CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 8, 2018December 8, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

A95X Max S905X2 TV Box Supports 2.5″ SATA Drives

Several Amlogic S905X2 TV boxes have launched in recent months with models such as X96 Max or Beelink GT1 Mini, and if you’re the kind of user who mostly play videos from local storage as opposed to streaming, you can always connect a hard drive to one of the USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 ports of the media players. However, if you prefer something neater, A95X Max TV box offers similar features, but adds support for internal 2.5″ SATA drives. A95X Max specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X2 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 “Dvalin” GPU System Memory – 4GB DDR3L Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot up to 128GB, support for internal SATA SSD/HDD Video Output – HDMI 2.1 output up to 4K @ 75 Hz with CEC, HDP, HDR support, AV output Video Codecs – VP9 Profile-2 up to 4K […]

December 7, 2018May 11, 2021 by Karl Johnson - 6 Comments

Geeetech A20M Review – A Dual Extruder, Color Mixing 3D Printer

Hey Karl here with a 3D printer review. I know it has been a while for a printer review and grateful for Gearbest sending the review unit. They shipped me the Geeetech A20M a single nozzle, mixing, dual extruder 3D printer. Man that was a mouth full. It is a follow up to the A10M which is similar but a smaller build volume. The A20M clocks in with a 255x255x255mm build volume. My last foray with a multi material printer was a Tevo Tarantula and it was mildly successful. I didn’t realize that this was a mixing extruder and the implications. I have done some very cool looking prints due to the fact that it’s a mixing extruder. QC Issues I always come to expect some QC issues with these low cost printers. But I have to say that this printer has had the most. Let me list with fixes […]

December 7, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx 7nm Processor is Designed for Always-Connected PCs

The first day of Qualcomm Tech Summit focused on 5G technology, the second day revealed details about Snapdragon 855 mobile processor, and the third and last day was about Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform, a 7nm processor specifically designed for always-on always-connected PCs that performs as well as some 15W processor(s) from Intel, but at much lower power consumption. Snapdragon 8cx specifications: CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 495 64-bit cores (dual cluster) with a total of 10MB cache; 7nm Process Technology Visual Subsystem – Qualcomm Adreno 680 GPU with DX12 support, 128-bit memory interface Memory – LPDDR4x, 8 Channels Storage – NVME SSD, UFS3.0 Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine Qualcomm Hexagon 685 DSP Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology AI features 4th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine Enhanced voice assistant experiences for Alexa and Cortana with Qualcomm Aqstic technology Display Maximum On-Device Display Support: 4K Dual 4K external displays support Audio Qualcomm Aqstic audio technology […]

December 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Specifications Published

Qualcomm Tech Summit 2018 started yesterday, and while the company mentioned Snapdragon 855, they focused on the benefit of 5G technology. Today is another day, and this time the company released details specifications about the new 5G mobile platform. Snapdragon 855 specifications: CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 485 64-bit cores @ up to 2.84 GHz; 7nm Process Technology; based on leaks, tri-cluster configuration: 1+3+4 Visual Subsystem Adreno 640 GPU OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP, Vulkan 1.1 API support HDR gaming Hardware-accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoder. HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision Volumetric VR video playback 8K 360 VR video playback Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine Qualcomm Hexagon 690 Processor Qualcomm Hexagon Vector Accelerator Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator Qualcomm Hexagon Voice Assistant Qualcomm All-Ways Aware Hub Qualcomm Adreno 640 GPU Qualcomm Kryo 485 CPU System Memory – 4×16-bit, LPDDR4x, up to 16GB @ 2133 MHz Display […]

