Three weeks ago, Raspberry Pi unveiled their latest flagship product, the Raspberry Pi 5. Since then, they have provided insights into the architecture, I/O controller, software stack, image signal processor, and official accessories of the new device.

Behind the scenes, Raspberry Pi has been working with Sony UK Technology Centre in Wales to ramp up manufacturing and production test processes. The good news is that the first mass-production units will begin shipping to customers this week. The priority for shipping will be given to subscribers of The MagPi and HackSpace magazines who took advantage of the Priority Boarding promotion.

By the end of next week, all existing Priority Boarding orders will have shipped, and all approved resellers in countries with signed compliance paperwork will have received initial stock of both the 4GB and 8GB variants. This means that pre-order customers can expect to start receiving their parcels soon. Raspberry Pi aims to increase their production rate to fulfill all backorders and have the device in stock at all approved resellers by the end of the year.

Early users have already shown excitement for the Raspberry Pi 5, and the company looks forward to seeing what people will do with the device. They encourage users to share their tinkering experiences with the new Raspberry Pi 5.

Milk-V, known for its work on the Milk-V Duo and high-end Pioneer board, has recently announced the Oasis as a mini-ITX RISC-V board in development. This board is expected to feature 16 cores and up to 64GB of LPDDR5 system memory.

The Milk-V Oasis aims to provide a “truly desktop-grade RISC-V PC” within a compact mini-ITX form factor. It is powered by the Sophgo SG2380 SoC, which includes 16 cores: twelve P (performance) cores clocked up to 2.5GHz, and four E (efficiency) cores clocked up to 1.6GHz. The SG2380 utilizes SiFive P670 cores for its design and also includes Imagination AXT-16-512 graphics.

In addition to the powerful CPU, the Milk-V Oasis will have an 8-core SiFive X280 NPU, up to 64GB LPDDR5-5500 memory, a plugable UFS module, a microSD card slot, an M.2 slot for NVMe SSD storage, four SATA ports, USB 3.0 connectivity, USB-C with DP Alt-Mode support, and dual 2.5Gb Ethernet.

The specifications of the Milk-V Oasis are intriguing, especially considering its price. Pre-orders are expected to start at $120 USD. However, it is important to note that the board is not expected to be ready for another ten months, and there are currently no pictures of the board available, only spec sheets and design documents. The SG2380 SoC itself is also still being finalized. The estimated shipping date for the board is Q3 2024.

Despite these limitations, Milk-V’s track record with shipping other RISC-V products instills hope that the Milk-V Oasis will be an exciting 16-core RISC-V board. The price is expected to be around $150 USD after the pre-order period, assuming everything goes according to plan. More information about the Milk-V Oasis can be found in their official announcementhttps://community.milkv.io/t/introducing-the-milk-v-oasis-with-sg2380-a-revolutionary-risc-v-desktop-experience/780.

Source: Phoronix.

PhotoPrism, the AI-Powered Photos App for the Decentralized Web, has just released its latest version: October 21, 2023. This app utilizes cutting-edge technologies to automatically tag and find pictures, all while staying out of your way. The best part is, you can run PhotoPrism at home, on a private server, or in the cloud.

The new update brings several exciting features and improvements. One of the highlights is the addition of search filters, allowing users to find pictures based on ISO number, focal length, aperture, and altitude. This enhances the search functionality and makes it easier to locate specific photos.

In addition to the search filters, the update also includes various user interface enhancements, updated translations, and fixes for recently discovered issues. The PhotoPrism team expresses their gratitude to all the contributors who submitted pull requests, helped with testing, and contributed in other ways.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s new in this version:

• Search: Added filters for ISO number, focal length, and aperture range. This enhances the search functionality, allowing users to find pictures based on specific criteria.
• Search: Added the alt:... filter, which enables users to search for pictures within a specific altitude range.
• Search: The cards view now displays ISO number, focal length, aperture, and exposure details, providing users with more information at a glance.
• Live Photos: Fixed Google HEVC motion photo playback and transcoding, ensuring a seamless experience for users.
• Live Photos: Improved indexing of related files with vendor-specific naming schemes, making it easier to organize and view live photos.
• Metadata: Updated offline map data for more accurate timezone lookups, ensuring precise metadata information.
• Metadata: Creation time is now calculated with UTC offset if the timezone is unknown, improving accuracy in metadata.
• Config: The creation of the default certificate is now skipped if HTTPS/TLS is disabled, streamlining the configuration process.
• Translations: German, Greek, and Romanian translations have been updated, providing a better user experience for users who speak these languages.

