SiFive has just launched the SiFive Performance P570 Gen 3 out-of-order RISC-V processor core, compliant with the RVA23 ISA profile, and designed for edge AI, high-end consumer, and commercial IoT applications running Android or enterprise-grade OS.

Besides the CPU core, SiFive also provides system IP, such as the RISC-V standard-compliant advanced interrupt architecture (AIA), WorldGuard security, and a second-generation RISC-V standard-compliant IOMMU to build a complete SoC with up to 16x P570 Gen 3 cores.

Performance P570 Gen3 specifications:

• Support for all mandatory RVA23 profile extensions for compatibility with modern operating systems such as Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Red Hat
  Enterprise
• Adds extensions for enhanced security and performance, including Smepmp, Zvkng, Zvksg, Zicfilp, Zicfiss, Zfbfmin, Zvfbfmin, Zvfbfwma, and Zvdot4a8i
• Third-generation out-of-order core building on earlier P550 Gen1 and P470 Gen2 cores
• 3-wide, 13-stage fully out–of order execution superscalar pipeline
• Single 128-bit vector pipeline with dot product extensions
• Supports multicore coherence with up to 16 cores in a core complex (4x 4-core clusters)

The P570 delivers twice the performance per GHz as the P550 in the Geekbench 6 benchmark, and this increases to 21x higher performance for AI workloads such as object detection, thanks to the 128-bit VLEN vector pipeline. Compared to the P470 Gen2, the numbers for the P570 are 30% and 4.5x higher. Photo filters like background blur also benefit greatly.

In traditional CPU workloads, as measured by SpecInt 2006/2017, the P570 gains 7- 13% in performance compared to P550, and retains the same performance as the P470.

The Performance P570 Gen 3 also offers efficiency improvements with 13% and 5% dynamic power improvements (mW/GHz) compared to P550 and P470, and a 51% and 5% in terms of power leakage (in mW).

On the software, besides support for modern OS like Google Android, Canonical Ubuntu, and Red Hat, we’re also told RISCstar has been working on upstreaming a full-featured implementation of OP-TEE in collaboration with SiFive and the RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE). Imagination Technology is also quoted in the press release,  so that probably means P570 SoCs with graphics, like similar RISC-V SoCs, will likely feature the company’s GPU.

More details about the new Performance P570 Gen3 RISC-V core can be found on the SiFive website, and in the video below by Krste Asanovic, SiFive co-Founder and Chief Architect.

The post SiFive introduces RVA23-compliant Performance P570 Gen3 RISC-V core for consumer and AIoT applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Back in July last year, SpacemiT unveiled the SpacemiT K3 SoC. After that, we saw some system information and early benchmarks come out around January this year. The company has just officially launched the K3 Pico-ITX SBC, which is now available through various distributors. Firefly has launched its own K3 hardware with the AIBOX-K3, a complete industrial-grade RISC-V edge computing box.

The AIBOX-K3 Edge AI mini PC is built around the SpacemIT Key Stone K3 octa-core processor and features an integrated AI engine that delivers up to 60 TOPS of compute performance, making it suitable for local LLM inference and edge AI applications.

Firefly AIBOX-K3 specifications:

• SoC – SpacemiT K3
  • CPU
    • 8x 64-bit RISC-V X100 “big” cores clocked up to 2.4 GHz, RVA23 compliance; 130 KDMIPS performance (similar to RK3588)
    • 8x RISC-V A100 AI Cores with support for up to 1024-bit RVV1.0 parallel computing, optimized for matrix operations.
  • GPU – Imagination Technologies BXM4-64-MC1 GPU with Vulkan 1.3, OpenCL 3.0, and OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2 support
  • VPU
    • Video decoder – H.265, H.264, VP9 up to 4K @ 120 FPS
    • Video encoder – H.265, H.264 up to 4K @ 60 FPS
  • AI – Up to 60 TOPS (INT4) of AI performance using dedicated TCM and DMA acceleration channels
• System Memory – 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB LPDDR5, 6400 MT/s (51GB/s bandwidth)
• Storage
  • 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB UFS 2.2 on-board storage
  • M.2 socket for NVMe SSDs
• Display – HDMI 2.0 port supporting up to 4K@60Hz
• Networking – Dual Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps) via RJ45 ports
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.0 Type-A ports (Max: 1A)
  • 1x USB 3.0 DRD Type-C port (includes USB 2.0 OTG functionality)
  • 1x USB Type-C Console port for serial debug
• Expansion – M.2 socket (PCIe 3.0 x4) supporting 2242 or 2280 NVMe SSDs or other compatible modules
• Misc – Power button, Boot button, and Status LED
• Power Supply – 9V to 20V  via a 5.5 x 2.1mm barrel jack (12V/5A recommended)
• Dimensions – 93.4 x 93.4 x 50.0 mm
• Weight – Approximately 500 grams
• Temperature Range – Operating: -20°C to 60°C; storage: -20°C to 70°C
• Humidity – 10%~90%RH (Non condensating)
• Enclosure – Industrial-grade aluminum body with porous hexagonal structure and strip grille ventilation

The device delivers up to 60 TOPS (Sparse) of AI power and supports multimodal acceleration, enabling it to run large models with up to 30B parameters, including Mixture of Experts (MoE) models. According to Firefly, the system can achieve inference speeds of over 10 tokens per second when running a 30B model locally.

Security and virtualization are handled at the hardware level. The SoC uses a three-level M/S/U privilege architecture and includes protection against Specter and Meltdown–type attacks. It also supports PMP/ePMP and IOPMP for memory and I/O protection, as well as built-in encryption engines such as AES, SHA, RSA, SM2, SM3, and SM4.

In the download section, the company only provides basic Linux and Windows flashing tools. This means the operating system is not guaranteed to ship pre-installed, so the software may need to be installed separately. After looking further, I found that SpacemiT supports multiple operating systems on the K3 platform, including Bianbu OS 3.0, Ubuntu 26.04 (developed in collaboration with Canonical), OpenHarmony, OpenKylin, Fedora, Deepin, and others. The SpacemiT K3 support has already been added to Linux 7.0 (initial support only in mainline), and features such as Docker, KVM virtualization, and ROS are available. More information is available on SpacemIT GitHub account.

The Firefly SpacemiT K3-based AIBOX-K3 Edge AI mini PC starts at $349 on the company’ store in the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage configuration, while the 32GB RAM version costs $689.

The post Firefly AIBOX-K3 – An Edge AI mini PC powered by SpacemiT K3 RISC-V SoC appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Geniatech has introduced three OSM system-on-modules powered by Renesas RZ/V2N/V2H/V2L Cortex-A55/M33 microprocessors, namely the OSM Size-M (45x35mm) SOM-V2N-OSM, plus the OSM Size-L (45x45mm) SOM-V2H-OSM and SOM-V2L-OSM modules, all designed for Edge AI and computer vision applications.

Geniatech SOM-V2N-OSM

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-AI3 up to 4 dense TOPS / 15 sparse TOPS
• System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4x RAM
• Storage – 64GB eMMC flash
• 476 LGA contacts with
  • Display – 4-lane MIPI-DSI
  • Camera – 2x 4-lane MIPI CSI-2
  • Audio – 2x I²S
  • Networking – 2x Gigabit Ethernet (RGMII)
  • USB – 1x USB OTG, 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0
  • PCIe – 1x PCIe Gen3
  • Low-speed I/Os
    • 5x UART (1x console), 1x SPI
    • 16x GPIO, 4x PWM
    • 2x SDIO
    • 2x CAN Bus
  • Analog – 2x ADC
  • Debugging – JTAG
• Supply Voltage – 5V
• Dimensions – 45 x 30 mm (SGeT OSM Specification v1.2, OSM Size-M)
• Temperature Range – -20°C to +85°C
• Humidity – 5% to 95% RH, non-condensing

The company says it is designed for embedded systems requiring compact size, low power consumption, and AI capability. It’s the first OSM module based on the Renesas RZ-V2N we’ve covered here, but another SoM option is the SOMDEVICES µSMARC RZ/V2N module.

Geniatech SOM-V2H-OSM

Specifications:

• SoC – Renesas RZ/V2H
  • CPU/MCU cores
    • 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores up to 1.8 GHz
    • 2x Cortex-R8 real-time cores up to 800 MHz
    • Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller core up to 200 MHz for system management
  • GPU – Arm Mali-G31 GPU
  • NPU – DRP-AI3 dynamically reconfigurable processor delivering up to 8 TOPS (INT8) or 80 TOPS (Sparse)
• System Memory – 16GB LPDDR4x (2x 8GB)
• Storage – 64GB eMMC flash
• Camera I/F – 2x MIPI CSI-2 interfaces via on-module connector
• 662 LGA contacts with
  • Display – 4-lane MIPI DSI
  • Camera – 2x 4-lane MIPI CSI-2 (on top of the 2x via the module’s connector)
  • Audio – 2x I2S
  • Networking – 2x Gigabit Ethernet (RGMII)
  • USB – 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 (1x with OTG)
  • PCIe – 2x PCIe Gen3
  • Low-speed I/Os
    • 4x UART (1x console), 1x SPI
    • 22x GPIO, 3x PWM
    • 2x CAN Bus
    • 2x SDIO
  • Analog – 2x ADC
  • Debugging – JTAG
• Supply Voltage – 5V DC
• Dimensions – 45 x 45mm (SGeT OSM Specification v1.2, OSM Size-L)
• Temperature Range – -20°C to +85°C
• Humidity – 5% to 95% RH, non-condensing

Geniatech says the module targets embedded vision systems requiring high AI performance, and it’s indeed the most powerful module of the three announced by the company.  The only other Renesas RZ/V2H we’ve covered previously is the Grinn ReneSOM-V2H, which is also an LGA design, but with a non-standard 42.6 x 37 mm form factor

Geniatech OSM-V2L-OSM

Specifications:

• SoC – Renesas RZ/V2L
  • CPU
    • 2x Arm Cortex A55 cores @ up to 1.2 GHz
    • 1x Arm Cortex M33 real-time core @ 200 MHz
  • GPU – Arm Mali G31 GPU @ 500MHz
  • VPU – H.264 encoder/decoder up to 1080p30
  • NPU – DRP-AI accelerator (somehow not advertised by Geniatech)
• System Memory – 2GB DDR
• Storage – 16GB eMMC flash (8GB/32GB as options)
• 662 LGA contacts with
  • Display – 4-lane MIPI DSI
  • Camera – 4-lane MIPI CSI-2
  • Networking – 2x Gigabit Ethernet
  • USB – 2x USB (Host + OTG)
  • Low-speed I/Os
    • 4x UART, 1x SPI, 3x I2C
    • 1x PWM
    • 2x CAN FD
    • 2x SDIO
  • Analog – 2x 12-bit ADC
  • Debugging – JTAG
• Supply Voltage – 5V DC
• Dimensions – 45 x 45mm (SGeT OSM Specification v1.1, OSM Size-L)
• Temperature Range – -20°C to +85°C
• Humidity – 35% to 75% RH, non-condensing

The Renesas RZ/V2L MPU itself is older, as it was introduced in 2022, and that might be why Geniatech doesn’t mention the DRP-AI NPU at all in the specifications. It should still be useful for entry-level embedded systems with camera input. It looks to be an upgrade to the company’s SOM-G2L-OSM module with a Renesas Rz/G2L MPU, 1GB of RAM, and an 8GB eMMC flash introduced in 2022.

Software support and availability

A Yocto-based Linux BSP supports all three Renesas OSM system-on-modules, but Geniatech didn’t provide that much information about the software side. We can assume Geniatech mostly leverages the support provided by Renesas. The company didn’t announce any Renesas OSM development kit, but something like the RK3568 OSM devkit should be available to customers now or soon.

Geniatech hasn’t provided pricing for any of the modules. You can inquire about pricing and find a few more details on the OSM product page.

The post Geniatech launches Renesas RZ/V2N, RZ/V2H, and RZ/V2L OSM Size-M/L system-on-modules appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

SpacemiT has now officially launched the K3 Pico-ITX SBC and K3-CoM260 system-on-module with the RVA23-compliant, SpacemiT K3 octa-core X100 CPU with up to 60 TOPS of AI performance, up to 32GB LPDDR5, 256GB UFS, and PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSD support.

The board also features an eDP connector, a 10GbE SFP+ cage, a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, built-in WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity, two USB Type-C connectors, four USB 2.0 ports, an M.2 Key-B socket coupled with a NanoSIM card slot for 4G LTE or 5G cellular connectivity, and more.

K3 Pico-ITX SBC specifications:

• System-on-Module – K3-CoM260
  • SoC – SpacemiT K3
    • CPU
      • 8x 64-bit RISC-V X100 “big” cores clocked up to 2.4 GHz, RVA23 compliance; 130 KDMIPS performance (similar to RK3588)
      • 8x RISC-V A100 AI Cores with support for up to 1024-bit RVV1.0 parallel computing, optimized for matrix operations.
    • GPU – Imagination Technologies BXM4-64-MC1 GPU with Vulkan 1.3, OpenCL 3.0, and OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2 support
    • VPU
      • Video decoder – H.265, H.264, VP9 up to 4K @ 120 FPS
      • Video encoder – H.265, H.264 up to 4K @ 60 FPS
    • AI – Up to 60 TOPS (INT4) of AI performance using dedicated TCM and DMA acceleration channels;
  • System Memory – 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB LPDDR5 @ 6400 MT/s (51GB/s bandwidth)
  • Storage
    • 128GB or 256GB UFS 2.2 storage
    • SPI NOR flash
    • MicroSD card slot (yes, on the module)
  • Host interface – 260-pin SO-DIMM edge connector
• Storage – M.2 Key-M 2280 (PCIe Gen3 x4) socket for NVMe SSD
• Display Interface
  • eDP connector
  • USB-C port with DP 1.2
• Audio – On-board audio codec, internal audio input/output
• Networking
  • 10GbE SFP+ cage via RealTek RTL8127 controller
  • Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port via RealTek RTL8211 controller
  • WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module with two IPEX antenna connectors
  • Optional 4G LTE/5G cellular via M.2 Key-B socket
• USB
  • 2x USB-C ports
    • 1x USB 3.2 port with DP 1.2 Alt. mode and USB PD
    • 1x USB 3.2 OTG port
  • 4x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• Expansion
  • M.2 M-Key 2280 (PCIe Gen3 x4) socket
  • M.2 B-Key 2242/3052 (PCIe Gen2 x2 + USB 2.0) socket
  • 2x “RTI” FPC connectors supporting EtherCAT, CAN-FD, and other interfaces for microsecond-level motion control and robotics
  • EC-IO connector for the Embedded Controller managing fan, I2C, GPIO, button, and LED
• Debugging – UART and JTAG connectors
• Misc
  • 3x buttons for power, reset, and firmware update
  • RTC battery connector
  • Fan-cooled heatsink
  • 4-pin SYS connector
• Power Supply up to 65W
  • 12V DC up to 7A via 2-pin ATX connector
  • USB PD via USB-C port
•  Dimensions
  • Board: 100 x 86 mm (Pico-ITX Plus form factor)
  • With heatsink: 103 x 90.5 x 35mm
• Temeperature Range – Consumer: -20°C to + 70°C; industrial: -40°C to +85°C
• Certifications – CCC, FCC, CE

The K3 SBC and SOM come pre-loaded with Bianbu 3.0 (Ubuntu-based), but Ubuntu 26.04 (thanks to RVA23 compatibility), OpenHarmony 6.0, OpenKylin 2.0, Deepin 25, and Fedora operating systems are also available. The company highlights support for RV Hypervisor 1.0, AIA, and RV IOMMU extensions, as well as hardware virtualization for CPU, memory, and I/Os.

Early benchmarks for the SpacemiT K3 indicate Rockchip RK3588-level of multi-core performance, and results slightly lower than a Raspberry Pi 5 for single-core performance. What you get is much faster storage, networking, a proper video processing unit with 4K decoding and encoding, and a 60 TOPS of AI performance. Bandwidth should also be significantly better, but early memset/memcpy results are only marginally better than those of a Raspberry Pi 5. Some data was also shared to show the performance delta between the SpacemiT K1 and K3 SoCs when using the Jupiter NX and Jupiter NX2 modules.

The way the K3 Pico-ITX SBC and K3-CoM260 system-on-module kit are distributed is interesting. SpacemiT designed the board, but at least three companies are now selling them for respectively $299+ and $309+, depending on configuration. Here’s the current price table from Sipeed as of today (May 11, 2026):

You’ll find purchase links on AliExpress (Banana Pi, different link for the SoM devit), Sipeed, and Arace (Milk-V). Banana Pi calls the SoM devkit the BPI-SM10, while Milk-V calls the SBC Jupiter 2 and the module Jupiter 2 NX. The SBC is identical between the three companies, but the SoM devkit designs vary. The Jupiter 2 SBC is sold as a complete kit with an enclosure. We should receive the Pico-ITX (Plus) board from SpacemiT, so you can expect a review sometime in June, and maybe an unboxing before that (if warranted).

Update: the article was initially published on January 30, 2026, and updated following the official launch through various distributors

The post RVA23-compliant K3 Pico-ITX SBC and K3-CoM260 SoM feature SpacemiT K3 octa-core RISC-V AI SoC, up to 32GB RAM, 256GB UFS appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

In this review, I’ll report my experience with the Khadas Mind xPlay display and keyboard using the Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs, as well as a CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop to test it as a standard external display.

