Kode Dot – An easy-to-use, pocket-sized, battery-powered ESP32-S3 devkit (Crowdfunding)

Kode Dot is a pocket-sized ESP32-S3 maker device for prototyping with a built-in 2.13-inch AMOLED, a 500mAh battery, a 9-axis IMU, a microphone and a speaker, an RTC, a few buttons,  a GPIO header, and a magnetic connector for expansion. Kode Dot is designed to simplify the prototyping process. Users can still write code using the Arduino IDE, PlatformIO, or ESP-IDF framework and upload it via the kit’s USB-C port, but thanks to kodeOS firmware, each program becomes a standalone app with its own name, icon, and interface, accessible from the graphical user interface. Kode Dot specifications: SoC – Espressif...

Stellar Data Recovery for Tape: Your Reliable Solution for LTO Tape Recovery (Sponsored)

In the world of data archiving, Linear Tape-Open (LTO) tapes continue to dominate for their unmatched capacity and longevity, storing up to 45TB compressed on LTO-9 cartridges with a shelf life of 30 years. Yet, threats like software obsolescence, catalog corruption, or physical wear can lock away irreplaceable files—from databases and emails to videos and documents. That’s where LTO tape data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery for Tape steps in, offering a standalone, secure way to retrieve data without relying on discontinued backup tools. Designed for IT pros, compliance officers, and enterprises in sectors like finance and healthcare, Stellar...

New Open Source Hardware board in stock: ESP32-C5-DevKit-Lipo Dual band 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5 LE, Zigbee, Thread, Matter

The ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo is a evaluation board built around the ESP32-C5-WROOM-N8R4 module from Espressif with 4MB PSRAM and 8MB Flash, designed to bring dual-band wireless connectivity, ample memory, and robust control features into one compact, breadboard friendly versatile package. All available signals are are on two 0.1″ step headers spaced at 0.9″ to may plug directly […]

Giveaway Week 2025 winners announced!

CNX Software’s Giveaway Week 2025 has just ended and we’ve now ready to announce the winners. We offered some of the review samples we tested, and three companies joined us offering new samples, namely Banana Pi with two router boards, VOIPAC with an industrial development kit, and RAKwireless offered two of their IoT development kits for the fifth year running. Besides the aforementioned prize, we also included an ESP32-P4 development kit, a dry switch from SONOFF, a Raspberry Pi CM4-based HMI with a 915MHz LoRa module, a 5-inch Raspberry Pi Touch Display, and two USB PD voltage indicators on both...

LattePanda IOTA review – An Intel N150 + RP2040 SBC tested with Windows 11, UPS expansion, PoE, NVMe SSD, and more

I’ve received a review sample of the LattePanda IOTA single-board computer (SBC) from DFRobot. It is a compact, palm-sized SBC powered by an Intel Processor N150 quad-core Twin Lake CPU, and featuring 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 64 GB of onboard eMMC storage. It also integrates a Raspberry Pi RP2040 co-processor for handling I/O operations, providing greater flexibility for embedded and automation applications. LattePanda IOTA unboxing The parcel was shipped from China and arrived safely in a standard cardboard box. Inside were several smaller boxes containing the following components, with foam padding that was slightly loose but still provided...

$500+ MINISFORUM MS-R1 Arm Linux AI mini PC features CIX CP8180 12-core SoC, up to 64GB LPDDR5x

MINISFORUM MS-R1 is an AI mini PC running Debian 12 Linux that’s powered by a CIX P1 (CP8180) 12-core Arm Cortex-A720/A520 processor with up to 45 TOPS of AI performance. The mini PC supports up to 64GB of soldered-on LPDDR5 memory, M.2 storage, and provides HDMI, USB-C DP, and eDP display interfaces, two 10GbE ports and WiFi 6E, a total of nine USB ports, a PCIe Gen x16 slot for a graphics card, U.2 storage, or networking expansion, a 40-pin internal GPIO header, and more. MINISFORUM MS-R101 specifications: SoC – Cix CP8180 (P1) 12-core DynamIQ processor 4x Cortex‑A720 big cores @...

Engicam Showcases Computer Vision AI Kit Based on Renesas RZ/V2H Platform

Engicam has showcased the TIA RZ/V2H System-on-Module and its companion AI.DEV RZ/V2H development kit, both built around Renesas’ RZ/V2H processor. The module targets embedded applications in machine vision, autonomous robotics, and industrial automation, offering onboard AI acceleration and GPU capabilities optimized for real-time processing and advanced imaging. The TIA RZ/V2H module integrates a Renesas RZ/V2H […]

Minisforum stuffs an entire Arm Homelab in the MS-R1

Minisforum stuffs an entire Arm Homelab in the MS-R1

The Minisforum MS-R1 uses the same Cix CD8180 Arm SoC as the Orion O6 I reviewed earlier this year. But everything else about this thing is different.

What this thing should be, is a box that runs Linux and can compete with at least an Apple M1 Mac mini, or a mid-range Mini PC. But what we got... is something different.

Hate reading? I also published a video on the MS-R1 on my YouTube channel. Watch it here, or scroll on past.

New Blog

I relocated my blog to Hugo due to easier maintainance and more control over content and layout. You can find it here.

All articles from this blog have been preserved, although I won’t list some that I found lacking in quality.

BitNetMCU with CNN: >99.5% MNIST accuracy on a low-end Microcontroller

Combining a deep-depthwise CNN architecture with variable quantization in BitNetMCU achieves state-of-the-art MNIST accuracy on a low-end 32-bit microcontroller with 4 kB RAM and 16 kB flash.
Read the article at my new blog location.