Category: Chip provider

Nordic Semiconductor nRF9160 ARM Cortex-M33 SiP with LTE-M/NB-IoT


The Nordic Semiconductor nRF9160 is a compact, highly-integrated Low power System-in-Package with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GPS for cellular IoT (cIoT) designs, featuring ARMv8-M Arm Cortex-M33 application processor solely for applications, a full LTE modem, RF Front End (RFFE) and power management system. Nordic Semiconductor claims that the nRF9160 is the most compact, complete and energy-efficient cellular IoT solution on the market. The integrated modem supports both LTE-M and NB-IoT and can operate globally removing any need for regional variants. All power saving features including eDRX and PSM are supported as is with IPv4/IPv6 support up to transport and security (TCP/TLS) level. The modem firmware is upgradable via secure, encrypted Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) updates. The Arm Cortex-M33 application processor is supported by 1MB of flash and 256kB RAM making advanced application development possible in a single device solution. A GPS receiver is integrated into the radio offering various modes of operation to suit a wide selection of applications that employ location-tracking functionality. A broad selection of general interfaces and peripherals and are included on nRF9160 including 12-bit ADC, RTC, SPI, I²C, I²S, UARTE, PDM and PWM. Security is best-in-class with Arm TrustZone technology for isolation and protection of normal and secure zones for firmware and elements of hardware including memory and peripherals. Arm TrustZone helps build solid and secure ioT applications that feature secure boot, trusted firmware updates and root of trust implementations without performance compromise. Arm CryptoCell enhances security still further by offering cryptographic and security resources to help to protect your IoT applications from various attack threats. CryptoCell is designed for high performance cryptography solutions optimized for energy-constrained devices. The nRF9160 supports both SIM and eSIM for connection and authentication with mobile network operators. The nRF9160 hardware and development kits are now in production and is suitable for full end-to-end sensor to cloud development.

4Kopen: Open Source 4K Set-top-box by MathEmbedded at Embedded World 2019


https://4kopen.com presents their open source 4K TV Box project featuring the STMicroelectronics STiH418 SoC with Complete Open Source Drivers, Quad Core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.2 GHz, Quad Core GPU Mali 400, 4 ST231 DSP (Each Core Quad issue) @ 650 MHz, 2 GBytes DDR3 @ 2133 MHz, Ultra HD Decoding, up to 2160p60, Full HD Encoding, up to 1080p60, HDMI 2.0 Tx (2160p60) and HDMI 1.4 Rx (2160p30), Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, Mini PCIe slot (802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi module included), MicroSD, eSATA, 40 pin GPIO header and more.

Shiratech 96Boards Sandwich = Dragonboard 410c + LTE Mezzanine + Bosch Sensor + FPGA Mezzanine


Shiratech and Arrow 96boards Mezzanine sandwich features the DragonBoard 410c with 3 mezzanines and an arduino shield with the DragonBoard 410c as the base board, a Shiratech LTE Mezzanine, a Bosch Sensor Mezzanine and a Shiratech FPGA Mezzanine.

Synology DS1019+ 5/10 Bay NAS

Posted by – March 21, 2019

The DiskStation DS1019+ is a new 5 bay Network attached storage from Synology. The DiskStation DS1019+ can be expanded up to 10 bays. The DiskStation DS1019+ features an 1.5ghz base/2.3ghz boost Intel Celeron J3455. Prices range from 650 dollars and up.

Synology MR2200ac Mesh Router

Posted by – March 21, 2019
Category: Networking, NAS, Qualcomm, MWC

Synology’s first mesh router, MR2200ac, comes with Qualcomm IPQ4019 quad-core CPU and tri-band Wi-Fi, allowing users to expand Wi-Fi coverage through flexible deployment. All Wi-Fi connections and devices can be managed via one platform – SRM. Additionally, settings and remote management can be operated through both a web interface and a dedicated mobile app – DS router. The MR2200ac enables wifi range to be extended.

$1709 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (7th Gen) 2019 with second monitor, $1929 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (4th Gen) 2019

Posted by – March 18, 2019

This is the 7th Generation Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon to be available from June 2019, weighing only 1.08 kg, comes with the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, optional 4K or 1080p display, optionally with Dolby Vision HDR, optional carbon fiber weave top cover, with a thickness of only 14.95mm, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 2TB of PCIe SSD storage, up to 15 hours battery, two USB 3.1 ports, dual USB-C Thunderbolt ports, and also they provide a 585gr light second monitor that simply connects by the USB Type-C port to add a second display while on the go. Lenovo is also introducing the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga for 2019 moving Yoga to an aluminum design, with many of the same processor, storage and more.