Using Mind xPlay with the Mind 2 mini PC

I received the Mind xPlay with the Mind 2 Meteor Lake mini PC, and I already showed how to connect it and get started in the first part of the review. So I’ll continue the review with it initially. I used the EIZO monitor test website to evaluate the display panel itself.

I went through all 13 tests, including dead pixel and gradients tests. The pattern above looks fine too, so I compare the Mind xPlay monitor to the 16-inch display of the ASUS Vivobook 16 to find differences. Both were set to maximum brightness.

The xPlay delivers noticeably more vibrant colors than my laptop screen. The biggest difference comes from its glossy panel against my laptop’s matte display, as it boosts perceived contrast and saturation, although it also introduces some reflections, which can be distracting. Resolution is quite higher too at 2880 x 1920. As a side note, regular reader Tkaiser noted that a color gamut of 100% sRGB is “pretty small/limited color space”. The latter depends on what you do with the display; it’s fine for office tasks, web browsing, and YouTube video playback, but photo/video editing and HDR gaming would benefit from a wider color space.

The Mind xPlay comes with a 2MP webcam, which I tested with webcamtest.com…

… and used the microphone test there as well.

I also played an allegedly copyright-free YouTube video to test the built-in speakers.

The recording does not really do justice to the speakers, as they sound better in real-life than in this video. When going to Windows Sound settings, I also noticed “Mono audio” was enabled, and disabling it further improves sound quality.

I also followed up by playing a stereo test YouTube video to confirm left and right speakers are independently controlled.

The handle on the back can be opened up to 120 degrees, as shown in the photo below.

However, in this position it lifts the keyboard a bit, and it’s easy to unintentionally disconnect the keyboard from the display when you are typing, unless you are really gentle with the keys…

As a reminder, the Mind xPlay does not include a touchscreen, so you need another input device, either the xPlay keyboard or your own keyboard and mouse.

While the Mind 2 comes with a built-in battery, it’s quite small and only designed to allow the user to carry the mini PC between rooms or switch accessories. The xPlay features a much higher capacity 4,150 mAh battery for the display itself and the Mind 2 mini PC. So I tested battery life with the brightness set to maximum.

I started at 12:40 with a 100% charge. A few minutes later, at a 98% charge, we were told it should last 3h48.

I changed the settings to make sure the display is always on, and let the mini PC idle for one hour. The charge level was 75%, at which point I started playing a YouTube video. At the two-hour mark, the charge was at 38%, and at 15:16, it dropped to 20%, and a pop-up showed up telling us the battery was running low. The battery lasted about 2h40 to this point, which means you can expect about 2 to 3 hours of battery life per full charge.

The Khadas xPlay display comes with two USB-C ports. a USB-C input port (top) for power and video data when connecting it as a standard display, and a USB-C output (bottom) to connect peripherals. With the Mind 2, the xPlay’s battery can be charged through the USB-C input port on the xPlay or the mini PC itself. I mention that because the first-generation Mind Play can’t charge the xPlay, so users need to use the USB-C input on the display itself.

The first time I connected a 14-inch Crowview portable display to the USB-C output port, it was powered for a short time, and then showed “no cable”. So I decided to upgrade the BIOS of the Mind 2 as Khadas recommends it, even though my device is brand new. After that, the Crowview worked normally, connected through the xPlay.

You can also add additional displays using the USB-C and HDMI ports of the Mind 2. The USB-C output port is not only for external display, and you can connect other peripherals, for example, a USB NVMe SSD enclosure. I also moved the white power cable from the Mind 2 to the xPlay to show another way to power the combo.

Mind xPlay with Mind mini PC in Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04

Let’s now switch from the Mind 2 to the Mind mini PC. We can do that as the computers are running and the display is powered. No need to turn off anything since all three devices are battery-powered for this purpose.

One of the first tests I did was connecting the Crowview monitor, since I initially had an issue with the Mind 2. This worked out of the box with the Mind without even updating the EC (Embedded Controller) firmware.

I still update the latter following the instructions on the Khadas website. Basically, I had to download the zip file, extract it to a USB flash drive formatted with FAT32. Then select it in the BIOS (press Esc to enter the BIOS), and type the following commands to start the ITE Flash Utility:

fs3:
fe.nsh

I’m not sure what Khadas did with the firmware version, but I successfully upgraded from the old version 2.7 to the new version 1.2 of the firmware…

That step went relatively smoothly compared to the BIOS update on the Mind 2.

From there, I tested all other features such as the touchpad, webcam, microphone, speakers, USB-C output port, and battery charging. Everything works just as well as with the Mind 2, except the new mini PC is faster, and the Mind can’t charge the xPlay, so the charger should be connected to the USB-C input port of the xPlay, instead of the power port of the Mind.

Since Ubuntu 24.04 is also installed on the Mind mini PC, I rebooted into the Linux OS.

Again, everything worked, although I had some troubles with the microphone at first, but I’m not sure what happened, as it started working without me doing anything.

If we run inxi, we can see a few features from the xPlay display:

jaufranc@Khadas-Mind-CNX:~$ sudo inxi -Fc0
[sudo] password for jaufranc: 
System:
  Host: Khadas-Mind-CNX Kernel: 6.8.0-51-generic x86_64 bits: 64
    Console: pty pts/2 Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Khadas product: Mind v: 1.0 serial: 04100136000001
  Mobo: Khadas model: Mind-PCB v: V12 serial: N/A
    UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 3.0 date: 06/07/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 46.3 Wh (95.3%) condition: 48.6/47.9 Wh (101.4%)
CPU:
  Info: 12-core (4-mt/8-st) model: 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1360P bits: 64
    type: MST AMCP cache: L2: 9 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1168 min/max: 400/5000:3700 cores: 1: 900 2: 1217
    3: 1019 4: 1085 5: 3608 6: 400 7: 1786 8: 1540 9: 1626 10: 898 11: 1200
    12: 897 13: 400 14: 1318 15: 400 16: 400
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P [Iris Xe Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: SunplusIT USB Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 tty: 80x24 resolution:
    1: 1920x1080 2: 2880x1920
  Message: GL data unavailable in console for root.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVS driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: Khadas Mind xPlay Audio type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.8.0-51-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: 8c:17:59:ab:ca:4d
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel type: USB driver: btusb
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 state: up address: 8C:17:59:AB:CA:51
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 43.98 GiB (4.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD PC SN740 SDDPTQD-1T00 size: 953.87 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 465.13 GiB used: 43.9 GiB (9.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 96 MiB used: 84.7 MiB (88.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 600 Uptime: 22m Memory: 31.08 GiB used: 5.03 GiB (16.2%)
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Shell: Sudo inxi: 3.3.13

The webcam is detected as “SunplusIT USB Camera”, while the “Khadas Mind xPlay Audio” shows up as a USB audio device.

Using the Mind xPlay as an external USB-C display

For the final test, I decided to connect the Khadas xPlay to the CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop since it supports USB-C DisplayPort Alt mode. However, it didn’t quite work as expected. While the external display was detected, the xPlay and laptop were stuck in a connection/disconnection loop, as shown in the video below.

Since neither had power above, I connected the laptop to its power adapter, and after seeing that it didn’t help, I added power to the second USB-C port on the xPlay. But still no luck. I finally rebooted into Ubuntu 24.04. The display didn’t work either, but I noticed I could adjust the volume using the buttons on the xPlay, and I could also connect to the webcam on the xPlay, at least for a little while, until the xPlay appeared to reboot (the Khadas boot logo appeared).

So to demonstrate it can indeed be used as an external USB-C display, I connected it to the Mind mini PC through a USB-C cable instead of the Mind Link connector.

Everything still works through USB-C, including the volume buttons, webcam, microphone, speakers, and obviously the keyboard and touchpad if the xPlay keyboard is also connected. Running inxi shows the same SunplusIT USB webcam and xPlay audio USB device as when connected through the Mind Link:

jaufranc@Khadas-Mind-CNX:~$ inxi -AG
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: SunplusIT USB Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 tty: 80x24
    resolution: 2880x1920
  Message: GL data unavailable in console. Try -G --display
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: Khadas Mind xPlay Audio type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.8.0-111-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes

What’s not super user-friendly is that the power button needs to be pressed. The xPlay display won’t just wake up when connected through USB-C like other external displays. In this mode, you’d also need to press the power button on the mini PC, while when the Mind 2 is connected behind the display, you can just press the power button on the xPlay to turn everything on.

Conclusion

If you already own a Khadas Mind or Mind 2/2s mini PC, the Khadas xPlay is a nice addition to convert it into a laptop with a QWERTY keyboard, a touch pad, a 2MP webcam, a microphone, and stereo speakers. It also adds an extra USB-C port to connect peripherals like external storage or a USB-C display, and a battery allowing for 2 to 3 hours of usage with the Mind 2 connected at the back.

The display panel itself also looks good to me with high resolution (2880×1920) and vibrant colors, but the glossy coating may be distracting due to reflections, especially outdoors. Some people may also wish it had a wider color gamut than 100% sRGB.  The custom Mind Link connector allows users to install or remove the Mind (2) mini PC from the xPlay without turning it off, either to use it as a mini PC in another location or connect it to the Mind Graphics 2 dock for gaming or the earlier Mind dock.

While I was overall satisfied with the Khadas xPlay, I encountered some limitations and interoperability issues. First, while the Mind 2 can both be powered by and provide power to the xPlay, the Mind can’t charge the xPlay, so you have to make sure to connect the power to the xPlay and not the Mind. This is already documented on the Khadas website. The xPlay also lacks touchscreen support, so you can’t use it as a tablet. Maybe it will be implemented in future versions (xPlay 2?).

The Khadas xPlay also appears to be unusable as an external display with the CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop due to firmware or hardware-level interoperability issues, as the xPlay enters a boot loop of sorts in both Windows and Ubuntu. The Khadas xPlay can certainly be used with an external USB-C display, as we demonstrated in this review, but compatibility must be tested with the target hardware.

I’d like to thank Khadas for sending the xPlay display and keyboard for review, along with a Mind 2 mini PC. The Khadas Mind xPlay kit goes for $399 on AliExpress and the Khadas store. If you only need the display, the price is $349, while the keyboard is $99. The Mind 2 mini PC sells for $1099 in 32GB/1TB configuration.

The post Mind xPlay display and keyboard review using Khadas Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Machdyne’s FERRIT is a modular USB F-RAM storage device with a capacity of up to 256 MB and capable of storing data for up to 200 years with a virtually unlimited number of writes and high-radiation resistance.

It builds upon the earlier Blaustahl F-RAM storage device that only offers 8KB capacity. The FERRIT device supports 8 MB to 256 MB by combining up to 256 individual 1 MB F-RAM ICs. The prototype below is housed in a metal frame and looks like a typical cluster solution.

FERRIT specifications and key features:

• FERRIT-CY controller based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU with USB-FS Type-C port
• FERRIT-M8 removable ferroelectric memory cards with up to 16MB capacity using 16x 1MB F-RAM ICs (double-sided: 2x 8 chips)
• FERRIT-16 backplane with slots for FERRIT-CY and 16x FERRIT-M8 connected over SPI/QSPI bus
• Max capacity – 256 MB+ through up to 256x memory devices (16 memory cards with 16 chips)
• Preserves data for up to 200 years, far beyond traditional storage media.
• Write cycles – Supports a virtually unlimited number of writes
• Radiation-Resistant – Maintains data integrity in high-radiation environments.
• Host interface – USB-C Type-C, the solution appears as a mass storage device; no special software is required

The German company says it’s ideal for critical documentation, historical records, cryptographic key storage, and archival collections. The project is also open-source, with the KiCad schematics, PCB layouts, C firmware, and documentation available on GitHub under a “Lone Dynamics Open License”, which basically says:

Redistribution and use in source, binary or physical forms, with or without modification, is permitted provided that the following condition is met:

    Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

The disclaimer is about responsibility: “use at your own risk”.

Machdyne told CNX Software that the current memory modules are single-sided with eight 1MB F-RAM chips, as shown in the photo at the top of this article. As a result, the total memory is limited to 128 MB in this setup, but with dual-sided modules, the total can be up to 256 MB.  The company didn’t provide information about the F-RAM chip, but the schematics show they are using SOIC-16 parts (7.5 x 10.3 mm, 1.27mm pitch), and the only match I could find with 1MB capacity was the RAMXEED MB85RQ8MXPF (PDF datasheet) with high endurance of 10¹³ times at 105°C or  10¹⁴ times at 85°C and long data retention of up to 200 years at 35°C. However, it decreases as the temperature increases: 10 years @ 105°C and 95 years at 55°C.

When I wrote about the Blaustahl F-RAM device a few years ago, people noted that the Raspberry Pi RP2040 may not last 200 years, and USB might become legacy in 100+ years, and complained about the small 8KB capacity. The FERRIT doesn’t solve the first two, but with up to 256MB capacity, it solves the ultra-small capacity issue that made the Blaustahl mostly useful for storing (encrypted) text. Both still benefit from quasi-unlimited write cycles and very long storage life, but whether the 200-year target is achievable for the whole system is another question.

Interested organizations can reserve the FERRIT modular F-RAM storage solution, but instead of providing pricing information, Machdyne asks customers how much they’d be willing to pay, which is an interesting strategy. For reference, the MB85RQ8MXPF FeRAM chip sells for $25.03 per unit on Mouser for a 500-piece reel, so the memory for a complete system with 256 chips would cost about $6400. That’s for 256 MB of storage without the boards, chassis, and profit margin. More details and the reservation link can be found on the product page.

The post Up to 256 MB FERRIT modular F-RAM storage device preserves critical data for up to 200 years appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

We previously wrote about Carbon’s CyberT, a Blackberry-style Raspberry Pi CM4 handheld Linux cyberdeck designed for Kali Linux and penetration testing. The company, now operating under the CyberArch/Carbon Computers brand, has introduced the Pi Slate, a more powerful handheld cyberdeck designed for portable computing and security-focused applications.

Built around the Raspberry Pi 5, the Pi Slate integrates a 5-inch 1280×720 touchscreen, a backlit RGB keyboard with an integrated cursor, and a 10,000 mAh battery for 3–5 hours of portable use in a compact enclosure. It supports modular expansion for HATs such as LoRa, SDR, AI accelerators, and M.2 storage, and includes cooling support, antenna mounts, and an optional modular back with a kickstand. It targets penetration testers, IT professionals, and field technicians needing a compact, preconfigured system for cybersecurity and field work.

Pi Slate specifications:

• SBC – Raspberry Pi 5 with 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB LPDDR4X RAM options
• Storage
  • MicroSD card slot (via Pi 5 standard ports)
  • Support for M.2 NVMe storage expansions via the PCIe interface (HAT needed)
• Display – 5-inch HD IPS touchscreen display with a 1280 x 720 resolution
• Video output – 2x micro HDMI ports (via Pi 5 standard ports)
• Networking and wireless
  • Gigabit Ethernet (via Pi 5 standard ports)
  • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5 & Bluetooth 5.0 (on Pi 5)
  • Optional LoRaWAN, SDR, and GPS support
  • Antenna holes on the top corner
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.0 ports (Pi 5 standard ports)
  • 2x USB 2.0 ports (Pi 5 standard ports)
  • 1x USB Type-C port, most probably for charging the internal battery
  • 1x USB Type-C port for charging the keyboard
  • 1x USB out port
• User Input – RGB keyboard with an integrated gyroscopic cursor
• Expansion
  • Internal layout supports low-profile HATs, AI accelerators, and radio modules
  • Slate Back module adds a fold-out kickstand and a hex mounting panel for accessories
• Misc
  • Keyboard power switch
  • Ring shape main power switch (Up off/ Down on)
  • Flash light
  • Battery button (single press battery status; triple press lights on/off)
  • Battery indicator on the back side
  • Built-in active cooling system designed to accommodate low-profile coolers alongside expansions
• Power
  • 10,000 mAh internal battery for 3 to 5 hours of runtime
  • Charges via the USB Type – C port
• Dimensions – 165 x 140 x 33 mm (6.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches)
• Weight – 574 grams (1.2 lbs)

The fully assembled versions are plug-and-play and require no setup. An accessible microSD slot allows quick OS swapping. The system ships with Raspberry Pi OS as the default option, but is fully compatible with Ubuntu, Parrot OS (featuring over 600 pentesting tools), TwisterOS, and Batocera for retro gaming.

There seems to be a lot of interest and activity around portable Linux cyberdecks and handheld terminals, and we’ve covered several over the years, including the ClockworkPi DevTerm,  uConsole, and PocketTerm35, among others.

The Pi Slate is available for pre-order on the CarbonComputers store with a 1-2 week lead time. The barebones kit starts at $282.08, which feels a bit high for a Raspberry Pi-based handheld, while fully assembled versions range from $423.58 to $706.60 depending on the configuration. Optional add-ons, such as GPS/LoRa/SDR radio kits, are sold separately. The barebones option includes the chassis, display, keyboard, battery, and internal wiring, but you’ll need to add your own Raspberry Pi 5 and cooling.

