The highlight of the month was, of course, the launch of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 and its dual-architecture quad-core RP2350 microcontroller – one of a number of RISC-V design wins in August, as the free and open source instruction set architecture gains serious momentum. While some of the shine has been taken off the RP2350’s launch by the discovery of a hardware flaw, addressed in official erratum RP2350-E9, plenty of third parties have either pledged to adopt the part or have already launched hardware based around it.
Other topics of note this month include a great project from Guy Dupont to have a mouse play a game of Pong entirely in-firmware, relying on persistence of vision to have the cursor appear to be both bats and the ball simultaneously, Tim Alex Jacob’s work to give an existing LED badge design to the ability to be updated via flashing lights Timex DataLink-style, the impressive HaLiTerm Mini handheld, and an exerciser for your tired old floppy drives.
All this, and two newsletters to boot – what a month!
- Smarter Semiconductors Needed for Smarter AI, Researchers Say — Delivering a Novel ECRAM Accelerator
- Sam Hocevar’s Project-piCo Hits a New Milestone, Releasing a KiCad Clone of the Raspberry Pi Pico W
- Renesas Announces Its Acquisition of Altium, Promises to “Make Electronics Accessible”
- The Open Home Foundation Grows as It Names HACS, Music Assistant, and microWakeWord as Partners
- Shore Pine Sound Systems Launches Its Python-Powered Tulip Creative Computer for Just $59
- Tim Alex Jacobs Adds Light-Based Wireless Programming to an LED Badge — with No Hardware Changes
- ArmSoM’s RK3588 AI Module7 Offers a Drop-In Alternative to NVIDIA’s Jetson Nano System-on-Module
- M5Stack Launches Its M5Stamp Fly Mini-Drone Kit, with an AtomS3-Powered Joystick to Boot
- Canonical Adds Microchip’s New PIC64GX to Its List of Ubuntu-Supported RISC-V Platforms
- Skylo Teams with Particle to Bring Satellite Network Access to the Muon, M-SoM Range
- Alex Garza’s PX41CX Is a Build-It-Yourself Homage to Hewlett-Packard’s Classic HP-41CX
- SparkFun’s Latest Thing Plus Packs a Dual-Core, Low-Power u-blox NORA-W306 for IoT Fun
- Aaron Christophel Automates EMP Fault Injection Probing with a PicoEMP and a 3D Printer
- Geniatech Unveils the Raspberry Pi-Inspired StarFive JH7110-Powered XPI-7110 RISC-V SBC
- Vincent Nguyen’s PocketPD Is an Ultra-Tiny USB Programmable Power Supply for the Smallest of Desks
- Ricardo Lima Caratti’s Handy Arduino Library Delivers Easy QN8066-Powered FM Radio Projects
- Colin Maykish’s Mackerel 68ks Bring Motorola’s Popular Processors to a Single-Board Computer Range
- Rumored Production, Design Issues Hit NVIDIA’s High-Performance Blackwell AI-Accelerating GPUs
- Microchip Launches the dsPIC33A Family, Offering High Performance and Advanced Analog Features
- Alex Skov Jensen’s ElogPlus Offers Powerful Logging Features for Espressif ESP32 Projects
- Dan Julio Pops Arcade Classic Galaga on His Desk — Powered by His Custom Espressif ESP32 Dev Board
- Matthias Kesenheimer’s PicoGlitcher Turns a Raspberry Pi Pico Into a Python-Powered Fault Injector
- Security Researcher Warns on Sipeed’s NanoKVM, Finds Vulnerabilities — and a Cat — in the Firmware
- Wearables for Sea Lions Deliver Precious Data for Undersea Habitat Mapping, Prediction
- Google Ensmartens Nest with Its Gemini Generative AI, Launches New Nest Learning Thermostat
- Ken Yap Brings 50-Year-Old Motorola Amplifier Chips Out of Retirement — for KiCad Practice
- Robin Leinonen’s Saucer Gives ZSA Voyager Users a Cat-Proof Pointing Device
- Guy Dupont’s Clever Mouse Hack Plays a Mean Game of Pong — Entirely in Its Own Firmware
- Raspberry Pi Unveils the Pico 2, Powered by the Dual-Architecture Quad-Core RP2350
- Espressif Launches the ESP32-P4-Function-EV-Board, Is Still Silent on ESP32-P4 General Availability
- GhostWrite, a Serious Flaw in the T-Head XuanTie C910 and C920 Cores, Hits Popular RISC-V SBCs
- Dylan Brophy’s Clever Carrier Board Turns a Teensy 4.1 Into a “Single” Board Computer
- Jamie Matthews’ 3D-Printable Flashlight is Ready for Emergencies — Just Add Water
