Phoronix on KFence and Phoronix Taking 'Free' Stuff From Microsoft to Promote Proprietary Software and Surveillance

• KFence Memory Safety Error Checking Is Looking Good For Minimal Overhead On Linux 5.12 - Phoronix

  Of the many new features coming with Linux 5.12 is KFence, short for the Kernel Electric Fence. KFence is a low-overhead memory safety error detector/validator for the kernel with lower expected overhead costs than say the Kernel Address Sanitizer. I just wrapped up some benchmarks looking out for any overhead impact of KFence on Linux 5.12 in its near-final state. KFence is a memory safety error detector/validator designed for use within production environments and thus is optimized for low overhead. KFence aims to be more efficient than the robust Kernel Address Sanitizer (KASAN) and that it's low overhead enough to be used on production systems where KASAN is generally avoided.

• Microsoft Adding Azure "MANA" Driver To Linux [Ed: Contributing to Linux bloat for things you absolutely do not need]

  Microsoft is preparing the Linux kernel for some yet-to-debut Azure network functionality.

• AMD EPYC 7003 Series Performance In The Cloud With Microsoft Azure HBv3 HPC VMs [Ed: Is Microsoft paying (or giving 'free' stuff) to Phoronix now?]

  Thanks to Microsoft for allowing us to run these benchmarks as we wish in the Azure cloud.

Devices and Hardware With Linux Leanings

• Dual Ethernet SigmaStar SSD201/SSD202 SBC supports 4-inch or 7-inch displays

  SigmaStar SSD201/SSD202 are low-cost, highly integrated SoC’s with a dual Cortex-A7 processor, 64MB to 128MB on-chip RAM designed for Full HD smart displays, but we’ve also found SSD201 in a 4G LTE industrial gateway. There’s now a different type of board based on the SigmaStar processors with Wireless Tag/Industio IDO-SBC2D06-V1B-12W and IDO-SBC2D06-V1B-22W SBC’s powered respectively by SSD201 and SSD202, and both equipped with dual Ethernet and a connector for a 4-inch or 7-inch display.

• Tough Tiger Lake system boasts quad displays and quad Ethernet

  MiTac’s fanless, rugged “MP1-11TGS” computer combines an 11th Gen Core CPU with 2.5GbE and up to 3x GbE ports, quadruple displays, 4x USB 3.1 Gen2, hot-swap SATA, and 2x M.2 slots. ICP Germany announced an industrial computer from its partner MiTac that features Intel’s 10nm, 11th Gen Tiger Lake-ULP3 platform. Like Avalue’s 240 x 150 x 48mm EMS-TGL and Vecow’s 150.4 x 106.2 x 48.1mm SPC-7000/7100 embedded PCs, MiTac’s 210 x 150 x 63mm MP1-11TGS supports the more embedded “E” Tiger Lake models that were announced after the initial launch. However, it does not provide the functional safety enabled “GRE” options supported by the Avalue system.

• Pi-sized SBCs run Linux on RK3328 and Allwinner H3

  SmartBoardHome has announced two 85 x 56mm SBCs that run Linux: a “Pi-R2S3328-B” with an RK3328 and dual GbE ports and a “Pi-PC-H3 PK” with an Allwinner H3, HDMI, CSI, LAN, 2x USB, WiFi, and 40-pin GPIO. Shenzhen-based embedded computing vendor Shenzhen Pumpb Techical Co., Ltd has made us aware of its SmartBoardHome unit/brand. The 10-year old company, which is associated with “brother company” Xihai Imp. & Exp. Co., Ltd, sent us a notice about several new products, two of which run Linux: a “Smart Route Board Dual 1000M Ethernet Port 1GB DDR4 OpenWrt Pi-R2S3328-B” with a quad -A53 Rockchip RK3328 and a “Single Board Computer Mini PC embedded computer H3 Quad-Core micro circuit board Pi-PC-H3 PK Raspberry Pi.”

• UK to investigate ARM-NVIDIA deal on national security grounds

  The United Kingdom has announced that it is looking afresh at the proposed deal between GPU vendor NVIDIA and CPU specialist ARM, with the former to buy the latter for US$40 billion (A$51.5 billion), on the grounds of national security.

• ARM in the Datacenter

  All the major server suppliers have either announced, or are already selling, ARM servers. We are also seeing companies that are solely focused on Arm-based servers.

Open Hardware/Modding: Arduino, Librem, Zenreader and More

• Building a better battery analyzer with Arduino | Arduino Blog

  Your favorite device has just run out of juice, so you quickly take off the cover and reach into that old stash of alkaline batteries you have lying around. After trying countless combinations, you still cannot be sure they’re working properly, as each one has been slightly used. If only there were a way to know. In comes a maker named Moragor with his take on a battery analyzer. The one he built doesn’t just measure the voltage for a certain type of battery. Instead, users can select from three different types (alkaline, NiMh, or Li-on), along with the current from a sleek OLED display. Then, values get read, shown, and also logged to an SD card for more advanced analysis. The entire device is based on a custom PCB that acts as a shield for an Arduino Mega.

• Librem 14 in Pictures

  We are excited that the Librem 14 is shipping, and we are so pleased with the production model that we wanted to share some brand new pictures of it inside and out...

• Zenreader: A 4.7 inches E-Ink RSS Reader Powered by ESP32

  The ESP32 is a microcontroller that has very little RAM and isn't quite suited to deal with HTML and such. So I had to use a Raspberry Pi as a rendering proxy and transforms the RSS and the text on the page so that the ESP32 can digest. The idea is to transform XML RSS to JSON and transform any article URL to plaintext by a nodejs script via an HTTP API SaaS or whatever you call it. Even so, I think I'm stretching the ability of the little controller. Anyways, it works most of the time – or at least, I hope, not worse than the Kindle. At least now I can flip one page at a time.

• It’s easier than ever to add two-way communication to Arduino devices

  There’s a brand new device-to-device communication feature available now in the Arduino IoT Cloud. It’s something we’ve been working on for a long time. So we’re excited to see how it’ll add a whole new connected dimension to your Arduino projects. [...] Combined with IoT Cloud’s dashboards this delivers a powerful new way to build incredible automations with minimal (if any) changes. Furthermore, it gives you smartphone control of your connected boards via the existing Arduino IoT Remote iOS and Android apps.