The company also offers Pi Flux, a similar device with similar features, and both use a Raspberry Pi 5, have the same 5-inch display, built-in keyboard, and 10,000 mAh battery. The difference is mostly in the design, where the Pi Flux is built more like a rugged cyberdeck with extra mounting space and support for add-ons like antennas, radios, or other modules, while the Pi Slate is a slimmer, cleaner version that’s easier to carry around and feels more like a polished handheld device.

The post Pi Slate – A Raspberry Pi 5 handheld Linux cyberdeck with a 5-inch 1280×720 touchscreen display appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

I don’t always update the BIOS of my system, but when I do, I always make sure to waste several hours doing so. Last time I did that was in 2020, but this happened again when I updated the BIOS for the Khadas Mind 2 to test it with the Mind xPlay display and Mind Graphics 2 dock.

Khadas provides the BIOS with instructions to update the Mind 2 mini PC, and it’s supposed to take five minutes, but I ended up wasting two about hours… The first step is to download and extract a zip file (mind-2-bios-v1.07-260122.zip), then start the Flash_BIOS upgrade program, and finally wait for the upgrade to complete.

That part went great. No problem, but when the system rebooted, I was greeted by a BitLocker window asking me to enter a recovery key to carry on with the boot process.

There’s no way to avoid this, and that’s a bit annoying, but I understand this is done for security reasons, since the BIOS was changed and BitLocker (device encryption) is enabled, Windows 11 wants to make sure it’s not from a bad actor.  So I went to aka.ms/myrecoverykey on another machine, where I could find the 48-digit recovery key from the MIND mini PC.

As a side note, I think I understand why the Windows setup wizard sometimes forces users to log in with a Microsoft account and other times, it does not. If you don’t have a Microsoft account and BitLocker is enabled, you need an account to recover access, unless you’ve manually saved the keys on a USB flash drive. Without recovery keys, you’ll need to wipe out the drive when reinstalling Windows and lose your data.

Nevertheless, I had my recovery key, so I tried to type it in on the BitLocker window. The only problem is that it shows only for 5 seconds before rebooting in a loop… Not quite enough time to type 48 digits from a random key and click on Continue… So I had to find a workaround: selecting Skip this drive->Troubleshoot->Advanced options-> Command prompt.

It was still locked, but I could select Unlock and enter the recovery keys without the system rebooting every 5 seconds as I typed.

I got access to the Command Prompt, and I temporarily suspended BitLocker with the following command:

manage-bde.ext -protectors -disable

After that, I exited and continued the boot process. I saw Windows booting animation and was about to celebrate. However, I have enough experience to know that once something goes wrong, it can go wrong more than one way, and I was unable to log in to Windows as my PIN (aka password) was not available. That issue is documented in another documentation on the Khadas website, but that’s easy enough to solve anyway.

I clicked on “Set up my PIN” and was informed of potential caveats of doing so. It’s not like I had any choice anyway, and in my case, it had no negative impacts.

I selected the Phone recovery method to scan a QR code and changed the PIN.

I finally managed to log in to Windows 11 Pro. Device encryption/BitLocker was temporarily suspended, and should resume automatically the next ttime we reboot the device.

I did that twice, and the same message still showed up, so I manually ran the following command as an administrator to resume encryption:

manage-bde -protectors -enable C:

The suspension message is gone. I did a last reboot to confirm everything was back to normal.

I’m all for security, but there must be a better way to implement a secure BIOS upgrade on a Windows 11 machine with BitLocker… Funnily enough, I might have to disable or suspend BitLocker again soon, as I plan to install Ubuntu 26.04 on the Mind 2.

The post My experience upgrading the BIOS of a Windows 11 mini PC (with BitLocker) in 2026 appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Rikomagic has sent me a sample of their DS08 digital signage player for review. It’s based on a Rockchip RK3588 SoC paired with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB eMMC flash, and offers two HDMI 2.1 ports, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, as well as several USB ports, optical S/PDIF audio output, and more.

I was initially not sure I could receive a sample, as Thailand is pretty strict with licenses for this type of hardware, but Rikomagic told us that it would not be a problem when using DDP (delivered duty paid), and the courier handles all paperwork. And indeed we did receive the parcel without issue. Since Rockchip RK3588 is now a mature platform, we won’t run benchmarks in this review, but instead go through an unboxing and a teardown, and focus on digital signage features such as video playback, RTC support, and display orientation options.

Rikomagic DS08 unboxing

Since the DS08 is not a consumer device, it doesn’t need a fancy retail package, and we received the sample in a sturdy white box.

The package includes the DS08 player itself, two WiFi antennas, a 12V/2A (24W) power adapter, an “8K” HDMI cable, and a basic IR remote control.

The front panel features the IR receiver, a power LED, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port, and two USB 3.0 ports, while the rear panel features two SMA antenna connectors, an optical S/PDIF audio output, a USB 2.0 port, an 8K-capable HDMI port, a 4K-capable HDMI port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 12V DC jack.

Strangely, my sample only had two screws on the front panel instead of four.

Rikomagic DS08 teardown

We have to loosen the screws on the front and rear panels to remove the SMA antenna connectors from the rear panel and slide the mainboard out of the metal case.

The mainboard features a Rockchip PMIC, a GL805G USB 2.0 hun control, and a RealTek RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet transceiver. The Rockchip RK3588, RAM chips, and 128GB flash are all placed under a large heatsink. Other notable features include the four pads for the UART console, a Reset button placed behind the audio jack, an RTC battery, a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module (markings unreadable), and footprints for what should be the “optional 4G LTE module with SIM card slot” listed in the specifications.

There’s not much to see on the bottom side of the board, except passive components, and a thick thermal pad that should be in contact with the metal case for cooling.

Rikomagic DS08 first boot and system info

Let’s now reassemble the device and connect it to Ethernet and an HDMI monitor for testing.

It boots to a typical Android launcher. There’s no pre-installed digital signage app, and the customer can use whatever they’d like or develop their own. The resolution of the user interface (framebuffer) is 3840×2160 instead of the more common 1920×1080.

The Rikomagic DS08 runs Android 13 on top of Linux 5.10.157 kernel.

Only a few apps are pre-installed:

• Google Chrome – Web browsing or download apps.
• Explorer – A File manager
• Gallery to check images
• Music to play audio files
• Google Play Store – It didn’t work for me. I can launch it, but clicking on the Sign-in button does nothing.
• Power Manager – For scheduled power on/off and reboots
• Settings
• Video – Playback of local video files.

Some custom settings include the ability to hide the navigation bar (the down arrow icon can also be used), the power button, and the Screenrotate button (second icon highlighted in red).

Google Play didn’t work, even after checking that I had the latest firmware version and clearing all caches for the app. I tried with Ethernet and 5 GHz WiFi, but no luck in either case. Having said that, the company sent me a video showing Google Play working just fine on their sample, so it might be specific to my sample. Google Play support is probably not that important, albeit convenient, on this type of embedded hardware.

So instead, I installed APKPure to install tools I needed, such as CPU-Z. System information is mostly as expected with a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core CPU paired with 7916 MB RAM. However, the system only shows 53 GB of storage, which seems really low for a player that’s supposed to come with 128GB flash. After inquiry, Rikomagic told me I had been sent an early pilot run with 64GB flash, and mass production units come with 128GB flash. The system offers root access.

I  couldn’t use DRMInfo to check DRM licenses, as it requires Google Play. Checking the terminal implies Widewine L3 is enabled:

:/ $ getprop ro.widewine.level                                                 

:/ $ getprop drm.service.enabled                                               
true

I’m not sure DRM is that useful for a digital signage player either, although as usual, it depends on the use case. For example, broadcasting live sports or premium channels along with other content, such as scrolling text and images, may benefit from proper Widewine L3/L1 support.

Video playback

One of the most important features for a digital signage player is its video playback capabilities. I used the built-in Video app to play videos from a USB 3.0 hard drive, and also connected speakers to the 3.5mm audio jack since the CrowView HDMI display I’m using doesn’t include any.

I started with 4K videos:

• HD.Club-4K-Chimei-inn-60mbps.mp4 (H.264, 30 fps) – OK
• sintel-2010-4k.mkv (H.264, 24 fps, 4096×1744, AC-3 audio) – Video OK, no audio
• Beauty_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265, no audio) – OK
• Bosphorus_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265, no audio) – OK
• Jockey_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_TS.ts (H.265) – OK
• MHD_2013_2160p_ShowReel_R_9000f_24fps_RMN_QP23_10b.mkv (10-bit HEVC, no audio) – OK
• phfx_4KHD_VP9TestFootage.webm (VP9, no audio) – OK
• BT.2020.20140602.ts (Rec.2020 compliant video; 36 Mbps; 59.97 Hz) – OK
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_30fps.mp4 – OK
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_60fps.mp4 – OK
• Fifa_WorldCup2014_Uruguay-Colombia_4K-x265.mp4 (4K, H.265, 60 fps) –
• Samsung_UHD_Dubai_10-bit_HEVC_51.4Mbps.ts (10-bit HEVC / MPEG-4 AAC) – OK
• 暗流涌动-4K.mp4 (10-bit H.264; 120 Mbps) – OK
• Ducks Take Off [2160p @ 243 Mbps].mkv (4K H.264 @ 29.97 fps; 243 Mbps; no audio) – OK
• tara-no9-vp9.webm (4K VP9 YouTube video @ 60 fps, Vorbis audio) – OK
• The.Curvature.of.Earth.4K.60FPS-YT-UceRgEyfSsc.VP9.3840×2160.OPUS.160K.webm (4K VP9 @ 60 fps + opus audio) – OK

Excellent here, except for the lack of support for AC3 audio in the Video app.

I carried on testing with a few 8K videos:

• 8K Sample Video _ Alpha 1 _ Sony _ α–ucUFBTUYLI.mkv (8K AV1 video @ 29.97 fps with Vorbis audio) – Starts with audio, but video is choppy. Normal due to RK3588 4Kp60 AV1 limitation.
• 2021-LG-8K-60-fps.mp4 (8K AV1 @ 59.94 fps, no audio) –  Choppy and playing in slow motion (the original is at normal speed). Normal due to RK3588 4Kp60 AV1 limitation.
• hevc_8k60P_bilibili_1.mp4 (8K H.265 @ 30 FPS, AAC LC audio) – OK
• First_8K_Video_from_Space_-_Ultra_HD_VP9.webm (8K VP9 @ 23.96 fps, Opus audio) – OK most of the time, but too many freezes, audio cuts at times.

It looked quite bad at first, until I realized that the Rockchip RK3588 SoC only supports hardware AV1 video decoding up to 4Kp60… So I found two more 8K videos with H.265 and VP9. The H.265 played just fine, but the VP9 video was not playing that well. I copied the file to the eMMC flash just in case, but it didn’t help either. The Rikomagic DS08 can be used as an 8K digital signage player, but if 8K videos are required as part of your media content, you may need to select specific formats and/or bitrates.

Digital signage players must often run continuously, so reliability is important. So I did a burnout test playing a single 4Kp60 video in repeat for well over 24 hours. The system didn’t crash, and the video was still playing smoothly, even though the test was performed at an ambient temperature of 28°C to 40°C.

Digital signage features

The DS08 has at least three features that are specifically useful to digital signage use cases: display orientation, RTC support, and watchdog timer.

Display orientation

By default, Android boots in landscape mode. We can easily change that by clicking the Screenrotate button. That’s after rotating the display by 90° (portrait mode)…

… 180 degrees (landscape mode with cables on the left) …

… and 270 degrees (portrait mode with cables on the bottom for my display). I also went to the Video app and started playing a video in that mode before taking a photo.

The selection also survives reboot and power cycles, as we’ll see further below.  We used to be able to switch between landscape and portrait mode with an app, but changes to Android OS have made that mode difficult, and it’s better when the feature is integrated into the device’s firmware.

RTC and power/reboot scheduling

If your digital signage player is designed to operate in a location such as a shopping center open between 10 am and 10 pm, you don’t exactly need to run it at all times. The Power Manager app offers options to schedule on/off and reboot times.

I tried the reboot time first, selecting it to reboot at 20;00, and no problem. The boot time and shutdown time can be set for every day or only workdays (Monday to Friday), and you can set the “boot time” and “shut time” for all enabled days, or configure each day independently. I tested that on Sunday to shut down at 20:15 and boot at 20:20 in portrait mode, and it worked as expected with correct timing and the same orientation.

Watchdog timer

This one was less obvious to test for me. I eventually connected through SSH (using an SSH server app) to generate a kernel panic:

:/ $ su
:/ # echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger

The terminal window became unresponsive, and within a couple of seconds, the system automatically rebooted instead of being hung there forever. This is used to minimize downtime and make sure your signage quickly recovers when the system crashes or hangs.

I still asked the company about watchdog testing, and they told me to follow these steps instead:

1. Download and install Rockchip FactoryTool and DriverAssistant
2. Connect the DS08’s USB-C port with a Windows computer
3. Open the FlashTool flashing tool
4. Press and hold the recovery button (inside the audio jack, see teardown ) to enter recovery mode until the flash tool recognizes the device.
5. The system will reboot automatically after around 8 minutes.

So I did just that, as shown in the screenshot above. The DS08’s power LED and HDMI output turned off, and I could see a connection on Port[2]. I started at 10:24, and at 10:32, the digital signage rebooted into Android 13.

Dual-display support

Rikomagic DS08 offers two display interfaces: HDMI up to 8Kp60 and HDMI up to 4Kp60. So I’ve connected a 32-inch KTC A32Q8 4K monitor and a 14-inch CrowView Full HD portable monitor, and mirroring works fine, even when playing an 8K video.

Independent displays might be possible, for example, to show information or menus in different languages,  but it will probably require firmware modifications. The DS08 may need to be used in combination with a long fiber HDMI cable if the second display is far away (7-10+ meters at 4Kp60) and a traditional HDMI cable won’t do.

I had also planned to test the USB touchscreen function until I realized I had no working touchscreen displays with HDMI and USB-C, only one where USB-C carries both video and (touch) data, and the DS08/ only supports video output through HDMI.

WiFi 6 performance

I quickly tested Gigabit Ethernet using iperf3 (Magic iPerf on Android) and got 941/942 Mbps in either direction, so Gigabit Ethernet is not an issue, as on most machines. There can be more variation with WiFi 6, so I tested it again when connected at 5 GHz:

• Download
  

  devkit@UPX-i11:~$ iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.31.192 -i 10
  Connecting to host 192.168.31.192, port 5201
  [  5] local 192.168.31.12 port 34542 connected to 192.168.31.192 port 5201
  [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
  [  5]   0.00-10.01  sec   412 MBytes   345 Mbits/sec    8    648 KBytes       
  [  5]  10.01-20.01  sec   396 MBytes   333 Mbits/sec   10    399 KBytes       
  [  5]  20.01-30.01  sec   365 MBytes   306 Mbits/sec    8    499 KBytes       
  [  5]  30.01-40.01  sec   358 MBytes   300 Mbits/sec   12    583 KBytes       
  [  5]  40.01-50.01  sec   333 MBytes   279 Mbits/sec   19    321 KBytes       
  [  5]  50.01-60.00  sec   362 MBytes   304 Mbits/sec    9    337 KBytes       
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
  [  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  2.18 GBytes   311 Mbits/sec   66             sender
  [  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  2.17 GBytes   311 Mbits/sec                  receiver

• Upload
  

  devkit@UPX-i11:~$ iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.31.192 -i 10 -R
  Connecting to host 192.168.31.192, port 5201
  Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.31.192 is sending
  [  5] local 192.168.31.12 port 46694 connected to 192.168.31.192 port 5201
  [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
  [  5]   0.00-10.01  sec   372 MBytes   312 Mbits/sec                  
  [  5]  10.01-20.01  sec   383 MBytes   321 Mbits/sec                  
  [  5]  20.01-30.00  sec   380 MBytes   319 Mbits/sec                  
  [  5]  30.00-40.00  sec   379 MBytes   318 Mbits/sec                  
  [  5]  40.00-50.01  sec   382 MBytes   320 Mbits/sec                  
  [  5]  50.01-60.01  sec   380 MBytes   319 Mbits/sec                  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
  [  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  2.22 GBytes   318 Mbits/sec                  sender
  [  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  2.22 GBytes   318 Mbits/sec                  receiver

311 Mbps downloads and 318 Mbps uploads are not amazing, considering I get over 1 Gbps using some other devices in this environment. At least it looks stable. However, if for some reason you need a higher network transfer speed, Gigabit Ethernet is recommended.

Power consumption

I used a wall power meter to measure consumption when connected to Ethernet, an HDMI display, and a USB RF dongle for a mouse and keyboard:

• Power off – 0.4W
• Standby – 2.5W
• Idle – 3W
• 8K video plaback – 4.9W to 5W

Power consumption is really low, but what will matter the most here is the power consumption of your selected display(s).

Conclusion

Rikomagic DS08 is an Android 13 media player designed for digital signage applications with features such as display orientation, scheduled reboots, and time on/off, and a watchdog timer to optimize uptime even in case of a system crash. It also offers two HDMI video outputs, which worked fine in mirror mode.

