The FriendlyELEC manufacturer has added a new NanoPi Neo Plus2 model to a huge family of boards for NanoPi developers. It is more compact than many counterparts (its dimensions are only 52 х 40 mm), however, offers attractive extension options. There is even enough room for a wireless adapter.



SoC Allwinner H5 on this board includes four Cortex-A53 cores and a Mali450 GPU. The DDR3 RAM capacity is 1 GB. Customers can use an 8 GB eMMC 5.0 Samsung KLM8G1WEPD-B031 module for durable data storage.


One may also find two USB 2.0 ports, a microSD slot, one microUSB (for power supply), two extra USB are available via hood type connectors, which enable access to I2S, GPIO, I2C, UART and SPI buses. The NanoPi Neo Plus2 card is equipped with an Ampak AP6212A adapter with Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 support; Gigabit Ethernet wire bonding is present too.


The specialty by FriendlyELEC (Ubuntu and Debian with a 4.x core distribution kits) costs $25.

Seagate has expanded its lineup of hybrid drives with the 5th-generation FireCuda SSHD. The greenhorns are based on shingled magnetic recording technology (SMR), rather than perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR). The SMR enables the partial superposition of data tracks; it ensures the ultimate record density. The models are backed by a 5-year’s limited warranty.



Seagate FireCuda series is introduced by 5 models, developed in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch formats. Their capacity varies from 500 GB to 2 TB. The drives employ MLC flash memory (8 GB) as well as SATA 6 Gb/sec external interface. The spindle rotates at 5400 RPM.


The average data read speed makes up 140 MB/sec with 2.5-inch models & 156 MB/sec with 3.5-inch items. The latter offer also up to 190 MB/sec of the average read speed from flash memory; besides, it takes only 8.5-9.5 ms for the chips to search for the needed data on Read/Write operations. To add, the new FireCuda is thought to consume between 1.7-6.7 W power.

CPUs designed under 22 nm technological process are present practically in all Intel product lines but for Intel Celeron and Intel Atom series. This situation is going to change in the first quarter of the coming year, when new Itel Atom Silvermount and Celeron processors of Ivy Bridge generation are going to be introduced. Celeron series will be represented by three models: G1610, G1610T and G1620; they will substitute the items developed under 32 nm process. Moreover, a more advanced technological process will be applied even to the design of budgetary CPUs with the purpose to enhance their performance and power-saving characteristics.



According to the current data, all three Celeron models will be equipped with two cores based on Ivy Bridge micro-architecture, 2 MB cache-memory of the latest level, and with graphics core Intel HD Graphics 2500. They will also employ two-channel DDR3 memory type, operating under a dedicated controller at 1333 MHz frequencies. Nominal CPU and …