840 x 2160 @ 60 fps, 2560 x 1600 @ 120 fps
    • Dual displays – Up to 2560 x 1600 @ 60 fps
    • Supports capacitive touch panel controlled by I2C
  • Camera Interfaces
    • 2x 4-lane MIPI-CSI, up to 2.5 Gbps/lane
    • Genio 520 – Single camera, single ISP, up to 16 MP
    • Genio 720 – Supports 2 cameras, dual ISP, up to 16 MP + 16 MP @ 30 fps camera
  • Audio
    • 3x analog output – Line-out, earpiece, headphone
    • 3x analog input – MIC0, MIC1 (earpiece), MIC2
    • I2S/PCM
  • Networking  – Gigabit Ethernet
  • USB – 3x USB 3.2, 3x USB 2.0
  • PCIe – PCIe Gen2 x1
  • Other I/Os – 4x UART, ADC, I2C, SPI, GPIOs, SDIO
• Power/Battery
  • Input voltage – 3.7V nominal
  • Power management and battery charging solution on SOM
• Dimensions – 43 x 44 x 2.95 mm LGA SoM
• Temperature Range – -35°C to +75°C
• Certifications – NDAA, TCA

The company provides support for Android 15 and Yocto Linux, and Ubuntu support is on the roadmap. The modules are also supported by the NVIDIA TAO framework. Target applications include drones, smart security cameras, industrial IoT, HMIs, smart displays, and automation mobile robots and warehouse automation.

Lantronix also released the Open-M 720G SOM Development Kit for evaluation and early software development before the custom carrier board is ready. It’s a mini-ITX (17x17cm) board with HDMI, USB-C (DisplayPort), and eDP display interfaces, two MIPI CSI connectors, various audio interfaces, an Ethernet RJ45 jack, several USB ports, M.2 B-Key and E-Key sockets, GPIO headers, 12V DC input, and external battery support.

Pricing information is often not available for this type of product, but in this case, Lantronix is selling samples online, and the wireless version of the Open-M 720G and Open-M 520G sell for $286.21 and $436.09, while the TAA-compliant Open M-720 SOM Dev Kit goes for $1,300. The relatively high prices may be due to TAA and NDAA compliance and at least 10 years of longevity for the system-on-modules. Additional information can be found on the product page.

The post Lantronix Open-M 720G/520G – Ultra-compact LGA system-on-modules based on MediaTek Genio 720 and Genio 520 SoCs appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

The Arduino Ventuno Q is a single board computer pairing a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ8 (IQ-8275) octa-core Edge AI SoC with an STM32H5F5 Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller for real-time I/Os.

First introduced at Embedded World 2026, the Ventuno Q is the second Qualcomm-based Arduino board after the Arduino UNO Q launched in October 2025. It’s quite a different beast with a larger design featuring 16GB LPDDR5, 64GB eMMC flash, an M.2 socket for NVMe storage, 2.5GbE and Wi-Fi 6 networking, a 4K-capable HDMI output, and two USB 3.2 ports, while still offloading real-time I/O to a Cortex-M33 microcontroller.

Arduino Ventuno Q (ABX00181) specifications:

• SoC  – Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ8 (IQ-8275, also known as QCS8275):
  • CPU – Octa-core Kryo Gen 6 (Arm Cortex-A78/A55) processor
  • GPU – Adreno A623
  • AI accelerator -Hexagon Tensor AI Processor (NPU) up to 40 dense TOPS
  • ISP – Qualcomm Spectra 692/690 ISP
• Microcontroller (MCU) – STMicro STM32H5F5
  • CPU core – Arm Cortex M33 at 250MHz
  • Memory – 1.5MB RAM
  • Storage – 4MB flash
• System Memory – 16GB LPDDR5
• Storage
  • 64GB eMMC flash
  • M.2 socket for NVMe Gen4 SSD
• Display
  • HDMI muxed with MIPI DSI on JMEDIA header
  • DP Alt mode via USB-C port
  • MIPI DSI pins on JMEDIA header
• Audio – 2x Microphone IN, Headphone OUT, Ear OUT, and Line OUT on JMISC header
• Camera
  • USB camera support
  • 3x MIPI CSI connectors muxed with 2x MIPI CSI on JMEDIA header
• Networking
  • 2.5GbE RJ45 port
  • Tri-band (2.4/5/6 GHz) Wi-Fi 6 with onboard antenna
  • Bluetooth 5.3 with onboard antenna
• USB
  • USB-C port with host/device role switching, power role switch and video output
  • 2x USB 3.0 Type-A port
  • 2x USB 3.0 on JOMEGA header
• CAN Bus
  • 1x CAN-FD PHY on screw terminal
  • 3x CAN-FD (no PHY) on JOMEGA header
  • 1x CAN-FD (no PHY) on UNO Shield headers
• Expansion
  • Arduino UNO compatible headers
  • 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible header
  • Qwiic I2C connector
  • JMEDIA, JOMEGA, and JMISC headers
• Misc
  • 104x LED matrix
  • Fan connector
• Power Supply
  • 5V/3A via USB-C connector
  • 12-24V DC via 5.5×2.1 mm power jack
  • 7-24 V DC via screw terminal
  • 7-24 V DC on JOMEGA connector
• Dimensions – 160 x 100 x 25.8 mm

The specifications and block diagram for the board show that the Ventuno Q is a rather complex and versatile board with plenty of ports and I/Os. As I write this article, the documentation and datasheet (ABX00181-datasheet.pdf) still point to 404 pages, so I got most of the information from the product page and a draft user manual from the Element14 website.

The Qualcomm processor runs Ubuntu and Debian upstream, while the STM32H5 microcontroller is supported by Arduino core on Zephyr. The Ventuno Q board is supported by the Arduino App Lab for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It allows developers to write Arduino sketches for the MCU and Python scripts running on Linux, and deploy AI models in a unified development environment.

Arduino will open pre-orders for the Ventuno Q for $299 later today. Note that it’s an introductory price, so I’d expect the price to increase after pre-orders.

The post $299 Arduino Ventuno Q SBC combines Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ8 SoC and STM32H5 MCU appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Computer Equipment Group has launched the Firehat, an open-source FireWire HAT that adds a native IEEE 1394 / i.LINK / DV port to SBCs with a Raspberry Pi PCIe FFC connector like the Pi 5 or the Radxa ROCK 2F.

Built around a VIA VT6315N controller, the Firehat provides a modern way to capture footage from MiniDV, Digital8, DVCAM, DVCPRO, and HDV camcorders. It lets users connect compatible cameras or decks to an SBC and record the original digital DV stream directly to local storage, without legacy computers or discontinued FireWire capture cards.

Firehat specifications:

• Compatibility – Radxa ROCK 2F, Raspberry Pi 5, and other SBCs that expose PCIe over an FPC connector (or via adapter)
• Controller – VIA VT6315N FireWire / IEEE 1394 controller
• Display – 1.3-inch monochrome OLED display onboard
• Camera input port – 6-pin FireWire/i.LINK/DV port
• Host interface
  • PCIe 2.0 FFC connector for video
  • 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header for OLED, buttons, LEDs, and buzzer control
• Misc
  • 3x low-profile SMD tactile buttons
  • 3x SK6812 RGB LEDs
  • 1x PWM-controlled SMD buzzer
• Dimensions – 56 x 70 x 12 mm
• Weight – 25 grams
• Certifications – CCE and UKCA certifications are pending

The Firehat connects to the SBC through both the 40-pin GPIO header and the PCIe FFC connector. The GPIO header provides power and handles the OLED, buttons, LEDs, and buzzer, while the PCIe FFC connection carries the FireWire data between the VIA VT6315N controller and the SBC.

In terms of software support, the Firehat works as a standard PCIe FireWire controller on Linux using the FireWire stack. DV capture is handled with open-source tools such as dvgrab and dvcont (a command-line utility inside the libavc1394 library), while the Equip-1 software stack provides a more complete standalone recorder interface. Firehat also supports FireWire device control, allowing compatible cameras and tape decks to play, stop, rewind, and trigger captures through software.

The Firehat is fully open-source, with its KiCad schematics, PCB layouts, 3D models, and other hardware files released under the CERN OHL-S license. The software is licensed under GPL, and the design files and documentation are available on the project’s GitHub repository.

We have covered plenty of PCIe HATs for the Raspberry Pi 5 for adding an NVMe SSD, 5G cellular connectivity, a DAB digital radio, and various other features, but never one that supports the FireWire protocol. The Firehat fills that gap with support for native DV and HDV capture over FireWire.

The Firehat is available on Crowd Supply with a $7,500 funding goal. A $79 pledge includes the Firehat main board, a 1.3-inch OLED screen, a 25 mm coaxial shielded FPC cable, and a 30-cm IEEE 1394 6-pin to 4-pin FireWire cable. Shipping is free in the US and adds $12 for other countries, with deliveries expected to start on February 3, 2027.

The post Firehat is an open-source FireWire DV capture HAT for SBCs with Raspberry Pi PCIe FFC connector (Crowdfunding) appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Advantech AOM-6741 is a SMARC 2.2 Full Size module powered by a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-9075 octa-core SoC with up to 100 TOPS (INT8) of AI performance, up to 36 GB LPDDR5 memory, and 128GB UFS storage.

The module also features two MIPI DSI connectors, at least one MIPI CSI connector, and exposes all I/Os through a standard 314-pin MXM 3.0 edge connector, including four DisplayPort interfaces, dual 2.5GbE, two USB 3.2 Gen2, PCIe Gen3 x2 and x4 interfaces, and more. With support for up to 16 concurrent cameras, the OAM-06741 SoM mainly targets industrial-grade vision intelligence applications.

Advantech AOM-6741 specifications:

• SoC – Qualcomm DragonWing IQ-9075
  • CPU
    • Octa-core Kryo Gen 6 (Cortex-A78C-based) application cores @ up to 3.2 GHz (according to Advantech, conflicts with earlier announcements mentioning up to 2.36 GHz)
    • Quad-core Cortex-R52 real-time cores @ up to 1.85GHz
  • GPU – Adreno 663 GPU delivering up to 1.2 TFLOPS FP32 with secure GPU compute; supports Vulkan 1.2, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP, Adreno NN Direct
  • VPU – Adreno VPU 765
    • Video Decode:
      • AV1 / HEVC / H.265 / H.264 / VP9 / MPEG-2
      • 1x 8Kp60 / 2x 8Kp30 / 4x 4Kp60 / 8x 4Kp30 / 16x 1080p60 / 32x 1080p30
    • Video Encode:
      • H.264 / H.265 / HEIF / HEIC
      • 2x 4Kp60 / 4x 4Kp30 / 8x 1080p60 / 16x 1080p30
    • Concurrent 2x 4Kp60 encode + 2x 4Kp60 decode
  • AI accelerator
    • Hexagon Tensor Processor (HTP) with quad HVX and dual HMX
    • 100 TOPS (dense) or 200 TOPS (sparse)
    • Supports deep-learning frameworks: TensorFlow, PyTorch, ONNX, Paddle, Caffe, DarkNet, etc.
• System Memory – Up to 36 GB LPDDR5 at 8400 MT/s
• Storage – 128 GB UFS flash
• Display Interfaces – 2x 4-lane MIPI DSI connectors up to 4Kp30
• Camera Interface – 1x MIPI CSI connector
• 314-pin MXM 3.0 edge connector
  • Video Output
    • 4x DisplayPort up to 4Kp60
    • 2x 4-lane MIPI DSI interface (likely multiplexed with the connectors on the module)
  • Camera Interfaces – 4x 4-lane MIPI-CSI  (likely multiplexed with the connector on the module)
  • Audio – 2x I2S
  • Networking – 2x 2.5Gbps Ethernet interfaces
  • USB – 2x USB 3.2 Gen2, 3x USB 2.0
  • Serial
    • 2x 4-wire UART, 2x 2-wire UART
    • 8x CAN-FD
  • PCIe – 1x PCIe 3.0 x4, 1x PCIe 3.0 x2
  • Low-speed I/Os – 14x GPIO, 1x SPI, 3x I2C
• Security – Qualcomm Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) v5.3
• Misc – RTC (EPSON RX-8900CE-UB)
• Power Supply
  • Supply Voltages – 5V + 12V (onboard connector)
    Consumption –  25W/50W TDP
• Dimensions – 82 x 80 mm (AOM 1.0, SMARC form-factor based)
• Temperature Range – -25 to 70°C (unthrottled)
• Humidity – 5 – 95% relative humidity, non-condensing
• Certifications – CE/FCC Class B

The photos, block diagram, and specifications are slightly confusing because they don’t match exactly. For instance, the MIPI connectors clearly seen in the photo/illustration at the top of the post don’t show in the block diagram above or the specifications on the Advantech website. The company also listed a maximum frequency of 3.2 GHz, which appears to be wrong based on earlier announcements and the latest specs from Qualcomm.

On the software front, the Qualcomm IQ-9075 SMARC module supports Ubuntu 24.04 and the Advantech Robotic Suite with AI frameworks, multimedia pipelines, and ROS2-based tools. As a side note, the Qualcomm IQ-9075 SoC is part of the upstream-first Qualcomm Linux 2.0 platform, so mainline Linux (or close to it) should be supported if Qualcomm keeps its commitment (something it has not always done in the past).

We’ve covered a few other IQ-9075 platforms such as the Firefly AIBOX-9075 Edge AI box and Innodisk EXEC-Q911 COM-HPC Mini starter kit, but no SMARC module so far. Having said that, as first seen in the Radxa/Qualcomm roadmap, Radxa is working on its own VMARC-Q9075 SMARC 2.0 module with similar features, except it features two on-board 2.5GbE PHYs and no MIPI connectors.

Advantech says the AOM-6741 SMARC module is sampling now, but hasn’t provided pricing information. It was launched alongside the ASR-A503 (4-inch SBC) and AFE-A503 (full system) robotic controllers, and the AIR-055 edge AI system, all powered by the same Dragonwing IQ-9075 SoC, albeit not based on the AOM-6741 module as far as I can tell. Additional information may be found on the product page and in the press release.

Thanks to TLS for the tip.

