CNXSoft – Embedded Software Development

I’ve seen a lot of tweets about Tizen in the last fews days, mainly because Tizen Conference 2013 just took place. First there’s been Tizen 2.1 SDK release, and few demos have surfaced,  showcasing Tizen in their target devices: smartphones, tablets,smart TVs, laptops, and In-vehicle infotainment devices. Beside all the work done, the companies behind the project will also offer $4 million to developers who publish apps on Tizen store. There will be 9 categories. The best 3 games will get $200,000 each, and the best apps in the other 6 categories $120,000 each. Tizen App Challenge will start on June 3, 2013, and you can see details for this program here.

Tizen in a Laptop (Left) and an Automotive Infotainment System (Right)

Let’s see the demos. First Tizen in Samsung developer smartphone running Qt 5.1, and the usual Qt5 Cinematic Experience demo, as well as 2 others apps, both super smooth. (via TizenExperts). You can find more information in Qt for Tizen page.

This is not the first time we see Tizen running on Samsung Developer platform, but Qt5.1 is very recent.

The next demo shows Tizen running on an Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge UltraBook at Tizen Conference 2013 via TizenExperts. The desktop environment is based on GNOME 3 Shell, and beside the HTML5 apps, you’ll be able to run applications such as LibreOffice and Chrome, just like in any other Linux distributions. They also demo Stream in the device, running Team Fortress 2. Finally, they showed Tizen SDK, developing Tizen Apps, and running an OpenGL accelerated smartphone simulator.

Overall, I find the experience feels a little like Ubuntu. Th demo shown above runs the latest Tizen 2.1, but laptop support should be officially part of Tizen 3.0 release.

Jaguar Land Rover, Intel, and the Linux foundation collaborated to create the last demo I’ll show today (via TizenTalk). It’s an in-vehicle infotainment systems (IVI) running Tizen in a Land Rover. It features a standard car interface, support for gstreamer to play audio and video, a demo app store, and a demo GPS positioning system app. The demo is not a product per say, it’s said to be a fully open source demo, so that other people can work on it. You can find the detail on Linux Foundation Automative Grade Linux (AGL) page.

If you’re particularly interested in the work done for “alternative” mobile operating systems with project such as Sailfish, Mer, Tizen, and Qt, on ARM and x86 hardware, you may want to follow @vgrade on twitter.

Intel has launched Silvermont, a new microarchitecture for low power SoC targeting smartphones, tablets, and servers in data centers. Silvermont SoC will be manufactured using 22nm Tri-Gate SoC process, and the company claims 3x times more peak performance than current generation Atom processors, or 5 times less power consumption at the same performance level.

Silvermont will be used in Bay Trail, Avoton,  and Merrifield processors:

• Intel’s quad-core “Bay Trail” SoC is scheduled for Q4 2013 tablets, and variants of the “Bay Trail” platform will also be used in market segments including entry laptop and desktop computers.
• Intel’s “Merrifield” is scheduled to ship to customers by the end of this year, and actual smartphones will show up in 2014.
• Intel’s “Avoton” will be used in low power microservers, and provide full server product capability that customers require including 64-bit, integrated fabric, error code correction, Intel virtualization technologies and software compatibility.

Intel will provide support for Android, Linux, and Windows devices for their new Atom SoCs.

A 1h20 webcast is available online for further details about Silvermont. The technical overview starts at 21:50 (Slide 15), and I’ll give a summary of some of the most interesting points.

This new microarchitecture brings performance improvements thanks to:

• Out of Order Execution engine enabling better single-threaded performance.
• A new multicore and system fabric capable of delivering 8 cores.
• New IA instructions and core technologies

as well as better power efficiency:

• Wider dynamic power operating range
• Enhanced power management
• Fast standby entry/exit

The slide below clearly explains the different definitions between Architecture, Microarchitecture and SoC at Intel.

SoC based on Silvermont will support 1 to 8 cores, and multicore SoC will feature modules with:

• Two cores
• Coupled second-level cache (up to 1MB)
• Dedicated point-to-point interface (IDI) to SOC providing independent read and write channels, higher bandwidth, lower latency, and OOO transaction support

Frequency and power management can be adjusted per core.

