CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 29, 2026March 28, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

M5Stack Stamp-P4 – A tiny ESP32-P4 USB-C board with optional Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4

Stamp P4 (Left) Stamp AddOn C6 For P4 (Right)

M5Stack has just introduced the Stamp-P4, a tiny USB-C development board built around the ESP32-P4 high-performance RISC-V MCU chip, featuring 16MB of Flash and 32MB of PSRAM, and optional Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 support through the ESP32-C6-MINI-1-based Stamp-AddOn C6 module. Despite its small size (29.8 x 22.0 x 4.3mm), the Stamp-P4 offers a wide range of interfaces, including a MIPI-CSI camera connector, as well as a MIPI DSI display interface, RMII Ethernet, USB 2.0 HS, and up to 44x GPIOs via 1.27mm/2.00mm pitch castellated holes and a few through holes. M5Stack Stamp-P4 specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-P4NRW32 CPU Dual-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 360 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) VPU – H.264 and JPEG codecs support Memory – 768 KB HP L2MEM, 32 KB LP SRAM, 8 KB TCM, 32MB […]

March 28, 2026March 28, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus NAS review – Part 2: Configuration, benchmarks, and AI-enhanced media storage

I received the TerraMaster F2-425 Plus 3+2 Hybrid NAS for review last month, and after checking out the hardware in the first part of the review, I’ve finally had time to test the Intel N150 NAS. After installing two 4TB SATA drives and an M.2 NVMe SSD, I’ll report my experience setting up the system with the TNAS Android app, before running some benchmarks, and testing features like photo backup with AI search capabilities. Hard drive installation I already had an old, but little-used, 4TB HGST SATA drive, and I bought a “new” 4TB SATA drive online for a pretty good deal (2979 THB or a little over $90 US). It turns out the HPE MB4000GVY2K drive I got was refurbished, having been manufactured in 2017. However, it’s an enterprise-grade drive, and the TNAS app reports it has been used “only” for 2,517 hours, so I don’t feel too bad […]

Luckfox Lume – A compact Allwinner T153 SBC with dual GbE, PoE, GPIO header, and MIPI interfaces for industrial HMI applications

Luckfox Lume is a compact industrial SBC powered by an Allwinner T153 quad-core Cortex-A7 SoC with a low-power RISC-V core, and equipped with 128MB DDR3, 256MB SPI NAND flash, and dual Gigabit Ethernet The board also features a microSD card slot, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a USB Type-C port, MIPI DSI and CSI connectors, and a 40-pin GPIO header suitable for a range of HMI applications. By default, the board is powered through USB-C, but a PoE model is also available. Luckfox Lume specifications: SoC – Allwinner T153 M3-QCX CPU 4x Arm Cortex-A7 cores @ up to 1.6GHz XuanTie E907 RISC-V core @ up to 600MHz GPU – 2D GPU only No VPU, no NPU System Memory – 128 MB built-in DDR3 (TBC) Storage 256 MB SPI NAND flash (Winbond 25N02KVZEIR) MicroSD card slot Display Interface – 4-lane MIPI DSI Camera Interface – 2-lane MIPI CSI Networking – 2x […]

March 27, 2026March 27, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

SparkFun Thing Plus – ESP32-C5 board offers dual-band WiFi 6, Adafruit Feather pinout, LiPo battery support

Espressif has recently released the ESP-IDF v6.0 framework with support for ESP32-C5 and ESP32-C61, so we can expect more ESP32-C5 boards. Following the launch of boards like DFRobot FireBeetle 2 and the Espressif DevKitC-1, SparkFun has now launched its Thing Plus – ESP32-C5, an Adafruit Feather-compatible board based on the ESP32-C5. The timing is no coincidence. Although the ESP32-C5 dual-band WiFi 6 SoC was announced back in 2022, hardware makers have been waiting for stable software support. With the release of ESP-IDF v6.0, the ESP32-C5 moves from “preview” to “stable” and adds key features, such as Safe Bootloader OTA updates. This enables the ROM bootloader to fall back to a recovery partition if an update fails, making it reliable enough for companies like SparkFun to launch hardware for remote deployments and Matter-compatible smart home applications. SparkFun Thing Plus – ESP32-C5 specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-C5-WROOM-1 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C5 CPU Single-core […]

