Open Hardware: RISC-V, ASRock, Fairphone, and More
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SoC-FPGA Solution based on Multicore RISC-V architecture
Aries Embedded launched this week two embedded platforms based on Microchip’s PolarFire FPGA architecture. According to the company, “the M100PFS SoM integrates a hardened real-time, Linux capable, RISC-V-based MPU subsystem on the mid-range PolarFire SoCFPGA family.”
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ASRock Industrial Partners with Canonical for Ubuntu-Certified Industrial Platforms | Ubuntu
ASRock Industrial, the leading manufacturer of Edge AIoT solutions, announces a partnership with Canonical to certify Ubuntu on its industrial systems and motherboards. The awaited collaboration allows ASRock Industrial to provide Ubuntu-certified devices with all Ubuntu functionality and long-term support with security updates from Canonical. Through extensive testing and validation, the new iEP-5000G Industrial IoT Controller is now an Ubuntu-certified platform. With the internationally recognised certification, customers can gain confidence in products’ seamless integration with Ubuntu while accelerating the time-to-market of application development.
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Reverse-engineering an airspeed/Mach indicator from 1977
How does a vintage airspeed indicator work? CuriousMarc picked one up for a project, but it didn't have any documentation, so I reverse-engineered it. This indicator was used in the cockpit panel for business jets such as the Gulfstream G-III, Cessna Citation, and Bombardier Challenger CL600. It was probably manufactured in 1977 based on the dates on its transistors.
You might expect that the indicators on an aircraft control panel are simple dials. But behind this dial is a large, 2.8-pound box with a complex system of motors, gears, and feedback potentiometers, controlled by two boards of electronics. But for all this complexity, the indicator doesn't have any smarts: the pointers just indicate voltages fed into it from an air data computer. This is a quick blog post to summarize what I found.
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A Z80 emulator
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor developed by Federico Faggin and his 11 employees in early 1975. The first working samples were delivered in March 1976, and Z80 was officially introduced on the market in July 1976.
The Z80 is a backwards-compatible enhancement of the Intel 8080. Z80 quickly became one of the most widely used CPUs in desktop computers and home computers from the 1970s to the 1980s. It was also common in military applications, musical equipment such as synthesizers, calculators such as the classy TI83+, and arcade games such as Pac-Man.
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Fairphone Should Be Lauded, But It's Not Enough
While it's pretty cool that Fairphone 2 has been supported for so long it's still not enough. I can't find it now but I read somewhere that the average smartphone should be used for at least 25 years to be sustainable, because the production of electronics is so resource and energy intensive.
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Celebrating the community: Adarsh
In our work, we get to meet so many super inspiring young people who make things with technology. Our series of community stories is one way we share their journeys and enthusiasm for digital making with you.