Powered by a Rockchip RK3588 SoC with 8GB of RAM, it performs well as a 4K digital signage player, and all samples I tried played smoothly. The only issue I had was with a video using AC3 audio, which was not supported by the built-in Video app. In theory, you can also support 8K video output and playback, but the results were mixed here. 8K AV1 videos are not supported, only 4Kp60 ones due to RK3588 VPU limitations, and while an 8K H.265 played just fine, another 8K VP9 video would freeze from time to time, and more rarely, I got audio cuts. This was tested on Full HD and 4K monitors, since I don’t own an 8K TV.

I’d like to thank Rikomagic for sending the DS08 digital signage player review. Production units with 8GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash sell for around $300 on AliExpress before shipping and taxes. More details may also be found on the product page, where they mention OS customization for orders of 500+ pieces.

The post Review of Rikomagic DS08 Android 13 digital signage player appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Microchip’s LAN878x 100BASE-T1 and LAN888x 1000BASE-T1 Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) PHY transceivers are designed for secure, scalable, and deterministic Ethernet connectivity for automotive, avionics, robotics, and industrial systems.

We first noticed Microchip SPE solutions in 2023 with the LAN8650/LAN8651 10BASE-T1S and LAN8770 100BASE-T1 transceivers, and they’ve launched other families since then, such as the LAN887x industrial Single Pair Gigabit Ethernet transceivers. The just-announced LAN878x/LAN88x parts introduce MACsec support, as well as Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) and FuSa (Functional Safety).

Microchip LAN878x and LAN888x key features and specifications:

• Standard and port speed
  • LAN878x – IEEE 802.3bw, 100BASE-T1
  • LAN888x – IEEE 802.3bp, 1000BASE-T1
• MACsec compliant to IEEE 802.1AE-2018 (M Version Only)
• Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) support
• Host interface (one or the other, depending on SKU)
  • SGMII (Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface)
  • RGMII (Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface)
• OPEN Alliance TC10 support / wake-up support
• IEEE 802.1AS-2020, 802.1AS-2011
• ASIL B Functional Safety Ready with enhanced diagnostics
• Package – 40-pin (6 x 6 mm) VQFN package
• Temperature Range – -40 to +125°C (AEC-Q100 Automotive Grade 1 temperature range)

Six SKUs are available at this time: LAN8781, LAN8781, LAN8782, LAN8782, LAN8881, LAN8882, LAN8883, and LAN8884, whose differences are shown in the table below. Each comes with an M variant with support for MACsec security.

The LAN878x and LAN888x PHY transceivers are supported by hardware evaluation platforms, SGMII, USB, and PCIe plug-in boards, and Linux software drivers. This includes the LAN8781M EDS2 Daughter Card (EV25L23A) with 100BASE-T1 PHY and MACsec support, and the LAN8881M EDS2 Daughter Card (EV16A78A) with 1000BASE-T1 PHY and MACsec support.

The LAN878x and LAN888x families are now sampling, and the company has not released price information for the chips and daughter cards at this stage.  Additional information may be found on the product page and in the press release.

Thanks to TLS for the tip.

The post Microchip launches LAN878x and LAN888x Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) transceivers with MACSec, TSN, and FuSA appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

DFRobot has introduced a 6.67-inch flexible AMOLED display with a 2400×1080 resolution, designed for easy use with single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi and LattePanda.

While flexible displays are common in smartphones, they are difficult to interface with SBCs, so DFRobot added a dedicated MIPI-to-HDMI driver board for plug-and-play compatibility with a wider range of platforms. The panel is just 1.2mm thick and bendable, enabling curved and space-constrained designs, while delivering 450 cd/m² brightness and 16.7 million colors. Like typical OLEDs, it offers deep blacks and high contrast without requiring a backlight, making it suitable for applications ranging from wearables and robotics to industrial HMI systems.

DFRobot 6.67” flexible AMOLED Display specifications:

• Compatibility – Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, Orange Pi, and most devices with an HDMI output.
• Display Panel
  • Screen Size – 6.67 inches
  • Screen Material – Flexible AMOLED
  • Resolution – 2400 x 1080 (SPR – Sub-Pixel Rendering)
  • Aspect Ratio – 20:9
  • Brightness – 450 cd/m² (Typical)
  • Refresh Rate – 50Hz
  • Viewing Angle – 85°
  • Color Depth – 16.7M colors
  • Active Display Area – 154.56 x 69.552 mm
• Interface – 40-pin MIPI DSI to standard HDMI (via ICNA3511A-based driver board)
• Power Supply – 3.3V – 5V (5V via the driver board for standard SBC integration)
• Dimensions – 162.56 x 74.46 x 1.2 mm
• Temperature – -20°C to 60°C

This display uses a two-board design to convert a standard HDMI signal into something a smartphone-grade AMOLED panel can understand. The main driver board handles the HDMI input, converts it to MIPI DSI, and supplies power, while the smaller “HDMI_USB_HID” adapter board simply bridges the connection to the panel’s tiny, high-density mezzanine connectors. That connector is a high-density board-to-board (B2B) snap connector, commonly used in smartphones to save space, but extremely difficult to work with directly. The adapter board exists mainly to solve this problem.

A few years ago, we noted the Royole RoKit that allowed developers to experiment with a 7.8-inch flexible display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 board using a similar HDMI converter board. DFRobot says the display is suitable for industrial HMI panels, automotive curved consoles, robot facial displays, and wearable devices, where space and form factor are limited.

While searching for more information, I came across Panox Display, a company specializing in various display panels and driver boards. DFRobot’s display appears very similar to their 6.67inch Flexible AMOLED panel, although the driver board design is different, and it doesn’t come with an HDMI board. The company also showcases other products, including rollable OLED displays and a 7.8-inch flexible OLED designed for Raspberry Pi.

The 6.67-inch Raspberry Pi flexible AMOLED display is available on the DFRobot store for $199.00. Volume discounts are also available, dropping the price to $183.00 for orders of ten or more units. The two videos below showcase the 6.7-inch flexible OLED display and the rollable OLED placed around bottles and other accessories. Note that the display can be curved horizontally, but not vertically, as this could damage it.

The post 6.67-inch flexible AMOLED display works with Raspberry Pi, LattePanda, and other SBCs with HDMI output appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

AAEON NIKY-2215-NX is a 21.5-inch Full HD AI Touch Panel PC powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 8GB/16GB and designed for AI-enhanced HMI applications such as production line inspection systems and industrial monitoring dashboards.

The panel PC features two GbE RJ45 jacks, four USB 3.2 Type-A ports, CAN Bus, RS-232/422/485, and DIO DB-9/15 connectors, and three M.2 sockets for NVMe storage, WiFI/Bluetooth, and 4G LTE/5G cellular connectivity. It can operate in a -5°C to +55°C temperature range, offers vibration and shock tolerance, and takes 12V to 24V DC input.

AAEON NIKY-2215-NX specifications:

• SoM – NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX
  • Jetson Orin NX 16GB – 8-core Arm Cortex-A78AE CPU, 1024-core NVIDIA Ampere GPU, up to 157 TOPS, 16GB LPDDR5
  • Jetson Orin NX 8GB – 6-core Arm Cortex-A78AE CPU, 1024-core NVIDIA Ampere GPU, up to 117 TOPS, 8GB LPDDR5
• Storage – 128 GB (default) NVMe SSD via M.2 2280 M-Key socket
• Panel
  • Display Type – 21.5-inch TFT-LCD
  • Resolution – 1920 (H) x 1080 (V)
  • Max. Colors – 16.7M
  • Luminance – 350 cd/m² (Typ.)
  • Viewing Angle – 178° (H) ; 178° (V)
  • Projected capacitive multi-touch; light transmission >= 85%
  • Back Light LED
  • Back Light MTBF – 30,000 hours
• Networking
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
  • WiFi and Bluetooth via M.2 2230 E-Key socket
  • 4G LTE/5G cellular via M.2 3042/3052 B-Key socket
  • 6x antenna holes
• USB
  • 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
  • 1x Micro USB port for OS Flash
• Serial
  • RS-232/422/485 via DB-9  connector
  • CAN Bus via DB-9 connector
• Expansion
  • M.2 2280 M-Key PCIe socket for NVMe SSD
  • M.2 2230 E-Key socket
  • M.2 2042/3052 B-key socket
  • 8-bit GPIO via DB-15 connector
• Misc
  • Power ON/OFF switch
  • Recovery pinhole
  • Mounting – VESA 100 / Panel Mount
• Power Supply – 12~24V DC via 2-pin screwable terminal
• Dimensions – 516.4 x 316.0 x 69.6 mm
• Weight (Gross) – 8.02 kg
• Construction – Aluminum Front Bezel + Metal Chassis
• Temperature Range – Operating: -5°C ~ 55°C, with 0.7 m/s airflow; storage: -20°C ~ 60°C
• Humidity – Storage: 90% @40°C, non-condensing
• Vibration – 1Grms / 5~ 500Hz / operation
• SHOCK – 15 G peak acceleration (11 msec. duration)
• EMC – CE/FCC Class A

The system supports Ubuntu 22.04 with the usual NVIDIA JetPack. The unit ships with a Phoenix power connector and screws by default, and an optional 60W (12V) power adapter and cord is also offered.

We’ve covered various industrial panel PCs over the years, and somehow the NIKY-2215-NX appears to be the very first based on an NVIDIA Jetson module to make it to CNX Software. Having said that, other Jetson Orin NX options exist, including Sintrones VPC-101RB2S with a 10.1-inch display and water-resistant ports, and the AAEON NIKY-2155-NX, which was introduced late last year with a 15.6-inch touch panel.

The price for the 21.5-inch NIKY-2215-NX panel PC is not available, but for reference, samples of the 15.6-inch NIKY-2155-NX model can be pre-ordered for $1,439.00 on the company’s eShop with an NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 8GB module. Visit the product page for more details about the new 21.5-inch model.

The post 21.5-inch AI Touch Panel PC is powered by NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX module for industrial HMI applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Arbor ARES-2100 fanless box PC is another industrial platform based on the new Intel Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” processor family, which specifically targets industrial automation, machine vision, and lightweight Edge AI applications.

The fanless computer supports up to 64GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, UFS 3.1 and/or M.2 NVMe/SATA storage, and offers up to three video outputs, up to three 2.5GbE ports, optional WiFi, Bluetooth, and 4G LTE via M.2 expansion slots, an RS232/RS485 RJ45 connector,  and two optional CAN Bus interfaces through a terminal block. As an industrial machine, it’s designed to operate in the -20 to +60°C temperature range, takes 9 to 36V DC input, and received MIL-STD-810H certification for shock and vibration.

Arbor ARES-2100 specifications:

• SoC – Intel Core Series 3 Wildcat Lake processors with five or six cores, Intel Xe3 Graphics, and up to  40 TOPS of combined AI performance. TDP: 15W
• System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory
• Storage
  • M.2 M-key 2242 slot (PCIe Gen4 x2, SATA) for NVMe or SATA SSD
  • Optional UFS 3.1 flash, up to 256GB
• Video Output
  • 2x HDMI 2.0 ports
  • DisplayPort via USB-C
  • Up to 3x simultaneous displays
• Networking
  • 2x or 3x  2.5GbE RJ45 ports via Intel i226LM controllers
  • Optional WiFi/Bluetooth via M.2 E-Key slot
  • Optional 4G LTE via M.2 B-key slot and SIM slot
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports
  • 1x USB 3.2 Type-C port with support for DP Alt. mode up to 4096 x 2304 @ 60 Hz, 10W power output (5V/2A)
• Serial
  • RS232/422/485 RJ45 connector
  • CAN Bus (ARES-2100-CAN only) – 2x 2kV isolated CAN FD via terminal block
• Expansion
  • M.2 E-key 2230 slot (PCIe Gen4 x1)
  • M.2 B-key 2242/3042 slot (PCIe x2, USB 3.0/USB 2.0) + SIM slot for 4G LTE
• Security – TPM 2.0 (fTPM/dTPM)
• Misc
  • Watchdog timer
  • Mounting
    • Wall-mount (standard)
    • DIN-rail (optional w/ CTOS bracket); CTOS = Configure to Order Service
    • VESA (optional w/ CTOS bracket)
• Power Supply -9~36V  DC  via 3-pin connector + remote switch
• Power Consumption – Up to 90 Watts (metal + aluminum enclosure)
• Dimensions – 188 x 120 x 44mm (1U form factor and chassis)
• Weight – 1.1 kg
• Temperature Range – Operating: -20°C to +60°C, ambient w/ air flow; storage: -40°C to +80°C
• Humidity – 10 ~ 95% @ 60°C, non-condensing
• Vibration – MIL-STD-810H, Method 514.8, Category 4, operating
• Shock & Crash – MIL-STD-810H, Method 516.8, Procedure I, functional shock=20g, operating
• Certifications – CE, FCC Class A

Arbor provides support for Windows 10, Windows 11, and Ubuntu.  Since Windows 10 is mentioned, it probably means an LTSC version. Two main SKUs are provided:

• ARES-2100-L3 – ARES-2100 with 3x LAN, 3x USB, 2x HDMI, 1x COM, 1x M.2 M-Key, 1x M.2 E-Key
• ARES-2100-CAN – ARES-2100 with 2x CAN Bus, 2x LAN, 3x USB, 2x HDMI, 1x COM, 1x M.2 M-Key, 1x M.2 E-Key

We’ve yet to see any consumer-grade Wildcat Lake hardware beyond the 70+ laptop designs claimed by Intel when they formally announced the Core Series 3 processors. But we’ve seen a few industrial-grade hardware platforms, including congatec’s conga-TC300 COM Express Type-6 Compact computer-on-module and Advantech’s  MIO-5356 3.5-inch SBC, and now an embedded system from Arbor.

As usual for this type of hardware, pricing is not public for the ARIES-2100 Wildcat Lake embedded box PC, especially since it’s still marked as “Coming Soon” on the product page. A few more details may also be found in the press release.

Thanks to TLS for the tip.

The post Arbor ARES-2100 Wildcat Lake fanless box PC targets industrial automation, machine vision, and Edge AI applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Khadas has sent us the Mind Graphics 2 dock, Mind xPlay portable display and keyboard, as well as the Mind 2 mini PC for review. In the first part of the review, I’ll start by listing specifications, an unboxing of all three packages, a teardown of the graphics dock, and a first try of the xPlay and Mind Graphics 2 with the mini PC.

While the Mind 2 will be used for testing, I won’t go into details here since it’s quite similar to the Mind 2 AI Maker Kit we reviewed last year. Instead, in the next parts, I’ll do a review of the xPlay with it, the first-generation Mind, and maybe another platform with USB-C video output. I’ll follow that by detailed testing of the Khadas Mind 2, including graphics and AI performance with the built-in NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB card, and check all its features. I should also be able to complete the review of the Creality Sermon S1 3D scanner since the Mind 2 and Graphics 2 dock combo will meet, or even exceed, the high hardware requirements of the scanner for acceptable performance (frame rate).

Khadas Mind xPlay specifications

I previously mentioned the xPlay when the Mind mini PC was introduced, but never looked at it in detail. Let’s do that now.

xPlay specifications:

• Mind xPlay Portable Display
  • Display
    • 13-inch LCD with 2880 × 1920 resolution
    • Refresh Rate – 60Hz
    • Color Gamut – 100% sRGB
    • Brightness –  500 nit
  • Audio
    • Dual microphone with a pickup range of about 2 meters
    • Stereo speakers (2x 2W)
  • Camera – 2 MP webcam
  • USB
    • 1x USB-C input port
    • 1x USB-C output port
  • Expansion – Custom Mind Link interface for Khadas mini PCs
  • Misc
    • Power, Volume Up/Down buttons
    • Magnetic keyboard port
    • Adjustable Stand – 0°–120°
  • Battery & Power
    • Power Input: 20V/5A (max) via USB-C or Mind Link
    • Battery – Capacity: 4,150 mAh; energy: 47.94 Wh
  • Dimensions – 290.5 × 199.95 × 9.5 mm
  • Weight – 820 grams
• Mind xPlay Keyboard
  • Designed for the Mind xPlay Portable Display
  • Connection to xPlay – Magnetic attachment
  • Keyboard Layout – 79 keys; note: I can only see “Global” and “Korean” options
  • Touchpad – High-precision touchpad (polling rate > 120 Hz)
  • Key Functions – Copilot key and Custom key tos witch work modes, set key combinations, or launch files and apps
  • Dimensions – 293 × 215 × 6 mm
  • Weight – 340 grams

Khadas Mind Graphics 2 specifications

Just launched earlier this year, the Mind Graphics 2 dock is newer.

Mind Graphics 2 specifications:

• Graphics Card – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Blackwell  GPU with 16GB GDDR7 VRAM, up to 180W power
• Storage – Full-size SD 4.0 card reader up to 200 MB/s
• Video Output
  • 2x HDMI 2.1b ports up to 4K @ 480Hz or 8K @ 165Hz
  • 1x DisplayPort 2.1b port  up to 4K @ 480Hz or 8K @ 165Hz
  • Multiple display support
    • Up to 3x independent displays at 4K 165Hz
    • Up to 2x independent displays at 4K 360Hz or 8K 100Hz
    • Up to 4x independent displays when including the Mind 2/2s mini PC’s HDMI port
• Audio
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Dual microphone
  • Stereo speakers
• Networking – 2.5GbE RJ45 port
• USB
  • USB4 Type-C (40 Gbps) port; note: usable as Thunderbolt 3/4/USB4 eGPU port when the Mind 2 is not connected through the Link connector.
  • USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (10 Gbps) port with PD output up to 5V/3A
  • 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) USB ports
• Expansion – Custom Mind Link (PCIe Gen4 x8) interface for Khadas mini PCs
• Misc
  • Fingerprint reader (press to mute)
  • Volume buttons
• Power  Supply – Integrated 350W GaN PSU
• Dimensions – 199 x 133 x 100 mm
• Weight – 3 kg

Khadas Mind xPlay, Mind Graphics 2, and Mind 2 unboxing

I received three packages for the Mind Graphics, Mind xPlay, and the Mind 2 mini PC.