The post Advantech AOM-6741 AI Vision SMARC module features 100 TOPS Qualcomm IQ-9075 SoC, up to 36 GB LPDDR5 appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Jetway PIC-TWL1 is a compact (100×72 mm) fanless Pico-ITX motherboard powered by an Intel N150 Twin Lake processor and engineered for industrial control, factory automation, facial recognition, and edge embedded systems.

The board supports up to 32GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and NVMe SSD storage, and features HDMI and LVDS/eDP display interfaces, two USB 3.2 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, an M.2 E-Key socket for WiFi and Bluetooth, and several headers for GPIOs, RS232/RS485, USB 2.0, audio, SMBUs, and front panel connections. It takes 12V DC power and can operate in a -20°C ~ 60°C temperature range.

Jetway PIC-TWL1 specifications:

• SoC – Intel Processor N150
  • CPU – Quad-core Twin Lake processor @ 800 MHz / 3.6 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache
  • GPU – 24EU Intel UHD graphics @ 1.0 GHz
  • TDP – 6W
• System Memory –  Up to 32GB DDR5 4800 MT/s via single-channel SO-DIMM slot
• Storage – NVMe SSD via M.2 B+M-Key socket (See expansion section)
• Display interfaces
  • HDMI 1.4b up to 4096 × 2160 @ 30Hz
  • 24-bit dual channel LVDS up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz (Co-Lay eDP)
  • Supports 2x independent displays
• Audio – Internal header for Line-Out and MIC-In with Realtek Audio CODEC
• Networking
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports via RTL8111H controllers
  • Optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth via M.2 2230 E-Key (See expansion section)
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 (10 Gbps) ports
  • 4x USB 2.0 via internal header
• Serial – 2x RS-232/422/485 via internal header
• Expansion
  • M.2 B+M-Key 2242/3042/3052 socket (USB3/SATA/PCIe Gen3 x2)
  • M.2 E-Key 2230 socket (USB 2.0/PCIe 3.0 x1)
  • 8-bit GPIO header
• Security – Intel PTT (Integrated fTPM)
• Misc
  • RTC with lithium battery
  • AT/ATX mode selection header
  • UEFI BIOS with Wake-on-LAN, Watchdog timer
  • SMBUS header
  • 4-pin Connector for CPU Fan (PWM Mode)
  • Front panel header for HDD Active LED, Power LED, Power On/Off, and Reset
• Power Supply – 12V via DC jack or 2-pin header; AT / ATX (default) mode
• Dimensions – 100 x 72 mm (Pico-ITX form factor)
• Temperature Range
  • Operating – -20°C ~ 60°C
  • Storage – -20°C ~ 85°C
• Humidity – 10 ~ 90% @ 40°C, non-condensing
• Certification – CE/FCC Class A

Jetway provides support for Windows 11 64-bit and Linux. I initially thought the PIC-TWL1 would be a direct update to the JPIC-ADN1 (Processor N97/N200) and PIC-ASL1 (Atom x7213RE/x7433RE), but the company made a few changes. The new Twin Lake Pico-ITX SBC does without a SIM card slot, so 4G/5G cellular support is gone, and the SATA connector has also been removed. The new board gains an extra GbE RJ45 port and a DC jack option. I can’t see a CPU fan either, so the PIC-TWL1 is designed to run fanless with a thick heatsink placed under the board.

Some Pico-ITX Twin Lake competitors include the MSI MS-CF16 (upgraded with Twin Lake options), Portwell PICO-8020/PICO-8021, and AAEON PICO-ADN1, each with two Ethernet ports and similar, yet slightly different, specifications. As a side note, Jetway is part of AAEON, itself part of the larger ASUS Group.

The PIC-TWL1 Twin Lake Pico-ITX motherboard ships with a F05-PICO-01-F heatsink (shown above on a PIC-ASL1 board) and a COM cable. Samples can be purchased on the Jetway eShop for $315. Additional information is available on the product page.

The post Jetway PIC-TWL1 Intel N150 Pico-ITX motherboard is made for industrial automation and embedded systems appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

MNT Research, the Berlin-based team behind the MNT Reform, MNT Pocket Reform, Reform 2, and MNT Reform Next, has launched the MNT Station, a fanless, open-hardware modular computer designed for use as a desktop PC, home server, NAS, router, edge device, or low-power media center.

The MNT Station is built around the MNT Reform mainboard ecosystem and designed for those who want to reuse an existing MNT Reform mainboard (versions 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0) as a stationary computer, as well as those building a modular Arm (or FPGA-based) desktop from scratch using the new MNT Reform Mainboard 3.0. Like other MNT systems, it’s fully open-source hardware, and the 200-pin processor module connector supports different processor modules, including the Rockchip RK3588, NXP Layerscape LS1028A, and Raspberry Pi CM4, among others.

MNT Station specifications:

• SoC/Processor and Memory options (via 200-pin module)
  • Rockchip RK3588 (MNT RCORE V2) — 4× Cortex-A76 + 4× Cortex-A55 @ up to 2.4 GHz, 16 or 32 GB LPDDR4, Mali-G610 GPU, 256 GB eMMC
  • NXP Layerscape LS1028A — dual-core Cortex-A72 @ 1.5 GHz with 8 or 16 GB DDR4, Vivante GC7000UL GPU (fully open-hardware design, can run blob-free)
  • NXP i.MX 8M Plus — Quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz (up to 2 GHz), 8 GB LPDDR4, Vivante GC7000UL GPU, 2.3 TOPS NPU
  • NXP i.MX 8MQ (original classic Reform module) — Quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz with 4 GB LPDDR4, Vivante GC7000L GPU
  • Raspberry Pi CM4 — Quad-core Cortex-A72 module with up to 8 GB LPDDR4, VideoCore VI GPU (via RCM4 adapter)
  • Amlogic A311D (Banana Pi CM4) — Hexa-core 4× Cortex-A73 + 2× Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.2 GHz with 4 GB LPDDR4, Mali-G52 GPU (via RCM4 adapter)
  • Rockchip RK3566 (Pine64 SOQuartz) — Quad-core Cortex-A55 module with 8 GB RAM, Mali-G52 GPU (via CM4 adapter); note: Pine64 has stopped manufacturing Linux devices for now.
  • AMD/Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA module (RKX7) — For industrial use, can run RISC-V softcore (LiteX / VexRiscv) or custom gateware
  • MNT Quasar (Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 / QCS8550) — currently in development; others (Amlogic, Qualcomm, AMD/Xilinx FPGA)
  • Note: All modules that use the 200-pin connector and work with classic MNT Reform mainboards (v2.0 / 2.5 / 3.0) are compatible with the Station
• System Controller – NXP LPC11U24 (open-source firmware), flashable via a dedicated USB Type-C port
• Storage
  • M.2 M-Key slot (up to 4x PCIe 3.0+ lanes) mainly for NVMe SSDs
  • mPCIe slot (1x PCIe 2.0 lane) usable for secondary SSD/RAID via M.2 adapter
  • eMMC flash (module dependent, e.g., 256 GB on the RK3588 kit)
  • MicroSD card slot
• Display
  • Full-size HDMI port
  • Optional DisplayPort Alt-Mode (requires Dual USB Type-C expansion kit and supported processor module like RK3588 or Quasar)
• Audio – TRRS stereo headphone jack with microphone support; internal 1x 4-pin JST PH stereo speaker connector
• Networking
  • Gigabit Ethernet port
  • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth via mPCIe or M.2 E-Key adapters (e.g., Intel Gig+ Wi-Fi 6E module)
  • 2x SMA antenna panel-mount holes on the enclosure
• USB
  • 3x USB Type-A ports
  • 1x USB Type-C port (for PD power input + built-in UART-to-USB for serial debug and control)
  • 2x internal 4-pin JST PH connectors with USB 2.0
  • Optional dual USB Type-C expansion kit (adds 2x USB-C ports with USB 2.0 and DP Alt-Mode)
• Expansion
  • 1x mPCIe slot (PCIe 2.0 x1)
  • 1x 4-pin JST SH connector for I2C sensors/displays (Qwiic compatible)
• Misc
  • Power button
  • 10 Linux-controllable LEDs
  • The electronic port has an ATtiny MCU that communicates with the mainboard to drive the LEDs
• Power
  • USB Type-C PD input (65-100W adapter recommended)
  • 2-pin JST PH direct power input connector
  • Optional Battery/UPS system supporting 8x LiFePO4 cells in series with monitoring/balancing and open-source Linux drive
  • Consumption – ~20 W (with RK3588)
• Dimensions – 279 x 133 x 26 mm
• Enclosure – CNC-milled, bead-blasted, anodized 6061 aluminum (The case can lie flat, stand on its long edge, or be mounted)
• Mounting – VESA MIS-D (75 x 75 mm and 100 x 100 mm) and 2x wall-mount keyhole slots
• Volume – 0.96 liters
• Weight – 0.68 kg

The MNT Station runs Debian GNU/Linux, and the company provides system images for different processor modules, while the community maintains reform.debian.net with updated Debian Trixie images, backports, a custom apt repository, and a patched Debian Installer. Desktop options include Sway and GNOME, with Wayfire also supported, while most processor modules have mainline Linux kernel support along with open-source U-Boot and System Controller firmware. More information about the module is available on the GitLab repository or on their documentation page.

The MNT Station has just been launched on Crowd Supply, where the MNT Station case starts at $299 and the MNT Reform Mainboard 3.0 at $429. You can also add a compatible processor module, such as the RCORE RK3588 for $899 or the Raspberry Pi CM4 adapter for $155. The campaign also offers additional add-ons, including the dual USB-C expansion, protected battery boards, M.2 SSDs, and Wi-Fi 6 antennas. Shipping for all orders is expected to begin in late January 2027.

The post MNT Station fanless, modular open-hardware computer supports a choice of 10+ Arm CPU or FPGA modules (Crowdfunding) appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Nordic Semiconductor has launched the nRF93M1 DK (Development Kit) based on the nRF93M1-LABA LTE Cat 1 bis with Wi-Fi and cellular location and a Nordic Semi nRF54L15 host microcontroller.

The nRF93M1 module was first introduced at Embedded World 2026 last March, and the company has now announced general availability of the nRF93M1-LABA smart modem module for Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and sampling of the nRF93M1-LACA module for global markets, scheduled to become available in Q3 2026. The announcement also covers the launch of the nRF93M1 Development Kit, which was teased last March with limited details. Time to have a closer look.

nRF93M1 DK specifications:

• Host MCU – Nordic Semiconductor nRF54L15
  • MCU cores
    • Arm Cortex-M33 with Arm TrustZone @ 128MHz
    • RISC-V coprocessor for software-defined peripheral
  • Memory – 256KB SRAM
  • Storage – 1.5MB non-volatile memory
  • Wireless
    • Bluetooth 6.0
      • Data rates – 2Mbps, 1Mbps, 500kbps, 125kbps
      • Features (TBC in built-in firmware)
        • AoA / AoD
        • Channel Sounding
    • 802.15.4 radio for Thread, Zigbee, Matter
    • Nordic Proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol up to 4 Mbps
    • Frequency – 2402 to 2480 MHz
    • +8dBm output power
• Cellular connectivity
  • Nordic Semi nRF93M1 cellular modem module
    • 3GPP LTE release 14 Cat 1 bis compliant
    • 617-2690 MHz LTE FDD and TDD band support
    • Power Class 3 (23 dBm)
    • Data rates – Up to 10 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink
  • SubMiniature Version A (SMA) antenna interface and antenna (included)
  • SIM card socket for nano-SIM (4FF SIM) and footprint for eSIM
• USB
  • 1x USB Type-C port (USB1) for power, debugging and programming nRF54L15
  • 1x USB Type-C port (USB2) for trace connection to the nRF93M1 module
• Expansion – GPIO headers
• Debugging
  • Nordic Semi nRF5340 interface MCU via USB1
    • Serial Wire Debug (SWD) debugging/programming and serial port functions through USB-C
    • SEGGER J-Link OB programmer/debugger
  • Trace connection to the nRF93M1 module via USB2
•  Misc
  • Reset button, 2x user buttons
  • 1x user LED
  • Onboard PCB antenna for nRF54L15
  • Interfaces for current consumption measurements
• Power Supply
  • 5V via USB-C port
  • 3.3V to 4.2V battery support
  • nPM1300 – Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC)
  • Buck DC/DC regulator provides 3.8 V/1.5 A output for the nRF93M1 module
• Dimensions – TBD

The nRF93M1 Development Kit ships with the board loaded with preprogrammed firmware, an LTE antenna, and a pre-loaded Onomondo trial SIM card. Nordic also releases the hardware design files for the boards, including the schematics, PCB layout files, bill of materials, and Gerber files.

Developers can prototype and develop embedded applications through the nRF Connect SDK and Nordic’s AI-assisted development flow. The nRF93M1 DK also works with any other bare metal or RTOS host via the direct AT command interface, PPP, or USB. Check out the developer’s documentation for instructions to get started and more technical information.

The nRF93M1 DK is available starting at $60 from distributors such as DigiKey, Rutronik, CoreStaff, Verical, and Future Electronics. You’ll find the purchase links and a few more details on the product page. The nRF93M1-LABA module itself goes for $19.58 on DigiKey for a single unit, and about $13.5 per piece for orders of 700 modules.

Via Hackster.io

The post $60+ Nordic Semi nRF93M1 Development Kit (DK) targets LTE Cat 1 bis IoT applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Forlinx has just introduced the FCU3101, a fanless Edge AI system based on the Rockchip RV1126B/RV1126BJ SoC and designed for Industrial IoT (IIoT) and smart security applications, such as video surveillance, license plate recognition, intrusion detection, industrial inspection, and material counting.

It ships with up to 4GB of DDR4, up to 64GB of eMMC storage, and includes dual Ethernet, Wi-Fi 4, Bluetooth 4.2, optional 4G LTE, RS485, RS232, digital I/O, relay outputs, HDMI, and USB ports. It supports up to 9–36V DC input and operates in the -40°C to +85°C temperature range in its industrial configuration.