New instructions are available to improve performance (Intel Core 2 64n ISA + Core Westmere SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT), and security (Westmere AES-NI, Intel Secure Key), and news technologies such as Real Time instruction tracing, Intel VT-x2, and support for McAfee DeepSAFE will be embedded in the new SoCs.

One of the most interesting part of the presentation is the comparison to competitors.

It’s probably safe to use the “Small” competitor is ARM, and the “Large” competitor is AMD.  We already knew that AMD is not the best when it comes to power consumption, but what’s interesting is that Intel seems to vastly outperform current ARM big.LITTLE SoCs and Tegra 3 (4+1 companion core) when it comes to its power/performance ratio of its future SoCs. This chart is obviously biased since it’s there to show how good Intel microarchitecture is, but that still probably means Intel will be a serious competitors in the tablet and smartphone space, as long as they can also compete on price/performance and price/power ratios.

They also show very good performance and power improvement over the Saltwell microarchitecture both for single-thrreaded and multi-threaded use cases.

Peak to peak used the maximum frequency available, iso-power shows the performance improvement over the same power level, and iso-perf shows the difference in power consumption for a given performance metrics. STW stands for Saltwll, SLM for Silvermont. 1C1T = 1 Core 1 Thread, 2C4T = 2 Cores, 4 Threads, etc…

Going back to Intel vs ARM, they show how the Intel Dual Core Silvermont SoC outperforms ARM Quad core SoCs both in terms of performance and power consumption.

and a tablet comparison with expected results from Silvermont SoCs.

The benchmark used is SPECint*rate_base200, but the ARM tablets used are not described, and we just know they are similar configurations (e.g. number of cores, RAM, etc..), as the Silvermont solution.

We’ll probably need to wait for actual hardware at the end of the year to make a fair comparison, but the results provided by Intel look very promising.

You can download the presentation’s PDF for more slides.

The Embedded Linux Conference (ELC 2013) will take place on February 20 – 22, 2013 at Park 55 Hotel in San Francisco, California.

ELC consists of 3 days of presentations, tutorials and sessions. There will be over 50 sessions during those 3 days. I’ll highlight a few sessions that I find particularly interesting, and that did not get presented at ELCE 2012 (AFAICR).

February 20

• 11:00 – Anatomy of the arm-soc git tree by Olof Johansson, Google

We are now two years into the new maintainer model for ARM platforms, and we have settled down into a workflow that maintainers have adjusted well to. Still, when new platforms arrive, or when maintainer ship changes hands, there’s sometimes a bit of ramp-up in getting used to how we organize our git tree and how we prefer to see code submitted to fit that model.

This presentation will give an overview of how we have chosen to organize and maintain the arm-soc tree, and advice to developers and maintainers on best practices to help organize your code in a way that makes life easier for everybody involved.Main audience for this presentation is developers working on upstream kernels for ARM platforms, including platform maintainers.

• 12:00 – The OpenEmbedded Project 2 Years After Adopting the Yocto Project by Koen Kooi, Circuitco Electronics

The Yocto Project was announced slightly more than 2 years ago at ELC-E Cambridge and in the OpenEmbedded e.V. General Assembly the day after the conference I proposed to embrace and adopt the Yocto Project as the core for OpenEmbedded.

In the past 2 years the ecosystem has seen tremendous growth, but not always in sane directions. This presentation will detail how the Yocto Project, the OpenEmbedded Project, the community and the companies involved evolved during that time.

The Angstrom Distribution and the Beagleboard will be used as examples since those were first OE classic targets to be publicly converted to the new world order.

