Raspberry Pi, RISC-V, and More Hardware

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 18, 2026

• Devices/Embedded

  • Hackaday ☛ Skip The Embedded Filesystem With The TAR-like UTFS Format

    As explained in the accompanying introduction article, the basic idea is similar in scope but very much slimmed down compared to the venerable Tape ARchive (TAR) format, hence the Micro (µ) Tar File System name. The provided UTFS implementation is quite small, spanning two source files in C99 with zero heap usage. Targeting a custom store medium requires implementing one read and one write function to match the underlying platform.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • CNX Software ☛ Rockchip RK3539 quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC shows up in low-cost Android 14 4K TV stick with AV1 codec support

    HS89 T15 4K Android TV stick is powered by the new Rockchip RK3539 quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC with AV1 and H.265 video codecs and HDR10 support, and is equipped with up to 4GB of RAM and a 32GB eMMC flash. The device features a male HDMI 2.1 port, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity, a USB Type-A host port, and a USB-C port for power only, either directly from the TV or through a 5V/2A power adapter. The device also ships with a Bluetooth voice remote control. Let’s have a look at both the streaming device and the RK3539 chip itself since the datasheet is available.

  • CNX Software ☛ Amlogic A311Y3 octa-core Edge Hey Hi (AI) SoC features Cortex-A78/A55 cores, 8 TOPS NPU, LPDDR5 support

    Amlogic has introduced the A311Y3 Edge Hey Hi (AI) SoC, which seems to be an upgrade over earlier designs such as the A311D and A311D2 used in boards like the Khadas VIM3 and Khadas VIM4. Although not listed on the official Amlogic website, documentation from vendors such as Shenzhen Tomato Technology indicates that the A311Y3 SoC is built around a 6nm process node and features a newer CPU architecture based on Arm Cortex-A78/A55 cores. The SoC integrates an NPU with up to 8 TOPS of compute performance and supports LPDDR5/LPDDR5X memory, which can be used in both processing and Edge AI, compared to earlier A311-series chips.

  • CNX Software ☛ Zhihe A210 octa-core RISC-V SoC with 12 TOPS NPU powers SoM-based development board

    Last year, we noted three upcoming high-performance RISC-V SoCs to watch out for: Zhihe A210, SpacemiT K3, and UltraRISC UR-DP1000. The K3 has already been launched, and I’ll work on the K3-Pico-ITX SBC/mini PC review this coming weekend, while the UR-DP1000 is (still?) expected on the Milk-V Titan motherboard. However, we did not have that many details about the Zhihe A210 so far. This has now changed since documentation has surfaced for the Zhihe A210 and a development kit (A210 SODIMM V2) based on a carrier board and a system-on-module itself powered by the octa-core RISC-V processor. Let’s have a look at both.

  • Raspberry Pi ☛ Track planes on your ceiling

    The core of the setup is a Raspberry Pi 5 and an RTL-SDR (software-defined radio) capable of receiving 1090MHz signals — the frequency on which aircraft transmit their ADS-B data. This includes the height, speed, and location of each plane in real time. Cameron then performs some simple geometry using the longitude and latitude of both the plane and his house to plot its position on a canvas, which he displays in kiosk mode on the Raspberry Pi.

  • Hackaday ☛ Building And Testing A DIY Robot Actuator

    Target specs were a actuator that could run at 40 to 60 rpm while delivering 20 Nm of torque for up to an hour continuously. The design was inspired by an MIT research paper, with [Brandon] making a few mods to suit his use case. Where the MIT design uses an inbuilt planetary gearbox, this build substitutes a cycloidal gearbox with a hope it will provide better torque capacity with less backlash. The design is based around a hand-wound stator made with an off-the-shelf core, while using custom CNC parts and 3D printed components for the motor housing itself.