Forlinx FCU3101 specifications:

• SoC – Rockchip RV1126B or RV1126BJ (industrial-grade version)
  • CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 up to 1.6 GHz with 32KB L1 I-Cache and 32KB L1 D-Cache, unified 512KB L2 Cache
  • GPU – 2D Graphics Engine
  • VPU
    • Video Decoder – H.265/H.264 up to 3840×2160 @ 30fps
    • Video Encoder  – H.265, H.264, JPEG up to 12Mbps @ 30fps
    • JPEG Decoder
  • AI accelerator – Rockchip NPU engine up to 3 TOPS (INT8); supports INT4, INT8, INT16, and FP16 models; TensorFlow, ONNX, PyTorch, and Caffe frameworks.
• System Memory – 2GB or 4GB DDR4 options
• Storage
  • 16GB or 64GB eMMC flash options
  • MicroSD card slot supporting up to 128GB
• Video Output – HDMI up to 1920×1080 resolution
• Audio – 3.5mm AUX analog audio output, built-in buzzer
• Networking
  • Dual Ethernet (1x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x 10/100Mbps Ethernet)
  • Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2
  • Optional 4G LTE Cat 1 cellular module via a push-push Nano SIM card slot
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 host port, 1x USB 2.0 host port
• Serial
  • 2x RS485 (115200bps, selectable 120Ω termination via internal DIP switch)
  • 2x RS232 (115200bps)
• Other I/O
  • 2x Digital Input (DI, dry contact)
  • 2x Relay Output (DO, Normally Open, 5A/30VDC contact capacity)
• Debugging – USB Type-C debug port
• Misc – RTC with internal battery, hardware watchdog, reset button, programmable light bar (defaults to a blue flowing LED effect)
• Power – 9V to 36V DC wide input (24V recommended) via terminal block, featuring reverse polarity and overcurrent protection
• Dimensions – 202 x 123 x 42 mm (Desktop and wall-mounting options via M3 screws)
• Weight – 800 grams
• Temperature Range – Extended Commercial Grade: -20°C to +85°C; Industrial Grade: -40°C to +85°C
• EMC Protection – Level 3

The company provides a Linux 6.1 SDK for the FCU3101 embedded PC, and also offers various ready-to-use AI algorithms for common vision tasks, including personnel and safety detection, smoke/fire recognition, intrusion detection, license plate recognition, defect inspection, and material counting. Besides pre-trained models, custom algorithm development is also available.

We have already come across various SBCs, SoMs, cameras, and KVMs built around the Rockchip RV1126 SoC, including the Luckfox Aura, the Boardcon Tiny1126B, Firefly CQ38W-1126B, the CQ38W-3576 AI camera, and LeafKVM. However, this is the first complete fanless industrial Edge AI embedded box/gateway based on the Rockchip RV1126B/RV1126BJ that we have featured on CNX Software.

Like other industrial products from Forlinx, the company does not mention any pricing details for the FCU3101, so you will need to contact them directly for more information and quotations. Forlinx notes a lead time of 5 working days for sample orders and 6 weeks for bulk orders. The company expects to secure CE, FCC, and RoHS certifications by Q4 2026. More information can be found on the product page.

The post Rockchip RV1126B-based Forlinx FCU3101 fanless edge AI system targets IIoT and smart security applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

After successfully launching the Openterface Mini-KVM and Openterface KVM-GO, TechxArtisan has just introduced the Openterface KeyMod pocket-sized USB multi-tool that turns an Android or iOS smartphone into a wireless keyboard, mouse, gamepad, presentation remote, or an SSH terminal for controlling PCs, servers, kiosks, Raspberry Pi boards, and other USB hosts. It comes in two variants: the KeyMod Mini with a USB-C port, and the KeyMod Plus with a USB-A port.

KeyMod Mini connects to the phone through Bluetooth 5.3, while KeyMod Plus relies on a wired USB connection for higher bandwidth. It provides USB HID keyboard and mouse functions that work even in BIOS, along with a USB CDC-ECM network bridge for SSH, VNC, SCP, rsync, and other TCP-based tools. The hardware uses a CH32V208 HID controller and USB composite architecture and is powered directly from the target’s USB port. It is designed for IT support, server administration, embedded development, Raspberry Pi and SBC maintenance, kiosks, presentations, and gaming, where a compact phone-based control interface is useful.

Openterface KeyMod Mini/Plus specifications:

• Microcontroller – WCH CH32V208 RISC-V MCU @ up to 144 MHz with Bluetooth LE, USB 2.0
• Control method (Phone/Tablet)
  • Bluetooth 5.3 LE (Range: ~5 m optimal, max ~10 m in open space)
  • Wired USB (KeyMod Plus only) via USB Type-C female port for high-bandwidth/low-latency control
  • 128-bit AES encryption with ECDH P-256 key exchange (via upcoming firmware update)
• USB
  • KeyMod Mini – USB Type-C male plug up to 2 Mbps (Ultra-compact EDC)
  • KeyMod Plus – USB Type-A male (target) + Type-C female port (controlling phone)  up to 10 Mbps (Server/Rack ops)
• Misc
  • Programmable button
  • Enclosure – 3D-printed enclosure (injection-molded case may be offered on later SKUs if the campaign succeeds)
• Power – 5V via USB from the target machine (battery-free design)
• Dimensions and Weight
  • Mini: 25 × 15 × 5 mm | ~2.4 grams
  • Plus: 44 × 20 × 10 mm | ~8.9 grams
• Certifications – CE and UKCA certifications are currently in progress

The hardware works with the companion KeyCmd app for Android 5.0 or later and iOS/iPadOS 17.0 or later. At launch, the KeyCmd app supports the following core features, with additional capabilities still in development:

• Compose and Send – Draft and send text, scripts, API keys, or passwords as keystrokes
• Terminal (SSH) – Run remote commands via USB virtual Ethernet (works on macOS & Linux; Windows (RNDIS) is still in development)
• Automated input – Trigger shortcuts and programmable key sequences
• Voice-to-Keyboard – Type spoken words using Whisper AI
• Gamepad Control – Control emulators and keyboard-based games
• Presentation Mode – Includes a slide timer
• Shortcut Hub – Stores app-specific profiles for Blender, VS Code, KiCad, and more
• AI Agent (Upcoming) – Automate troubleshooting by combining terminal commands and HID inputs

Because the KeyMod uses the standard USB CDC-ECM protocol, macOS and Linux systems recognize it as a network adapter without requiring additional drivers. The target is assigned 192.168.11.2, while the host uses 192.168.11.1. The company also mentions that Windows support through RNDIS is still in development. The team is also experimenting with a local/cloud LLM-based “Agent Mode” that can combine terminal commands and macros into automated workflows for debugging embedded systems.

Like previous TechxArtisan devices, this device is also open-source, and the company mentions that KeyCmd apps are currently undergoing beta review and will be open-sourced on GitHub after the campaign ends. The hardware schematics and PCB design files will also be published, with OSHWA certification planned.

The Openterface KeyMod is live on Crowd Supply with a funding goal of $15,000. Both the Mini (USB-C) and Plus (USB-A) variants are available for $42. Shipping adds $8 in the US and $18 worldwide, with Mouser Electronics handling fulfillment; deliveries are expected to begin in February 2027. More information is also available on the company’s product page and the document page.

The post Openterface KeyMod turns your smartphone into a USB keyboard, mouse, gamepad, or SSH client (Crowdfunding) appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

First introduced in 2025, the Framework Laptop 12 upgradable and repairable laptop has just gotten a new motherboard offered with a choice of Wildcat Lake (Intel Core Series 3) processors from the Core 3 304 up to the Core 7 350.

The Wildcat Lake-based convertible Laptop 12 features a 12.2-inch display with 1920 x 1200 resolution, a SO-DIMM slot supporting up to 64GB DDR5, an M.2 2230 NVMe SSD slot, and high-speed connectivity with Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 7, and more.

Framework Laptop 12 (Intel Core Series 3) specifications:

• Wildcat Lake SoC (one or the other)
  • Intel Core 3 304
    • 5-core CPU – 1x P-cores @ 1.5/4.3 GHz (Turbo) + 4x LPE-cores @ 1.4/3.3 GHz (Turbo)
    • GPU – 1-core Intel Xe3 Graphics @ 2.3 GHz (9 TOPS)
    • NPU – 15 TOPS
  • Intel Core 5 320
    • 6-core CPU – 2x P-cores @ 1.5/4.6 GHz (Turbo) + 4x LPE-cores @ 1.4/3.4 GHz (Turbo)
    • GPU – 2-core Intel Xe3 Graphics @ 2.5 GHz (20 TOPS)
    • NPU – 16 TOPS
  • Intel Core 7 350
    • 6-core CPU – 2x P-cores @ 1.5/4.6 GHz (Turbo) + 4x LPE-cores @ 1.4/3.6 GHz (Turbo)
    • GPU – 2-core Intel Xe3 Graphics @ 2.6 GHz (21 TOPS)
    • NPU – 17 TOPS
  • Common features – 15W PBP, 6 MB Intel Smart Cache
• System Memory
  • Up to 64GB DDR5-6400 via 1x SO-DIMM slot
  • Pre-built models with 8GB (Core 3 304), 16GB (Core 5 320) or 32GB (Core 7 350) RAM
  • Purchase option up to 48GB DDR5
• Storage
  • M.2 2230 NVMe SSD slot
  • Pre-built models with 512 GB
  • Purchase option up to 2TB
• Display
  • 12.2″ LCD with 1920 x 1200 resolution, 60Hz refresh rate
  • Brightness – >400nit
  • 50% NTSC color gamut
  • 1200:1 typical contrast ratio
  • DC Dimming
  • MPP 2.0 and USI 2.0 stylus support
  • Soda-lime glass
  • 360-degree hinge
• Audio
  • 3.5mm combo headphone jack
  • Stereo 2W speakers, dual high-sensitivity 67dBA SNR MEMS microphones with hardware privacy switch
• Camera – Omnivision OV02C 2MP image sensor up to 1080p 30 FPS; 80-degree field of view; 5-element lens; hardware privacy switch
• Networking – Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 via Intel BE213 module
• USB
  • Thunderbolt 4 port
  • USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, USB-PD, DisplayPort Alt Mode
  • USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, USB-PD
• Expansion – 4x user-selectable Expansion Cards
  • HDMI, DisplayPort
  • Ethernet
  • USB-C, USB-A
  • Storage cards – 250GB, 1TB
  • MicroSD or SD card reader
• Misc
  • Keyboard
    • Full-size keys with 19mm spacing and 1.5mm of travel.
    • 2nd Gen Keyboard runs ZMK firmware, with one US English backlit option available.
  • Optional battery-powered stylus
  • 2 programmable buttons
  • Biometrics  – Optional Fingerprint Reader compatible with Windows Hello on Windows 11 and libfprint on Linux
  •  Cooling
    • 64 x 5.5mm cooling fan
    • Single 8mm heat pipe
    • Honeywell PTM7958 thermal paste
• Power
  • Optional 60W GaN USB-C adapter
  • 50Wh battery
• Dimensions – 287 x 213.88 x 18.45mm
• Weight – 1.3kg
• Sustainability
  • 30% Post-consumer recycled plastic resin: Top Cover, Input Cover, Bottom Cover, Hinge Cap
  • 35% Post-consumer recycled plastic resin: Display Cover, Camera/Mic Button, Expansion Card Latch
  • Fully carbon-offset shipping
  • 100% recyclable packaging
  • Carbon capture credit can be purchased as an option

Two main variants of the Framework Laptop 12 (Intel Core Series 3) are available:

• DIY Edition
  • Input Cover
  • Framework Screwdriver
  • Customizable expansion cards
  • Optional memory, storage, stylus, and power adapter
  • OS – Bring your own. Note: Kernel 7.1 or greater is needed for Linux
• Pre-built
  • 60W power adapter
  • Framework Screwdriver
  • Customizable expansion cards
  • Optional Stylus
  • OS – Fedora 44 KDE Plasma or Windows 11 Home or Pro

The DIY takes about 10 to 20 minutes to assemble and set up (excluding OS installation). Interestingly, Framework said that Fedora 44 outsold Windows 11 by over 10 times, after opening pre-orders for about one day. It might partially be because Windows 11 Home adds $100 and Windows 11 Pro adds $150 compared to selecting the Fedora option.

The new pre-built configurations preloaded with Fedora Linux start at $699 for the Intel Core 3 304 model with 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and Fedora 44, while the DIY Edition goes for  $549 in its minimal/barebone configuration. If you already own the Laptop 12, you can also purchase the motherboard only for $299 and up. Note that these are all pre-orders, and shipping is scheduled to start in November. Additional information may be found on the product page.

Via Liliputing

The post Framework Laptop 12 repairable, convertible laptop gets Wildcat Lake motherboard, ships with Fedora 44 or Windows 11 appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

The ESP32-S31 microprocessor is getting Linux support from Espressif Systems. The ESP32-S31 dual-core RISC-V microprocessor was first unveiled in March, two ESP32-S31 development boards followed in May, and mass production was announced a few weeks ago.

The new RISC-V chip features an MMU (Memory Management Unit), which makes Linux much easier to handle, and the development boards also come with 16MB PSRAM, so a minimal Linux image is possible. Moving from theory to practice, Espressif Systems has now released a developer preview version of the ESP Linux BSP for ESP32-S31, and some community Linux ports are also in the works (more on that at the end of the article).

Let’s focus on the official ESP Linux BSP. The aforementioned repo only contains the image layout and packaging tools used by the ESP32-S31 Buildroot integration, and the core of the project can be found in the esp-buildroot-external repo with ESP32-S31 NOR boot stack and root filesystem with Buildroot 2025.02, along with instructions to build and flash an image. You can also directly check out the source code for the Linux 6.18 kernel fork used for the developer preview.

