Restoring an Xserve G5: When Apple built real servers

Recently I came into posession of a few Apple Xserves. The one in question today is an Xserve G5, RackMac3,1, which was built when Apple at the top—and bottom—of it's PowerPC era.

This isn't the first Xserve—that honor belongs to the G41. And it wasn't the last—there were a few generations of Intel Xeon-powered RackMacs that followed. But in my opinion, it was the most interesting.

Unfortunately, being manufactured in 2004, this Mac's Delta power supply suffers from the Capacitor Plague. The PSU tends to run hot, and some of the capacitors weren't even 105°C-rated, so they tend to wear out, especially...

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[Hardware] Illumination improvements

Rockchip RK3538 TV Box SoC and RK3572 mid-range HMI processor are coming soon

While we are eagerly waiting for the RK3668 and RK3688 high-end processors, Rockchip is planning to launch two mid-range SoCs with the RK3538 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor designed for TV boxes, and the RK3572 hexa-core Cortex-A73/A53 SoC for HMI (Human Machine Interface) applications. Rockchip RK3538 TV box SoC Rockchip RK3538 specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor with NEON, FPU, ARMv8 Crypto… Cache 32KB L1 instruction cache 32KB L1 data cache and 64KB L2 data cache 512KB unified system L3 cache GPU Arm Mali-G310 3D GPU with support for OpenCL 3.0, OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.2, Vulkan 1.2 2D Graphics Engine VPU Decoder H.265,...

Фамипия. Оживляем раритетный домофон с тремя ручками

Приветствую всех!

Не так давно я уже рассказывал про раритетный венгерский домофон «Фамипия». И вот очередь дошла до другой панели этой же серии. По виду экземпляр очень похож на домофон «Сезам», отчего зачастую его путают именно с ним. Тем не менее, ничего общего с «тем» сезамом у него нет. «Питерский сезам», «сезам с оптическим ключом», «сезам с кнопкой освещения» — это всё он.

Самое время узнать, как он устроен, и попробовать его запустить. Именно этим мы сейчас и займёмся...

Discovery Drive – An ESP32-S3-based azimuth/elevation rotator for satellite dishes and SDR antennas (Crowdfunding)

KrakenRF, the team behind the KrakenSDR, has designed the Discovery Drive ESP32-S3-based, low-cost, fully weatherproof, automatic azimuth/elevation (Az/El) antenna rotator for their Discovery Dish or other directional antennas, such as Yagis and Wi-Fi grids, weighing up to 5kg. Compared to DIY projects like SatNOGS (which require 3D printing and hardware sourcing), the Discovery Drive is designed as a plug-and-play solution. You can simply mount it to a mast, attach the dish, connect to 12V power and Wi-Fi, and use its web UI to start tracking polar-orbiting weather satellites (like METEOR-M2 or FENGYUN), CubeSats, or amateur radio satellites. KrakenRF Discovery Drive...

Forlinx Showcases i.MX95-Based FET-MX95xx-C SoM at Embedded World 2026

Forlinx has introduced the FET-MX95xx-C SoM built around NXP’s i.MX95 applications processor family and demonstrated a multimodal industrial security solution at Embedded World 2026. The demo combines the i.MX95 processor with an Ara240 AI computing card to accelerate edge inference workloads. The module integrates the NXP i.MX9596 processor, which combines six Arm Cortex-A55 cores running […]

ST ST64UWB Cortex-M85 ultra-wideband SoC supports IEEE 802.15.4z and 802.15.4ab UWB standards, radar sensing

STMicroelectronics ST64UWB Arm Cortex-M85 ultra-wideband (UWB) SoC family supports both the current IEEE 802.15.4z and the upcoming IEEE 802.15.4ab UWB standards for longer-range, more reliable positioning and secure proximity-based interactions. It mainly targets digital car keys, hands-free access, and smart-device detection. The family includes the ST64UWB-A100 (automotive entry), ST64UWB-A500 (automotive premium), and ST64UWB-C100 (industrial/smart home), all built on an 18 nm FD-SOI process that improves the RF link budget by ~3 dB, yielding roughly 50% additional range beyond what IEEE 802.15.4ab alone provides. The automotive-focused A-series offers ASIL-A(B) safety support, while the ST64UWB-C100 targets consumer and commercial applications. ST64UWB family...

Can the MacBook Neo replace my M4 Air?

Many of us wonder if the MacBook Neo is 'the one'.

Because I have a faster desktop (currently a M4 Max Mac Studio), I've always used a lower-end Mac laptop, like the iBook or MacBook Air, for travel. I've used MacBook Pros in the past, but I like the portability of smaller, cheaper models.

In fact, my favorite Mac laptop ever was the 11" Air.

MediaTek unveils 50 TOPS Genio Pro 5100 Cortex-X925/X4/A720 SoC, 7.2 TOPS Genio 420 Cortex-A78/A55 SoC for AIoT applications

After launching the Genio 360/360P hexa/octa-core SoCs last month, MediaTek has now expanded the lineup with the Genio Pro 5100 and Genio 420 AIoT SoCs at Embedded World 2026. The Genio Pro 5100 is a 3nm SoC with an “all big-core” architecture and a 50+ TOPS NPU for Edge AI applications. The Genio 420, on the other hand, is a cost-efficient 6nm platform designed for smart home, retail, and industrial IoT devices. MediaTek Genio Pro 5100 The Genio Pro 5100 integrates one Cortex-X925, three Cortex-X4, and four Cortex-A720 cores, as well as an Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU, and supports LPDDR5X memory...

Qualcomm X105 6G-ready 5G modem to deliver 14.8 Gbps download and 4.2 Gbps upload peak data speeds

Qualcomm X105 is the world’s first 3GPP Release 19-ready modem-RF system supporting 5G connectivity up to 14.8 Gbps download and 4.2 Gbps upload peak data speeds, and enabling 6G development and testing. Other Qualcomm X105 highlights include a 6nm RF transceiver with 30% lower power consumption and 15% smaller board footprint compared to the Qualcomm X85 5G modem, support for quad-band GNSS, an integrated NR-NTN for video, data and voice over satellite, and a fifth-generation AI processor leveraging agentic AI to detect, classify, and optimize data traffic for mobile gaming, video calling, and social media. Qualcomm X105 Modem-RF system specifications:...