Let’s have a quick look at the Mind 2 package. We’ll find the Mind 2 mini PC with two USB-C ports, HDMI video output, and two USB ports, a 65W USB PD power adapter, and a USB-C to USB-C cable for power.

The “K1018” computer/portable workstation features an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 16-core Meteor Lake processor paired with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD preloaded with Windows 11.

The Mind Link can be found on the bottom side, protected by a rubber cover. The Link connector is used to communicate with accessories such as the xPlay display or Mind Graphics 2 dock.

Let’s now check out the xPlay stored in a hard black foam box.

The package includes the xPlay portable display itself, a QWERTY (Global) keyboard with touchpad and magnetic attachment, user manuals, and a blue sheet telling users to upgrade the firmware of the Mind 1/2/2s to ensure compatibility. I didn’t have to do that with a brand new Mind 2, but I might have to with the Mind mini PC whose firmware I haven’t upgraded for a couple of years…

The keyboard is really thin (6mm).

The display is pretty slim as well (9.5mm), and one side features speaker holes and two USB-C ports (left: input port to connect to a host; right: output port to connect an additional USB-C display), and the other side only has holes for the second speaker.

The top of the display comes with volume -/+ buttons and the power button…

…while the bottom features the keyboard port.

The back of the display features the Khadas Mind connector (male) and a few internal magnets to connect and secure the Mind 2 mini PC. It’s protected by a rubber cover that’s pretty easy to lose…

Finally, let’s switch to the Mind Grraphics 2 eGPU module. The sticker on the back shows it features an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB graphics card and the model number is A1026.

Inside the package, we’ll find the dock itself (pretty heavy at 3kg), a power cord for your country (I selected EU), a user manual, and the same “update your firmware” sheet as found in the xPlay.

The Mind 2 mini PC will be placed on top of the dock, where we can find a male Mind Link connector.

The front panel features a 3.5mm audio jack, a 10 Gbps USB-C port, an RGB LED, and a full-size SD card reader.

The rear panel comes with the AC connector, a 2.5GbE port, a DisplayPort & two HDMI video outputs, a 40 Gbps USB-C port (to use the dock as an eGPU with any machine with a spare Thunderbolt/USB4 port), and two USB 3.2 ports, plus an Unlock button.

One of the side features the volume buttons and a fingerprint scanner that’s also used to mute the dock. Overall, the design feels very much “premium”.

Khadas Mind Graphics 2 teardown

The Mind Graphics 2 eGPU dock is not designed to be opened, and regular users should not attempt to open it. Some may want to change or retrieve the graphics card inside, but Khadas clearly states it cannot be replaced or upgraded. 

I started the teardown by removing the screws holding the rear panel plate.

That’s a start, but it doesn’t show much, so I removed six additional screws, and I was still unable to remove the internal hardware. At this point, I peeked under the rubber pads on the bottom and noticed two additional screws on each pad…

… and under each plastic part, one more screw.

Still no luck moving anything around, so I used a metal tool to remove the front cover, slightly damaged it in the process, but got access to more of the internals, including what looks like a speaker box.

I had to remove a few more screws before being able to access the internals. I first thought the two black boxes connected to the Mind Link PCB would be speakers, but upon further inspection, they are clearly not. We can see a custom cooling solution with two large fans and a heatsink.

We’ll also find the power supply on the other side. It’s a 350W-rated SOY-2001750 PSU from Shenzhen SOY Technology outputting 20A DC up to 17.5A from a 100-2401V 50/60Hz AC input.

The design is highly integrated and also feels premium on the inside. I’ll stop the teardown here before I break anything…. It’s clearly not made to be disassembled. I reassembled everything and managed to *only* lose one screw.

Getting started with the xPlay display/keyboard and Mind Graphics 2 dock

Let’s have a quick try to make sure everything (still) works. I’ll start with the xPlay portable display. I installed the Mind 2 on the back, adjusted the handle to my liking, and connected the 65W USB PD power adapter provided with the mini PC.

I then attached the keyboard through its magnetic attachment, and could boot Windows 11 after pressing the power button on the display (that part is important). I also heard the Windows 11 installation assistant voice through the built-in speakers. I played around with the touchpad and keyboard a bit, and everything worked so far. Note there’s no touchscreen function.

Finally, I moved the Mind 2 mini PC to the Graphics Mind 2 dock, and connected the xPlay to one of the USB-C ports on the Mind 2. Since the mini PC has a small built-in battery, there’s no need to turn it off and on when switching accessories. At first, the display was blank, and I thought something was wrong since nothing happened after pressing the button on the mini PC or dock. I eventually heard the voice of the Windows installation assistant through the dock’s speakers, and understood I had to press the power button on the display itself for this to work.

Most other USB-C displays I’ve tested so far just automatically turn on when connected to the host. But I understand why this may not be the case with the xPlay display since it’s also used to power on/off the Mind 2.

That will be all for today. This will keep me busy for a while, with three more parts for the review with the xPlay, dock, and 3D scanner.

I’d like to thank Khadas for sending the Mind 2 mini PC, xPlay portable display and keyboard, and the Mind Graphics 2 dock for review. You’ll find the mini PC for about $1,099.00 on AliExpress and the Khadas store in its Intel Core 7 155H/32GB/1TB configuration, the Mind xPlay kit goes for $399 on AliExpress/Khadas store, and the Mind Graphics 2 dock sells for $1349 (AliExpress or Khadas Store).

The post Khadas Mind Graphics 2 and Mind xPlay display + keyboard review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and first try appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Most USB-to-bus adapters, including tools like CANTact Pro or MeatPi’s Ollie V1 and V2, typically support either CAN or RS-485/RS-422 as fixed-function serial devices. In contrast, the FalCAN Probe by Anders B. Nielsen is a multi-protocol USB adapter based on the STM32F042 microcontroller.

The FalCAN Probe is a compact open-source USB Type-C board that connects a computer to CAN, RS-485, and full-duplex RS-422 networks. Instead of using a fixed USB bridge, it exposes the MCU’s native USB interface along with SWD and GPIOs, and can also be used as a small Arm Cortex-M0 development platform.

FalCAN Probe specifications:

• MCU – STMicro STM32F042C6Tx Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller @ 48 MHz with 32KB flash, 6KB SRAM
• Host Interface – USB 2.0 Full Speed via USB Type-C port
• Interfaces (non-isolated)
  • CAN bus via Texas Instruments SN65HVD230 transceiver; enumerates as a GS_USB CAN device when jumper JP4 is open
  • RS485 and full-duplex RS422 via dual SP3485EN transceivers
• Expansion
  • 2x 17-pin GPIO expansion headers
  • Unpopulated female DE-9 (DSUB-9) footprint for CAN standard pinout
  • Exposed USART1 (PB6/PB7) for external USB-to-UART usage
  • Header pins for GPIOs, boot configuration, SWD debugging, and bus routing (JP3/JP4)
• Debug – Dedicated header for SWD programming
• Misc – Green and Red status LEDs
• Power – 5V via USB-C, regulated by an on-board MIC5504-3.3 LDO
• Dimensions – TBD (4-layer FR4 PCB ~1.6mm thickness)

What makes the FalCAN Probe different from similar tools like CANable or Candlelight adapters is its firmware. It uses a fork of the candleLight_fw that supports the mainline Linux gs_usb kernel module, meaning you can plug it into an Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi OS and use standard can-utils without installing any custom drivers. Note: The FalCAN Probe firmware further adds support for RS-485 and RS-422 mode switching on top of the standard CAN capabilities, and the hardware itself exposes the STM32 development pins.

Mode switching is handled using simple hardware jumpers checked at startup. If JP4 is left open during reset, the device shows up as a CAN interface (gs_usb). If JP4 is closed, it appears as a USB serial port (CDC) connected to USART1 for RS-485/RS-422 communication.

Anders notes that the board is essentially a simple STM32 development board with built-in industrial communication hardware, making it easy to reprogram. You can use it as a bus traffic generator, a CAN analyzer, or even turn it into an ST-Link–style programmer with custom firmware.

The hardware was designed in KiCad 9, and the complete design files (schematics, PCB layout, Gerbers, and BOM with LCSC part numbers) are available on GitHub under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The customized firmware is available in a separate GitHub repository.

The open-source FalCAN Probe with CAN and RS-485 is available for purchase on iMania.dk for 249.00 DKK (approximately $36 USD), with listed prices including 25% VAT for European buyers (VAT is removed at checkout for US/International buyers). It ships without the pin headers or the DE-9 connector soldered, though an unsoldered male DE-9 is included in the package so users can mount it on the bottom of the PCB to match the industry-standard TouCAN/PEAK CAN pinouts.

The post FalCAN Probe is an open-source, STM32-based USB to CAN/RS-485/RS-422 adapter appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

The Ploopy Bean is a 3D-printed, open-source hardware pointing stick mouse that runs QMK open-source firmware on a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller to control four Omron D2LS-21 buttons and a friction nub.

Ploopy is a Canadian company known for its open-source hardware computer accessories. We first covered their headphones in 2023, but they’ve also made a trackball mouse, a trackpad, a USB knob, and other accessories since then. The Bean is just the latest addition.

Ploopy Bean specifications:

• Bean Pointing Stick PCB
  • Microcontroller Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU
  • USB – 1x USB-C port for power and data
  • Buttons – 4x Omron D2LS-21 buttons configured as left click, right click, middle click, and click-to-drag/scroll by default (but customizable)
  • Sensor – Texas Instruments TMAG5273 high-precision 3D hall effect sensor for the nub; up to 20,000 ksps sample rate, detects 3+ microns movements
• 3D-printed parts – Top, bottom, and spring for red nub
• Accessories
  • 1x screw
  • 1x magnet
  • 4x friction pads
  • 1x friction nub looking similar to the Lenovo TrackPoint
  • USB-A to USB-C cable
• Dimensions – 84 x 64 x 16mm
• Weight – 5.2 grams

While most people will likely buy a fully assembled unit, the Bean is fully open-source hardware, so you could also reproduce it by yourself. The Altium Designer hardware design files (schematics, PCB layout, Gerber…), STEP and STL files for 3D printable parts, UF2 firmware (binary), and documentation, including assembly instructions, can be found on GitHub.

The source code for the QML firmware can be found on the official repo. The company also notes that the Bean can be customized using “VIA” web application, and the users only need to add a config file to enable support, as explained in the documentation, before heading to the VIA web app with a web browser supporting WebHID, such as Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Opera (but not Firefox). The QMK firmware is released under GPLv3, while the hardware design files are released under OHL CERN v2-S.

Ploopy offers the Bean pointing stick for pre-order for $69.99 CAD (about $51 US). It’s a bit higher than expected, but the product is rather unique and niche, and it funds open-source hardware development.

Via Liliputing

The post Ploopy Bean open-source hardware pointing stick mouse runs QMK firmware appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

The HAUI 3Gang Touch Display is a wall-mount smart home control dashboard designed specifically to run Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Domoticz, or any other web-based home automation dashboard.

Built around a Raspberry Pi 3B+ since it’s one of the cheapest options following Pi 4/5 price hikes, the HAUI (Home Assistant User Interface) replaces standard wall switches and fits into a standard single-gang electrical box, while its front panel spans roughly a three-gang footprint, hence the “3Gang” name. It runs a customized version of FullpageOS Linux distribution with a Chromium browser in kiosk mode and includes built-in MQTT integration along with SSH access for advanced users.

HAUI Touch Display specifications

• Main Controller – Raspberry Pi 3B+
• Display – 7-inch capacitive touchscreen
• Connectivity – Wi-Fi on Raspberry Pi (configured via initial setup wizard)
• Power
  • Input Voltage – 120 VAC ±10%
  • Maximum Current – 1 A
  • Internal USB charger module (Line/Neutral wiring, no ground required)
• Dimensions – TBD (minimal bezels designed to cover a 3-gang switch footprint)
• Temperature – Up to 35°C (95°F) ambient maximum
• Enclosure – Custom 3D-printed design with no screws, no visible gaps

Unlike a generic tablet, the HAUI boots directly into a dedicated Setup Wizard upon first power-up. Users are prompted to configure their Wi-Fi, assign a Hostname, set up an MQTT broker connection, and define the target dashboard URL. The device supports MQTT, which allows Home Assistant to control backlight brightness, dimming timeouts, and sleep behavior, while also reporting hardware diagnostics, such as undervoltage events, directly to the dashboard. If MQTT is not used, the system falls back to default settings for dimming and screen sleep to reduce power consumption and prevent burn-in.

Users can access the device’s web interface at http://[IP_ADDRESS]/controls/ to adjust settings or clear the Chromium cache if it gets stuck on the boot logo, and local SSH access is enabled by default with the username and password both set to “haui”. Once logged in via SSH, users can run standard Linux commands to check network status and monitor system logs. Backlight and sleep behavior are handled by a dedicated service, and helper scripts are available in the system directory (/home/haui/scripts), although modified systems are not covered by official support. More information about the device can be found in the online user manual and on the Home Assistant community forums.

To install the device, remove the existing light switch, connect the USB power module to Line and Neutral, place it in the electrical box, and attach the display via USB before securing it to the wall bracket.

The main competitor to the HAUI Touch Display is the SONOFF NSPanel Pro (including the Gen2 version), an all-in-one Android-based Zigbee panel with a smaller 3.95-inch display for European boxes, whereas the HAUI targets North American 3-gang installs with a larger 7-inch screen (and 120V AC input). Alternatively, we have ESP32-P4-based systems like the 7-inch Elecrow CrowPanel Advance, but that requires you to build your own enclosure, write custom ESPHome/LVGL firmware, and source your own power supply.

The HAUI 3Gang 7-inch wall-mount Home Assistant dashboard is available for $199 on Tindie. It ships with a 120 VAC USB power module, which means it’s primarily designed for the US market, but you might be able to replace it with a similarly-sized 240V unit to use it in other regions.

The post HAUI 3Gang Touch Display is a 7-inch wall-mount Home Assistant dashboard with MQTT support appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

MiixKey is a compact, offline ESP32-P4-based hardware security key and password manager that securely stores passwords, passkeys, NFC cards, and smart card credentials in a single portable device. It features a 2-inch touchscreen and is designed for users, developers, enterprises, government staff, and cybersecurity professionals who need secure offline credential management without relying on cloud services or smartphone apps.

Previously, we wrote about security keys like the YubiKey and Google Titan Security Key, which are great for FIDO2 and U2F login, but they don’t have a display or user interface, so managing passwords or switching credentials usually requires a phone or computer. MiixKey fixes this by adding a touchscreen and allowing the user to manage over 3,000 passwords fully offline.

MiixKey specifications:

• Main SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-P4
  • CPU
    • Dual-core 32-bit RISC-V HP (High-performance) CPU @ up to 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU
    • Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz with 8KB of zero-wait TCM RAM
  • Memory
    • 768 KB HP L2MEM (for dual-core CPU), 32 KB LP SRAM, 8 KB TCM (for LP MCU core)
    • 32MB PSRAM
  • Storage – 128 KB HP ROM, 16 KB LP ROM
  • GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA)
  • VPU – H.264 video encoder, JPEG codec
• Storage – 32MB external SPI NOR flash
• Wireless SoC – Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840
  • CPU – 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller @ 64 MHz
  • Memory/Storage – 1 MB Flash, 256 KB RAM
  • Wireless – Bluetooth 5, Thread, ANT, Bluetooth Mesh, NFC, 802.15.4 (Zigbee), 2.4 GHz proprietary
• Display – 2-inch touchscreen, 480 x 640 resolution
• USB – USB Type-C port for power and connectivity
• Security features
  • Secure Boot v2 and Flash AES-256 Encryption
  • NVS + PIN HMAC Encryption
  • Dangerous Mode – A decoy vault triggered by a specific PIN that wipes real data
  • Emergency Mode – A time-locked vault (up to 64 hours delay) for sensitive handovers
• Misc – Power button
• Power
  • Does not specify an internal battery capacity.
  • Supports continuous power via USB for time-locked functions
• Dimensions – 60 x 40 x 10 mm
• Housing – CNC Aluminum Alloy with gold-plated brass buttons

Unlike typical security keys like Diabolic Parasite and Tillitis Tkey, which offer only a single slot, MiixKey comes with five independent slots, each functioning like its own security key with a separate PIN. Every slot supports FIDO2, PIV, and OpenPGP, and can hold up to 64 FIDO2 passkeys, for a total of 320 across the device. With the built-in screen, you can enter, search, and edit credentials directly on the device, so your data never has to touch an internet-connected system. It also supports importing passwords from KeePass or KeePassXC (KDBX files) for offline use and can act as an HID device over USB or Bluetooth to enable smooth auto-fill across different devices.