I don’t own a board, so I’ll just try to build the Linux image. A recent version of the esptool utility is still needed. Mine was esptool 4.7.0, and ESP32-S31 requires esptool 5.3.0 or greater, so I’ve updated it as follows:

sudo apt purge esptool
sudo apt install pipx
pipx ensurepath
pipx install esptool

Let’s check the version:

$ esptool version
esptool v5.3.1
5.3.1

Let’s retrieve the code following the instructions from the Buildroot External Tree repository:

mkdir ~/edev/sandbox
git clone --branch 2025.02 --depth 1 https://gitlab.com/buildroot.org/buildroot.git esp-buildroot
git clone -b buildroot/v2025.02-esp32s31 https://github.com/espressif/esp-buildroot-external.git esp-buildroot-external

You’ll notice we didn’t have to clone the esp-linux-bsp repo since it will be automatically pulled by Buildroot.

Let’s configure the build:

make -C esp-buildroot  BR2_EXTERNAL=~/edev/sandbox/esp-buildroot-external  O=~/edev/sandbox/esp32-s31-linux   espressif_esp32s31_function_core_board_nor_defconfig

Make sure it completes successfully, and the config file is written:

make: Entering directory '/home/jaufranc/edev/sandbox/esp-buildroot'
  GEN     /home/jaufranc/edev/sandbox/esp32-s31-linux/Makefile
#
# configuration written to /home/jaufranc/edev/sandbox/esp32-s31-linux/.config
#
make: Leaving directory '/home/jaufranc/edev/sandbox/esp-buildroot'

We are now ready to build the Linux for ESP32-S31:

ESP_ESPTOOL=$(which esptool)
make -C ~/edev/sandbox/esp-buildroot   O=~/edev/sandbox/esp32-s31-linux/   -j$(nproc)

This part took a while, well over one hour, as the system downloads packages and builds them. Nevertheless, we now have our Linux image ready to be flashed to the board.

...
gen_esp_flash_image: wrapping SPL -> spl_app.bin (load 0x2F040000)
esptool v5.3.1
Creating ESP32-S31 image...
Successfully created ESP32-S31 image.
gen_esp_flash_image: merging slots -> s31_full_flash.bin
esptool v5.3.1
SHA digest in image updated.
Wrote 0xd1f000 bytes to file 's31_full_flash.bin', ready to flash to offset 0x0.
gen_esp_flash_image: s31_full_flash.bin (13758464 bytes) ready in /home/jaufranc/edev/sandbox/esp32-s31-linux/images
make: Leaving directory '/home/jaufranc/edev/sandbox/esp-buildroot'

Content of the directory:

jaufranc@CNX-LAPTOP-5:~/edev/sandbox$ ls esp32-s31-linux/images/
esp32s31.dtb	fw_jump.elf	rootfs.tar	    u-boot.dtb
fw_dynamic.bin	rootfs.cpio	s31_full_flash.bin  u-boot.itb
fw_dynamic.elf	rootfs.cpio.gz	spl_app.bin	    u-boot-spl-dtb.bin
fw_jump.bin	rootfs.cramfs	u-boot.bin	    xipImage

If you have an ESP32-S31 board, you should be able to use the following command to flash the OS  image:

esptool --chip esp32s31 --port <serial-port> --baud 1152000 write-flash 0x0 <path-to-output-directory>/images/s31_full_flash.bin

Note that the Linux BSP is only for experimentation for now, not recommended for production, and only targets the ESP32-S31. Espressif also mentions “irregular updates”, potential “breaking changes”, “limited feature acceptance”, and bugs will be fixed on a “best-effort basis” during the Developer Preview. It’s also unclear what’s implemented so far, e.g., does WiFi work?

Besides the official Linux BSP, at least two community projects have been porting Linux to the ESP32-S31-Korvo-1 board:

• GrieferPig’s work is an MMU RV32 Linux 6.12 port running natively on an ESP32-S31 microcontroller. Buildroot rootfs and reboot are stable, poweroff is not implemented, and features like WiFi, Bluetooth dual mode, and dual-core support are experimental. You can check the full status and code on GitHub.
• Marco’s esp32-s31-linux brings Linux 7.1 and OpenSBI 1.9 to the ESP32-S31 Korvo-1 board. Most peripherals other than the LCD panel, microSD slot, USB host, and WLAN modem are not enabled yet. Check out the project on GitHub.

Thanks to Andy for the tip.

The post Espressif Systems releases a Linux BSP developer preview for ESP32-S31 RISC-V microprocessor appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

AAEON uCOM-Q6490 is a SMARC 2.1-compliant System-on-Module (SoM) built around the Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 octa-core SoC, designed for robotics, healthcare, industrial automation, and digital signage applications.

The 82 × 50 mm module ships with up to 16GB LPDDR5 memory and 64GB UFS storage, and its standard MXM 3.0 edge connector exposes SDIO 3.0, PCIe 3.0, dual GbE, USB 3.1, and USB 2.0 interfaces, along with UARTs, SPI, I2C, I2S, GPIOs, and a DisplayPort 1.4 output supporting 2K at 60Hz. The module is designed for LiDAR sensors, IMUs, cameras, robotic controllers, smart displays, and other industrial peripherals.

AAEON uCOM-Q6490 specifications:

• SoC – Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490
  • CPU – Octa-core Kryo 670 with 1x Gold Plus core (Cortex-A78) @ 2.7 GHz, 3x Gold cores (Cortex-A78) @ 2.4 GHz, 4x Silver cores (Cortex-A55) @ up to 1.9 GHz
  • GPU – Adreno 643L GPU @ 812 MHz with support for Open GL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.x, DX FL 12
  • DSP – Hexagon DSP with dual HVX and 4K HMX
  • VPU – Adreno 633 VPU up to 4K60 decode for H.264/H.265/VP9, Up to 4K30 encode for H.264/H.265; Support for HDR10 and HDR10+ playback
  • Spectra ISP – 64 MP / 36 + 22 MP / 3×22 MP at 30fps ZSL; 192 MP non-ZSL
  • AI – 6th gen Qualcomm AI Engine that combines Compute Hexagon DSP with dual Hexagon Vector, eXtensions (HVX), Hexagon Co-processor (Hexagon CP) 2.0, and Hexagon Tensor accelerator for up to 12 TOPS of AI performance
• System Memory – Up to 16GB onboard LPDDR5
• Storage
  • Up to 64GB UFS
  •  Onboard EEPROM
• Networking – 2x 2.5Gbps Ethernet PHY (see diagram below, but apparently limited to GbE speed)
• Interfaces via 314-pin MXM 3.0 edge connector
  • Storage – SDIO 3.0 interface intended for an SD card
  • Display – DisplayPort (DP 1.4) supporting resolutions up to 2K @ 60Hz
  • Audio – 1x I2S
  • USB
    • 1x USB 3.1
    • 4x USB 2.0 interfaces via hub controller on the SMARC module
  • Serial – 2x UART (4-wire, 1.8V) and 2x UART (2-wire, 1.8V, with one reserved as a debug port)
  • Expansion
    • 14-bit GPIO (including one designated for PWM), 2x SPI, and 3x I2C
    • 1x PCIe 3.0 x1
• Misc
  • Real-Time Clock (RTC)
  • Module UFS boot select
• Power
  • Supply – DC 3V to 5.25V
  • Consumption – 33.12 W
• Dimensions – 82 mm x 50 mm; compliant with the SMARC 2.1 form factor.
• Weight – 20 grams
• Temperature Range
  • Operating –  standard: 0°C to 60°C; extended: -40°C to 85°C (available by request).
  • Storage – -40°C to 85°C
• Operating Humidity – 0% to 95% relative humidity, non-condensing
• Certifications – CE/FCC Class A
• MTBF – Rated at 3,050,991 hours

The SoM supports QC Linux with kernel 6.6.97 booting from onboard UFS storage. Other than that, AAEON provides very limited information about software support.

AAEON also lists the ECB-960T-A18-0002 as a carrier board for the uCOM-Q6490 SoM. But I could only find an earlier ECB-960T carrier board, which was phased out in 2020. There’s also the ECB-960T Pro SMARC carrier board, which might be similar to the new A18 variant, for which we don’t have any information.

Compared to other Qualcomm QCS6490-based SMARC 2.1 SoMs such as Tria/MSC’s SM2S-QCS6490 and Sagire’s Edge AI 600, AAEON’s uCOM-Q6490 takes a different approach, as it leaves out the Dragonwing SoC’s MIPI camera and display interfaces, so engineers would have to rely on DisplayPort and USB interfaces for applications requiring a display and/or cameras.

More information about the uCOM-Q6490 SoM is available on the product page and in the press release.

The post AAEON uCOM-Q6490 – A SMARC 2.1-compliant SoM powered by Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 SoC appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

M5Stack introduced the PaperColor ESP32-S3 devkit last May, but if you prefer faster refresh rates, the new Paper Mono should be a better option. The kit is based on a 3.97-inch monochrome e-Paper touch display and also supports LoRa and NFC long-range and short-range connectivity.

The devkit features 8MB PSRAM, 16MB flash, a microSD card slot, a PDM microphone and buzzer for audio interaction, a 6-axis IMU, an RTC, and a few buttons and an RGB LED. The Paper Mono doesn’t come with any expansion port and is powered by a USB-C port and a 1150 mAh battery. A Lite version is also offered without LoRa and NFC.

M5Stack Paper Mono specifications:

• SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8
  • CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration
  • Memory – 8MB PSRAM
  • Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh connectivity
• Storage
  • 16MB SPI flash
  • MicroSD card socket
• Display – 4-inch monochrome e-Paper touch display
  • Resolution – 800×480
  • SSD1677 driver
  • 4-level grayscale display
  • Refresh rate modes/speed
    • epd_quality – 4.71 s
    • epd_text – 0.45 s
    • epd_fast – 0.34 s
    • epd_fastest – 0.07 s; note: ghosting visible in demo
  • FT6336G capacitive touch controller
  • Integrated front-light
• Audio
  • PDM microphone (LMD4737T261-AC02)
  • Built-in buzzer
• Wireless
  • WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE via ESP32-S3
  • LoRa  – Via Stamp LoRa-1262 (Semtech SX1262) module; 868MHz ~ 923MHz frequency range; built-in FPC antenna
  • NFC – Via ST25R3916; supports ISO14443A, ISO14443B, FeliCa, ISO15693
• USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming
• Sensor – 6-axis BMI270  IMU
• Misc
  • Power/Boot/Reset button, A/B buttons (Up/Down)
  • RGB LED
  • RX8130CE Real-Time Clock (RTC)
• Power Supply
  • 5V via USB Type-C port
  • Built-in 1,150mAh battery
  • Consumption – TBD
• Dimensions – 101 x 61 x 7.95 mm
• Weight – 74.7 grams

M5Stack provides support for the Arduino IDE, the UiFlow 2 visual programming IDE, and the ESP-IDF framework. You’ll find resources to get started, the schematics, a demo of the different refresh modes, and additional technical resources on the documentation website.

Two source code repositories are also available on GitHub:

• M5PaperMono-UserDemo – ESP-IDF-based factory firmware
• M5PaperMono-OTP-Demo – e-paper manufacturer’s OTP example. Recommended to achieve better panel life and refresh stability

Target applications include e-readers, e-Paper signage, access control terminals, identity authentication devices, and intelligent transportation terminals.

M5Stack sells the Paper Mono and Paper Mono Lite (no NFC, no LoRa) for $65/$55 on the company’s store. The company says the quantity is limited, and the next batch will be available next year. It’s not listed on AliExpress (anymore).

The post M5Stack Paper Mono – An ESP32-S3 e-paper development board with 3.97-inch touchscreen, LoRa, and NFC appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

We recently noted that NXP expanded its MCX A series with the MCX A5 Cortex-M33 family, integrating 10BASE-T1S Single Pair Ethernet, topology discovery, and PQC for industrial connectivity. However, it’s not the only recent announcement from the company, as NXP also expanded the lower-cost MCX C series with the MCX C15 and MCX C16 (C1 family) Cortex-M23 MCUs designed for industrial IoT and analog applications. The new C1 family provides a straightforward migration path from LPC800, LPC1100, and Kinetis MCUs, with full pin-to-pin compatibility with the newer MCX A Series.

These low-cost entry-level devices feature a 16-bit SAR ADC, a high-speed comparator with DAC, an internal OpAmp, and FlexPWM for motor and power control. They also include up to 64 KB of flash, 12 KB of SRAM, LPI²C, LPSPI, up to four UARTs, up to 45 GPIOs, multiple timers, a low-power timer, an RTC, and a watchdog, with an operating range of 1.71 to 3.6 V and -40°C to 125°C. The MCX C15 and C14 MCUs are suitable for industrial IoT devices, sensing and instrumentation, motor drives, power management, HVAC systems, smart appliances, lighting, and other cost-sensitive embedded applications.