- This Miniature Joule Thief, Built From Upcycled Parts in a Fuse Case, Is a Really Bright Idea
- Adafruit, Pimoroni, Seeed Studio, Solder Party, SparkFun, WIZnet and More Unveil Their RP2350 Boards
- MicroPython-Powered Robotics for All: Hands-on with the Arduino Alvik
- Jonathan Pallant Details the “Deeply Impressive” Raspberry Pi RP2350’s Day-One Rust Support
- Google Launches Pigweed SDK with Raspberry Pi Pico 2, RP2350 Support
- Balazs’ HaLiTerm Mini Is an Ultra-Compact All-in-One Powered by a NanoPi NEO Air and RP2040
- System76 Launches the First COSMIC Alpha, as It Seeks to Redefine the Linux Desktop Environment
- DEF CON 32’s Raspberry Pi RP2350-Powered Badge Sits at the Center of a Major Disagreement
- Dr Footleg’s Guide Gets Your ROS 2 Raspberry Pi 5 Project Up and Running with Zero Fuss
- Fraktal Unveils a Low-Cost Open Source Raspberry Pi Pico-Powered Laser Fault Injection Rig
- Jon Dawson’s Pi Pico Rx Is a Low-Cost, Breadboard-Friendly Raspberry Pi PIco Software-Defined Radio
- Ryan Castellucci’s Solar Install Gives Rise to a Surprise Project: “Hacking a Virtual Power Plant”
- Graham Sanderson Brings Doom to the Raspberry Pi RP2350 — and the DEF CON 32 Badge
- Raspberry Pi Shows Confidence in the RP2350’s Security Features — with a $10,000 Competition Prize
- Clever Use of an RJ45 Connector Gives This Arduino-Based MiSTer Controller Adapter Quick-Swap Powers
- LILYGO Upgrades the T-Deck, Adds LoRa as Standard and a New GPS Receiver
- Akeana Unveils a Triple-Threat RISC-V Lineup, From IoT Microcontrollers to AI Powerhouse Cores
- MakerM0’s Upgraded MagiClick S3 Is the Smartest Single-Key Keyboard You’re Likely to Find
- Banana Pi Packs an Allwinner H618 Into the Raspberry Pi Zero Footprint with the BPI-M4 Zero
- Google Goes Gaga for Gemini GenAI, Putting It at the Heart of Android, Pixel 9, and More
- Sam Hocevar’s Project-piCo Continues with a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 Clone — Adding USB Type-C
- Sebastian “dos” Krzyszkowiak’s Debubo Is a USB PD Gadget Designed to Unlock USB SBU Debug Consoles
- Intel Drops Its Arm Investment, Even as Arm Sails to New Heights
- Gordon Payne’s “Simple” Station Streamer Is a Compact, 10-Station Espressif ESP32 Wi-Fi Radio Box
- Guy Dupont Takes Skeuomorphism a Little Too Far, Builds a Simulated Tongue for 9V Battery Testing
- MicomSoft’s PasocomMini PC-8801mkIISR Puts a Piece of Classic Japanese Computing in Your Palm
- This Wearable Computing Rig Combines Augmented Reality, Ergonomic Keyboards, and Cardboard
- Pineboards Gets a Raspberry Pi Driving a High-Performance AMD Graphics Card for 4k Gaming
- Emanuele Laface’s Espressif ESP32-Powered Adapter Gives Your Commodore 64 USB Joystick, Mouse Powers
- Brett Smith’s Backcountry Beacon Is a Smart ESP32-S3-Powered Tool for Off-the-Grid Navigation
- Radxa’s EC20 “Mini Network Titan” Packs Real Network Appliance Power Into a Tiny Footprint
- Seeed’s Compact XIAO Range Gets Its Tenth Model, in the Renesas-Powered XIAO RA4M1
- Ed Anuff and Josh Norrid’s A2FPGA Multicard Core Brings HDMI Video and Audio to the Apple II
- Adrian Perez Tries to Replicate Researchers’ Soft Sensor — But Settles for a More Rigid Alternative
- Aaron Eiche Celebrates the Apple Macintosh’s 40th Anniversary in Miniature Style — with a Badge SAO
- Raspberry Pi 5 Gets a Memory-Reduced Variant, New SoC Stepping — and a $10 Entry-Level Price Cut
- MYIR Launches a Chip-Like Module Packing Nuvoton’s NuMicro MA35D1 System-on-Chip
- Wesley Mitchell’s Raspberry Pi Flight Tracker Puts Local Aircraft on a Quartet of 64×64 LED Matrices
- Pawel Jablonsk’s XiPU_v2 Is a MOS 6502-Inspired Discrete Logic Processor and Personal Computer
- Dr. Scott M. Baker Enlists Anthropic’s Claude AI to Help Write a Forth Program for a Vintage Micro
- Turi Scandurra’s Library Collection Gets Your Raspberry Pi Pico 2, RP2350 C Projects Started Right
- Arnov Sharma’s Custom Case Turns a VisionFive 2 Into a Battery-Powered, Portable Mini RISC-V PC
- MSI’s MS-C913 Packs Your Choice of NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano, NX Module in a Rugged Fanless Case