The device also supports custom scripts and BADUSB functionality, allowing it to emulate a keyboard and automate keystrokes or complex commands. It includes a built-in TOTP generator for 2FA, removing the need for smartphone apps, with all operations performed locally without cloud or online dependencies.

Since the device operates fully offline, there is no password recovery option, so you must have backups and redundancy in place. Best practice is to use multiple hardware keys registered to important accounts, keep a secure offline backup of the KeePass (KDBX) database, and store service-provided recovery codes. Without these precautions, losing the device will result in permanent loss of access to stored credentials.

The MiixKey is now available on Kickstarter, where it has already surpassed its 10,000 HKD (~$1,276 US) funding goal. Early Bird rewards start at approximately $99 US, with a “Kickstarter Special” price of $109. Shipping is estimated to begin in July 2026.

The post ESP32-P4 security key features 2-inch touchscreen, 3,000+ password capacity (Crowdfunding) appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Toradex Zinnia is an industrial IoT gateway based on the company’s Verdin system-on-module, powered by a choice of NXP or Texas Instruments SoC, with dual Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5, optional 4G LTE or 5G connectivity, a few USB ports, an I/O connectors, and a wide 9-36V power supply range.

The first model is based on an NXP i.M 8M Plus SoM with 4GB LPDDR5 and 32GB eMMC flash preloaded with the company’s Torizon OS Linux distribution. Other SoM available are based on TI AM62/AM62P, NXP i.MX 8M Mini, or NXP iMX 95. The gateway targets edge AI and industrial automation, smart cities, and energy infrastructure.

Toradex Zinnia specifications:

• SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus
  • CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6/1.8 GHz, Arm Cortex-M7 real-time core @ 800 MHz
  • GPU – Vivante GC7000UL OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan support
  • AI accelerator – 2.3 TOPS NPU
  • VPU
    • Encoder up to 1080p60 H.264, H.265
    • Decoder up to 1080p60 H.264, H.265
• Memory –  4GB LPDDR5
• Storage
  • 32 GB eMMC flash preloaded with Torizon OS
  • MicroSD card slot
• Networking
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
  • 2.4/5 GHz dual-band WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.3
  • Optional 4G LTE or 5G cellular connectivity via mPCIe socket plus Nano SIM card slot
  • 3x antenna holes
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.0 Type-A ports
  • USB 2.0 Type-C OTG port
  • USB Type-C port for console/debugging
• Expansion – Externally accessible I/O connector with I2C, RS232, RS485, 3x isolated I/Os, 2x analog inputs (0 – 25 mA), CAN Bus
• Misc
  • Reset and Recovery pinholes
  • RGB LED for power and status; 2x user RGB LEDs
  • Built-in heatsink (fanless design)
  • DIN-rail-compatible mounting
• Power Supply – 9 to 36V DC via 2-pin lockable connector
• Dimensions – 110 x 80 mm (thickness not mentioned…)
• Weight – 315 grams
• Temperature Range – -40 to +85°C
• Certifications – CE, FCC, and RoHS
• Shock and vibration – EN 60068-2-6/50g 20 ms

The Zinnia Gateway ships preloaded with Torizon OS embedded Linux distribution based on the Yocto Project and maintained by Toradex. It supports secure remote access, OTA updates, and fleet management, and the software stack is said to be EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)-ready.

There are plenty of AIoT/IoT gateways on the market based on the NXP i.MX 8M Plus processor, including the Geniatech AP880 and Compulab IOT-DIN-IMX8PLUS, among others.  Toradex claims the Zinnia gateway requires fewer engineering efforts as a ready-to-deploy platform maintained by Toradex, as shown in the table below. The customers still handle the application level, for instance, PLC software like CODESYS, but the Swiss company takes care of everything else, including maintenance and certifications such as the European Union’s CRA. Flexibility is achieved through the choice of SoM as discussed in the introduction.

Samples of the Zinnia IoT gateway will be available in June 2026, and supply is guaranteed at least until 2036. Pricing has not been disclosed, and may never be, since it will likely depend on the software requirements beyond the usual hardware requirements. Additional information may be found on the product page.

The post Toradex Zinnia Linux IoT Gateway offers dual GbE, WiFi 5, 4G LTE, I/Os, and simplified software deployment appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

There’s a lot of hype around the Rust programming language, and I’m seeing it being adopted by various projects, not least the Linux kernel. However, so far it was unclear to me whether it was suitable for embedded firmware development since the hardware resources are limited on microcontrollers. A low memory and storage footprint is required, and optimal performance may also be important, for example, to lower the power consumption of battery-powered devices.

A research paper by STMicroelectronics, Inria, and the Freie Universität Berlin, entitled “Lessons from an Industrial Microcontroller Use Case with Ariel OS” published on ArXiv hosted by Cornell University, attempts to answer this question using embedded C and Rust, and the conclusion is that Rust is a viable option:

As Rust gains traction for developing safer systems software, a reality check for the microcontroller hardware segment becomes necessary. How ready is the Rust ecosystem for this segment? Can Rust compete with C in practice?

This paper reports on an IoT industrial case study that contributes to answering these questions. Two teams concurrently developing the same functionality (one in C, one in Rust) are analyzed over a period of several months. A comparative analysis of their approaches, results, and iterative efforts is provided. The analysis and measurements on hardware indicate no strong reason to prefer C over Rust for microcontroller firmware on the basis of memory footprint or execution speed.

Furthermore, Ariel OS is shown to provide an efficient and portable system runtime in Rust whose footprint is smaller than that of the state-of-the-art bare-metal C stack traditionally used in this context. It is concluded that Rust is a sound choice today for firmware development in this domain.

But let’s not take the conclusion for granted, and check out the research (PDF) to understand the method and results better.

The hardware used was the SensorTile.box Pro devkit with an STMicro STM32U585AI Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller, BLE and NFC connectivity (not used here), and a 6-axis LSM6DSV16X IMU3, and the ST AIoT Craft Edge AI Suite enabled AI processing of the captured sensor data.

The devkit runs the Vanilla Data Logger (VDL) firmware written in C or Rust and communicates with a PC running a GUI over the Vanilla Datalog Protocol (VDP) through a UART interface.

Each team worked independently for six weeks during Phase 1 of the implementation of the VDL firmware in C and Rust, and then collaborated for four more weeks to optimize each other’s work. The C implementation relies on STM32CubeMX, a Finite State Machine (FSM) written in bare-metal C, and the open-source Parson library for JSON de/serialization (note: uses dynamic memory allocation).

The Rust firmware relies on Ariel OS Rust RTOS for microcontrollers, and implements JSON serialization/deserialization using the serde crate, offering a serialization/deserialization framework, and the heapless crate for static memory allocation.

Since the architectures are fairly different, it’s not going to be a direct C vs Rust comparison, but here are the final results when it comes to memory and storage footprints.

Both VDL firmware binaries are quite small, but the C firmware is still smaller than the Rust firmware. It does not matter much here since the STM32U585AI comes with 2MB flash, but it may matter if we get close to the storage limit on even more resource-constrained MCUs, and either more optimization is required or switching to a different part may be needed. The RAM comparison is more complex due to dynamic memory allocation, which requires heap RAM for the C implementation.  The number shown is the max measured peak of heap. They also note that “there are less memory heavy options that do not require a heap at all” compared to the Parson library, since memory optimization was not the main goal.

Both Rust and C firmware ended up running at the same level of performance as measured by the Output Data Rate (ODR): 7,468 Hz. The chart below shows that whether you select C or Rust for your next embedded project, firmware won’t automagically be optimized for size and/or performance without serious work.

The Rust implementation was twice as fast as the C implementation during the first test, and C and Rust traded the top spot in turns following optimizations, which included trivial changes such as disabling logging (for debugging) and enabling I-Cache and flash prefetch to lower I2C latency. You’ll learn more about caveats and pitfalls in the full PDF.

What I found interesting is that in the second phase, each team helped the other build a better firmware by comparing C and Rust firmware. In theory, the best is to select both C and Rust for your next product, but in practice, it’s unlikely to work due to budget constraints. The source code for the project will eventually be published on STM32 Hotspot.

Via Adafruit.

The post Study compares Rust and C languages for embedded firmware development appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Renesas WS125-V2HRDKREFZ is a Robotics Development Kit (RDK) powered by Renesas RZ/V2H Arm Cortex-A55/R8/M33 microprocessor and designed for high‑performance AI vision applications leveraging the MPU’s built-in 80 TOPS (sparse) AI accelerator.

The kit ships with 16GB LPDDR4, 64MB QSPI flash, a 64GB microSD card, and appears to be partially inspired by the Raspberry Pi 5 with a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, a 16-pin PCIe Gen3 FFC connector, two MIPI CSI connectors, and a micro HDMI port. Other features include a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.2 ports, two CAN-FD interfaces, and a 12-24V DC input voltage range.

Renesas WS125-V2HRDKREFZ specifications:

• SoC – Renesas RZ/V2H
  • CPU/MCU cores
    • 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores up to 1.8 GHz
    • 2x Cortex-R8 real-time cores up to 800 MHz
    • Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller core up to 200 MHz for system management
  • GPU – Arm Mali-G31 GPU
  • NPU – DRP-AI3 dynamically reconfigurable processor delivering up to 8 TOPS (INT8) or 80 TOPS (Sparse)
  • Package – 1368-pin FCBGA (R9A09G057H44GBG)
• System Memory – 16GB LPDDR4 @ 1600 MHz (2x 8GB)
• Storage
  • MicroSD card slot (the kit ships with a 64GB SanDisk microSD card)
  • 64MB QSPI flash
• Display I/F – Micro HDMI port
• Camera I/F – 2x 22-pin 4-lane MIPI CSI-2 camera connectors
• Networking – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.2 Type-A ports
  • 1x Micro USB port (SCIF)
• Debugging – 10-pin JTAG connector
• Expansion
  • 40-pin color-coded “Raspberry Pi” GPIO header
  • 16-pin PCIe Gen3 x1 FFC connector (same as the Raspberry Pi FFC connector)
  • 2x CAN-FD connector
• Power Supply – 12-24V up to 2A via DC jack
• Dimensions – 85 x 72 mm

Renesas provides board setup files based on Ubuntu 24.04 Server/Desktop and ROS2, and RZ MPU software packages, along with evaluation licenses and release notes. The board is also open-source hardware, with the Japanese company providing hardware design files, including the BOM, circuit schematics, and PCB layout. You’ll find some documentation on Github.io, although some documents and the SDK require a (free) registration on the Renesas website, and some code on GitHub.

The Renesas RZ/V2H MPU’s heterogeneous architecture features application cores (Cortex-A55), real-time cores (Cortex-R8), and an 8 TOPS (INT8) NPU, which makes it ideal for robotics and drones since a single chip can handle applications, motor control, and AI Vision with external MCU or accelerators.

One example is a demo running PX4 on the RZ/V2H Robotics Development Kit shown in the video above. It combines AI vision, real‑time motor and flight control, and power management on a single board.

Renesas has not provided pricing information for the RZ/V2K RDK (WS125-V2HRDKREFZ), but I suspect it may sell for around $400-$500 based on the specifications and target markets.  You’ll find more details, including some hardware and software documents, on the product page.

The post Renesas RZ/V2H Robotics Development Kit handles AI vision, motor control, and power management with a single board appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

congatec conga-TC300 is an entry-level edge AI COM Express Type-6 Compact module powered by 15W Intel Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” SoCs up to the Core 7 350 hexa-core processor.

The module supports up to 64GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and features optional on-board UFS 3.1 storage, an Intel i226 2.5GbE controller, and two standard 220-pin board-to-board connectors exposing I/Os such as SATA, DDI and LVDS or eDP display interfaces, USB4, USB 3.2, USB 2.0, PCIe Gen4/Gen3, and more.

congatec conga-TC300 specifications:

• Wildcat Lake SoC (one or the other)
  • Intel Core 3 305
    • 6-core CPU – 2x 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 – N/A
  • 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 MT/s via 1x SO-DIMM socket
• Storage – Optional UFS 3.1 flash on module
• Networking – Intel i226 2.5GbE controller with TSN support (on selected product variants)
• Host Interface – 2x 220-pin high-density connectors
  • Storage – 2x SATA (note: 4x SATA interfaces in total but multiplexed)
  • Video Interfaces
    • Up to 2x DDI (2x shared with USB4)
    • LVDS or eDP
  • Audio – HDA and Soundwire (optional)
  • Networking – 2.5 Gbps Ethernet
  • USB
    • Up to 2x USB4 (dedicated BIOS required)
    • 4x USB 3.2 Gen2
    • Up to 8x USB 2.0
  •  PCIe
    • 4x PCIe Gen4
    • Additional 4x PCIe Gen3 (optional via PCIe switch)
  • Low-speed I/Os
    • 2x UART
    • GPIOs
    • GPSPI
    • LPC or eSPI (optional)
    • SMB
    • I2C or I3C (optional)
• congatec Board Controller – Next Gen 6 congatec Board Controller
  • Multi-stage watchdog
  • Non-volatile user data storage
  • Manufacturing and board information
  • Board statistics I²C bus (fast mode, 400 kHz, multi-master)
  • Power Loss Control, Hardware Health Monitoring, POST Code
• Security – Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0)
• Misc – AMI Aptio UEFI firmware on 64MB serial SPI flash with congatec Embedded BIOS feature, OEM logo and defaults, LCD and backlight control, flash update
• Power Management – ACPI 6.0 with battery support
• Dimensions – 95 x 95 mm (PICMG COM Rev 3.1 Type 6 Compact size)
• Temperature Range – Operating: 0°C to 60°C; storage: -20°C to 80°C
• Humidity – Operating: 10 to 85% r. H. non cond; storage: 5 to 85% r. H. non cond.

Since Wildcat Lake processors are limited to six PCIe Gen4 lanes, it’s interesting to look at how congatec has been using them. Four lanes are directly routed to the B2B connectors, one lane is dedicated to the 2.5GbE controller, and the remaining lane is used for the SATA ports or a PCIe Gen4 to 4x PCIe Gen3 switch. As a side note, they also had to use a USB 3.2 hub to provide four USB 3.2 interfaces on the B2B connectors since the CPU only has two.

Congatec provides support for Microsoft Windows 11 IoT Enterprise and Windows 11, Ubuntu Pro Linux, and conga-zones Hypervisor. The company also mentions support for ctrlX OS and KontronOS operating systems. The conga-TEVAL/COMe 3.1 carrier board can be used for evaluation. Both active and passive cooling solutions are available for the modules.

The conga-TC300 module targets cost-sensitive edge AI applications such as robotics, industrial automation, medical equipment, transportation, smart cities, and retail/point-of-sale (POS). They are meant as an upgrade for embedded designs based on Intel Atom or Celeron platforms that now require dedicated AI capabilities.

While the conga-TC300 is the first Wildcat Lake COM Express module we’ve come across, it’s not the first industrial/edge hardware based on the new Intel SoCs, and we previously covered Advantech’s MIO-5356 3.5-inch SBC.

Congatec has not provided pricing or availability information for the COM Express module. A few more details may be found on the product page and the press release.

Via All About Circuits

The post Congatec conga-TC300 COM Express module features up to Intel Core 7 350 Wildcat Lake processor appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Hardware prototyping often starts with a simple idea, but quickly runs into a familiar problem: costs add up faster than expected. Small batch PCB orders, international shipping fees, and repeated iterations can easily slow down development before the first working prototype is even finished.

To make early-stage development easier, AIVON has launched a new user support program that significantly lowers the cost barrier for first-time orders.

New customers who register on AIVON and verify their email address will automatically receive $60 in welcome credits, which include:

• $30 Manufacturing Credit applied to the PCB portion of their first PCB or PCBA order (minimum order amount after credit: $1).
• $30 Shipping Credit for their first pure-PCB order (including stencil orders).

With these credits, most standard PCB prototype orders qualify for completely free shipping. For example:

• If your calculated PCB cost is $20 and shipping is $25, you would only pay $1 for the boards and nothing for shipping.
• If your PCB cost is $37 and shipping is $34, you pay only $7 for the boards and $4 shipping (total $11).

This makes your very first prototype extremely affordable — often just $1 for the boards with free shipping worldwide on qualifying orders.

Founded in 2013, AIVON is a professional PCB and PCBA manufacturer focused on fast and reliable prototyping. Standard turnaround times range from 24 to 72 hours, helping engineers move from design to testing much faster. Every order includes a free engineering review and a full Design for Manufacturability analysis to identify potential production issues early.

The platform supports a wide range of technologies, including standard FR-4, multilayer boards up to 32 layers, HDI, rigid-flex, aluminum, Rogers high-frequency materials, and more, making it suitable for everything from simple hobbyist projects and Raspberry Pi HATs to complex IoT sensors and industrial designs.

Whether you are iterating on a new embedded system, testing an ESP32-based prototype, or validating a custom single-board computer, AIVON’s fast turnaround and low entry cost help accelerate your development cycle without breaking the budget. It also provides a smooth path from prototype to small-to-medium volume production.

Ready to start your first order at almost no cost?

Register for a free account, verify your email, and claim your $60 welcome credits automatically. Get an instant quote, upload your Gerber files, and experience high-quality, fast-turn PCB prototyping today.