NXP MCX C15 and MCX C16 series specifications:

• CPU Core
  • Arm Cortex-M23 processor running at 72 MHz (MCX C16) or 48 MHz (MCX C15)
  • Achieves 153 CoreMark, operating at 2.13 CoreMark/MHz.
• Memory
  • 12 KB (MCX C16) or 6 KB (MCX C15) SRAM
  • Full SRAM retention is supported down to Deep Power Down mode
  • DMA (Direct Memory Access) controller
• Storage
  • 64 KB (MCXC162) or 32 KB (MCXC151, MCXC161) of single-bank program flash memory
  • 16 KB of dedicated data flash memory
  • Flash memory features Error Correction Code (ECC) supporting single-bit correction and two-bit detection
  • Integrated on-chip ROM bootloader
• Peripherals
  • GPIO – Up to 45x GPIO pins
    • Single-Cycle I/O port access for fast pin toggling
    • Includes up to four 20 mA high-drive I/Os
    • 50 MHz I/O support on specific pins (P1_0, P1_1, and P1_2)
    • Total GPIO count depends strictly on the package size: 43-45 GPIOs (48-pin packages), 29 GPIOs (32-pin packages), 23 GPIOs (24-pin packages), or 15 GPIOs (16-pin packages)
  • Low-speed I/Os
    • 1x low-power I²C (LPI²C)
    • 1x low-power SPI (LPSPI)
    • 3x (MCX C15) or 4x (MCX C16) LPUART interfaces
  • Analog peripherals
    • 1x FlexPWM module with three sub-modules to provide six complementary PWM outputs
    • 16-bit successive approximation register (SAR) ADC supporting up to 18 channels; 2.4 MSPS in 16-bit mode and 3 MSPS in 12-bit mode ADC speeds
    • 1x high-speed comparator (CMP) utilizing an internal 8-bit DAC reference
    • 1x operational amplifier (OpAmp) equipped with programmable gain (PGA)
    • 1x integrated temperature sensor
  • Clocks and Timers
    • Internal free-running oscillators at 144 MHz, 12 MHz, and 16 kHz
    • Up to 2x 32-bit standard general-purpose asynchronous timers/counters (CTimer)
    • 1x Low-power timer, frequency measurement timer, real-time clock (RTC), and 2x windowed watchdog timers
    • External 32 kHz crystal oscillator (XTAL) support for the RTC and clock system
• Debugging – SWD (Serial Wire Debug) support
• Security
  • Device lifecycle management capabilities
  • Integrated True Random Number Generator (TRNG)
  • Implicit-protected Flash Region (IFR) access control
  • Hardware access control for both memory and debug interfaces
• Misc – Power-On Reset (POR), Low-Voltage Detect (LVD), and High-Voltage Detect (HVD) monitoring
•  Power
  • Operating voltage – 1.7V to 3.6V
  • Consumption
    • Active mode current draw of 33 µA/MHz when executing from flash
    • Deep Sleep mode consumes 14 µA with a 15.89 µs wake-up time
    • Power Down mode consumes 2.91 μA with full SRAM retention and a 28.47 µs wake-up time
    • Deep Power Down mode consumes 320 nA with all SRAM off and a 301.06 µs wake-up time
• Package options
  • 48-pin LQFP (7 x 7 x 1.4 mm, 0.5 mm pitch)
  • 48-pin H-PQFN (7 x 7 x 0.9 mm, 0.5 mm pitch)
  • 32-pin H-PQFN (5 x 5 x 0.9 mm, 0.5 mm pitch)
  • 24-pin and 16-pin H-PQFN options (slated for December 2026 availability)
• Temperature range – -40°C to 125°C ambient operating temperature

For evaluation and to speed up development, the company offers the FRDM-MCXC162 development board, which features the 72 MHz MCX C162 MCU (64 KB Flash, 12 KB SRAM) alongside an on-board MCU-Link debugger (via USB Type-C), and plenty of I/Os exposed through Arduino, MikroBus, and PMOD headers.

The board also includes an on-board NXP P3T1755DP I3C/I2C digital temperature sensor (±0.5 °C accuracy), an RGB user LED, and dedicated buttons for reset, ISP, and wake-up. NXP notes this is the first FRDM platform to use FSC-certified responsible packaging.

On the software side, the MCX C15 and C16 are fully supported by the MCUXpresso software and tools, which include the MCUXpresso SDK, IDE options (including a VS Code extension), and access to the Application Code Hub (ACH) for ready-to-use software examples.

We’ve previously written about other low-cost 32-bit MCU designed to replace 8-bit, 16-bit, and Cortex-M0+ designs, including STMicroelectronics’ STM32C0 family (48 MHz M0+, 12-bit ADC) and Renesas’ RA0E2 / RA2T1 Cortex-M23 MCUs. The new MCX C15 and C16 sit in the same industrial IoT/appliance class, but add a 16-bit SAR ADC, an on-chip OpAmp, a comparator with DAC, and FlexPWM for motor and power control.

The NXP MCX C15 and MCX C16 MCUs are currently available with an estimated 16-week lead time. There are a total of 15 SKUs available at the time of writing, with different memory, package, and GPIO configurations, but for reference, the MCXC151VFM (32 KB flash, 6KB SRAM, H-PQFN32 package) sells for under 60 cents in quantities, while the FRDM-MCXC162 development board goes for $15. More information is available on the product page and in the press release.

The post NXP MCX C15 and C16 low-cost Cortex-M23 MCUs target IoT, analog, and motor control applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Linus Torvalds released Linux 7.2 on LKML last Sunday:

Well, this last week of the release was – once again – bigger than I would have wished for, but hey, with the whole “new normal” thing, if I delayed releases for that reason we’d probably never have a release at all.

There are a number of fairly late reverts – the drm scheduling reverts stand out, but there’s a few other ones in here too. It may not be pretty, but it’s the correct way to deal with “oh, that code wasn’t ready and caused problems”. People will be trying that again later.

But while the drm reverts stand out and are some of the bigger patches in here, there’s a lot of small fixes all over. Mostly in drivers, but networking remained fairly active this last week too. And then there are a few random patches to architecture files and perf core.

With this, the merge window for 7.3 obviously opens tomorrow, and I already have 40 pending pull requests. I appreciate all the timely people. You know who you are,

Linus

Released mid-June 2026, Linux 7.1 brought us yet another version of the NTFS filesystem implementation, various security enhancements, a rewrite of the high-resolution timer core for better performance, among many other changes. It also removed support for legacy 486 subarchitectures such as M486, M486SX, and ELAN.  But now that Linux 7.2 has been released, it’s time to look into some newsworthy changes and go through Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures in more detail.

Notable changes in Linux 7.2

• Cache-aware task scheduling for faster performance and fewer cache misses – Linux 7.2 introduces cache-aware load balancing of tasks, with the goal of co-locating tasks that share data (i.e., threads of the same process) within the same Last Level Cache domain. By improving cache locality, the scheduler can reduce cache bouncing and cache misses, ultimately improving data access efficiency. Read this LWN article for details.
• Fair(er) GPU scheduler – Processes that use graphics card resources submit jobs that are executed inside the GPU, and a GPU scheduler decides which job will be executed next. So far, the algorithm used is based around the “First In, First Out” (FIFO) principle. The new “Fair(er)” GPU scheduler is inspired by the original Linux CFS task scheduler, and improves fairness and scheduling of interactive clients when running in parallel with heavy GPU loads.  Details can be found on a blog post on Igalia.
• USB4STREAM for streaming data with USB4 –  This release adds support for streaming data directly over a cable by transferring raw packets from one host to another over USB4/Thunderbolt cables. The driver exposes /dev/tbstreamX devices on each side of the link, so it can rely on regular filesystem operations such as read and write. This can be useful in cases where network tooling is not available or for existing applications like dd and cat that do not support sockets.
• Swap table phase IV – Another Linux release, another swap table improvement. Phase IV of the swap table work unifies the allocation and charging of anonymous and shmem swap in folios, provides better synchronization, and consolidates the metadata management. It drops the static array and map, improving the performance and bringing the static metadata overhead close to zero. For instance, mounting a 1TB swap device saves about 512MB of memory. LWN has more details.

Arm changes in Linux 7.2

The Arm architecture usually brings plenty of updates, and Linux 7.2 is no different. Here are some of the highlights:

• Allwinner
  • ASoC –  Add playback-only quirk for H616 codec in Allwinner driver
  • Driver changes
    • SRAM driver changes to allow for one SRAM region to be “claimed” by multiple changes. When a region is “claimed” it is removed or disconnected from the CPU’s view. This is needed on the H6 and H616, which have one alias region seemingly shared between the video codec engine and the display engine.
    • Minor fix for the RSB driver
  • Device tree changes for Linux 7.2
    • A83T gains MIPI CSI-2 receiver driver
    • Overlays enabled for Pine64 boards
    • D1s / T113 and H616 gain a high-speed timer
    • T113s watchdog enabled (for reboot)
    • H616 gained proper SRAM regions
    • A523 family gained EL2 virtual timer interrupt and GPADC
    • A523 pinctrl IRQ fix
  • New devices – N/A
• Rockchip
  • ASoC & SoundWire – Clean up of untested, problematic guard() macro replacements in Rockchip SAI driver
  • PHY driver
    • Added Rockchip RK3528 USB PHY support
    • Updated Rockchip GRF for RK3568/RV1108 support
  • Rockchip IOMMU – Disable the fetch DTE time limit
  • Clock driver
    •  Add gate-clocks for i2s outputs on Rockchip RK3588
      Allow compile-tests for the whole clock driver
  • Arm device tree – Cleanups for RK3288-based ChromeOS platform
  • Arm64 device tree
    • Watchdog on RK3528, MIPI CSI-2 receiver on RK3588
    • Adding frl-enable-gpios to a number of boards for HDMI 2.0 support.
    • Bunch of fixes and new peripherals for a number of boards.
    • Basic camera support on RK3588 – New peripherals RK3588 vicap plus camera addition to some boards, RK3528 USB and USB enablement on some boards, RGA3 support on RK3588. Missing EL2 virtual timer interrupt added to RK3588.
    • Some more added peripherals for the upcoming Khadas Edge 2L board.
  • New devices – N/A
• Amlogic
  • Meson PCIe controller driver
    • Propagate devm_add_action_or_reset() failure to fix probe error path
    • Add .remove() callback to deinitialize the host bridge and power off the PHY
  • Pin control driver
    • Added Amlogic (meson) A9 SoC
    • Fix output glitch in the Amlogic (meson) A4 pin controller
  • Interrupt – Add support for Amlogic A9 SoCs to the meson-gpio interrupt controller
  • Thermal control – Add the Amlogic T7 thermal sensor along with thermal calibration data read from SMC calls
  • Clock driver – Minor DT bindings fixes for the Amlogic T7 clock controllers
  • Arm device tree – N/A
  • Arm64 device tree for Linux 7.2
    • Khadas VIM4 (T7 SoC) features:
      • Memory layout fixup
      • GIC register range
      • Model name fixup
      • PWM, eMMC, SD card and SDIO support
      • PWM LED
      • I2C pinctrl node
    • Khadas VIM1s Features
      • Bluetooth
      • PWM LED
      • Power Key
      • Function Key via SARADC
      • RTC
      • Remote control keymap
    • Bluetooth node for Phicomm N1
  • New device – N/A
• Samsung
  • Power supply – New driver for battery charger in Samsung S2M PMICs
  • LED and MFD
    • Add support for the Samsung S2MU005 PMIC which includes charger, MUIC, flash and RGB LED controllers
    • Samsung Core: Set the coherent DMA mask to zero for the Samsung PMIC device to suppress unnecessary “DMA mask not set” messages
  • SoC Drivers
    • Added support for the Samsung thermal management unit
    • Improved Samsung Exynos (and Google GS101) ACPM (Alive Clock and Power Manager) firmware driver:
      • Few code improvements.
      • Add support for protocol used to communicate with Thermal Management Unit (TMU). This will allow to implement the thermal driver working for newer Samsung Exynos and Google GS101 SoCs.
  • Clock driver
    • Exynos850 – Mark APM (Active Power Management) I3C clocks as critical, because they are necessary for communication with firmware but we do not have any consumer of them so far.
    • Exynos990: Correct the parents of a few muxes and propagate rate requests up.
  • mach/soc changes – Remove raw GPIO number usage from S3C6410-based crag6410 board.
  • DTS Arm changes – N/A
  • Samsung DTS Arm64 changes for Linux 7.2
    • Exynos850 – Implement proper power off to fully shutdown the board and reduce drawn current
    • ExynosAutov920: Add UFS storage
  • Defconfig changes – N/A
  • New Devices – N/A
• Qualcomm
  • New SoC – Qualcomm Dragonwing IPQ9650 wireless networking SoC using four Cortex-A55 and one Cortex-A78 core
  • SPMI – Support for Qualcomm PMIC arbiter v8.5 and Hawi along with a kernel doc cleanup and a kzalloc flex usage
  • PCI – Avoid SBR for Qualcomm WCN6855/WCN7850 WiFi, SDX62/SDX65 modems, which seem not to support it
  • PCIe controller driver
    • Add Eliza SoC compatible in DT binding
    • Set max OPP during resume so DBI register accesses don’t fail with NoC errors
    • Add pci_host_common_d3cold_possible() to determine whether downstream devices are already in D3hot and wakeup-enabled devices are capable of generating PME from D3cold
    • Add .get_ltssm() callback to get the LTSSM status without DBI, since DBI may be inaccessible after PME_Turn_Off
    • Power down PHY via PARF_PHY_CTRL before disabling rails/clocks to avoid power leakage
    • Decide whether suspend should put the link in L2 and power down using pci_host_common_d3cold_possible() instead of checking whether ASPM L1 is enabled
    • Add qcom D3cold support to tear down interconnect bandwidth and OPP votes
    • Handle unsupported mixed PERST#/PHY DT configurations, e.g., PHY in RP node while PERST# is in the RC node, but warn about the DT issue
    • Program T_POWER_ON based on DT ‘t-power-on-us’ property in case hardware advertises incorrect values
    • Disable ASPM L0s for SA8775P
    • Initialize DWC MSI lock for firmware-managed ECAM hosts, which don’t use the dw_pcie_host_init() path that initializes the lock
  • PHY driver
    • Added Qualcomm Eliza QMP PHY, Eliza Synopsys eUSB2 support, Eliza PCIe phy support, Nord QMP UFS PHY, IPQ5210 USB3 PHY support
    • Updated Qualcomm QSERDES COM v2 support
  • hwspinlock – Avoid uninitialized struct members in the Qualcomm hwspinlock driver
  • remoteproc
    • Add Qualcomm Hawi ADSP/CDSP bindings, together with Shikra RPM bindings and CDSP, LPAICP, and MPSS PAS support.
    • Fix a Qualcomm minidump leak, clean up PAS and WCSS reset handling
    • Make the user-visible Qualcomm naming consistent.
  • Pinctrl driver
    • Added Qualcomm Nord TLMM, Shikra TLMM, SM6350 LPASS LPI, and IPQ9650 TLMM
    • Updates/improvements
      • Qualcomm PM8010 GPIO support in the PM8010
      • Qualcomm SM6115 EGPIO support in the SM6115
      • Switch Qualcomm LPASS LPI drivers to use runtime PM for power management
      • Clean up the Qualcomm Kconfig business a bit to include the necessary drivers for each subarch
  • SMMUv2:
    • Device-tree binding updates for Qualcomm Hawi, Nord and Shikra SoCs
    • Constrain the clocks which can be specified for recent Qualcomm SoCs
    • Fix broken compatible string for Qualcomm prefetcher configuration and add new entry for the Glymur MDSS
    • Ensure SMMU is powered up when writing context bank for Adreno client
  • Driver updates
    • Enable QSEECOM and with that access to UEFI variables on the Surface Pro 12in laptop.
    • Refactor the Geni Serial-Engine helper code to allow the serial engine drivers (such as I2C) to operate on targets where power and performance are controlled through an SCMI server instead of individual resources in Linux.
    • Extend the LLCC driver to support reading its data from a System Cache Table (SCT) in memory instead of being hard-coded per platform in the driver.  lso add support for the Eliza platform.
    • Add support for the Hawi platform to pd-mapper.
    • Switch the SMEM driver to track partitions using xarray to handle the ever-growing number of hosts better.
    • Extend the socinfo driver with knowledge about the Nord, SM7750, IPQ9650, and Shikra SoCs, as well as PMAU0102, PMC1020H, PMIV0102, and PMIV0104 PMICs.
    • Define UBWC 3.1 and add a couple of convenient helpers in the UBWC library for MDSS and Adreno.
    • Fix a memory leak in the WCNSS firmware download mechanism.
  • Sound updates – Refinements to Qualcomm USB-audio offloading support
  • Ethernet – at803x: Rx and Tx clock management for IPQ5018 PHY
  • WiFi
    • ath9k – GPIO interface improvements
    • ath12k
      • WDS support
      • Replace dynamic memory allocation in WMI Rx path
      • Thermal throttling/cooling device support
      • 6 GHz incumbent interference detection
      • Channel 177 in 5 GHz
  • Regulator – New device support for Qualcomm Nord RPMH, PM8109, PM8150, and PMAU0102,
  • I2C driver – Added Qualcomm CCI Glymur and Shikra compatibles
  • Clock driver
    • Add global, TCSR, and RPMh clock controllers for the Qualcomm Hawi mobile SoC
    • Add GX clock for Qualcomm Milos, and ensure that camera clock controller votes for interconnect bandwidth in order to ensure the TOP_GDSC can be turned on.
    • Add camera and video clock controllers for Qualcomm Hamoa and Purwa. Reduce the max_register of the display clock controller to avoid regmap attemting to dump protected registers.
    • Add global clock controller for the Qualcomm IPQ9650 SoC and add IPQ5332 support to the cmnpll driver.
    • Add missing USB2 PHY reset to the Qualcomm Nord NegCC.
    • Rework the Qualcomm PHY mux clock implementation as necessary for upcoming USB4 support.
  • CPUFreq – Add cpufreq scaling support for Qualcomm Shikra SoC
  • Arm64 device tree updates
    • Describe the IPA block on the Agatti platform and missing OPP-levels for the video encoder/decoder.
    • For Eliza, describe the QUP Serial Engines, GPI DMA, SDHCI, LLCC, IMEM, QCE crypto, ADSP remoteproc and USB nodes. Enable DSI panel, DisplayPort, USB, and ADSP support on the Eliza MTP.
    • On Glymur enable ADSP and CDSP remoteprocs, FastRPC, crypto hardware, CPUfreq cooling devices, and coresight nodes. Enable the remoteprocs and the LID sensor on the Glymur CRD.
    • Describe the CAN-FD controller found on the Hamoa EVK. Correct the DisplayPort controller OPP tables.
    • Describe the watchdog on IPQ5210 and IPQ9650.
    • Describe USB controller and PHYs for the Kaanapali platform and enable basic USB support on the MTP and QRD devices.
    • Enable the second display subsystem on Lemans and use this to enable additional DisplayPort outputs on the Lemans Ride board, and IFP mezzanine for the EVK. Also enable the GPIO expander on the Lemans EVK to get the CAN signals out.
    • Add crypto hardware and qfprom nodes on Milos. Reduce the remotefs shared memory size to avoid sanity checks in the modem firmware rejecting the region. Enable the vibrator on FairPhone FP6.
    • Add GPSDP FastRPC support on Monaco, and describe the Bluetooth controller on the Arduino VENTUNO Q board.
    • Introduce an EL2 overlay for the Purwa IoT EVK.
    • Enable CAN bus controller on QCS6490 RB3gen2 and add a remotefs node.
    • Enable FastRPC on the SC8280XP ADSP.
    • Correct SDM630 and SDM660 ADSP FastRPC channel ids. Also add the ADSP memory region on SDM630.
    • On SDM845 devices, enable NFC on Google Pixel 3, OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T, and SHIFT SHIFT6mq. Enable camera flash on LG devices. Rework the framebuffer description on Samsung, SHIFT and Xiaomi devices. Enable camera flash on LG devices. Fix Bluetooth and WiFi on LG and Xiaomi devices.
    • Enable MDSS and the display panel on Xiaomi Mi A3.
    • Scale L3 and DDR clock votes based on CPUfreq selection.
    • Enable camera clock controller, cpufreq cooling devices, and correct the DSI1 reference clock on SM8750.
    • On the Talos platform, describe the QSPI support, GPR and audio services, and enable sound on the EVK target. Enable QSPI and describe the SPINOR on this bus, on the QCS615 Ride.
    • Describe power-domain and iface clock for the Inline Crypto Engine (ICE) across various platforms.
    • Fix the Bluetooth RFA supply name across a variety of devices.
  • Arm32 device tree updates – N/A
  • Arm64 defconfig updates – N/A
  • New Devices
    • RDP488 board based on IPQ9650 router/gateway platform
    • Add support for the Motorola Edge 30 and the Nothing Phone.
• MediaTek
  • PCI/Virtualization – Avoid FLR for MediaTek MT7925 WiFi, where FLR fails after a VM terminates uncleanly
  • PCIe controller driver
    • Use FIELD_PREP() to fix incorrect operator precedence in PCIE_FTS_NUM_L0
    • Fix IRQ domain leak when port fails to enable
    • Use actual physical address for MSI message address instead of virt_to_phys()
    • Add EcoNet EN7528 to DT binding
  • PCIe Gen3 controller driver
    • Deassert PCIE_PHY_RSTB so REFCLK is stable for at least 100ms (PCIE_T_PVPERL_MS) before deasserting PERST#
    • Add .shutdown() to assert PERST# before powering down device
    • Do full device power down on removal, including asserting PERST#, when removing driver
    • Fix a ‘failed to create pwrctrl devices’ error message that was inadvertently skipped
  • MFD – Add support for the MT6365 PMIC and document regulator supplies for the MT6359 variant
  • WiFi – mt76
    • Add support for MT7927
    • mt792x: broken usb transport detection
    • mt7921: regulatory improvements
  • Regulator – Filling out and fixing of the description of the MediaTek MT6359
  • SoC driver updates – Adds subsys ID compatibility in MediaTek CMDQ, paving the way for adding support for the MT8196 SoC, and fixes the Multimedia System (MMSYS) routing masks for the MT8167 SoC.
  • Arm32 updates – Adds support for the ARMv7 Timer node in the MT6589 SoC and performs a couple of dtbs_check fixes in MT7623 and in MT8135 devicetree
  • Arm64 device tree updates for Linux 7.2
    • Adds support for the MT7981 SoC’s Crypto Accelerator
    • Enables gpio-keys and leds found on the MT7981b-based Xiaomi AX3000T router
    • Adds new variants of MT7988 Banana Pi BPi-R4 Pro
    • Some spare cleanups for all BPi-R4 Pro boards
    • Adds a MediaTek MT6365 devicetree and uses it in all of the relevant supported boards in place of MT6359, where needed (the MT6365 PMIC is a fully compatible variant of the MT6359 PMIC, but still not named MT6359).
    • Adds correct power supplies for CPUs and devices on a variety of MediaTek Chromebooks and Genio AIoT boards, including:
      • MT8186 Corsola Chromebooks
      • MT8192 Asurada Chromebooks
      • MT8195 Cherry Chromebooks
      • MT8390 Genio-based boards
      • MT8395 Genio-based boards
    • Adds HDMI TX support for Ezurio Tungsten 510/700 boards.
  • Defconfig updates – N/A
  • New devices – N/A
• Other new Arm hardware platforms and SoCs
  • Apple – t8122 (M3) 2023 generation laptop SoC
  • ASPEED
    • AST27xx 64-bit baseboard management controller (Cortex-A35)
    • AST26xx BMC support for two server boards
  • Cortina Systems – Two NAS boxes using the old Gemini SoC based on an ARMv4 FA526 CPU core
  • NXP – 18 industrial embedded boards using NXP i.MX6/8/9 and LX2160A SoCs from Variscite, Toradex and SolidRun
  • Renesas – R-Car M3Le (R8A779MD), a variant of the R-Car M3-N (R8A77965) automotive SoC.
  • Texas Instruments – One carrier board and SoM using TI K3 AM62x, in addition to new overlays for older SoMs
  • ZTE  – ZX297520v3 older low-end wireless SoC (Cortex-A53 core).  This brings back the ZX family of chips that was removed in 2021 after support for the original ZX296702 and ZX296718 chips was never completed.
• Raspberry Pi-specific changes
  • Remove non-functional EL2 virtual timer on BCM2712
  • Raspberry Pi RP1 – net: macb: add TX stall timeout callback to recover from lost TSTART write
  • Firmware – Change dependency to ARCH_BCM2835 and COMPILE_TEST. The Raspberry Pi firmware driver has no compile dependencies on the BCM2835 mailbox driver. It’s just an indirect runtime dependency: the driver only works on a Raspberry Pi.

RISC-V updates in Linux 7.2

Development activity is still robust for the RISC-V architecture

• Prevent get_free_mem_region() from returning regions that are unmappable in certain circumstances by defining DIRECT_MAP_PHYSMEM_END for RISC-V
• Fix an early boot problem with kexec_file when the amount of installed physical memory installed on the system exceeds the direct map size, which is possible in certain RISC-V virtual memory modes
• Unconditionally sfence.vma in the new vmalloc area handling code in the page fault handler, since even the presence of Svvptc doesn’t guarantee that the CPU won’t immediately fault again after the exception handler completes and subsequently crash
• Fix ftrace_graph_ret_addr() to use the correct task pointer (aligning with what other architectures do)
• Fix the misaligned access performance checking code in cases when performance is specified on the kernel command line and when CPUs have been brought offline and back online
• Get rid of a bogus address offset in the non-frame-pointer version of walk_stackframe(), aligning it with the frame pointer-based code
• Fix a RISC-V kfence issue causing bogus use-after-free warnings
• Add ARCH_HAS_CC_CAN_LINK for RISC-V, which needs different compiler command line flags than other architectures
• Implement _THIS_IP_ using RISC-V-specific assembly, which seems to be less brittle (from a compiler point of view) than taking the address of a label
• Reduce kernel startup overhead by defining HAVE_BUILDTIME_MCOUNT_SORT, since arch/riscv meets all the requirements
• Patch the CFI vDSO during alternatives processing, not only the standard vDSO
• Fix a potential memory leak in the cacheinfo code
• Clean up kernel/setup.c:add_resource() to pass along the return value from insert_resource() and to improve the display of resource ranges
• Clean up our purgatory.[ch] by aligning our purgatory() prototype to what’s in arch/x86, and by cleaning up verify_sha256_digest()
• Clean up cpu_is_stopped() to align its function a little more closely to its name
• Replace some unbounded string function usage in get_early_cmdline() and the ptdump code with strscpy()
• Replace sprintf() with sysfs_emit() in cpu_show_ghostwrite() for safer bounds checking
• Standardize how compiler output flags are specified in the RISC-V kselftests, aligning them with what other architectures do
• Use the Linux-generic cmp_int() macro in place of an open-coded “cmp_3way()” macro in kernel/module-sections.c
• Panic early in boot if IRQ handler stacks can’t be allocated rather than pretending to continue normally
• Add support for Eswin SoCs in the RISC-V defconfig
• Remove some unnecessary conditionals in sbi_hsm_hart_{start,stop}()
• Clean up some Kconfig infelicities found by Kconfirm
• Replace an open-coded version of min() in the kexec_elf code with the standard min() function
• Raise default NR_CPUS for 64BIT to 256 – SpacemiT has already produced an 80-core RVA23 RISC-V server, and going further back, the dual-socket SG2042-based Sophgo Pisces has 128 cores. Therefore, an NR_CPUS of 64 is not enough.
• Alibaba T-Head
  • PWM – th1520: Remove requirement for mul_u64_u64_div_u64_roundup
  • Device tree – Enable wifi on two TH1520 boards: BeagleV Ahead and Lichee Pi 4a.
• Microchip
  • SoC drivers – A single dt-binding compatible addition for the irqmux on pic64gx
  • Device tree – This time around, there’s nothing other than patches for Microchip boards. All of this is low-priority fixes and cleanup, centred on the pic64gx and beaglev-fire boards. There is no new support added
• SpacemiT
  • K1 – SPI driver, enable I2C driver, thermal sensor
  • K3 – USB2 PHY support, ASoC driver
  • Clock driver
    • Switch SpacemiT PCIe parent clock
    • Fix SpacemiT PCIe clock register offset
    • Add SpacemiT PCIe DBI clock
  • MFD – SpacemiT P1: Add a reboot cell for the SpacemiT P1 chip
  • Device tree changes
    • K3 SoC
      • Add Ziccrse extension
      • Add PWM support
      • Add PDMA support
      • Add USB 2.0 support
      • Fix I/O power of pinctrl
    • K1 SoC
      • Add Micro SD card support
      • Add baudrate to console
      • Add SPI support
      • Enable thermal sensor
      • Fix 32K clock
    • K1 boards
      • Milk-V Jupiter -Enable eMMC
      • Muse Pi Pro -Enable EEPROM/PCIe/QSPI/USB
      • OrangePi R2S – Enable PMIC/USB3
      • OrangePi RV2 – Enable eMMC/I2C/PCIe/PMIC/QSPI/USB
  • New boards – K3-based CoM260-IFX and DeepComputing FML13V05 boards
• Sophgo
  • Device tree updates for Linux 7.2
    • CV18xx – Add bindings for Milk-V “Duo S” board.
    • SG2042
      • The CPU unit address incorrectly used decimal numbers,  especially for those nodes which value >= 10. Now corrected to use hexadecimal.
      • The MSI controller actually only supports 16 interrupts; corrected to match the actual situation.
      • PCIe RCs are cache-coherent with the CPU. Marked it out for RC nodes.
    • SG2044: – The same as SG2042, use hex for CPU unit address.
• StarFive
  • Interrupt – Rename and rework the StarFive JH8100 interrupt controller for the new JHB100 SoC as JH8100 was discontinued before production.
  • SiFive ccache – Add the Starfive JH7110 to the list of devices that need the non-standard cache ops, because the GPU appears to be DMA non-coherent unlike other peripherals.
  • Clock source – Add the StarFive JHB100 clint DT bindings compatible string
  • Add SGMII GMAC support to JHB100