March 27, 2026March 27, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ESP32-P4-Pi-VIEWE – A Raspberry Pi-inspired ESP32-P4 + ESP32-C6 board with Ethernet, USB, 40-pin GPIO header, and more

ESP32-P4 ESP32-C6 Raspberry-Pi sized SBC

The ESP32-P4-Pi-VIEWE is a Raspberry Pi-inspired development board equipped with a VIEWE ESP32-P4C6-Core module, combining a 400 MHz ESP32-P4 dual-core RISC-V MCU with an ESP32-C6 chip for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connectivity, as well as 32MB PSRAM and 16MB NOR flash. The board also offers 10/100Mbps Ethernet connectivity, MIPI DSI, and CSI connectors for display and/or camera, two onboard microphones, a speaker output, a USB 2.0 port, a micro SD card slot, and the usual 40-pin GPIO header, all in a familiar 85 x 56 mm credit card form factor. ESP32-P4-Pi-VIEWE specifications: Main module – VIEWE ESP32-P4C6-Core Microcontroller – ESP32-P4NRW32 MCU Dual-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 360/400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) VPU – H.264 and JPEG codecs support Memory – 768 KB HP L2MEM, 32 KB LP SRAM, […]

March 27, 2026 by Debashis Das - 7 Comments

Microchip SAM9X75 Hybrid automotive MCU – Surprisingly ARM9 is still a thing in 2026

When Microchip launched the SAM9X60 in 2020, we were surprised to see a new SoC based on a legacy ARM926EJ-S core. But we were even more surprised to see Microchip doubling down with the SAM9X75, a hybrid automotive-qualified (AEC-Q100 Grade 2) System-in-Package (SiP) with the same classic ARM9 core and integrated DDR2 or DDR3L memory. The first part will be the SAM9X75D5M SiP with 512MB on-chip DDR2 RAM, but the company also designed the SAM9X75D1G with 1 Gbit DDR3L and the SAM9X75D2G featuring 2 Gbit DDR3L. The SAM9X75 hybrid ARM9 MCU targets developers who need an MCU-like development environment, while benefiting from higher processing and display capabilities of microprocessors for automotive and e-mobility HMI applications. Microchip SAM9X75D5M specifications: CPU subsystem Core – ARM926EJ-S running up to 800 MHz (significant increase from older 400-600MHz variants) 32 KB data cache, 32 KB instruction cache, and Memory Management Unit (MMU). Memory 512 Mbit […]

March 26, 2026March 26, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

picoZ80 – A Z80 microprocessor drop-in replacement based on Raspberry Pi RP2350B and ESP32

The picoZ80 board is a drop-in replacement for the Z80 microprocessor based on the Raspberry Pi RP2350B dual-core Cortex-M33 microcontroller and an ESP32 wireless SoC for WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. My first computer was a ZX81 powered by a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, which was eventually phased out in 2024 after almost 50 years of production. But retro computing enthusiasts keep the platform alive, usually with softcore FPGA implementations such as MiSTer. The picoZ80 is different as it relies on the programmable I/O (PIO) state machines from the RP2350B MCU to reproduce cycle-accurate address, data, and control buses of the Z80 MPU. picoZ80 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2350B CPU – Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 CPU @ up to 150/300 MHz (the two RISC-V cores do not appear to be used by the project) Memory – 520KB SRAM Storage – 8KB OTP flash Package – QFN-80 Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage 16MB flash […]

March 26, 2026March 26, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

RuView project leverages ESP32 nodes for WiFi-based presence detection, pose estimation, and breathing/heart rate monitoring

RuView is an open-source “WiFi DensePose” implementation leveraging multiple ESP32 nodes to turn WiFi signals into real-time human pose estimation, vital sign monitoring, and presence detection without relying on video cameras. WiFi DensePose is a sensing technique, first explored in academic research, that leverages WiFi signals to reconstruct human pose. RuView implements this technique in Rust or Python, and relies on your WiFi router and several ESP32 nodes to track body pose, detect breathing rate, and measure heart rate even through walls. As we’ll discuss below, this project has its own controversy, as some claim it’s fake. The solution relies on Channel State Information (CSI) disturbances caused by human movement to reconstruct body position, breathing rate, heart rate, and presence in real time using “physics-based signal processing and machine learning”. That obviously means you need CSI-capable hardware, and not all consumer WiFi nodes implement it. The project description lists various […]