Inspiring the Evolution of Embedded Design

August 23, 2022

Embedded Boards

After Ten Years, RS Group, a Manufacturer of Raspberry Pi has Ended Their license

RS Components and RS Group, the largest co-owned electronics distributor and manufacturer in the world, has ended its license to manufacture Raspberry Pi. When the Raspberry Pi first came out in 2012, it was manufactured and supplied by Element 14 (part of the Premier Farnell network) and RS Group (RS Components). It was these two websites that offered the brand new, inexpensive SBC for $35.00. This essentially blew the minds of the many who wanted to develop new systems. software, and connectivity solutions

Move-X Cicerone is an Arduino MKR Form Factor Compatible LoRa-GNSS Board

IMove-X has released an Arduino MKR form factor compatible LoRa/GNSS board named Cicerone. The Cicerone is based on the LoRa module, MAMWLE and a u-blox MAX-M10S GNSS module. The board delivers best-in-class, long-range wireless GNSS connection. It also delivers high-performance MCU processing in a low-power solution, enhancing battery life.

AMD is Hiring RISC-V CPU Developers

As of March 2022, AMD Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) has been quietly hiring a team of RISC-V CPU and GPU designers for their established team of architects and designers. The job descriptions indicate that the development of RISC-V-based solutions is already underway, at the chip manufacturer.

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Editor's Desk by Stephen Vicinanza

The News is Encouraging in The Embedded World

Circuit Cellar Fans, let us speak about the changes happening in embedded systems. RISC-V has become a solid contender, in the ISA marketplace, where once the consensus was, they would never capture a large market share. And the biggest players in semiconductor circles are developing RISC-V-based CPUs and GPUs. If they aren’t a member already of RISC-V international, they soon will be. All this means changes for the embedded electronics industry in general.

In other news, the world of Raspberry Pi got smaller, with one of the three major manufacturers of the popular single board computer, dropping its license after ten years with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. RS Group, and enormous European electronics distributor and manufacturer has dropped its license to build Raspberry Pi, 4, 3, and Pico.

A move that has left the industry wondering what went wrong. This news is hot off the press, and the founder of Raspberry Pi, Eben Upton has not made a direct statement but had a Foundation level report, that RS Group, had indeed left the Raspberry Pi fold, and gone their separate way.

The report states that availability and production will not suffer, although, availability had already been backlogged, and prices had jumped somewhat. If the news is having a big effect, it is definitely felt in a backorder crunch, and a bit of a crisis, as some are saying orders are being pushed until 2023.

The Raspberry Pi news comes on the heels of mainstream tech media now saying the chip shortage is almost over, with some companies calling for the media to say it is ended. The automobile industry, in general, is saying orders are being filled, and they are receiving the required components, but in some semiconductor circles and board manufacturers are still experiencing a 6-month lag in filling orders.

The embedded market is ever expanding, and all the chip and supply issues will be resolved before the end of the year. It can be said, things are looking encouraging in the embedded electronics industry.

Join us next week for the latest news and stories covering the Test and Measurement industry in kits and development.

Rugged fanless panel PCs support

5G and Wi-Fi 6

Early this month, Avalue released two panel PC models supporting Intel’s Atom 6000E series processors and Intel’s 11th Gen Core i3/i5/i7 processors. The ARC-1535-B and the ARC-1538-B panel PCs share similar features including up to 32GB of RAM, one 2.5” drive bay, and optional 5G and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.