This presentation will also try to clear up to confusion about what people actually mean when they say “this runs yocto”

• 14:00 – How to Cook the LTSI Kernel with Yocto Recipe by Hisao Munakata, Renesas Electronics

LTSI is the Linux Foundation CE workgroup project that creates and maintains long-term stable kernel for industry use. Recently LTSI-3.4 was released, and it is committed to being kept maintained till the community applies bug-fix and security fix patches on LTS-3.4. The community LTS maintainer Greg Kroah Hartman stated it would last at least till May 2014. This would dramatically reduce your own effort to collect such important patches by you. Furthermore, Linux Foundation Yocto project that provides a recipe for custom Linux BSP creation will add support for LTSI kernel from this release. Given this significant improvement I want to help LTSI user to start work with it. In this session, I will introduce the specification of LTSI-3.4 (enhancement from the community kernel) and how to write a Yocto recipe to collect your own enhancement patches on top of the official LTSI-3.4 kernel.

• 15:00 – Common Clock Framework: How to Use It by Gregory Clement, Free Electrons

The common clock framework, which was included in the 3.4 kernel in the beginning of 2012, is now mandatory to support all new ARM
SoCs. It is also part of the “one zImage to run them all” big plan of the ARM architecture in the Linux kernel.After an introduction on why we needed this framework and on the problems it solves, we will go through the implementation details of this framework. Then, with real examples, we will focus on how to use this framework to add clock support to a new ARM SoC. We will also show how the device tree is used in this process.The last part of the talk will review how device drivers use this framework, using examples taken from various parts of the kernel.

• 16:00 – Controlling Multi-Core Race Conditions on Linux/Android by Mike Anderson, The PTR Group, Inc.

Multi-core processors are now the rule rather than the exception in high-end applications. But, as we try to port our legacy applications to multi-core platforms, what pitfalls lay in wait? This presentation will outline the conditions that lead to multi-core race conditions and outline the techniques for identifying and redesigning code to successfully function in a multi-core world.

• 17:00 – Optimizing GStreamer Video Plugins: A Case Study with Renesas SoC Platform by Katsuya Matsubara, IGEL Co., Ltd.

GStreamer is the leading multimedia framework for various OS platforms, notably Linux systems. A variety of multimedia applications can be constructed with well-implemented plugins, which have versatile functions such as image scaling, cropping, color conversion, and video decoding. However, in the case of embedded systems, they should require further system integration to utilize specialized hardware acceleration engines in SoC for optimal performance.

This presentation shows the case study experience of integrating video plugins with a Renesas SoC platform. It will discuss how to access hardware inside a plugin, assigning buffer memory suited for hardware, and eliminating the ‘memcpy’ call.The audience will learn about essential technique for integrating GStreamer into embedded system. An understanding of the basics of video codecs and color formats is required.

February 21

• 10:30 – Kernel Testing Tools and Techniques by Matt Porter, Texas Instruments, Inc.

This BoF is intended to bring together anybody that tests the Linux kernel to share best practices and brainstorm new ideas. Topics may range from .config testing, module/built-in drivers, test methods and tools for testing specific driver subsystems, VM/scheduler/interrupt stress testing, and beyond.

The discussion is targeted at Linux kernel developers, test engineers, and embedded Linux product teams/consultants with the common task of testing Linux kernel integrity. Attendees should have a firm grasp of building and deploying the kernel as well as kernel/userspace kernel APIs.

• 11:30 – LLVMLinux: Compiling the Linux Kernel with LLVM by Behan Webster, Converse in Code Inc.

The LLVM project is an extensive compiler technology suite which is becoming commonplace in many industries. Technology built with LLVM is already shipped in millions of Linux devices as a part of Android/Renderscript. Increasingly it is becoming a big part of the development process for embedded projects, all the way up through to high performance computing clusters. This session will provide an update on the status of the LLVM Linux project; a project which is cooperating with both the Linux kernel and LLVM communities to build the Linux kernel with Clang/LLVM.This talk is for experienced developers who are interested in toolchain technology and Linux Kernel programming.

• 13:45 – Toybox: Writing a new Linux Command Line from Scratch by Rob Landley, Multicelluar

In 2003 I decided to replace twenty-two GNU packages in Linux From Scratch (everything except the compiler, kernel, and libc) with BusyBox, and then rebuild the result under itself. This didn’t remotely work, so I started testing and improving BusyBox until it did, putting in so much work on BusyBox its maintainer handed the project over to me.In 2006 I handed BusyBox off to a new maintainer and started over from scratch on a fresh implementation, Toybox. In 2011 Tim Bird (founder of CELF) convinced me to repurpose Toybox as a new BSD-Licensed Posix-2008 compliant command line for Android.