MIPS changelog

As usual in recent times, the changelog for MIPS was really short:

• Use software nodes for GPIO code
• Cleanups and fixes

Here’s a list of some of the fixes:

• mips: select legacy gpiolib interfaces where used
• MIPS: lib: Remove ‘.hidden’ for local symbols
• MIPS: VDSO: Avoid including .got in dynamic segment
• MIPS: smp: report dying CPU to RCU in stop_this_cpu()
• MIPS: kernel: proc: Delete unnecessary braces in show_cpuinfo()
• MIPS: kernel: proc: Use seq_putc() calls in show_cpuinfo()
• mips: sched: Fix CPUMASK_OFFSTACK memory corruption
• MIPS: mm: Fix out-of-bounds write in maar_res_walk()
• MIPS: ath79: reduce ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN
• mips: dts: ar9132: fix wdt node name
• mips: Remove remaining defconfig references to the pktcdvd driver
• MIPS: mm: remove comment referring to removed CONFIG_MIPS_CMP
• MIPS: alchemy: db1300: switch to static device properties
• MIPS: alchemy: gpr: switch to static device properties
• MIPS: alchemy: db1000: use nodes attached to GPIO chips in properties
• MIPS: alchemy: mtx1: attach software nodes to GPIO chips
• MIPS: alchemy: provide visible function prototypes to board files
• MIPS: alchemy: platform: add missing include
• MIPS: ip22-gio: do not export device release function
• MIPS: ip22-gio: switch to dynamic root device

Check out the full Linux 7.2 changelog for more details. It was generated with comments only using the command git log v7.1..v7.2 --stat. You can also read the changelog on Kernelnewbies for a longer and broader list of changes.

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Yesterday I received an email with the subject “Rp2350 pi pico 2 modified one”.  I found the request funny because it features an illustration with a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 board and an Apple Lightning cable, and I had no idea why somebody would do that at the time. Coming to my physical address (today!) was also humorous considering where I live…

Nevertheless, I decided to share the screenshot above on X, and quickly found out the reasons: jailbreaking/bypassing iDevices with Apple A12/A13 CPUs using the usbliter8 boot ROM exploit by Paradigm Shift. One X user (stacksmashing) even replied: “I literally have this on my desk right now”.

The original blog post on Paradigm Shift and the code on GitHub have been taken down due to a U.S. federal court order in a trade-secrets lawsuit filed by Magnet Forensics. But since the cat is out of the bag, forks of the exploit can be found on GitHub and likely other sources, while the original post was archived.

In a nutshell, usbliter8 is an unpatchable (hardware-level) BootROM/SecureROM exploit for Apple devices with A12, A13, S4/S5 chips such as the iPhone XS/XR/11 series, certain iPads, and some Apple Watches. It can be used for jailbreaking, security research, and system recovery. The reason Raspberry Pi RP2350 boards are used for this exploit is that the underlying bug is a low-level issue in the Synopsys DWC2 USB controller that typical computer USB stacks cannot trigger.

Since the usbliter8 exploit was publicly disclosed on June 18, 2026, Chinese vendors had plenty of time to manufacture specialized Raspberry Pi RP2354A boards with Apple Lightning and USB-C connectors. So if you don’t feel like going the DIY route, boards like the “SUNSHINE RP2354A Pico DFU engineering board” can be yours for about $10 plus shipping and taxes.

The post Why are people suddenly adding Apple Lightning cables to Raspberry Pi Pico 2 boards? appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Quectel has just introduced the SH602FA 4G LTE Cat 4 and SE505FE 5G Sub-6 GHz Android 16-smart IoT modules. Both integrate octa-core MediaTek processors, cellular connectivity, wireless interfaces, and multimedia functions for devices such as smart displays, point-of-sale terminals, industrial handhelds, and robots.

The “high-performance” 4G LTE SH602FA module is built around the MediaTek MT8786 Cortex-A75/A55 processor, while the “entry-level” 5G SE505FE module is powered by a MediaTek MT8863T Cortex-A76/A55 SoC. Both modules are available in multiple regional variants, as well as a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth-only “-WF” variant.

Quectel SH602FA and SE505FE specifications:

From the specifications, the SE505FE is the higher-performance option, with 2× Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.4 GHz, 5G Sub-6 GHz connectivity with up to 3.27 Gbps downlink and 4×4 DL MIMO, plus support for displays up to 120 Hz and cameras up to 32 MP. It also has USB 3.1, 181 GPIOs, and 5 ADCs, compared with USB 2.0, 47 GPIOs, and 1 ADC on the SH602FA. The SE505FE is only considered “entry-level” for a 5G module, and the SH602FA is “high-performance” for a 4G LTE module.

The SH602FA and SE505FE 4G LTE and 5G IoT modules ship with a production-ready Android 16 OS that supports platform-level UI, multimedia, security, and system-integration features, so you can use standard Android APIs and Android’s built-in interface capabilities rather than writing a full custom software stack. Quectel generally provides Android BSP/SDK, pre-built firmware images, flashing tools such as QFlash and the Customer FW Download Tool, USB drivers, ADB support, and related documentation. However, at the time of writing, most of this is not made public, as Quectel generally releases it after you register, and the Android BSP/SDK plus module-specific firmware usually require a support request.

At the time of writing, Quectel has not disclosed pricing for the modules. More information is available on the product pages of the SH602FA and SE505FE modules and in the company’s press release.

The post Quectel SH602FA and SE505FE smart modules bring Android 16 to 4G LTE and 5G IoT devices appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Japanese company KAGA FEI has introduced another incredibly small ES4L15MA1 Bluetooth LE 6.0 module based on Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF54L15 ultra-low-power Cortex-M33 wireless MCU.

Launched alongside the larger EC4L15MA1 module, the ES4L15MA1 module appears to be based on the same hardware as the ES4L15BA1 “world’s smallest module” unveiled in 2024 with an 8.55 x 3.25 x 1.00 mm form factor. The main difference is that the new modules come with ready-to-use embedded software providing a command-based API via UART to shorten product development cycles and lower development costs for IoT devices relying on Bluetooth LE 6.0 connectivity.

KAGA FEI ES4L15MA1 specifications:

• SoC – Nordic Semiconductor nRF54L15
  • MCU cores
    • Arm Cortex-M33 with Arm TrustZone @ 128MHz
    • RISC-V coprocessor for software-defined peripheral
  • Memory – 256KB SRAM
  • Storage – 1.5MB non-volatile memory
  • Wireless
    • Bluetooth 6.0
      • Data rates – 2Mbps, 1Mbps, 500kbps, 125kbps
      • Features (TBC in built-in firmware)
        • AoA / AoD
        • Channel Sounding
    • Frequency – 2402 to 2480 MHz
    • +8dBm output power
    • Supported by the hardware, but not the built-in firmware
      • 802.15.4 radio for Thread / Zigbee / Matter
      • Nordic Proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol up to 4 Mbps
• Antenna – Integrated high-performance PCB antenna
• Host interface – UART for command-based API
• Peripherals
  • 5x GPIO pads
  • Software-defined peripheral enabled by the RISC-V core
  • 14-bit ADC
  • Global RTC
• Security
  • Arm TrustZone-M
  • Designed for PSA Certified Level 3 IoT security standard
• Supply Voltage – 1.7V to 3.6V
• Dimensions – 8.55 x 3.25 x 1.00 mm
• Temperature Range – -40°C to 105°C
• Certifications
  • Radio Law MIC (Japan), FCC (USA), ISED (Canada) qualification
  • ETSI EN 300 328 v2.2.2 Conducted Test Report Available
  • RoHS compliant / Complete Lead-Free

When we wrote about the earlier ES4L15BA1 module, we noted we didn’t have much information about firmware/software, and that customers would likely rely on the Nordic Semi nRF Connect SDK for development.  It turns out that’s exactly the case, as KAGA FEI didn’t provide any specific firmware, and it was the customers’ responsibility to develop their own firmware.

The ES4L15MA1 provides embedded firmware so customers can interface it to their host MCU over a UART interface without having to know anything about the nRF Connect SDK. It supports Peripheral and Central roles, multi-connection up to 8 devices, integrates an SPP-like  Bluetooth LE profile, supports custom GATT service configuration,  OTA and UART Device Firmware Update (DFU), and Power Save and Deep Sleep modes. An evaluation board (ES4L15MA1-EVB) is also available for testing and early software development.

Target applications include IoT devices, industrial equipment, Smart Home devices, lighting fixtures, and smart locks, as well as fitness and wearable devices.

The larger (12.9 x 9.6 x 2.0 mm) EC4L15MA1 module is already in mass production, while the ES4L15MA1 is scheduled to sample in January 2027, and mass production should start in February 2027.  There’s obviously no pricing information for the ES4L15MA1 at this stage, but for reference, the very similar ES4L15BA1 goes for under $10 in quantities on DigiKey. Additional information can be found on the product page and in the press release.

Thanks to TLS for the tip.

The post KAGA FEI ES4L15MA1 is a ridiculously small, ready-to-use BLE 6.0 module based on Nordic nRF54L15 SoC appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

StarFive has launched a new high-performance 64-bit RISC-V core from the Dubhe family with the RVA23-compliant Dubhe-100 designed for servers and HPC, as well as other high-performance applications.

The new RISC-V IP core delivers a SPECint2006 score of 15/GHz, supports Vector and Vector Crypto extensions, and features a deep out-of-order design with a 15-stage pipeline and 6-wide issue.

StarFive Dubhe-100 key features and specifications:

• ISA – RV64GCBVH
• 15-stage pipeline, 6-issue
• Superscalar, deep out-of-order execution
• Support Multi-core cache coherence
• Support instruction fusion
• Support AIA1.0
• Performance
  • SPECint2006: 15/GHz
  • Dhrystone v2.2: 10.0/MHz (legal)
• HPM (Hardware Performance Monitor)
  • RISC-V standard HPM support
  • Micro-architecture level analysis and performance tuning
• PMP & PMA (Physical Memory Protection / Physical Memory Attributes)
  • Configurable 16/32/64 PMP supported regions, minimum 4096-byte region size
  • Support predefined PMA and Svpbmt
• Debug & Trace
  • Standard debug module compliant with RISC-V Debug Spec
  • Standard Trace module interface compliant with RISC-V Trace Spec
• Power Management
  • Core-level WFI mechanism
  • Core/cluster-level clock gating
  • Core/cluster-level low-power states: ON/OFF/Retention
  • Cluster-level frequency scaling
• TKU (Trunk Unit)
  • 512-entry 6-way decode/rename/commit ROB
  • 256-entry integer physical register file
  • 256-entry floating-point/Vector physical register file
• VPU (Vector Processing Unit)
  • 8/16/32/64-bit integer, IEEE754-2008-standard 16/32/64-bit floating-point and BF16 floating-point operations
  • VLEN=2*DLEN=256
  • 2x vector pipeline units
  • 2x floating-point pipeline units, sharing VPU
• IFU (Instruction Fetch Unit)
  • Instruction fetch decoupled from branch prediction
  •  Fetch width: 32 bytes per cycle
  • RAS predictor for return instructions
  • IJTP predictor for indirect-jump instructions
  • TAGE-style predictor for conditional branch instructions
• MMU
  • Bare, Sv39, and Sv48 modes defined by RISC-V Priv. Spec
  • 16-entry fully associative L1 ITLB
  • 64-entry fully associative L1 DTLB
  •  128-entry 5-way set associative STLB
  • Configurable parity check

Software development can be done through the StarFive StarStudio IDE using one of two SDKs:

• Bare Metal SDK with GCC/LLCM toolchains, GDB, pre-built OpenOCD, and  example projects
• Linux SDK with Yocto, Linux Kernel 6.18, OpenSBI, u-boot, and host development tools

None are available for download now, but I suspect that once a commercial Dubhe-100 SoC becomes available, SDKs will be released, or existing ones updated on the StartFive GitHub account.

One of the first customers for the Dubhe-100 is LECARC, currently designing a server SoC based on the new 64-bit IP core. Besides HPC and datacenter SoC, the Dubhe-100 is also expected to be found in chips for LLM inference, AI agents, AI inference and visual analysis (computer vision), and infrastructure products (Smart NIC controller, distributed storage controller). Additional information can be found on the product page.

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While some companies keep increasing prices, the Pine64 community has now announced they don’t intend to manufacture Linux devices due to the current RAM and eMMC flash shortage and related high prices.

Pine64 started with the launch of the Pine A64 development board in 2015, and since then they have launched more Arm and RISC-V Linux SBCs, Linux smartphones, and Linux tablets and e-Readers. We used to get several announcements per year, but this year so far, we only covered one: the Pine64 PineVoice. But it’s not a Linux device, and instead, a smart speaker based on a BL602 RISC-V microcontroller.

Here’s the full (unedited) announcement published on Telegram, which you should also find on other Pine64 channels:

Hi everyone! Just a quick reminder that due to the current DRAM/eMMC shortage, there isn’t any plans to continue producing more Linux devices in the near future. Whether production continues or not depends on the pricing situation for those components after mid 2027.

Devices like the PineNote and PineTab2 are currently estimated to run out of stock in three months time. Just pre-warning everyone in case people start asking when things are going to be in stock again.

Meanwhile, devices like the PineTime, PineVoice and Pinecil will continue production as usual!

As for the PineTime Pro, currently the demo firmware has basic drivers for the display, touch, motion, GPS, buttons, heat rate sensor (chip id only), battery charger, motor, microphone and the speaker. Though some issues do need to be ironed out first before a pilot batch begins production.