December 6, 2018December 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

PHYTEC phyCORE-AM65x SoM Features TI Sitara AM654x Processor

We already knew Texas Instruments was working on AM654 processor, the first 64-bit Arm SoC from the company, featuring four Cortex A53 cores, a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, dual lock-step capable Cortex R5F cores, and interfaces targeting industrial applications. Now at least one company has announced a system-on-module based on the solution. PHYTEC phyCORE-AM65x is equipped with AM654x processor, DDR4 and ECC DDR4 memory, up to 32GB eMMC flash, as well as built-in Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity. phyCORE-AM65x specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM65x with 4x Arm Cortex-A53 cores, dual-core Arm Cortex-R5F MCU subsystem, PowerVR SGX544 GPU, 6x PRU-ICSSG System Memory – DDR4 with support for discrete DDR4 ECC Storage – Up to 32GB eMMC Connectivity Optional 2.4 or 5GHz Certified WiFi Solution 10/100/1000 Mbit/s Ethernet PHY on SOM Board-to-board connectors – 2x “high-density PCB interconnects” Dimensions – 65 x 55 mm The company provides Linux (Yocto Project), Android, […]

December 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Steam Link Beta now Available for Raspberry Pi 3 / 3B+

Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation for purchasing and playing video games that was first launched in 2003 for Windows computer only. Since then Mac OS (2010), Linux / Ubuntu, as well as mobile devices running Android & iOS (2012) have been supported in Steam. Mobile could only be used to browse the storefront, manage games, and access the community. However more recently, the company released Steam Link app that allows players to stream games to their mobile devices, while being rendering on more powerful machines. The good news is that Steam Link (beta) has now been released for Raspberry Pi 3 / 3B + boards. All you need is either board running Raspbian Stretch, and install Steam Link as follows:

curl -#Of http://media.steampowered.com/steamlink/rpi/steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb

1 2	curl -#Of http://media.steampowered.com/steamlink/rpi/steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb sudo dpkg -i steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb

Once the app is installed launch it in the command line with steamlink, or launch it from the Games menu in the desktop environment. Steam […]

December 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

MicroSemi Introduces PolarFire FPGA & RISC-V SoC

In the past we’ve covered SoCs comprised of Arm cores and FPGA fabric via Xilinx Zynq-7000 series SoCs and Zynq UltraScale+ series MPSoCs, respectively featuring up to two Arm Cortex A9 cores, and up to four Cortex A53 cores. MicroSemi has now announced an alternative, not based on Arm cores, but instead based on SiFive U54-MC RISC-V cores combined with PolarFire FPGA fabric. PolarFire FPGA RISC-V SoC key features & specifications: FPGA – Microsemi PolarFire FPGA Processor Cores – Up to 4x SiFive U54-MC RISC-V cores clocked at up to 1.5GHz (performance similar to Cortex-A35 cores); 28nm process Deterministic Coherent Multi-core CPU Cluster Deterministic L2 Memory Subsystem System Memory I/F – Integrated DDR4/LPDDR4 Controller and PHY Storage – Secure Boot, 128K Boot Flash Debug capability Rich I/Os Low Power – Low static power; power optimized transceivers, up to 50% lower power compared to SRAM based FPGAs So we don’t have […]

December 5, 2018December 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is the First 5G Mobile Processor

Most (all?) CNX Software readers already know 5G cellular technology is coming soon, and companies have already announced 5G modems such as Samsung Exynos 5100, MediaTek M70 or Snapdragon X50, some 5G picocells, but AFAIK, so far nobody had officially unveiled 5G mobile processor. Qualcomm has finally announced their Snapdragon 855 5G mobile processor platform codenamed SDM8150, also delivering 3 times improvement for artificial intelligence workloads thanks to its 4th generation AI engine. As usual, Qualcomm has not provided the full details about the processor during the first announcement, but they just listed some highlights: 4G and 5G connectivity with sub-6 GHz and mmWave support 4th Gen AI engine with 3x performance improvement Improved photography and video via Computer Vision ISP, true 4K HDR video capture Ultrasonic fingerprint support Process – 7nm That’s it, so we have to rely on leaks and benchmarks found around the web to get some […]