This panel explains what’s in the “standard” Linux command line: drawing commands from POSIX, LSB, Android Toolbox, Linux From Scratch, and more. How to determine what should be in the base system, and how to know what to exclude, and why the “standards” aren’t enough.

• 14:45 – Open Graphics with the Yocto Project by Ross Burton, Intel

Closed-source binary drivers and libraries are endemic in embedded, with binary blobs essential on many modern boards to use the on-board 2D, 3D, or video acceleration. Recently there has been progress in open drivers from manufactures for various platforms including Intel, from 3D acceleration with OpenGL to hardware video decode/encode with VA API. This presentation will explain why open drivers are better than closed, discuss the options available, and describe what is available in the Yocto Project BSPs for you to use.The audience for this talk is expected to be developers and architects interested in the state of open graphics in Linux. Knowledge of this field will be assumed.

• 16:00 – Designing for Optimisation by Mans Rullgard, ARM / Linaro

Performance is an important aspect when developing mobile applications as it affects both the interactive user experience and the device battery life. This presentation will introduce techniques and tools (e.g. profilers) useful for creating high-perfomance code starting at the high-level design stage (code organisation, data layout, etc.) and following through to implementation considerations. Specific instruction sets (e.g. NEON) will not be a primary focus, the goal rather being to enable efficient use of these without delving into details, thus giving the presentation a broader applicability.The target audience is developers of compute-intensive (native) applications or libraries who need to achieve the best possible performance. No special expertise beyond general familiarity with userspace Linux programming is assumed.

• 17:00 – Atom for Embedded Linux Hackers and the DIY Community by Scott Garman, Intel Open Source Technology Center

As costs have come down and the power of embedded platforms has increased, the hacker/maker community is playing an increasingly critical role in the creation of disruptive technologies. The “Next Big Thing” will likely start out as a hacker project using a commodity embedded hardware platform. Intel’s Atom-based offerings continue to grow while targeting new niches in embedded applications. This talk will outline exciting new developments with Atom processors in the embedded space, and how hackers can make best use of these advantages.This talk will be relevant to hackers, hobbyists, and people interested in developing embedded products based on Atom, and is open to all technical experience levels.

February 22

• 9:00 – In Kernel Switcher: A Solution to Support ARM’s New big.LITTLE Implementation by Mathieu, Linaro

The ‘In Kernel Switcher’ (IKS) is a solution developed by Linaro and ARM to support ARM’€™s new big.LITTLE implementation. It is pairing together an A7 (LITTLE) and an A15 (big) processor into a logical entity that is then presented to the kernel as one CPU. From there the solution is seeking to achieve optimal performance and power consumption by switching between the big or the LITTLE core based on system usage.This session will present the IKS solution. After giving an overview of the big.LITTLE processor we will present the solution itself, how frequencies are masqueraded to the cpufreq core, the steps involved in doing a “€œswitch”€ between cores and some of the optimisation made to the interactive governor.

The session will conclude by presenting the results that we obtained as well as a brief overview of Linaro’s upstreaming plan.

• 10:00 – Lessons Learned in Designing a Self-video Self-hovering Nano Copter by Gregoire Gentil, Always Innovating

Always Innovating has announced a new product, the MeCam, a self video nano copter to point-and-shoot yourself. The MeCam launches from the palm of a hand and hovers instantly. This talk will review the lessons learned during the design of this product:

1. hardware “- CPU: the choice and the different trade-offs involved with this selection.
2. hardware -€“ sensors: the complete list of the 14 sensors, their advantages and drawbacks.
3. software -€“ core: the architecture of the Linux based system and the key challenges.
4. software -€“ stabilization algorithm: the experience during the tuning of the different algorithms participating to the self hovering.

