OpenCV 5 open-source computer vision library has recently been released with a brand-new DNN (Deep Neural Network) engine that provides better ONNX coverage and enables LLM/VLM support. The fifth version of the popular CV library also adds support for Intel, Arm, Qualcomm, and RISC-V hardware acceleration, improved 3D vision, and various new core features such as new data types, real…

Nordic Semiconductor has added AI-assisted development to its wireless IoT microcontroller, with workflows covering the full life cycle from the first prototype to a deployed fleet. Many developers copy/paste information from LLMs trained on generic data. However, Nordic’s AI solution is specifically trained on the nRF Connect SDK documentation and nRF Cloud data and integrates with a developer’s…

Last November, we wrote about the WCH BLE Analyzer Pro, an inexpensive (~$20) USB Bluetooth LE sniffer and analyzer, which looked useful and good value for reverse engineering and debugging. One downside is that the WCH BLE Analyzer software was only made for Windows 7 to 11, but Xecaz decided to look into it and reverse-engineered the USB protocol to write Linux software using libusb that…

Anthropic has opened its Claude Hardware Interface (Bluetooth API) to developers, enabling an ESP32-S3-based desk companion to connect directly to the Claude desktop app over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). To demonstrate this new feature, the company released an open-source reference project called Claude Desktop Buddy. It currently runs on the M5StickC Plus (an ESP32-based board from M5Stack) and…

The Yocto Project 6.0, codenamed “Wrynose”, has just been released with Linux 6.18 LTS, about two years after Yocto Project 5.0 “Scarthgap” release with Linux 6.6 LTS. Over 240 contributors submitted over 4000 commits since the previous Yocto 5.3 “Whinlatter” minor release of the popular framework used to create custom embedded Linux distributions. Yocto Wrynose is a Long Term Support (LTS)…

There’s a lot of hype around the Rust programming language, and I’m seeing it being adopted by various projects, not least the Linux kernel. However, so far it was unclear to me whether it was suitable for embedded firmware development since the hardware resources are limited on microcontrollers. A low memory and storage footprint is required, and optimal performance may also be important, for…

Canonical has just announced the release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon” Linux distribution about two years after Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” was introduced. The new version of the operating system comes with the just-released Linux 7.0 kernel, GNOME 50, and a range of updates and new features. As a long-term support release, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS will be supported for 5 years until April…

CNXSoft: This is a guest post by Daniel Thompson, Principal Software Engineer at RISCstar Solutions, about Linux CPU power management for embedded systems, specifically covering cpuidle in depth. Twenty years ago, it was easy for an operating system kernel to go idle: when there were no tasks to run, “the idle loop” would be scheduled. Early idle loops were basically empty infinite loops that did…

With the price of RAM getting out of control, it might be a good idea to remind Linux users to enable ZRAM so they can get better performance without upgrading memory, or save money on their next single board computer by selecting a board with the right amount of memory. I had already written about the subject when I enabled ZRAM on a ODROID-XU4Q in 2018 using zram-config, and did the same on my…

Better known for its open-source wolfSSL SSL/TLS library, wolfSSL (the company) has now released the wolfIP open-source, lightweight TCP/IP stack with no dynamic memory allocations (e.g., no malloc calls) designed for resource-constrained embedded systems.

The company highlights that wolfIP "supports both endpoint-only mode and full multi-interface support with optional IP forwarding. By…

Velxio is an open-source, self-hosted simulator for Arduino, ESP32, and Raspberry Pi boards that works directly in your web browser. You can drag-and-drop boards, connect components and modules, write and run code in Arduino or Python, and access the serial console, all without hardware. If it looks similar to what the Wokwi simulator has to offer, it’s because Velxio was inspired by it and even…

Espressif Systems released the ESP-IDF v6.0 framework a few days ago with stable support for ESP32-C5 and ESP32-C61 SoCs, as well as preview support for ESP32-H21 and ESP32-H4 low-power wireless microcontrollers. The framework also implements a new ESP-IDF Installation Manager (EIM) to make the ESP-IDF installation easier, relies on the low-footprint Picolibc C library, adds security and tooling…

Designed by Fraunhofer AISEC, GyroidOS is an open-source, multi-arch OS-level virtualization solution designed for embedded devices with hardware security features, and aiming to support security certification processes such as Common Criteria (ISO/IEC 15408), DIN SPEC 27070 – IDS Trust Security profile, and IEC-62443 cybersecurity standards. The virtualization layer is based on Linux-specific…

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 6.19 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): No big surprises anywhere last week, so 6.19 is out as expected – just as the US prepares to come to a complete standstill later today watching the latest batch of televised commercials. The betting man would expect them all to be AI-generated, but maybe some enterprising company decides to buck the trend?…