- Banana Pi’s BPI-WIFI6 Mini Is a Cute Little Two-Port Wi-Fi 6 Router Board for Under $30
- Josh Sucher Surprises His Dad with a Restored TRS-80 — Delivering LLM Chats, Games, and More
- Dmitry Korzhenevskiy’s Blind Maze Puts You in a Labyrinth with Only Your Sense of Touch
- Eric Schlaepfer’s “Floppy Drive Exerciser” Is Everything You Need for Fine-Grain Disk Control
- Infineon Targets Energy-Efficient Bluetooth 5.4 Low Energy Applications with Its Latest AIROC Chips
- T1lt’s Sega Genesis Flash Cartridge Does What Most Don’t: Plays Sega Master System Games
- AAEON’s UP Squared 7100 Delivers Intel Processor N97, N100 Power Now — and Amston Lake to Come
- Felix Arnold’s Raspberry Pi Gains a 3D Lidar Mapping System — Built From the Ground Up
- Hardkernel Launches the ODROID-M2, Promises Three Times the Performance of the Original ODROID-M1
- Milk-V Teases Five New RISC-V Designs, From an Eight-Node Cluster to the RuyiBook Laptop
- This Classic Toshiba Libretto Pocket-Sized Computer Now Boasts USB Type-C Charging
- NVIDIA Shrinks Mistral Nemo 12B to Create the Mistral-NeMo-Minitron 8B “Small Language Model”
- DeepComputing Opens Pre-Orders for the SpacemIT K1 RISC-V-Powered DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II Tablet
- Rajesh K T’s Arduino UNO Clone Shows True Flexibility — Literally
- Seeed Studio’s reCamera Is a Modular Edge AI Smart Camera Powered by Sophgo’s SG2002
- Jan Procházka’s Library Aims to Deliver Easier ESP32-Driven Zigbee Handling in Your Arduino Projects
- The IEEE Computer Society Crowns Python as the Most Popular Language of 2024
- This Compact Stepper Motor Controller Is All-in-One — and Boasts USB Power Delivery Support
- Earle F. Philhower, III Brings the Arduino Pico Core to V4.0.1, Adds RP2350 and Pico 2 Support
- A Surprise Hardware Bug in Raspberry Pi’s RP2350 Leads to Unexpected Pull-Down Behavior
- Chuck Hellebuyck’s 3D-Printable Hot Wheels Tracks Are Modeled Through Scanning — on a 2D Scanner
- A Raspberry Pi 3 Drives This Low-Cost, Remote-Controllable “Digital Holographic Microscope”
- Snow Developer Thomas Tells You Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Apple Mac Floppies
- Mukesh Sanhkla’s Enhiker Delivers a Weather-Based Go/No-Go Decision for Hiking Trips
- The Edgeberry Project Aims to Provide a Modular, Easy Approach to Raspberry Pi-Powered IoT
- Renesas Targets Indoor Air Quality Monitoring with Its Multi-Sensor RRH62000 Module
- Nuvoton Targets Those Moving Up From 5V Eight-Bit Microcontrollers with the 32-Bit M2003 Series
- LILYGO Refreshes the Circular T-RGB with a New, More Compact T-Display-S3 AMOLED Variant
- SparkFun Partners with Jameson Koonce to Build a Treasure Hunt Around the Artemis Global Tracker
- Jesse Taube Gets Linux Up and Running on the Raspberry Pi RP2350’s Hazard3 RISC-V Cores
- Clackups’ Half-QWERTY Keyboard Aims to be a Low-Cost Input Device for War-Injured in Ukraine
- The MIKRIK Project Delivers an Accessible Platform for ROS and ROS 2 Robots, with Visual SLAM
- This Video Tour Dives Deep Into the Raspberry Pi RP2350’s Silicon Die — By Stripping Off Its Package
- “Grainy Laser Speckle Patterns” Deliver More Sensitive Soft Pressure Sensors — and Could Heal Wounds
- Marb’s Lab Cooks Up a Memristor Emulator, Ahead of a Planned Peceptron Analog Computer Build
- Ben Combee’s Simplest SAO Gives Your Badge a New, Compact Color Button Display
- Joey Sanchez’s “HID Attack” Lets You Control Two PCs From One Keyboard and Mouse — Transparently
- Maker Go’s Arduino UNO R4 Minima Clone Cuts the Cost Considerably — and Is On Offer for Under $1
- This $1 Smart Mask Cools Your Breath to Capture Condensates — and Analyzes It in Real-Time
- Tom Nardi’s SAO Plank Makes Badge Accessory Testing a Cinch — If You Have a Bus Pirate 5
- Seeed’s New, Ruggedized SenseCAP T1000-E Card Tracker Comes with Meshtastic Pre-Loaded
- Pablo Trujillo’s Hackbat “Hacking Tool” Gets a New Badge Variant for DEF CON 32
- FOSSi Foundation Newsletter El Correo Libre, Issue 77
- MyriadRF Newsletter OTA: Radio World Goes Ga-GA for SDR, a Raspberry Pi Pico Build, Homebrew Antennas, and More