$999 Lenovo ThinkPad T490 and the thinner T490S

Posted by – March 16, 2019

Lenovo ThinkPad T490 is a 1.46kg lightweight 14″ business laptop with display options starting from FHD 250nit Antiglare to FHD IPS Touchscreen, 400nit with PrivacyGuard to WQHD 2560×1440 500nit 100% Adobe color gamut with Dolby Vision high-dynamic-range (HDR) display. Redesigned bezels enable a larger screen area than previous models, tested against 12 military-grade requirements and more than 200 quality checks, up to 16.1 hours of battery life with rapid Charge that provides 80% capacity in just an hour. Optional worldwide LTE-A card, ThinkPad Pro Dock, USB-C side mechanical docking station, ThinkShutter physical camera cover, optional IR (infrared) camera and optional touch fingerprint reader. Runs on the 8th Gen Intel Core i5/i7 vPro, up to 48GB RAM, up to 1TB PCIe SSD, Intel UHD 620 GPU or the NVIDIA GeForce MX250, Dolby Audio Premium, Dual far-field microphones and more.

Lenovo ThinkPad X390

Posted by – March 14, 2019

Lenovo Thinkpad X390 is a 13.3″ Open Rich Display business laptop with a 12″ footprint, the follow on to the long lasting Lenovo X200 series, with 18 hour battery can be charged to 80 percent capacity in 60 minutes, up to 13.3″ FHD (touch & non-touch), IPS, HD, 400-nit touchscreen with PrivacyGuard. Lenovo Thinkpad x390 features up to 8th Gen Intel Core i7 with vPro, up to 1TB fast PCIe SSD storage, up to 32 GB 2400 MHz soldered DDR4 RAM. Lenovo Thinkpad x390 offers up to 32gb of ram and 1tb ssd. The Lenovo Thinkpad x390 features an optional LTE modem. Prices start from $1300 USD. PrivacyGuard, PrivacyAlert, ThinkShutter, dual far-field microphones and Dolby Audio Premium, global LTE capability, 1.22kg weight. 12 military-grade requirements and more than 200 quality checks, USB-C side mechanical docking station, optional Hybrid IR (infrared) camera, optional touch fingerprint reader.

Lenovo ThinkPad X390 Yoga

Posted by – March 14, 2019

ThinkPad X390 Yoga is a 13.3″ FHD (IPS, 300-nit, anti-reflective, anti-smudge) 2-in-1 laptop for business with integrated ThinkPad Pen Pro, enhanced security, long 14.5 hours battery with fast 60min charge to 80 percent capacity, dual far-field microphones, optional global LTE-A WWAN capability, and more. Connects to ThinkPad Pro Dock via USB-C side mechanical docking, optional Hybrid IR (infrared) camera and touch fingerprint reader to securely log in with Windows Hello, ThinkShutter physical camera cover. Runs on 8th Gen Intel Core processors with Intel UHD 620 GPU, with fast PCIe Up to 1TB SSD storage, Up to 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4, enhanced audio with Dolby Audio Premium. 2.93 lbs (1.32Kg) weight.

Toradex shows Deep Learning Accelerators, Edge AI with Gyrfalcon, Xnor.ai, Movidius and More


Toradex shows their deep learning inference solutions at Embedded World 2019, using power-efficient, Arm-based System on Modules, as machine learning and deep learning using neural networks progress is accelerating with successful new applications in computer vision for the embedded world. Toradex simplifies the integration of these technologies into products with its System on Modules, training deep learning models on high-performance computers with frameworks like TensorFlow, with optimizations needed to improve performance on low-power embedded Linux devices such as the ones Toradex partners with Au-Zone, Xnor.ai and Antmicro and others to bring to the embedded market. Implementing these dedicated neural network accelerators can boost the performance of embedded devices while keeping power consumption low, as shown in Toradex’s solutions with Intel Movidius Myriad and Gryfalcon Lightspeeur. Toradex partners with Allied Vision to showcase the brand-new Alvium industrial MIPI CSI-2 camera as a crucial component in the pasta detection demo which uses an Apalis System on Module featuring the NXP i.MX 8 QuadMax SoC with Cortex-A72, Cortex-A53 and dual OpenCL-capable GPU. To learn more about the demo, see CNX-Software’s blog post. A real-world application example of deep learning is Manta, a camera-based drowning detection system from Coral Detection Systems which is solar-powered, and the video analytics are done on a Toradex Apalis module featuring a Nvidia TK1 SoC with a CUDA-enabled GPU. If a person is at risk of drowning, the system can alert its user acoustically or via smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy S10 teardown, reveals the Samsung Exynos 9820