This talk targets developer with good expertise in both hardware and software. No deep knowledge in a specific field is mandatory but serious understanding of ARM and the Linux kernel is a plus.

• 11:15 – Task Scheduling for Multicore Embedded Devices by Gap-Joo Na, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)

Since Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS), which is default scheduler of Linux mainline kernel, has been introduced in kernel 2.6.23, due to its remarkable performance, we’ve paid little attention to improving the scheduler. In this presentation, we will show the CFS limitations, unsatisfactory fairness among cores and long response time to user interactive tasks by some experimental result. And then we will explain you an example scenario to solve this vulnerable point in multicore environment.

• 12:15 – Tips of Malloc and Free by Tetsuyuki Kobayashi, Kyoto Microcomputer

Sometimes you may encounter segmentation fault at malloc or free. It looks a bug of malloc library, but at most case it is not. Some other part destroys heap management area. It is very hard to tell which program actually destroys the heap if the process is very large and uses so many libraries and threads.
In this session I will show you some tips to trouble shoot heap problem.

1. tips of malloc library in glibc
2. how to hook and replace malloc
3. use mspace in dlmalloc to separete memory spaceExpected audience is developers who writes code in C/C++ language and want to solve problems related heap memory.

• 14:15 – How to Build Your Own Digital Signage Solution with Yocto Project by Nitin, Intel Corporation

Summary of the proposal:

This talk describes the presenter’s experience with using the Yocto Project, along with various open source layers, to build a digital signage solution from scratch. The presenter covers how various components are used from the oe-core, meta-web-kiosk, meta-security, meta-virtualization, and meta-nuc layers to get a working solution for digital signage. The talk provides a live demo of the solution, along with access to the source code & build environment.

Targeted Audience:

This talk is targeted to the open source development community. The audience can expect to get more knowledge about how they can build their own digital signage solution with the help of the Yocto Project and various open source layers.

• 15:15 – olibc: Another C Runtime Library for Embedded Linux by Jim Huang, 0xlab

olibc is derived from bionic libc used in Android, which was initially derived from NetBSD libc. olibc is expected to merge the enhancements done by several SoC vendors and partners, such as Qualcomm, TI, Linaro, etc., which is known to be the major difference from glibc, uclibc, and other traditional C library implementations. Typically, the code size of olibc runtime should be about 300 KB. For ARM target, olibc would benefit from ARMv7 specific features like NEON, Thumb-2, VFPv3/VFPv4, and latest compiler optimization techniques. Also, olibc is released under BSD License.

Those are just my choices among over 50 sessions. You can check the full schedule to find out which sessions suit you best.

You can register for ELC 2013 online.

There are two type of fees:

• Professional Fee (If your company is paying for you to attend this event): 550 USD
• Hobbyist Fee: 100 USD (up from $70 last year, who said there’s no inflation?)

Prior to ELC 2013, you can also attend the Android Builders Summit on February 18 & 19 for $200 extra, and/or Yocto Project Developer Day on February 19 at no additional cost.

Last post about ELCE 2012 videos…

David Stewart, manager of the Yocto Project team within the Open Source Technology Center at Intel, gives an introduction to the Yocto Project, as well as a status update at ELCE 2012.

Abstract:

The Yocto Project is a joint project to unify the world’s efforts around embedded Linux and to make Linux the best choice for embedded designs. The Yocto Project is an open source starting point for embedded Linux development which contains tools, templates, methods and actual working code to get started with an embedded device project. In addition, the Yocto Project includes Eclipse plug-ins to assist the developer. This talk gives a walk-through of the key parts of the Yocto Project for developing embedded Linux projects. In addition, features will be described from the latest release of the Yocto Project, v1.3. The talk will include demos of some of the key new features such as the Build Appliance and Hob.

At the end of the talk, developers should be able to start their own embedded project using the Yocto Project and use it for developing the next great embedded device.

The slides do not appear to be available, but those should be very similar to the slides used for the Yocto Project Overview and Update presentation at the Embedded Linux Conference 2012 (US).

