Radxa has introduced the Radxa Zero 3W single-board computer (SBC), which features a 1.6 GHz Rockchip RK3566 processor and up to 8GB of RAM. The board is designed in the compact Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W form factor, making it one of the most powerful Arm Linux SBCs in this size.

The Radxa Zero 3W comes with various features, including an optional eMMC flash with up to 64GB capacity, a microSD card slot, a micro HDMI port, two USB Type-C ports, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connectivity, a MIPI CSI camera connector, and a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header.

Here are the specifications of the Radxa Zero 3W:

• SoC: Rockchip RK3566 with a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, Arm Mali G52-2EE GPU, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator, and 4Kp60 video decoding capabilities
• System Memory: 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4
• Storage: Optional 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash, and a microSD card slot
• Video Output: Micro HDMI port up to 1080p60
• Camera: MIPI CSI connector compatible with Raspberry Pi Camera V1.3 and Raspberry Pi Camera V2
• Wireless: WiFi 4 (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 5.0
• USB: 1x USB 3.0 Type-C host port and 1x USB 2.0 Type-C OTG port
• Expansion: 40-pin GPIO header with multiple interfaces
• Power Supply: 5V/1A (minimum) via USB-C OTG port
• Dimensions: 65 x 30mm

Radxa provides Debian and Ubuntu OS images, as well as a hardware access/control library for Linux. To get started, users will need a 5V power supply, a microSD card, and necessary peripherals like an HDMI monitor or TV, USB keyboard and mouse, and potentially a USB to serial debug board and a MIPI CSI camera.

Despite having a similar form factor to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, the Radxa Zero 3W has some connector differences, such as micro HDMI instead of mini HDMI, and a different placement of the MIPI CSI connector and microSD card slot.

Performance-wise, the Radxa Zero 3W with the Rockchip RK3566 processor has been found to be significantly faster than the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W in benchmarks. The RK3566 processor has been in the market for several years, and benchmark results are available.

The Radxa Zero 3W is listed on AllNet China, starting at $15 for the model with 1GB RAM and no eMMC flash or GPIO headers. The price goes up to $66 for the variant with 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and female GPIO headers soldered to the board. However, all variants are currently sold out, and it is unclear when there will be stock available.

In addition to the Radxa Zero 3W, Radxa is also working on a wider Zero 2 Pro board with a 2.2 GHz Amlogic A311D processor, which will offer even more performance and require a proper cooling solution with a heatsink and a small fan.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

Longhorn has released version v1.4.4, a distributed block storage system for Kubernetes. This release includes various enhancements, improvements, bug fixes, and stability and resilience updates. Some of the notable improvements include the addition of disk status Prometheus metrics, improved log levels for resource update failures, and support for both NFS hard and soft with custom timeo and retrans options for RWX volumes. Bugs related to volume synchronization, attaching/detaching loops, and volume mounting have also been addressed. This release is aimed at providing a more stable and reliable storage solution for Kubernetes environments. For more information, you can visit the Longhorn v1.4.4 release page.

Patches have been posted by SiFive for the Linux kernel that provide cryptographic implementations of various functions within the kernel using the RISC-V processor ISA’s vector crypto extensions. These patches aim to accelerate various Linux kernel crypto operations by utilizing the vector instructions with the RISC-V Cryptography Extensions. The vector instructions for these extensions can be found in the riscv-crypto repository.

In total, twelve patches have been posted this week that improve the performance of several cryptographic functions. These include the acceleration of AES cipher, AES with CBC/CTR/ECB/XTS block modes, ChaCha20 stream cipher, GHASH for GCM, SHA-224/256 and SHA-384/512 hash, SM3 hash, and SM4 cipher.

For those interested in this work and the details of how it speeds up kernel crypto operations with the RISC-V Crypto Vector instructions, the patch series can be found here.

Source: Phoronix.

In this week’s issue of README Highlight (#43, 2023), we are taking a look at the following project: k0s.

k0s is an all-inclusive Kubernetes distribution developed by Team Lens. It is designed to be a zero-friction solution for building Kubernetes clusters, packaged as a single binary for ease of use. It can be deployed in various environments, including cloud, IoT gateways, edge, and bare metal deployments, thanks to its simple design, flexible deployment options, and modest system requirements.

Key features of k0s include different installation methods (single-node, multi-node, airgap, and Docker), automatic lifecycle management with k0sctl for upgrades and backup/restore, modest system requirements (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM), vanilla upstream Kubernetes with no changes, and support for custom Container Network Interface (CNI) and Container Runtime Interface (CRI) plugins. It also supports all Kubernetes storage options with Container Storage Interface (CSI) and a variety of datastore backends.

