Best of Embedded Systems — February 2026

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   Jeff Geerling·16w

   The first good Raspberry Pi Laptop

   The Argon40 ONE UP is a modular laptop built around the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, allowing easy hardware upgrades by swapping the CM5. Priced at $400 for the shell or $550 with an 8GB CM5 and NVMe SSD, it features solid build quality with aluminum construction, decent speakers, a 14" 1920x1200 display, and 7.5 hours of battery life. However, it lacks proper laptop features like sleep mode and native battery management, requiring Python scripts for basic functionality. At around $600 for a complete setup due to recent Pi price increases, it struggles to compete with similarly priced Intel or AMD laptops that offer better performance and native OS support. While the hardware is well-designed and achieves right-to-repair goals similar to Framework laptops, the value proposition is weak in the current market.

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   John Liter·14w

   Why Does C++ Still Have Raw Arrays?

   A C++ student questions why raw arrays still exist when std::vector offers safety, dynamic sizing, and automatic memory management. The post explores trade-offs between raw arrays and vectors across dimensions like stack vs heap allocation, cache locality, embedded systems constraints, and legacy codebases. It concludes with a philosophical reflection on C++'s design philosophy of giving programmers control over trade-offs, and asks experienced developers to share real-world scenarios where they'd still choose raw arrays over vectors today.

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   Two Stop Bits·17w

   Nina Kalinina: "~Let's make 30-year-old pocket…"

   A detailed reverse-engineering journey of a 30-year-old Casio Business Navigator BN-20 pocket organizer. The author successfully locates and runs the Casio Caleid SDK with its NC3020 CPU simulator (SIM3020), extracts ROM contents revealing the operating system structure, discovers extensive bitmap assets and built-in applications including handwriting recognition, kanji fonts, and games. The work involves navigating Japanese Windows 95, PC-98 hardware requirements, and DosBox-X configuration to achieve compatibility. All findings are archived for the community.

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   Collections·14w

   AsteroidOS 2.0: Revitalizing Smartwatches with Open Source Innovation

   AsteroidOS 2.0, an open-source Linux-based smartwatch operating system built on OpenEmbedded and Qt/QML, has been released after eight years of development. The update adds support for 15 new smartwatch models (now 30+ total), including Fossil Gen 4/5/6 and Huawei Watch, with mainline Linux kernel support for Samsung Gear 2. Key features include always-on display, tilt-to-wake, redesigned UI with customizable QuickPanel, improved battery life, and enhanced health monitoring. The release expands language support from 20+ to 49 translations, introduces sync clients for Gadgetbridge and Amazfish, and establishes a community repository for apps and watchfaces, offering a privacy-focused alternative to proprietary smartwatch platforms.

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