Sign up and claim your credits →

The post AIVON Offers $60 New User Credits for PCB Prototyping Starting from $1 (Sponsored) appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

We’ve come across an ESP32-P4 + ESP32-C5 board that looks similar to the Wireless Tag WTDKP4C5-S1 board, but is even more compact and features four MIPI connectors, including two whose pinout is compatible with Raspberry Pi camera modules and displays.

Maker Go calls it the “ESP32P4C5 core board” and features an “ESP32-P4-Module” with ESP32-P4 MCU with 32MB PSRAM, an ESP32-C5 dual-band WiFi 6 SoC, nd a 16MB NOR flash. Besides the MIPI connectors, the board features three USB ports, one for debugging, and two Type-C/A ports sharing a USB 2.0 data connection, a built-in MEMS microphone, a speaker connector, and two 34-pin headers for expansion.

ESP32P4C5 Core Board specifications:

• Main SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-P4
  • CPU
    • Dual-core 32-bit RISC-V HP (High-performance) CPU @ up to 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU
    • Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz with 8KB of zero-wait TCM RAM
  • Memory
    • 768 KB HP L2MEM (for dual-core CPU), 32 KB LP SRAM, 8 KB TCM (for LP MCU core)
    • 32MB PSRAM
  • Storage – 128 KB HP ROM, 16 KB LP ROM
  • GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA)
  • VPU – H.264 video encoder, JPEG codec
• Storage – 16MB external SPI NOR flash
• Wireless SoC – ESP32-C5
  • CPU – Dual-core 32-bit RISC-V CPU @ up to 240 MHz
  • Memory – 384 KB SRAM
  • Storage – 320 KB ROM
  • Wireless – Dual-band (2.4/5.0 GHz) 802.11ax WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee 3.0 and Thread 1.3)
  • IPEX antenna connector
• Display I/F
  • 30-pin MIPI DSI connector + SY72000 backlight boost chip; supports “YDP400BT001-V4” 4-inch touch screen display with 720×720 resolution from Osprey Optoelectronics
  • 15-pin MIPI DSI connector compatible with Raspberry Pi displays
• Camera I/F
  • 24-pin MIPI CSI connector
  • 15-pin MIPI CSI connector compatible with Raspberry Pi camera modules
• Audio
  • ES8311 audio connector
  • NS4150 audio amplifier
  • 2-pin speaker connector
  • Built-in LMA3729T421-OA1 microphone (apparently also known as “silicon wheat” in Chinglish)
• Networking
  • Wireless – Dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee 3.0 and Thread 1.3) via ESP32-C5
  • Wired – RMII signals (Ethernet) exposed via headers (External PHY required)
• USB
  • Multiplex USB 2.0 Type-A and Type-C ports
  • USB Type-C USB to TTL debug port via CH343 chip
• Expansion – 2x 34-pin GPIO headers for ESP32-P4/C5
  • ESP32-P4 – 55x GPIOs
  • ESP32-C5 – 9x GPIOs
  • Supports SPI, I2C, UART, ADC…
• Security – Secure boot, flash encryption, hardware TRNG…
• Misc
  • Reset and Boot buttons
  • P4/C5 switch for flash programming through RS2233 analog sitch
  • LED (unclear whether Power or User LED)
• Power Management
  • 5V input via USB Type-C
  • MT9700 low-voltage, single-channel P-MOSFET load switch
• Dimensions – 72 x 52 mm

There’s not a lot in the way of documentation except for a PDF file about the OspreyPi-P4C6-Module/OspreyPi-P4C5-Module board, where we learn that the manufacturer is  Osprey Optoelectronics. The documentation includes additional hardware details, and we’re told to program the board with the ESP-IDF framework, with no other information about software development.

I’d like to point out that adding 15-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible MIPI CSI/DSI connectors to the board doesn’t necessarily mean the official Raspberry Pi camera and display work with the board. From the information I have gathered, the ESP32-P4 only supports the original Raspberry Pi Camera Module (OV5647), but not the more recent Sony IMX-based modules, and the ESP-IDF framework does not seem to have native support for the Pi displays, but the ESP32-P4 MIPI DSI Support Hub repo adds support for the Raspberry Pi Touch 1/2 displays and others from DFRobot, Luckfox, etc…

The ESP32P4C5 Core board/OsprePi-P4C5-Module board is sold on AliExpress for $24.68 including shipping, but not taxes if any. It ships with two headers, an external antenna, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and MIPI cables. I could not find the 4-inch square display for sale, but you can check the company’s LCD website for more technical details or inquire with the company.

The post ESP32-P4 + ESP32-C5 board features Raspberry Pi-compatible MIPI connectors for official displays and camera modules appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Back in April last year, Allwinner released the T536 SoC, and since then, we’ve seen MYiR Tech and Forlinx introduce SoM and SBC based on it. The latest to join the lineup is Boardcon, which has recently launched the PICOT536 SoM and EMT536 SBC for industrial HMI, machine vision, robotics, and other edge computing applications.

As a reminder, the Allwinner T536 SoC features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 CPU, XuanTie E907 and E902 RISC-V coprocessors, and a 2 TOPS NPU for edge AI. The module comes with up to 8GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X memory, up to 64GB eMMC flash, an optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 module, and a 314-pin MXM edge connector exposing I/Os such as MIPI DSI and LVDS, camera inputs, audio inputs and outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe, USB 3.0, and more.

PICOT536 System-on-Module

PICOT536 specifications:

• SoC – Allwinner T536
  • CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 at up to 1.6GHz, RISC-V XuanTie E907 at up to 600MHz, and RISC-V XuanTie E902 at up to 200MHz
  • VPU – Video decoding up to 4K (3840 x 2160) @ 15fps (MJPEG) or 1080p @ 60fps (JPEG); Video Encoding up to 4K @ 25fps (H.264)
  • NPU – 2 TOPS AI accelerator supporting INT8, UINT8, and INT16
• System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X with inline ECC
• Storage – 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash
• Wireless – Optional on-module WiFi 6 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) and Bluetooth 5.4 via the VS6621S80 module
• Board-to-board connector – 314-pin MXM 3.0 edge connector
  • Display – LVDS, MIPI DSI
  • Camera – 2x 4-lane or 4x 2-lane MIPI CSI
  • Networking – 2x EPHY
  • USB
    • 4x USB 2.0 Host
    • 1x USB 2.0 OTG
    • 1x USB 3.0/PCIe 2.1 interface
  • Other I/Os – 11x UART, 2x Debug, SD, 3x PWM, 3x I2C, SPI, Audio I/O, 17x GPADC, 1x LRADC
• Dimensions – 82 x 50 mm (8-layer PCB)
• Temperature Range – Commercial: 0°C to +70°C; Industrial: -40°C to +85°C

On the software side, Boardcon provides a Buildroot environment with Linux kernel 5.15.147 and U-Boot 2023.04 with boot from eMMC and firmware download via USB OTG. The company recommends using a development machine running Ubuntu 22.04, and provides a cross-compilation toolchain and tools such as SecureCRT, ADB, and PhoenixSuite for debugging. The software stack includes drivers for eMMC 5.1, USB, Ethernet, audio, display (LVDS/MIPI), and industrial interfaces like CAN, RS485, SPI, and ADC, along with support for peripherals such as WiFi and Bluetooth modules, 4G LTE via mPCIe, and NVMe SSD storage.

Boardcon EMT536 Development Board

EMT536 specifications:

• SoM – Boardcon PICOT536 as described above with Allwinner T536 SoC, up to 8GB RAM, and up to 64GB eMMC flash
• Storage
  • MicroSD card slot
  • M.2 socket for NVMe SSDs
• Display
  • LVDS up to 1920×1080 @ 60fps
  • MIPI DSI up to 1920×1200 @ 45fps
  • Only one can be used at a time
• Camera – Camera input supporting OV5640 sensor
• Audio
  • 3.5mm headset jack (input/output)
  • Speaker output header
• Networking
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
  • mPCIe slot and SIM card socket for 4G LTE cellular connectivity (multiplexed with USB 3.0 host)
  • 1T1R WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.4 (via SWT6621-based VS6621S80 module)
• USB
  • 1x USB 3.0 host (multiplexed with mPCIe slot)
  • 2x USB 2.0 host
  • 1x USB Type-C (for OTG/ADB, switchable to host mode)
• Serial – 9x UART header, 2x RS485, 2x CAN bus
• Expansion
  • M.2 M-Key socket for 2280, 2260, or 2242 NVMe SSDs
  • mPCIe slot for 4G LTE module
  • 2x GPIO headers
  • 1x ADC header
• Debugging – Standard Debug serial port and E902 Debug CPUS
• Misc
  • Power, Reset, and FEL buttons
  • RTC with coin cell battery
• Power – 12V/3A DC input via DC jack and box-type connector
• Dimensions – 180 x 120 mm
• Temperature Range – 0°C to +70°C

After checking the specifications, we can see that some features like USB 3.0, display interfaces, and PCIe are multiplexed, meaning only one can be used at a time. This is similar to the company’s previous SBCs, like the Boardcon EM3566 Linux SBC, but it uses a Rockchip SoC.

Availability and price information are not available, but you can find more details on the product page and the press release.

The post Boardcon PICOT536 SoM and EMT536 SBC feature Allwinner T536 Edge AI processor appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

The AMD Versal Prime VM2152 adaptive SoC is designed as a mid-range device for high-speed connectivity, with 112 Gbps transceivers and 600 GbE networking in a power-efficient package. It balances programmable logic with hardened IP blocks to simplify the design of high-throughput systems used in wired communications, aerospace, and test and measurement, without the higher power and complexity of high-end FPGAs.

Compared to the AMD Versal Prime VP1902, the VM2152 focuses more on I/O performance rather than raw logic density. While the VP1902 offers more logic cells, the VM2152 adds support for LPDDR5 memory up to 6400 Mb/s and includes a 400 Gbps High-Speed Crypto engine, making it suitable for faster, more secure data processing than Agilex 7.

AMD Versal Prime VM2152 specifications:

• Processor Subsystem
  • APU – Dual-core Arm Cortex-A72 with 48 KB / 32 KB L1 Cache (with parity & ECC) and 1 MB L2 Cache (with ECC)
  • Real-time Processing Unit (RPU) – Dual-core Arm Cortex-R5F with 32 KB / 32 KB L1 Cache and 256 KB TCM (with ECC)
  • On-Chip Memory – 256 KB with ECC
• Programmable Logic and DSP
  • System Logic Cells – 757K
  • LUTs – 346,112
  • DSP Engines – 1,704
  • Performance – 11.8 TOPS (INT8 Peak Performance)
• Memory
  • 4x DDR5 memory controllers up to 6400 Mb/s for LPDDR5 and 5600 Mb/s for DDR5
  • Block RAM – 27 Mbit
  • UltraRAM – 54 Mbit
  • PL Memory – 92 Mbit
• Display/Camera – Up to 10 Gb/s MIPI C-PHY and 4.5 Gb/s D-PHY for advanced sensor and camera module testing
• Networking
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet
  • 2x 100 Gb/s Multirate Ethernet MAC
  • 1x 600 Gb/s Ethernet MAC
• USB – 1x USB 2.0
• Security – 400 Gb/s High-Speed Crypto (HSC) Hard IP (Full Duplex)
• Expansion
  • 2x PCIe Gen5x8 (with CPM5 DMA)
  • 2x PCIe Gen5x4 (PL PCIE5)
  • 2x UART, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, 2x CAN-FD
  • 8x GTYP Transceivers
  • 8x GTM Transceivers (58 Gb/s), supporting up to 4x 112 Gb/s connections when combined
• Packages
  • NFVD1024 – 31 x 31 mm, 0.92 mm ball pitch
  • NFVM1369 – 35 x 35 mm, 0.92 mm ball pitch
  • VSVD1760 – 40×40 mm, 0.92 mm ball pitch
  • VSVA2197 – 45×45 mm, 0.92 mm ball pitch
• Temperature
  • Industrial – -40°C to +100°C (-1MSI, -1MLI, -1LSI, -1LLI, -2MSI, -2MLI, -2LLI, -2HSI)
  • Extended – 0°C to +100°C (-1MSE, -1LSE, -2MSE, -2MLE, -2LSE, -2LLE)

The SoC is supported by the AMD Vivado Design Suite for hardware design and the AMD Vitis unified software platform for software development. You can run embedded Linux (PetaLinux) or bare-metal code on the Arm Cortex-A72 cores.

The programmable logic (FPGA fabric) and DSP blocks are used to create custom hardware accelerators, allowing you to offload compute-intensive tasks from the CPU and execute them directly in hardware. Using tools like AMD Vivado Design Suite and pre-built AMD IP cores, these blocks can be configured for high-speed, low-latency operations such as signal processing, data streaming, and networking workloads.

To simplify the development process, AMD has released the VMK180 Evaluation Kit based on the Versal Prime VM1802 adaptive SoC with 1.96M logic cells and 1,968 DSP engines. The kit also comes with 8GB DDR4 (removable) and 8GB LPDDR4 (soldered on the PCB) memory, PCIe Gen4 x8, FMC+ expansion connectors, and multiple networking interfaces, including RJ-45, SFP28, and QSFP28. It also features HDMI input/output, USB-to-UART, CAN-FD support, MicroSD storage, and a wide range of programmable clocks, along with bundled tools like Vivado and Vitis for hardware and software development.

Although it uses the VM1802, it shares the same architecture as the newer AMD Versal Prime VM2152 adaptive SoC, including Arm Cortex-A72/R5F cores, NoC, and support for Vivado and Vitis tools. This allows developers to prototype designs on the VMK180 and later move to the VM2152 for higher-speed features like 112 Gb/s transceivers, LPDDR5-6400, and 400 Gb/s crypto.

The AMD Versal Prime VM2152 adaptive SoC is now available on DigiKey, with pricing typically ranging from around $6,000 to $8,500+, depending on speed grade, package, and volume. The AMD Versal Prime Series VMK180 Evaluation Kit is also available from DigiKey for $10,316.40 or can be purchased directly from AMD for $9,345.00, with a minimum order quantity of 15 units. More information is available on the product page and press release.

The post AMD Versal Prime VM2152 mid-range adaptive SoC features 112 Gbps GTM Transceivers, 600Gbps Ethernet, DDR5/LPDDR5 appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Banana Pi BPI-OM7 is an AI 3D depth camera that combines Banana Pi BPI-M7 low-profile Rockchip RK3588 SBC with an ORBBEC Gemini 2 depth camera, targeting applications in 3D vision, robotics, edge AI, and spatial perception.

The solution ships with 8GB of RAM and a 64GB eMMC flash by default, offers HDMI and USB-C video outputs, dual 2.5GbE networking, and a few USB ports. It’s mounted on a tripod for convenience.

Banana Pi BPI-OM7 specifications:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with
  • CPU – 4x Cortex‑A76  cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex‑A55 core @ 1.8 GHz
  • GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU
  • Video decoder – 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC, 4Kp60 AV1, 1080p60 MPEG-2/-1, VC-1, VP8
  • Video encoder – 8Kp30 H.265/H.264 video encoder
  • AI accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU
• System Memory – 8GB (default), 16GB, or 32GB LPDDR4x
• Storage
  • 32GB, 64GB (default), or 128GB eMMC flash
  • M.2 Key-M 2280 (PCIe 3.0 x4) socket for NVMe SSD
  • Internal microSD card slot
• Video Output
  • HDMI 2.1 port up to 8Kp60
  • USB-C port with DisplayPort Alt mode up to 8Kp30
• Camera  – ORBBEC Gemini 2
  • ASIC – Orbbec MX6600 depth engine chip
  • RGB camera
    • Resolution/FPS – Up to 1920×1080 @ 30fps
    • FOV – H: 86°; V: 55°
  • 3D depth camera
    • Depth Technology – Active Stereo IR
    • Wavelength – 850nm
    • Range – 0.15 to 10m with ≤ 2% @ 2m precision
    • Resolution/FPS – Up to 1280×80 @ 30fps
    • FOV – H: 91°; V: 66°
  • Hardware D2C functionality (depth and RGB image pixel-by-pixel alignment)
  • Sensor – Built-in 6-axis IMU
• Audio
  • Audio output via HDMI or USB-C
  • Internal speaker connector
• Networking
  • 2x 2.5 GbE RJ45 ports
  • WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 via AP6275S module
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) port, 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C port with DP 1.4 Alt. mode
• Expansion
  • M.2 Key-M 2280 (PCIe 3.0 x4) socket
  • Internal 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible header.
• Misc
  • 2x LEDs
  • RTC battery (TBC)
• Power Supply – Via USB-C PD port
• Dimensions – TBD

The documentation is all over the place as the company simply lists the specs of the SBC and camera separately, but the Getting Started Guide is the important part, where users are shown how to use a soon-to-be-released Ubuntu 24.04 OS (BPI-OM7-Ubuntu-24.04-preinstalled-desktop-arm64.img) with Docker to install the Orbbec SDK, the RKNPU/RKNN toolkit for the built-in NPU, and run various samples (YOLO5, Orbbec multi-stream demo) leveraging the combo.