Posted by – March 14, 2019

ChipRebel has provided this video of their teardown of the Galaxy S10 (also see their Exynos 9820 photos here: https://www.chiprebel.com/exynos-9820/) which has the 8nm LPP Exynos 9820 with Samsung’s dual custom cores, dual ARM Cortex-A75 and quad ARM Cortex-A55 and Mali-G76 MP12 GPU and Samsung’s most advanced NPU. With LTE Category 20 for up to 2.0Gbps download speed with 8x carrier aggregation (CA) and up to 316Mbps upload speed support. This phone amazingly can support encoding and decoding of of up to 8K30p.

You can find the High-res images of Samsung’s Exynos 9820 SoC inside the Galaxy S10 at https://www.chiprebel.com/galaxy-s10-teardown/ and you can subscribe to ChipRebel on YouTube here

TechNexion shows i.MX8M Mini, Intel Apollo Lake, Qualcomm QCA9377, QCA6174 at Embedded World 2019


TechNexion shows their lineup of new devices based on the ultra low-power NXP i.MX8M Mini in their ultra-small PICO form factor combining ARM Cortex-A53 and an M4 microcontroller at embedded world 2019, it supports Android, Linux, Yocto, Ubuntu OS is only 37 x 40 mm and at a low cost. The SoM integrates a fully certified wireless module PIXI-9377 based on Qualcomm QCA9377. They also show their Qualcomm QCA9377, QCA6174 devices and more. TechNexion announces two new SoM families: AXON and FLEX. AXON is a product family of small form factor (58 x 37 mm) modules designed for specialized embedded applications requiring another dimension of I/O flexibility. AXON-IMX8M-MINI is also based on NXP i.MX8M Mini applications processor and features AXON Fabric programmable logic, a specialized IC that provides additional functions including nearly infinite pinmuxing, allowing for true pin-to-pin compatibility between SoC versions. FLEX series, on the other hand, is a low-cost family making use of low-cost LPDDR4 SO-DIMM connector. FLEX-IMX8M-MINI (69.6 x 35 mm) offers HD multimedia streaming and integrated 3D graphics at a price point for the cost sensitive market. TechNexion launches several products based on Intel Apollo Lake processor family (Intel Atom x5-E3930, x5-E3940 or x7-E3950) that can be easily deployed in diverse industrial applications ranging from manufacturing robots and machinery, to radar and sensors on ships, trains and automobiles, to in-vehicle experience, video systems and more. TC-1010-APL and TC-1560-APL Multi Touch HMIs come in 10.1” and 15.6” sizes. On the other hand, TCK3-APL is a ruggedized box PC fully customizable to handle your projects with IoT integration. TechNexion also shows their expanded lineup of fully certified (CE / ETSI / FCC / IC / RCM / TELEC) PIXI and STIX series combo wireless communication modules based on Qualcomm QCA9377 and QCA6174 solutions. The modules are available in several M.2 and in the mini-PCIe form factor.

Microchip Mi-V RISC-V CPU with Microsemi FPGA

Posted by – March 11, 2019

Microchip acquired Microsemi, and with it comes their new Mi-V RISC-V ecosystem, a suite of tools and design resources developed by Microsemi and third parties to support RISC-V designs using RISC-V Soft IP Cores available for RTG4, IGLOO2 and PolarFire FPGAs, introducing the industry’s first RISC-V SoC FPGA Architecture, PolarFire SoC which brings deterministic real-time performance to Linux in a coherent multi-core RISC-V CPU. The RISC-V Mi-V Ecosystem consists of various design tools such as the Libero SoC FPGA Design Suite, Eclipse based IDE SoftConsole enabling quick C and C++ development, a Firmware Catalog consisting of numerous drivers, and third party platforms for development, simulation and debug.

