CNXSoft – Embedded Software Development

If you’re mainly using your Android mini PC or STB to stream videos over the web or your local network, Wi-Fi performance is actually more important than CPU performance, and I’ve recently had quite a few issues with Wi-Fi with both T428 (RK3188 / Broadcom Wi-Fi module) and CS868 (AllWinner A31 / Realtek Wi-Fi module), which were only fixed after upgrading my router firmware. So I’ve decided to re-test most of the mini PCs I own with the upgraded router firmware, and the number are highly confusing, and I found out there’s probably be no easy to way to estimate the overall Wi-Fi performance of any device, and it’s most probably highly dependent on the router used, and its firmware version.

My router is TP-LINK WR940N, a 300 Mbps Wireless N router with three antennas. Since I bought it, I had never upgraded the firmware (3.9.18 Build 100104 Rel.36350n) from 2010. When I test Android mini PCs or media players, I always place the device is the same area which is about 5 meters from the router, but not line of sight, and I transfer a 278 MB file from a SAMBA share in a PC running Ubuntu. I use ES File Explorer to perform the transfer, and I check the time with a stop watch. I write the time, and calculate the throughput. In theory, the NAND flash write speed could also be a bottleneck, but considering the throughput are always less than 3MB/s, and the file is only 278MB, which is less than the amount of RAM, I believe it should not impact the results.

Here are the results I got with the old router firmware since I started doing this test.

Wi-Fi Throughput in MB/s

Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2 is the fastest by a wide margin, and T428 and CS868 have pretty poor performance because they often lost the signal during the transfer.

As I explain in CS868 review, upgrading the router firmware completely changes the performance of CS868, and improves T428 significantly. So equipped with my “new” router with firmware 3.13.9 Build 120201 Rel.54965n, I tested the devices again to see if results would be much different, and if we could find some patterns, e.g. Realtek Wi-Fi module perform better or not. I performed the file transfer three times on each device, to make sure there was not too much variation between transfers.

The updated results show CS868 far ahead, while G-Box Midnight MX2 is not that good anymore, and may have been negatively impacted by my router firmware upgrade. That’s the complete opposite of earlier results.

Wi-Fi Throughput in MB/s

The table below shows more details about the tests and the devices.

I dropped E-Great H5 and Droid Stick A2 from the tests due to lack of time, and Measy U2C is not included into the chart because it could not reliably transfer the file, and I only managed to fully transfer the file once, over 5 attempts. This also happened once with T428, but the 3 other tests worked.  As I previously assumed, the connection speed, be it 65 Mbps, 135 Mbps or 150 Mbps, does not actually matter. The conclusion of those tests is a bit disappointing, as the only one I can make is that you can’t really make conclusions. If I had only use the original router firmware, I would have said CS868 Wi-Fi is a disaster, but after firmware upgrade of the router, CS868 is the best ever mini PC I’ve ever seen when it comes to Wi-Fi throughput, and is clearly ahead of any other devices. Bear in mind CS868 only has a chip antenna, and can still easily outperform other device with an standard internal antenna.

With regards to Wi-Fi modules, Realtek RTL8188EUS is both at the top of the chart and the bottom with the new router firmware, so the overall performance seems to depend on overall system design, and the interoperability with the router. One of the advantage of devices based RTL8188 is that the drivers source code is available, Mediatek MT5931 source has recently been “leaked”, but I don’t think Broadcom IC source is available.

KDDI, a Japanese Telecom operator, has launched AU Smart TV Stick, an Android 4.0.4 HDMI TV Stick powered by Texas Instruments OMAP4430 dual core processor with 1GB RAM, and 4 GB Flash, together with a “magic” Bluetooth remote for 9,800 Yen ($99 US).

Here are the specifications of this device:

• SoC – Texas Instruments OMAP4430 Dual Core Cortex A9 @ 1GHz + PowerVR SGX540 GPU
• System Memory -1GB RAM
• Storage – 4GB Flash + microSD card slot
• Connectivity:
  • Wi-Fi IEEE802.11b/g/n
  • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Video Output – HDMI (female)
• USB – micro USB OTG
• Power – AC100V
• Dimensions -  31 × 105 × 14mm
• Weight -  45g

The Bluetooth remote measures 50 × 149 × 21.5mm, weights 73 g, and comes with a gyro sensor.

The package included the mini PC, the remote, as well as an AC adapter (100V), an HDMI Cable, a holder, and 2 AAA batteries for the remote.