To get started with k0s, users can refer to the Quick Start Guide for creating a full Kubernetes cluster with a single node, use k0sctl for deploying and upgrading multi-node clusters, watch a NanoDemo recording for a visual demonstration, or run k0s in Docker containers. The project also provides comprehensive documentation and resources for further exploration.

The k0s project is open to community participation and welcomes contributions. Users can join the Lens Forums or submit issues and feature requests via GitHub. The project is continuously improving and has reached a production-ready state, with regular releases and stability improvements.

In terms of scope, k0s aims to provide a versatile base for running Kubernetes in various setups, minimizing the inclusion of “add-ons” and focusing on a robust and flexible core. The project believes in keeping fewer opinions and reducing the maintenance burden of external addons.

Building k0s from source is facilitated by GNU Make and Docker, with all compilation steps performed inside Docker containers. The project offers two different build options: a self-contained build with all binaries compiled from source and embedded, and a package maintainer build without any embedded binaries. Smoke tests are also available to ensure the functionality of the built binaries.

In conclusion, k0s offers a zero-friction Kubernetes distribution with a focus on simplicity, flexibility, and performance. It provides a comprehensive set of features, easy installation and management, and compatibility with various deployment environments. With its active development and community involvement, k0s aims to be a modern and reliable choice for Kubernetes deployments.

The openSUSE community has announced a logo competition for a new openSUSE logo, as well as four openSUSE distributions: Tumbleweed, Leap, Slowroll, and Kalpa. The aim of the competition is to strengthen the visual identity of the openSUSE brand and create a cohesive brand identity for its distributions.

The new logo designs should visualize a unified brand and integrate well with newer project logos like Aeon, MicroOS, and Leap Micro. The logos for the openSUSE distributions are designed with simple shapes and lines, typically as empty outlines. The logos use a 16u square canvas with a 1u stroke width.

The competition is open to the openSUSE community and the deadline for submissions is November 22. The winners will receive a “Geeko Mystery Box” as a reward for their creative designs.

The rules of the contest state that the logo should be licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 and allow everyone to use it without attribution if it is used as the logo for the openSUSE Project. The design must be original and not include any third party materials. Both monochrome and color formats are required for submission, and the design should reflect the openSUSE communities.

To submit a design, participants must email their vector file in SVG format to ddemaio@opensuse.org, along with a PNG of the design posted on the openSUSE website. The file size should be less than 512 KB. Participants should also include their name, mail address, and a description of the design’s philosophy.

The submitted designs will be added to a survey where the community can vote on them. The final decision will be made at an openSUSE Community meeting.

TrueNAS has announced the release of TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 “Cobia,” the third major release of TrueNAS SCALE. This release brings improvements in quality, functionality, security, and performance.

One of the key highlights of the TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 release is the improvement in Server Message Block (SMB) features. SMB is the most common file sharing protocol and is widely supported on various platforms. The new features in this release include SMB and NFSv4 compatibility, SMB share import from other systems, SMB file sync with 3rd party servers, and fast file copy with ZFS block cloning.

In addition to the SMB features, TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 brings several other enhancements. The infrastructure has been improved with Linux Kernel 6.1 and better hardware support, NVIDIA driver updates, and Netdata backend stats collection. The web interface has also been enhanced with improved Apps and Storage Pool UI, as well as simplified feedback and bug reporting.

TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 also includes updates to ZFS and performance improvements. It features OpenZFS 2.2 with contributions from iXsystems, ZFS block cloning for faster file copies, ZFS dRAID pool layouts, and improved ZFS scrub controls. The release also brings updates to protocols and services such as Samba security and speed improvements, simplified SMB cluster expansion via TrueCommand 3.0 (coming soon), and iSCSI improvements.

TrueNAS 13.1, which is planned for release in early 2024, will inherit some of the improvements from TrueNAS SCALE Cobia. This update will include the SMB and ZFS enhancements implemented and tested in Cobia. Nightly versions of TrueNAS 13.1 are available for testing and contribution to the development process.

TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.4.2 is the final version of Bluefin, and going forward, TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 Cobia will gradually become the recommended version. No further versions of Bluefin are planned. TrueNAS provides options for migrating storage services and VMs from CORE to SCALE, and plugins and jails can be manually replaced with Apps.

The TrueNAS installer can be downloaded from the TrueNAS website or the system update feature within an existing TrueNAS installation.