€2299 Huawei Mate X Flexible phone, with keynote

Posted by – March 10, 2019

Huawei unveiled their Huawei Mate X flexible foldable phone, the best such flexible phone demonstration yet, though they launch it way way too expensive at €2299. On the other hand they were able to position the flexible display based phone as the ultimate phone one would be able to get, pushing the industry towards making this form factor popular sooner rather than later. This might be a flexible display provided to Huawei by BOE, I filmed BOE’s flexible displays for phones here and here you can also see all my other flexible display videos that I have been filming for the past several years here

Huawei MateBook 14, 1.49 kg, 15.9 mm

Posted by – March 10, 2019

At about $500 cheaper than the Huawei MateBook X Pro New with the same 8th generation Intel core processor, 2 GB GDDR5 Nvidia MX250 GPU performance, 1.49 kg, 15.9 mm thick, comes with 90% screen-to-body ratio and wide 3:2 aspect ratio 2160×1440 display with 100% sRGB and Huawei Share OneHop.

€449 Xiaomi Mi 9, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, €599 Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, MWC 2019 keynote

Posted by – March 7, 2019

Xiaomi Mi 9 is launched at €449, runs on the 7nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, with a 6.39″ display, triple cameras including a 2x telephoto optical zoom lens, it can record 4K60 and comes with a 3300 mAh battery. The 5G version of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 is also to be available at €599. This video includes my highlights filmed at the Xiaomi Mobile World Congress 2019 keynote which you can also watch the official full video of here.

€299 Archos Diamond bezel-less, Archos Oxygen, Smart Speakers, Smart Lights and 101S Oxygen Tablet

Posted by – March 7, 2019

Archos Diamond has a 6.39″ HD+ 2160×1080 AMOLED display, powered by the MediaTek Helio P70 ARM Cortex-A73/A53 octa-core CPU with an ARM Mali-G72 GPU. Archos Oxygen 68 at 149eur, 63 at 129eur, 57 at 99eur. Archos also shows their Amazon Alexa smart speakers, the 19.90eur Archos Smart LED Lights that work with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Archos 101S Oxygen Tablet based on MediaTek X20 deca-core with 3GB RAM and 32GB Flash, comes with a special charging and speaker dock.

MediaTek Helio P90, dual ARM Cortex-A75, six ARM Cortex-A55

Posted by – March 6, 2019

MediaTek Helio P90 dual ARM Cortex-A75 with 6 ARM Cortex-A55 in an octa-core cluster, with powerful AI APU 2.0 with 1165GMACs performance, Imagination PowerVR GM 9446 GPU, LPDDR4X memory, supports up to 48MP camera sensors (44.7% larger than 8K), 48MP at up to 30FPS with zero delay (ZSD) or 480FPS in 16MP. Dual camera arrays of up to 24+16MP can do 30fps bokeh live-previews that are 6X faster and 2.25X higher resolution than competitor claims MediaTek. Upgraded triple ISP that’s now capable of 14-bit RAW and 10-bit YUV processing. CorePilot control that supports ACAO (all cores all open), AI-enhanced low-light noise reduction algorithm is 4X faster and is also the first ever AI-feature in CV (computer vision) performance. MediaTek’s latest 4G LTE WorldMode modem introduces 4×4 MIMO, 3CA and 256QAM that provides more reliable connectivity performance even in densely populated spaces such as stadiums, busy shopping districts, offices or at the airport.

$449 Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Platform Snapdragon 845 Development Board, Embedded World 2019 booth tour


Qualcomm and Thundercomm launches the Robotics RB3 Platform 96Boards development board (available for $449 at Thundercomm), supports the development of smart, power-efficient, and cost-effective robots, uses heterogeneous computing and Qualcomm Artificial (AI) Engine to support on-device machine learning, computer vision, robust security, multimedia, Wi-Fi, and cellular connectivity capabilities, based on the Qualcomm SDA845/Qualcomm SDM845 SoC. It includes hardware, software, and development tools, the Qualcomm Robotics RB3 platform is designed to help manufacturers and developers create robotic products, ranging from large industrial and enterprise robots to small battery-operated ones with challenging power. This video also features a tour of the Qualcomm booth at Embedded World 2019, featuring all the LTE for IoT modems such as the MDM9206 and the MDM9205 LTE IoT modem, and development boards available from Qualcomm’s partners including Geniatech, Intrinsyc, eInfoChips, Altek, Inforce Computing, Keith and Koep, Shiratech, Basler and more.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Dex on Lapdock, faster, smoother, doesn’t take over phone display

Posted by – March 3, 2019

The new Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+/S10e/Fold enables the fastes PC Mode from a phone yet, here tested on upcoming http://lapdock.net project (check back for more videos on Lapdock and when it might be available for purchase). Galaxy S10 is powered by the extremely fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. There even is a 5G version to be available.