The company appears to have heavily customized Android in order to provide easy access to its online services, but Google Play store is still available on the device.

I find this device interesting as it’s the first I’ve seen using OMAP4, and since it includes a Bluetooth remote (and, I assume, Japan’s 5% consumption tax) the price seems relatively competitive. To my knowledge, it’s the first time a large company actually sells an HDMI TV dongle to consumers. so it’s nice to see mini PCs go mainstream, at least in Japan.

Further information is available on AU Smart TV Stick page (in Japanese).

Via Google+

VIA Technologies has recently announced the VAB-600 Pico-ITX embedded board featuring WonderMedia WM8950 ARM Cortex A9 SoC clocked at 800MHz. VIA targets in-vehicle infotainment as well as mobile and healthcare applications for the board despite an operating temperature range between 0°C and 60°C.

VIA VAB-600 Pico-ITX Board (Click to Enlarge)

Here are the key features of this embedded board:

• SoC – Wondermedia WM8950 Cortex-A9 @ 800MHz  + Mali-400 GPU
• System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash memory + 512KB SPI Flash for Boot Loader + microSD slot
• Video Output – Mini HDMI, on-board DVO (Digital Video Output) for TTL or LVDS display
• Video Codecs – MPEG2 MP@HL, MPEG4, H.264 BP/MP/[email protected], VC-1 SP/MP/AP, VP8 and JPEG/MJPEG.
• USB -  2x mini USB 2.0 host ports
• Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (VT6113), 3G (SIM card slot) and optional WiFi support (VIA VNT9271B6050 WiFi module shared with one USB port)
• On-board Connectors:
  • 2x COM connectors
  • 1x RTC battery pin header
  • 1x USB 2.0 connector
  • 1x SPI connector for programming SPI Flash ROM
  • 1x Keypad connector
  • 1x CIR connector
  • 1x Front audio pin header for Line-in, Line-out and MIC-in
  • 1x Front panel pin header for system power-on, reset and power LED
  • 4-wire resistive touch screen FPC connector (through VT1603A)
  • 1x pin header for 1 I2C pair and 8 GPIO
  • Optional battery charger connector with Smart Battery function
• Operating Temperature Range – 0°C to 60°C
• Operating Humidity – 0% ~ 95% (relative humidity ; non-condensing)
• Dimensions – 10cm x 7.2cm Pico-ITX form factor

The company provides board support packages (BSPs) for Android 4.0 and/or Embedded Linux (Kernel 3.0.8). Android 4.0 EVK is available for download here, but there’s nothing for Linux yet. Before downloading the file you’ll have to agree to a “Non-Disclosure and Recipient Acknowledgment for Short Term Sample Products Evaluation”, which I find a bit silly for a publicly available file…

VIA also offers a startker kit including VIA VAB-600 Pico-ITX board, VAB-600-A I/O card, VAB-600-C TTL Converter card, a 7” touch screen TTL panel, cables and a 18W AC adapter.

VIA VAB-600 Starter Kit (Click to Enlarge)

Sample units of the VIA VAB-600 Pico-ITX board are available now at an undisclosed price. Further information, including the board user’s manual and product brief, is available on VIA’s VAB-600 page.

There are now plenty of Android set-top boxes or HDMI TV sticks, but if you want to watch digital satellite or terrestrial TV, the options are limited. If you already have a satellite receiver at home, you could buy an Android set-top box with an HDMI input such as Huawei MediaQ M310, or use a DVB-S2 USB adapter, but you may need to acquire both the kernel source and DVB driver to compile it for your device. So for now, the last option is currently reserved for ODM/OEM as mentioned on Geniatech store. But today, I’m going to write about an Android set-top boxes that comes with a satellite receiver (DVB-S2). They are all based on AMLogic AML8726-M1/M3, and models include:

• Geniatech ATV1100B Hybrid DVB Box – Multiple standards
• STV-502 – DVB-S2
• Monolithelec MINGLE – DVB-S2

Geniatech ATV1100B

Geniatech ATV1100B Key Features:

• SoC – AmLogic AML8726-M1 ARM Cortex A9 @ 800MHz
• System Memory – 1GB RAM
• Storage – 2 to 32GB flash memory (optional) + SD card
• Digital TV – ISDB-T / ATSC / DVB-T / DVB-T2 / DVB-S / DVB-S2 / DMB-TH standards
• Connectivity:
  • Ethernet – RJ45 10/100M
  • Wi-Fi – Built in 802.11b/g/n module
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4a (Up to 1080p), CVBS
• Audio Output – HDMI + Line out via RCA
• USB – 3x external USB ports
• Power Supply – 5V/2A

Digital TV support will depend on the country you live, and even your exact location, so when you buy, you’d better make sure you’re using the correct standard. I’ll give a short description for the 7 digital TV standards mentioned above:

• ISDB-T – “Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting – Terrestrial” – Used in Japan and Brazil
• ATSC – “Advanced Television Systems Committee” – Used in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico)
• DVB-T – “Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial” – Used in Europe, India, South East Asia, Oceania, and a few other countries.
• DVB-T2 – “Digital Video Broadcast — Second Generation Terrestrial” – Used in a subset of countries using DVB-T. Read “Market Adoption” in Wikipedia to know which country used the second generation of the standard.
• DVB-S – “Digital Video Broadcast – Satellite” -  Accessible worldwide. MPEG2 codec, standard definition broadcast.
• DVB-S2 – “Digital Video Broadcast – Satellite – Second Generation ” – Accessible worldwide. MPEG4 codec, support for both standard and high definition broadcast. Backward compatible with DVB-S (As I understand it).
• DMB-T/H – “Digital Multimedia Broadcast – Terrestrial/Handheld” – Now called DMBT. Used in Greater China and Laos. Some middle east countries are experimenting with the standard.

For Satellite support, it’s pretty easy as DVB-S and DVB-S2 are supported worldwide. A few years ago, I needed 2 different dongles to support DVB-T and DMB-T/H, so I’m not sure if the STB can only support a subset of standards, or there’s just one tuner supporting all standard in ATV1100B.

One person has acquired an STV-502 media player, and dedicated one website (dvbdroid.info) to the device with links to the user’s manual, firmware files, DVBPlayer application, and the short video demo below.

At this point, you may think (or not): “Hey! I want one!”. I’ve spent one or two hours looking around for this type of device, but finding the exact model you want is nearly impossible, and searching for “dvb-s2 android” in Aliexpress just return 4 devices without any feedback. STV-502 is available from one manufacturer in Alibaba, with minimum order quantity of 1 piece, so this may also be an option. However, if what you’re looking for is an Android media player supporting DVB-T, there are nearly 500 devices to choose from, with prices starting around $80 including shipping.

There seem to be more and more Android set-top boxes that can be fitted on top of the TV, but if you are mainly interested in video conference they may not always have very good cameras: MK818 comes with a 0.3MP camera and Archos TV Connect has a 1MP webcam according to Arctablet, which is good enough for 720p video conferencing. On the contrary, Veidoo HD2, an Android 4.0 set-top box powered by AllWinner A10, comes with a 5MP camera which should allow you, in theory, to do video conference in 1080p if your internet connection permits it.

Here are the specifications of the device:

• SoC – Allwinner A10 Cortex A8 @ 1GHz + Mali-400 GPU
• Memory – 1GB RAM
• Storage – 8GB + micro SD slot (Up to 32GB)
• Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n + 3G support via external 3G dongle
• Camera – 5.0MP auto focus
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4 (Up to 2160p) + AV
• Audio Formats – MP3, WMA, WP2, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, APE, 3GP, WAV, etc
• Video Container Formats – MP4, AVI, RM, RMVB, MKV, WMV, MOV, PMP, MPEG, MPG, FLV, 3GP
• Video Codecs – MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, VC-1
• USB – 1x USB host, 1x mini USB
• Audio I/O – Microphone jack. Built-in microphone (TBC).

The package comes with the media player, a power adapter, a USB cable, an HDMI cable, a stand, an English user manual, and an OTG cable. The built-in microphone is the part of the specs, but since they claims you can talk within 3 meter of the device, it must be included. There remains to be seen if the 5MP claim is correct, as Chinese manufacturers or their resellers like to to fudge with the numbers.

You won’t get a fantastic Android performance with AllWinner A10, but for video conference, and video playback it should be more than enough. Although Linux should run on the device, don’t expect to use the webcam as the video decoding libraries provided by AllWinner are buggy, and nothing will be done to improve things.