That’s it for this post, all in all it’s a bit bleak for the Linux devices, but in the meantime PineStore still have a great lineup of MCU powered devices which will continue to expand with more exciting devices.

While it will not be possible to purchase Pine64 Linux hardware once stocks run out, other MCU-powered products, including the PineTime smartwatch, PinePower desktop power supply, and Pinecil V2 soldering iron, will still be for sale, and we’ll cover new Pine64 microcontroller-based products whenever they are announced or available. Linux devices may come back, but where that will be in 2027, 2028, or even 2029 only time will tell…

Via Hackster.io and thanks to redefineme for the tip.

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Finland-based Everypin has introduced the PwrBlock 323, a programmable USB-C PD power supply designed specifically for automated test fixtures. It can provide 1 to 32V at up to 3A, with up to 92W output from a 100W USB-C PD source, and supports software-controlled power switching, voltage and current measurement, and power cycling for a device under test (DUT).

The company highlights that the PwrBlock 323 can be mounted inside a test jig or stand using its mounting points and pin headers to control and power the DUT directly as part of the automated test sequence. It adds one more option to USB-C programmable lab power supplies such as Ampisu, PocketPD, and BenchVolt PD,

PwrBlock 323 specifications:

• MCU – STMicro STM32G0C1CEU Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller
• USB
  • 2x USB Type-C ports for power and control
  • 10-pin IDC USB control connector (connects to a host computer or test controller over USB)
• Expansion – 40-pin 2.54 mm power I/O (VIN, VDD, VSS) and protected I/O connector (UART, SPI, I²C, 7x digital I/O)
• Misc – 4x indicators for USB, USR, OUT, and IN
• Power
  • Input – USB-C PD (nominally 20V/5A) and VIN pins of the 40-pin connector
  • Output (via 4 mm banana jack and 40-pin connector)
    • Voltage – 1–32 V (single channel, non-isolated)
    • Current – Up to 3 A
    • Maximum power – ~92 W (requires a 100 W USB-C PD source)
    • Voltage resolution – 10 mV (from 1 to 24 V); 20 mV (above 24 V)
    • Current resolution – 1 mA
    • Accuracy – ±0.1% + 30 mV
    • Ripple – Up to 65 mVpp (based on prototype v0.1)
    • Efficiency – Up to 92% at 32 V / 3 A
    • Voltage setting accuracy – ±0.1% + 30 mV
    • Load regulation – ≤0.1% at tested output voltages
  • Power ICs – LM51772 buck-boost controller, INA229 for voltage and current measurement, and TPS259830 for input protection
  • Protection – Over-current, over-voltage, over-power, and over-temperature protection
• Dimensions – 130 x 70 x 20 mm (Enclosed fixture-friendly design with multiple mounting holes)

The module is controlled via SCPI commands over USB and can be controlled with Python, VISA-compatible tools, or custom test scripts. This lets test scripts set voltage and current limits, switch the output on or off, and automatically read measurements in an automated test setup. The company also talks about the PwrBlock USBTMC Controller & Monitor GUI for manual testing and debugging. The device can also be integrated with the HardPy framework for automated production tests.

Everypin plans to publish the PwrBlock 323 hardware design files, STM32 firmware, Python software,  documentation, and the GUI on its GitHub account around the end of the campaign or when the products start shipping. The hardware and mechanical files will be released under the CERN-OHL-W-2.0 license, the firmware and host software under the Apache 2.0 license, and the documentation under CC BY 4.0.

The PwrBlock 323 is now available on Crowd Supply with a $3,000 funding goal. A single fully assembled unit costs $230, excluding the USB-C cable and power adapter. Shipping is free in the US and costs $12 for international orders. The campaign ends on October 1, 2026, with orders currently expected to ship around March 30, 2027. Everypin mentions that while the PCB and enclosures are made in China, the final assembly, firmware programming, calibration, and end-of-line testing are completed in Finland.

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The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 Programming Jig is a single-head provisioning system designed to easily flash an OS to the Raspberry Pi CM5 without a carrier board.

The jig connects to the provisioning network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi and also features a second Ethernet port for the Compute Module. The CM5 is kept in place by a mechanical clamping mechanism, and the jig relies on pogo pins to interface with the Compute Module.

Specifications:

• Features
  • Provisioning head
  • Pogo pin interface
  • Mechanical clamping mechanism
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5
• Connectivity
  • JIG ETH – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 jack for connecting the jig to the network; note
  • DUT ETH – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 jack for connecting the CM5 to the network
  • WiFi with external antenna, as an alternative to JIG ETH
  • USB-C boot connector to connect to the host
• Misc – LED status indicators
• Power – 12V/2A (24W) DC via power barrel jack
• Dimensions – 181.5 x 170 x 153 mm
• Weight – 1796 grams

The first step is to flash the Compute Module Programming Jig OS with the Raspberry Pi Imager program after configuring it by going to rpi-imager://open?repo=https://downloads.raspberrypi.com/cm5-jig/cm5-jig.rpi-imager-manifest in a web browser and enabling rpiboot by typing Ctrl + Alt + S. The next step are similar to flashing Raspberry Pi OS to a microSD card.

Once the OS is loaded on the jig, power cycle it and connect it to the network over Ethernet (recommended) or WiFi to:

• Provide Raspberry Pi Connect screen sharing and SSH access
• Download software updates
• Transfer OS images to the jig

Developers can automate the provisioning workflow using the open-source rpi-sb-provisioner software to handle all of the usual configuration steps, including secure boot implementation, full disk encryption, and bare operating system installation. The web interface is only available on localhost for security reasons, and that’s why Raspberry Pi Connect is needed here. Follow the instructions on the web interface to transfer the OS image, configure the secure boot provisioner (security mode, manufacturing database, signing key…), and program the CM5. LED status indicators also help developers monitor the status of the jig and of the firmware flashing process. You’ll find more details on the rpi-sb-provisioner GitHub repo.

The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 programming jig is available today for $600 from Raspberry Pi distributors.

The post Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 gets an official programming jig appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

NXP has introduced the MCX A5 family of Cortex-M33 MCUs, which features a 10/100Mbps Ethernet MAC and an integrated 10BASE-T1S Single Pair Ethernet digital PHY. It targets industrial and networking applications such as controllers, PLCs, remote I/O, building and energy management systems, and other connected edge devices.

The MCUs run at up to 240 MHz and feature up to 2 MB dual-bank Flash and 640 KB SRAM, along with multiple communication interfaces and analog peripherals. Security features include an EdgeLock accelerator, secure boot with PQC hybrid support, secure firmware updates, lifecycle management, secure debug, external Flash encryption, and anti-tamper monitoring.

NXP MCX A5 Series (MCXA577) specifications:

• MCU Core
  • Arm Cortex-M33 core clocked at up to 240 MHz
  • Includes FPU, DSP, MPU, and TrustZone support
  • Integrated SmartDMA co-processor for efficient data handling
  • Delivers 988.8 CoreMark (4.12 CoreMark/MHz)
• Memory and Storage
  • Up to 2 MB dual-bank Flash with ECC and read-while-write support
  • 16 KB cache engine
  • Up to 640 KB SRAM, configurable as up to 64 KB RAM with ECC
  • 24 KB RAM retained down to VBAT mode
  • ROM for Secure Boot
  • FlexSPI interface for external memory with cache
• Networking
  • Up to 1x 10/100Mbps Ethernet MAC (supports MII / RMII / Ethernet depending on configuration)
  • Up to 1x 10BASE-T1S Digital PHY
• Peripherals
  • Up to 134x GPIOs, with up to 4x high-drive 20 mA I/Os
  • USB – USB High-Speed (HS) Host/Device with an on-chip HS PHY
  • Low-speed I/Os
    • Up to 6x LPUART, 6x LPSPI, and 5x LPI2C
    • Up to 2x CAN FD interfaces
    • Up to 4x I3C interfaces
    • eSPI
  • Analog peripherals
    • Up to 2x 16-bit ADCs and up to 2x 12-bit DACs
    • 1x LPCMP (Analog comparator)
    • Integrated voltage reference (VREF) and temperature sensor
  • Timers and DMA
    • Up to 5x 32-bit timers and 2x DMA
    • Low-power timer, Wake timer, Micro-tick timer, OS event timer
    • RTC
    • 2x Windowed watchdog timers
    • Frequency measurement and PWM / event timing resources
  • HMI – TSI (Touch Sensing Input) and FlexIO interfaces
• Security
  • EdgeLock accelerator with TRNG, PKC (ECC, RSA), and SGI (AES256, SHA-2, PQC, KeyStore)
  • Secure boot (with PQC hybrid support), secure firmware update, secure debug, and lifecycle management
  • Targets PSA Level 3 and SESIP Level 3 certifications
  • Code Watchdog, Glikey-protected access s, and passive anti-tamper detection to defend against physical and software attacks
• Power
  • Operating voltage – 1.7V to 3.6V
  • 1.2 V independent I/O supply support
  • Power management system with POR/LVD/HVD and LDO
  • Multiple low-power modes with wake-up sources down to deep power-down mode
• Packages – WFBGA169, LQFP144, and LQFP100
• Operating junction temperature – -40°C to 125°C

At the time of writing, NXP lists four SKUs, of which three MCXA577 variants offer the same 240 MHz core, memory, Ethernet, and CAN FD features, and differ mainly in package and GPIO count. The MCXA557VPN keeps the same core and memory but removes the Ethernet MAC, 10BASE-T1S DPHY, and CAN FD.

In terms of software support, the company says the MCXA5 family is supported by NXP’s MCUXpresso ecosystem, which includes SDKs, middleware, security software, Visual Studio Code integration, and LTS software releases. NXP also plans support for the Zephyr RTOS, while selected devices are planned to support Rust.

To simplify development, NXP offers the FRDM-MCXA577 development board for evaluating the MCX A5 family. It is based on the MCXA577 and includes an onboard MCU-Link Lite debugger, standard headers, and support for Arduino, mikroBUS, and Pmod expansion boards. However, detailed information about the board is still limited. While looking for more details, I found a dedicated documentation page for the FRDM-MCXA577 dev board that lists support for FreeRTOS, MCUboot, FatFs, FreeMASTER, and Trusted Firmware-M, along with the MCXA577 driver API. I also found the FRDM-MCXA577 on the Zephyr Project, where support appears to still be under development. As the support pages are still under development, you may notice that different pages use different images, which can be a little confusing. Just a heads-up in case you run into the same issue.

NXP first introduced its MCX family of general-purpose Arm MCUs in 2022. The company later added the cost-optimized MCX A14x/A15x Cortex-M33 MCUs in 2024 and the mixed-signal MCX A34 with a Math Acceleration Unit in 2025, along with the MCX L, MCX W, and E series.

The new MCX A5 extends the A-series with wired industrial connectivity, including an integrated 10BASE-T1S digital PHY, topology discovery, and post-quantum cryptography. Normally, adding 10BASE-T1S would require a full-featured Single Pair Ethernet MAC-PHY such as Microchip LAN867x/LAN865x paired with a host microcontroller. However, since the MCX A5 already integrates a digital PHY, it only needs a simpler PMD such as the NXP TJF1410.

The MCX A5 family is sampling now, and NXP mentions general availability is expected in Q4 2026. The FRDM-MCXA577 board does not appear to be available at the time of writing. More information about the MCU is available on its product page and in the press release.

The post NXP MCX A5 Cortex-M33 MCU family supports 10BASE-T1S Single Pair Ethernet and Post-Quantum Cryptography appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Waveshare PiRack-M6F is a multi-node server cluster kit for Raspberry Pi 4/5 designed for 10-inch 2U racks and supporting up to six Model B SBCs with all ports brought to the front panel.

We wrote about rack mounts for Raspberry Pi SBCs before with products such as KKSB 10-inch and 19-inch rack panels and MyElectronics’ 19-inch 2U & 3U rack mounts, but those are mostly mechanical solutions. The PiRack-M6F adds some add-on boards to bring all Raspberry Pi ports to the front, add a debug connector (Pi 5 only), and a screw terminal at the back for 5V power. It also supports HAT and add-on boards, for instance, to add PoE support.

Waveshare PiRack-M6F kit content and highlights:

• PiRack-M6F aluminum alloy rack with 2U height mounting space
  • Designed for 6x Raspberry Pi 4/5
  • Dimensions – Fits in 254 x 88 x 85 mm volume
• 6x Pi 5 Connector Adapter (D) boards, each with
  • Host connection – Mini HDMI and USB-C port for the Raspberry Pi 4/5
  • Video Output – Full-size HDMI port
  • USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and data
  • Debugging – Debug UART port (5) (for Raspberry Pi 5 only)
  • Misc – Power button (4) (for Raspberry Pi 5 only); long press to force power off, short press to soft power off or on
  • Power – 5V DC via power screw terminal (1) or USB-C (3)
• 6x 5W silicone thermal tape
• 6x yellow straight headers
• 6x 3-pin 100mm cables and 6x 3-pin 100mm cables (different style) for the debug port
• 6x 2.54-pitch 200mm cables for the power button
• A screw pack

There’s no wiki since it’s purely a hardware product. The main steps for the installation of the PiRack-M6F are to connect each of your Pi 4/5 SBCs to a Pi 5 Connector Adapter (D) board, then add the cables for the power switch and UART interface, as well as the thermal pads, before placing the Raspberry Pi boards onto the metal brackets and securing the boards with the provided screws. Now insert and secure the PiRack-M6F to a rack cabinet, insert and secure all your Raspberry Pi boards, and connect power through the 5V terminal block for each SBC.

The closest we have to the PiRack-M6F rack unit is the DeskPi RackMate T1 since it also brings all ports to the front, although it’s a complete rack cabinet designed for Raspberry Pi and NVIDIA SBCs, as well as mini-ITX motherboards.

Waveshare sells the PiRack-M6F multi-node server cluster kit for $96.99 on Amazon, $84.59 on AliExpress, and $69.99 on the company’s online store.

The post Waveshare PiRack-M6F 6-node rack unit for Raspberry Pi 4/5 brings all ports to the front appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.