PhotoPrism continues to evolve and provide a powerful solution for managing and organizing photos. With its latest release, users can enjoy enhanced search capabilities, improved user interface, and various bug fixes. Whether you’re a server enthusiast, a Linux user, a DevOps professional, or simply someone who loves managing their photos, PhotoPrism is worth exploring.

For more information and to download the latest version, visit the PhotoPrism GitHub page.

Sophgo SG2380 is an upcoming 2.5 GHz 16-core RISC-V processor based on SiFive Performance P670 cores and equipped with a 20 TOPS AI accelerator using SiFive Intelligence X280 and Sophgo TPU. It will be featured in a $120 desktop-class mini-ITX motherboard in the second half of 2024. The RISC-V processor supports up to 64GB RAM, UFS 3.2 and SATA 3.0 storage, an Imagination GPU for 3D graphics, and a VPU capable of 4Kp60 video decoding. The system can manage locally deployed larger-scale LLMs like LLaMA-65B without the need for external NVIDIA or AMD accelerator cards.

Sophgo SG2380 specifications:

• CPU
  • 16-core SiFive P670 (RV64GCVH) 64-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 2.5GHz with RISC-V Vector v1.0, Vector Crypto
  • Cluster configuration – 12x 2.5 GHz performance cores, 4x 1.6 GHz efficiency cores
  • Full RISC-V RVA22 profile compliance
• GPU
  • Imagination AXT-16-512 high-mid-performance 3D GPU with support for Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL 3.0, OpenGL ES 3.x/2.0/1.1; 0.5 TFLOPS, 16 Gpixels, and 2 TOPS
  • 2D graphic engine
• Video Processing Unit (VPU)
  • Up to 4Kp60 10-bit H.265/HEVC, 8-bit H.264/AVC, 8-/10-bit AV1, 8-/10-bit VP9
  • No hardware video encoder
• AI accelerators
  • 8-core SiFive Intelligence X280 with support for BF16 / FP16 / FP32 / FP64, INT8 up to INT64
  • Sophgo TPU coprocessor through VCIX interface up to 20 TOPS @ INT8 compatible with OpenXLA/IREE
• Memory I/F
  • Up to 64GB RAM through a 128-bit DDR interface
  • Support for LPDDR4 and LPDDR4x 3733Mbps with in–line ECC
  • Support for DDR4 UDIMM, SODIMM @ 3200Mbps (no ECC)
• Storage I/F
  • “UFS 3.2” (Note: currently published standards are UFS 3.1 and UFS 4.0)
  • SATA 3.0
  • QSPI NOR/NAND flash interface
• Video Output
  • eDP 1.2 up to 4Kp60
  • DP 1.2 up to 4Kp60 (USB-C Alt mode)
  • HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 with CEC and eARC support
  • MIPI DSI up to 2Kp60
  • Support for dual video output up to 4Kp60
• Camera
  • Sophgo AI ISP with dual pipe
  • 6x 2-Lane / 4 + 4 x 2 Lane image sensor input
  • Interfaces – MIPI CSI2, Sub LVDS, HiSPi
  • 2x I2C dedicated to image sensor interface
  • Up to 6x 2MP cameras
• Audio
  • HD Audio codec
  • 3x DMIC
  • 3x I2S, 1 of them share pin with HD Audio
  • 1x PCM
• Networking – Gigabit Ethernet (RGMII interface)
• USB
  • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) with DP Alt Mode, Power Delivery capable
  • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB 2.0 interfaces
• PCIe – PCIe Gen3 with 8x+4x+2x+1x+1x Lanes
• Other peripheral interfaces
  • 3x SDIO/SD3.0
  • 2x CAN 2.0
  • 4x UART without traffic control function or 2x UART with traffic control function
  • 8x I2C, SMBUS supported
  • SPI/eSPI with 4 CS
  • LPC
  • PWM
  • Fan detect
• Security
  • Hardware AES/DES/SHA256
  • True Random Number Generator (TRNG)
  • Secure key storage, secure boot,
  • SiFive WorldGuard
  • 32Kb OTP flash
• Power Management – DVFS and ACPI support
• TDP – 5 to 30 Watts
• Junction temperature – -0°C to +105°C
• Package – FCBGA

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

The Mixtile Cluster Box is a server enclosure designed for small business applications and edge computing. It consists of four Mixtile Blade 3 Pico-ITX single board computers (SBCs), each powered by a Rockchip RK3588 processor. The SBCs are connected to the enclosure via a 4-lane PCIe Gen3 interface through a U.2 to PCIe/SATA breakout board.