I found the device on dx.com where it sells for $106.40, but it’s also available from Veidoo (the manufacturer) on Alibaba for $65 to $120 per piece depending on quantities. After further research, another name for the device is  EU2000, and it’s available on Aliexpress for around $90. An other option could be to buy a 5MP pixel webcam and connect it to the USB port of a low cost Android media player or mini PC.

Embest, a subsidiary of Element14, has just announced the MarS Board, a development board powered by Freescale i.MX6 Dual (2x Cortex A9) with 1 GB RAM and 4GB eMMC flash. This is not related to the Marsboard based on AllWinner A10, and designed & manufactured by another company.

Here are the key features of the MarS Board:

• SoC – Freescale i.MX6 Dual  2xCortex-A9 Processor @ 1GHz + Vivante GC2000 GPU.
• System Memory – 1GB RAM (4*256MB DDR3 SDRAM)
• Storage – 4GB eMMC + micro SD card slot (up to 32GByte)
• Video Output – 1xHDMI interface, 1x LVDS interface and 1x LCD interface
• USB – 4x USB Host ports (2x USB connector, 2x via headers), 1x mini USB OTG port, and 1x mini USB for debug
• Connectivity – 10/100M/1Gbps RJ45 Ethernet interface
• 2 Expansion Hearders – 2x CAN, 2x IIC, Audio & SPDIF, 8bit IPU1(Camera), SPI, USDHC1(SD card), 4x UART, 2x PWM, GPMI, 6x GPIO
• Power Supply – 5V/4A
• Dimension – 65mm x 102mm

The company will provide support for Linux 3.0.15, Android 4.0.4 & uCOS-II RTOS.

That means we now have low cost (<$100) platforms for most i.MX6 processors (expect Solo Lite) with GK802 (i.MX6 Quad), Wandboard Solo (i.MX6 Solo), Wanboard Dual (i.MX6 Dual Lite) and the MarS Board featuring i.MX6 Dual. The closest competitor to the MarS Board is the Wandboard Dual, and both sell for $99. Thanks to the Dual version, MarS supports 1080p60 video decoding (vs. 1080p30), and features Vivante GC2000 GPU (vs. Vivante GC880) compared to the Wandboard Dual. It also comes LVDS and LCD connectors, and an eMMC that should provide better performance than the micro SD used in the Wandboard. The Wandboard, however, has more audio I/O including S/PDIF, comes with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and its baseboard / SoM makes upgrading possible.

A big disappointment with the MarS Board is that although SATA-II support is integrated into i.MX6 Dual, the company apparently did not feel necessary to add a SATA connector *facepalm*, and I’ve been confirmed SATA signals are not available via the expansion headers either.

The board will be available in May 2013 for $99. You can find more information and register your interest on MarS Board page.

Yesterday, Technici left a comment about a Rockchip RK3066 set-top box sold on a Polish website. The device is called “SMART MEDIA BOX TVi7″ is the brochure in Polish, so I went on a search and found in DealExtreme for $86.50. Since I previously reported about the Wise TV Box also based on RK3066 but selling for $59.99, so I was about to pass on this one, until I found out Wise TV Box now costs $97, which makes this new device potentially interesting.

TVi7 specifications:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3066 @ 252MHz~1608MHz + Mali 400 MP4 GPU
• System Memory – 1GB DDR3
• Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD slot (up to 32 GB)
• Connectivity
  • Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n
  • Ethernet – 10/100 Mbps (RJ45)
  • 3G – Via external USB Dongle
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4 (1080p)
• Video Codecs – H.264, VP8, RV, WMV, AVS, H.263, MPEG4
• Audio Formats – MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, AAC, WAV, OGG
• USB – 1 x Mini USB (OTG) + 2 x USB 2.0
• Camera – Built-in 2.0MP camera
• Dimensions – 12.0 cm x 10.0 cm x 2.4 cm
• Weight – 165g

The package also includes an HDMI cable, a power adapter, an external Wi-Fi antenna, a remote control, a mount bracket and a an English / Chinese user manual. It looks like it might be possible to fit the mount bracket on top of the TV to make use of the camera. On the downside, the box is only running Android 4.0.4, and I’m not sure there will be an updated firmware. I also pretty much hate using an IR remote control for most tasks done on an Android STB, but you should be able to use you own RF + Gyro remote or Android device as a controller.

The device is also available on Aliexpress from various stores either called TVi7 or just i7. Most sellers appear to be more expensive than DX.com, except one shop with “below average” seller ratings.