It also works with the Orbbec Viewer, which we had tested with the Femto Mega 3D camera. Another location to look is the BPI-OM7-orbbec_reconstruction repo on GitHub. The “Orbbec Reconstruction Toolkit” is described as a “practical C++ point-cloud workflow for Orbbec capture, object extraction, denoising, registration, and visualization” tested on the BPI-OM7 AI 3D vision platform running the aforementioned Ubuntu 24.04 image. You can check a (somewhat unconvincing) demo in the video below.

Banana Pi sells the BPI-OM7 AI 3D camera on AliExpress for $739.36 plus shipping and potentially taxes. For reference, the NVIDIA Jetson Nano-based Orbbec Femto Mega sold for $649.99 when I reviewed it in 2023/2024, and still does, so the price range looks normal for this type of camera. Purchasing the Banana Pi BPI-OM7 SBC (8GB/64GB) and Gemini 2 camera separately would cost $327.66 plus $240 or $567.60, to which you’d still need to add a power supply, metal case, and tripod. Looking at it that way, the ~$740 price tag does not seem that attractive after all, and they should probably shave $100 off…

The post Banana Pi BPI-OM7 AI 3D camera pairs BPI-M7 RK3588 SBC with ORBBEC Gemini 2 depth camera appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Prunt Board 3 is a 3D printer control board with six TMC2240 stepper drivers, two 15A heater outputs, four fan outputs, four thermistor inputs, and four endstop inputs that is designed to offer smoother and quieter operation.

The hardware is said to offer better ESD protection than boards such as the Duet 3 Mini 5+ or BTT SKR 3 EZ and supports hardware-accelerated step generation, but the magic happens with the Prunt firmware and associated server, which enable a 31-phase velocity profile for smoother operation and higher-quality prints compared to boards running Klipper or Marlin firmware. Let’s have a look at the hardware first.

Prunt Board 3 specifications:

• 6x TMC2240 stepper drivers, all capable of running at 3A with minimal airflow
• 2x 15A heater outputs with short circuit protection (1.3 µs response time)
• Fan outputs
  • 4x fan outputs supporting 2, 3, and 4-pin fans, all up to 2A with short circuit protection
  • Individual current limit per output
  • Hardware counters for high-speed fan tachometers
• 4x thermistor inputs
  • Buffered to reduce noise and increase the maximum ADC sample rate
  • Support PT1000 and most common NTC thermistors with protection against shorts to other wires on both pins, including heaters
• 4x endstop inputs
  • Input OVP – Fully protected
  • Power OVP – Diode protection
  • Dedicated power rail
• Software or hardware-powered step generation for precise timings and step rates
• Host interface – Fully isolated USB Type-B port for connection to host
• Power Supply – TBD
• Dimensions – 144 x 117 mm

Prunt firmware and software relies on G4 motion profiles as opposed to G1 profiles, as explained by the developer:

Most popular 3D printer motion controllers (Klipper, Marlin, RepRapFirmware) top out at 3-phase G¹ tangential motion profiles: a trapezoidal velocity curve where acceleration is always either zero or the maximum allowed value. The problem is that real-world objects simply cannot change acceleration instantaneously. Forcing 3D printer motors to try results in vibrations, ringing artifacts in prints, and accelerated wear on components.

Some commercial and niche open-source controllers step things up with a trapezoidal acceleration curve, a 7-phase “s-curve,” which is meaningfully better but still describes motion that isn’t physically possible.

Prunt Board 3 goes two steps further. By making the 4th derivative of acceleration a rectangular wave, we arrive at a 31-phase velocity profile with significantly smoother motion. To make this concrete, we’ve plotted velocity and its first 4 derivatives for both 3-phase and 31-phase profiles. Every plot was generated in Prunt motion controller itself, because Prunt lets you set tangential limits for each derivative individually, meaning you can emulate other controllers by tweaking a few parameters in the GUI.

The Prunt motion controller also supports advanced corner blending using a degree-15 Bézier curve instead of relying on a brief period of infinite axial acceleration at every corner. Improved motion profiles and corner blending benefit not only print quality and speed, but also enable somewhat quieter printing, as demonstrated in the short video below.

You’ll find hardware and software documentation on the project’s website, where I also learned that the board can be switched into Klipper/Kalico mode by installing a jumper, so you can easily compare Prunt and Klipper on the same hardware. The STM32 firmware and server source code, both written with the Ada programming language, can be found on GitHub, along with binary releases. The server requires a Linux machine, and while Raspberry Pi 4/5 can be used, we’re told that they “may not be powerful enough to run the current version of the server software under all circumstances”, and they plan to tune the software in a future release to improve that part. I also found a version of the software for laser engravers, but it’s only intended to be used by professionals for safety reasons.

Prunt 3D has just launched the Prunt Board 3 on Crowd Supply with a $9,500 funding target. A $180 pledge is requested for the board, including free shipping to the US, but a $1 shipping fee is added for the rest of the world. Deliveries are scheduled to start by September 9, 2026.

The post Prunt Board 3 3D printer control board offers smoother and quieter operation (Crowdfunding) appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

ESP-FLY DIY kit is a miniature DIY drone kit based on Seeed Studio’s XIAO ESP32-S3 board that was initially introduced as a DIY project on Instructables by Max Imagination, but is now available as a complete kit for $59.99 on Seeed Studio.

It’s certainly not the first ESP32 drone, but the ESP-FLY drone must be the smallest, as the miniature (67 x 67 x 31mm) quadcopter design allows users to store into any pocket or small boxes. It’s mainly designed for STEM education,  hobbyist DIY Projects, and indoor flight practice.

ESP-FLY drone kit key features and specifications:

• Main Controller – Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3 board
  • Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3R8
    • CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz
    • System Memory – 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM
    • Wireless – Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 5.0 dual-mode (Classic + BLE) connectivity
  • Storage – 8MB SPI flash
  • Antenna – External u.FL antenna
  • USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming
• Flight System
  • MPU6050 IMU sensor
  • 4x 615 Coreless Motors (70,000 RPM)
  • 4x 30mm propellers (CW & CCW)
• Connectivity
  • 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (AP mode) and ESP-NOW
  • Control Range – About 50m via smartphone and 200m via ESP-NOW controller
• Power
  • 3.7V 250mAh 25C LiPo Battery
  • Flight Time – ~5 minutes
  • Charging – 5V via USB-C port on the XIAO board
• Dimensions – 67 x 67 x 31mm
• Weight – 25 grams with battery

The firmware is the same as for the Circuit Digest LiteWing DIY ESP32 drone, which you’ll find on GitHub, and relies on the ESP-Drone Android app for control from a smartphone, or you could use an ESP-NOW radio controller instead.

The cost of the list of parts is estimated at about $37 on Instructables, but that also includes ordering a custom PCB, printing the plastic parts, and ordering from various sources. The $59.99 ESP-DIY kit on Seeed Studio has everything you need to get started.

As we could have guessed from the product name “ESP-FLY kit”, the drone comes in a kit, and you’ll still need to do some assembly and soldering, as shown in the video below, but that’s part of the fun!

The post ESP-FLY DIY Kit is a tiny ESP32-S3-based DIY micro drone kit appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Unitree has extended its R1 dual‑arm humanoid robot family with new R1-A5 and R1-A7 models, which can be fitted with 2-finger grippers or 3 or 5-finger dexterous hands, and attached to a fixed base or a wheeled base for indoor mobility.

The new robots appear based on the low-cost Unitree R1 platform launched last year, which can dance, walk, run, perform kung-fu moves, and chat with users, but is otherwise not overly useful since it lacks dexterous hands. The R1-A5 and R1-A7 won’t be able to dance, since they don’t come with legs, but the upper body comes with a head and two arms equipped with grippers or dexterous hands, which could perform useful tasks in combination with binocular vision.

Four new models are available with the following specifications:

They mostly share the same specifications, but the R1-A7 has longer arms and adds 4 degrees of freedom (2 extra per arm), while the -D variants feature a wheeled base with a LiDAR.

The binocular module provides an RGB and depth maps with 1280×720 @ 30 Hz and 544 x 488 @ 10 Hz resolution and frame rates, respectively. It appears five types of Dex actuators are available.

The base price of $4,290 is impressive. However, that should be for the R1-A5 without actuators and other options, and once you add hands, an optional NVIDIA Jetson  Orin module, and a fixed or wheeled base, the total cost will be quite higher.

It looks to be especially useful for factory and warehouse operations, and it’s still not targeted at home uses, so it won’t be your next robotic maid, but at least the new models have some use besides being an “intelligent companion”, as the R1 was advertised.

You’ll think Unitree would upload a video showing the capability of the robot they’ve just announced on X, but I could not find any, except for some very short demos with the grippers on Bilibili. Assuming the R1-A5/A7  robot can be fitted with the Dex5 dexterous hand introduced last year, the video embedded below may give an idea of what’s possible with this higher-end option.

The new R1-A5 and R1-A7 are not listed on the Unitree website just yet, but you can still check the earlier R1 humanoid robot which relies on the same electronics, and the capabilities of the various Dex dexterous hands offered by the company.

The post $4,290+ Unitree R1-A5 and R1-A7 humanoid robots features grippers or dexterous hands, fixed or wheeled base appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Following the well-advertised Raspberry Pi 4/5 price hikes, we’ve just written an article about some SBCs quadrupling in price since 2024 due to RAM price increases, and another victim appears to be NVIDIA Jetson modules relying on LPDDR4 memory.

That’s according to a lifecycle update by Connect Tech that claims that “due to changes in global DRAM market dynamics, NVIDIA has indicated that supply and pricing for LPDDR4-based modules have become increasingly constrained. As a result, NVIDIA is accelerating End-of-Life (EOL) timelines for” specific modules.

Four families are impacted:

• NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX (4GB and 8GB)
• NVIDIA Jetson TX2i (all SKUs)
• NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier (32GB and Industrial)
• NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX

All these modules were released in 2021 or before. The end-of-life timeline is as follows:

• Now – All new purchase orders for products integrating TX2 NX, TX2i, AGX Xavier, and Xavier NX modules are Non-Cancelable, Non-Returnable (NCNR)
• July 1, 2026 – CTI last time buy of TX2 NX, TX2i, AGX Xavier, and Xavier NX modules (final purchase orders accepted)
• July 15, 2026 – All existing purchase orders for products integrating TX2 NX, TX2i, AGX Xavier, and Xavier NX modules convert to NCNR
• July 15, 2027 – Last time ship for orders with products integrating TX2 NX, TX2i, AGX Xavier, and Xavier NX modules

Connect Tech carrier says their carrier board will continue to be supported, but long-term availability of LPDDR4-based NVIDIA Jetson modules will be challenging and depend on NVIDIA’s supply availability. They will also help customers migrate to NVIDIA Jetson Orin or other newer platforms:

We will define migration paths to next-generation platforms, including NVIDIA Jetson Orin and emerging architectures, aligned to your application and  lifecycle requirements. We will provide supporting collateral, guidance, and documentation to enable informed planning and execution of migration strategie

I’d expect other companies to issue similar end-of-life notices for products based on Jetson Xavier and TX2 NX/TX2i modules.

The post NVIDIA phases out several Jetson modules due to high LPDDR4 RAM prices and tight supplies appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Forlinx Embedded UP4 is a new family of pin-to-pin compatible system-on-modules currently offered with Rockchip RK3568J/RK3562J, NXP i.MX 9352, or Allwinner T527N/T536 processors.

The UP4 modules measure just 40×40 mm and expose 487 pins through a hybrid LCC (Leadless Chip Carrier) and LGA (Land Grid Array) design with 1.0mm contact pitch and 1.27mm ball pitch, respectively. This should allow companies to design a single carrier board for multiple CPU variants.

Forlinx UP4 specifications:

• SoC
  • FET-MX9352-UP4 – NXP i.MX 9352 with 2x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.7 GHz, Cortex-M33 real-time core @ 250 MHz, 2D GPU only, 0.5 TOPS Arm Ethos U65 microNPU
  • FET3568-UP4 – Rockchip RK3568B2/J with 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0/1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G52 MP2 3D GPU, 1 TOPS AI NPU
  • FET3562J-UP4 – Rockchip RK3562J with 4x Arm Cortex-A53 cores @ 1.8 GHz,  Arm Mali-G52-2EE 3D GPU, 1 TOPS NPU
  • FET527N-UP4 – Allwinner T527N with octa-core CPU (4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8GHz + 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.4GHz), 200 MHz RISC-V core, 600MHz HiFi4 DSP, Arm G57 MC1 3D GPU, and 2 TOPS NPU
  • FET536-UP4 – Allwinner T536 with 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.6GHz, 600 MHz RISC-V core, low-power RISC-V core, 2D GPU, 2 TOPS NPU
• System Memory / Storage
  • NXP – 1GB LPDDR4 + 8GB eMMC flash
  • Rockchip RK3568 – 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4X + 32GB or 64GB eMMC flash
  • Rockchip RK3562J – 1GB or 2GB LPDDR4 + 8GB or 16GB eMMC flash
  • Allwinner T527N – 2GB or4GB LPDDR4 + 16GB or 32GB eMMC flash
• LCC castellated holes and LGA pads
  • Storage
    • Up to 2x SD/SDIO
    • FSPI for serial NOR/NAND flash (Rockchip only)
    • Up to 3x SATA (Rockchip only)
  • Display
    • HDMI 2.0 up to 4096×2304 @ 60Hz  (Rockchip RK3568/Allwinner T527N)
    • 24-bit parallel RGB up to 1280 x 800 @ 60 Hz,  1366 x 768 @ 60 Hz, or 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz depending on SoC
    • LVDS up to 1280 x 800 @ 60 Hz, 1366 x 768 @ 60 Hz, or 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz depending on SoC
    • Up to 2x 4-lane MIPI DSI up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz or 2048 x 1080 @ 60Hz depending on SoC
    • eDP 1.3 up to 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz (Rockchip RK3568) or 4K @ 30 Hz (Allwinner T527N)
  • Camera
    • Up to 4x MIPI CSI
    • Parallel CSI (Allwinner only)
  • Audio
    • Up to 3x  SAI or 4x I2S, depending on SoC
    • Up to 2x MQS (NXP only)
    • Up to 3x PDM, up to 2x 8-channel DMIC (Allwinner T527N)
    • Up to 1x S/PDIF (Rockchip RK3562)
    • Built-in audio codec (Rockchip RK3562/Allwinner T536)
    • Up to 1x single-wire audio (Allwinner only)
  • Networking – Up to 2x Gigabit Ethernet, one with optional TSN (NXP); RJ3562J: GbE + FE instead
  • USB
    • Up to 2x USB 2.0 Host/OTG
    • Up to 2x USB 3.0
  • PCIe – Up to 2x PCIe Gen3 x2 (RK3568) or 1x PCIe Gen2.1 x1 (RK3562/T527N/T536)
  • Low-speed I/Os
    • Up to 10x UART
    • Up to 3x CAN 2.0B
    • Up to 8x I2C, 2x I3C (NXP only)
    • Up to 8x SPI
    • Up to 28x ADC (the number of ADCs highly depends on the selected SoC; Allwinner T536 has the most)
    • Up to 34x PWM (the number of PWMs highly depends on the selected SoC; Allwinner T536has the most)
    • Up to 1x IR Tx, up to 4x Rx (Infrared on Allwinner only)
  • Debugging – JTAG (NXP only)
• Supply Voltage – 5V
• Dimensions – 40 x 40 x 1.2 mm
• Temperature Range – -40°C ~ +85°C

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a hybrid LCC + BGA design for system-on-modules, and earlier examples include the MYIR Tech MYC-YR3562 and Forlinx FET-MA35-S2. Here, the company provides various processor options for the same design, so it should be easier to evaluate various solutions during development. It offers an alternative to the OSM Size L standard (45x45mm with 662 contacts), with a smaller footprint, but offering fewer I/Os and not being an industry standard.

I  initially assumed it would allow easier switching between variants later on in case of unexpected technical or logistical issues, or simply to provide different variants of a specific product. But in practice, while all modules share the same footprint, they are only pin-to-pin compatible with a few common interfaces, such as dual Ethernet, USB 2.0, a few I2C, SPI, UART, and so on, and differ a lot in terms of I/O capabilities. Multimedia capabilities also vary, with some only equipped with a 2D GPU,  while others feature a 3D GPU.

The FET-MX9352-UP4 targets industrial applications, the FET3568-UP4 high-performance edge AI, the FET3562J-UP4 industrial AI and vision, the GET527N-UP4 high-performance edge computing, and the FET536-UP4 industrial AI and vision.

Software support also varies. Forlinx lists Linux 5.10.198 + Qt 5.15.8 for the T536 module, Linux 5.15.104 + Qt 5.12.5 for the T527N SoM, Linux 6.1.36 + Qt 6.5.0 for the NXP module, Linux 5.10.160 + Qt 5.15.8 for the RK3568 module, and Linux 5.10.198 + Qt 5.15 for the RK3562 SoM. Unsurprisingly, NXP has the most recent software package.

The company has yet to provide pricing or a product page for each of the modules, and instead, you can find an overview and product briefs on a dedicated page for the Forlinx UP4 system-on-module family.

The post Forlinx UP4 – A 40×40 mm LCC + LGA system-on-module family with Rockchip, NXP, and Allwinner CPU options appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.