The Cluster Box has been recently released by Mixtile, following the company’s work on the software and technical details. It is available for purchase on Mixtile’s website for $339, excluding the SBCs.

The specifications of the Mixtile Cluster Box include support for up to four Mixtile Blade 3 SBCs, each with up to 32GB LPDDR4 RAM and up to 256GB eMMC flash storage. The enclosure also features a control board running OpenWrt 22.03, with a MediaTek MT7620A MIPS processor, 256MB DDR2 system memory, and 16MB SPI flash storage.

The Cluster Box includes an ASMedia ASM2824 PCIe switch with four PCIe 3.0 4-lane ports. It also provides storage interfaces through four U.2 breakout boards, with four NVMe M.2 M-Key slots (PCIe 3.0 x2 each) and four SATA 3.0 ports. Networking capabilities are offered through a Gigabit Ethernet port.

The enclosure is equipped with two 60mm fans for cooling and a power button with a blue LED indicator. It is powered by a 19 to 19.5V/4.74A power supply through a DC jack. The dimensions of the Cluster Box are 213 x 190 x 129 mm, and it is made of a metal case with SGCC steel materials. It has an operating temperature range of 0°C to 80°C and a storage temperature range of -20°C to 85°C. The relative humidity ranges from 10% to 90% during operation and 5% to 95% during storage.

Users can access the Mixtile Cluster Box through OpenWrt using SSH or a web interface. The Rockchip RK3588 boards come preloaded with a customized Linux system with Kubernetes. Control of each Mixtile Blade can be done through OpenWrt using a command called “nodectl,” which allows users to list active nodes, rescan nodes, power on/off nodes, reboot nodes, flash firmware, and enter the console of a specific node.

For more technical details and a getting started guide, users can refer to the documentation website provided by Mixtile.

Overall, the Mixtile Cluster Box offers a compact and powerful solution for building a four-node server cluster with Rockchip RK3588 SBCs. With its PCIe connectivity, storage options, and OpenWrt software, it provides a versatile platform for various server, Linux, DevOps, and home lab applications.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

AMD has announced the release of the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series, bringing significant updates to their Threadripper processors. The new series offers up to 96 Zen 4 cores, requiring RDIMM memory for Threadripper platforms moving forward. This update caters to both high-end desktop (HEDT) enthusiasts and professionals.

Compared to the previous Threadripper PRO 5000 series processors, the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series is a substantial upgrade. While the previous series topped out at 64 cores and 128 threads, the new series allows for up to 96 cores and 192 threads, matching the core counts found in AMD’s EPYC Genoa processors. The Zen 4 Threadripper processors can clock up to 5.3GHz, offer up to 384MB of cache, and include features like AVX-512 and 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes.

The Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series parts can reach up to 350 Watts. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors are in a league of their own at the top-end. Intel currently does not have any Core i9 Extreme Edition processors, and their much-delayed Intel Xeon W-3400 series only goes up to 56 cores. Even if one were to consider the Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids,” there is still a core count limitation. The Threadripper 7000 series processors are expected to provide an interesting battle against the Xeon Scalable processors, especially the Xeon Max.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series is divided into separate platforms for PRO and HEDT. The Threadripper PRO platform, with the WRX90 chipset, offers PRO manageability features, 8-channel memory support, 148 PCIe lanes, and support for Threadripper PRO processors. In the HEDT space, there is the TRX50 chipset, which lacks PRO management features, supports only four-channel memory, has 92 PCIe lanes, and is compatible with both PRO and HEDT Threadripper processors.

The Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series (non-PRO) includes processors with up to 64 cores. The Threadripper 7980X, with a 350 Watt TDP and a maximum turbo boost of 5.1GHz, leads the non-PRO line-up. Other options include the 24-core Threadripper 7960 and the 32-core Threadripper 7970X.

Source: Phoronix.