Samuel Otiz, software engineer at the Intel Open Source Technology Center, talks about NFC support for Linux at the Embedded Linux Conference Europe in , on November 5, 2012.

Abstract:

Linux recently gained support for NFC (Neard Field Communication), and this presentation will describe the status of the current NFC stack in terms of actual features, hardware support and also distribution availability.After showing how this stack is architectured, we will also explain what our long and short term plans are.

NFC hardware is typically found on mobile devices, many of them running Linux or Android. Up until recently, only Android provided a real and viable software support for those chipsets. During this presentation I will show how the Linux NFC stack is now getting on par with the Android stack features and API wise and how its design allows for an already broader range of supported chipsets.

Linux NFC Stack Architecture

The presentation is divided into  4 main sections:

• NFC basics
• NFC open source stacks  – Two Android stacks (libnfc-nxp, opennfc), as well as nfcpy and libnfc. All have shortcomings.
• The Linux NFC stack – HW independent, NFC for non-Android devices, open development process…
• One example – Personal Health Device Communication (PHDC)

You can also download the presentation slides, and visit https://www.01.org/linux-nfc for further details about the Linux NFC Stack.

Today was Intel & Qualcomm turns to have their keynotes. One of Intel announcements is the Atom Z2420 1.2 GHz processor (codenamed Lexington) that comes with PowerVR SGX540 GPU, 1080p video decoder & encoder, and features hyper-threading technology. This processor manufactured with 32nm process technology targets low cost smartphones for emerging markets.

Intel Atom Z2420 Block Diagram

Here are the key specifications of Intel Atom Z2420:

Intel Z2420 Smartphone Reference Design

• Process technology – 32nm HKMG
• Co-Pop Package – 12x12mm, 617 balls, 0.4mm pitch, LPDDR2 PoP package
• Intel Atom Architecture – 512KN Intel Smart Cache, Enhanced Deeper Sleep, C6/Low Power Audio State, Smart Idle Technology and Digital Thermal Sensor (DTS)
• 3D Graphics Engine – PowerVR Sgx540 with 2000 MPPS peak fil rate, 40 MTSm with support for Open VG 1.1, OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0
• Hardware Accelerated Video – 1080p30 video encode and decode
• Display Controller – Supports up to 4 DSI lanes at 800 Mbps per lane
• Memory Interface – Dual channel 32-bit LPDDR2 interface up to 1GB, 800 MT/s data rate.
• Image Signal Processor – 320 Mhz support up to 8MP primary camera and 1.3MP secondary camera.
• 6x I2C Controllers
• SPI Controllers – 2 master and 1 master/slave ports
• Keypad Controller – Up o 4 direct key inputs
• Intel Smart Sound Technology – Low-power programmable codec to decode/encode popular audio formats
• Flexible GPIO Configuration – Up to 89 GPIO

As was the case with Atom Z2460 processor last year, Intel also designed a reference smartphone for Z2420 in order to speed up time to market. The key features of this reference design include a 3.5″ display (480×320), full 1080p30 video encode and decode, XMM6265 HSPA+ modem (Up to 21Mbps), dual SIM card support, FM radio, microSD slot and Wireless Display (WiDi) support. They already have 3 partners (Acer, SafariCom and Lava) who will release a phone in Q1 2013.

Read Intel Atom Z2420 product brief to get more information.

Later this year, Clover Trail+ should be available for performance smartphones, and 22nm processors will come soon after for both performance and value smartphones.

In the rest of the mobile part of the keynote, they talked a little bit about Z2760 atom processor currently used in Windows RT tablet, and gave some info about “Bay Trail” a 22nm quad core processor for tablet, that should be available in Tablet for Q4 2013.

The other half of the presentation switched to Core processors, and later this year we should be able to get convertible ultrabooks with low power Core processors (Haswell 7W TDP) providing similar performance to current i3 to i7 processors. They showed some prototypes which can last 13 hours on a charge (Batteries in keyboard and screen), or about 10 hours when the screen is detached. The tablets are just about 1cm thick like ARM based tablets we are accustomed to.

You can watch the 48 minutes Intel CES 2012 keynote here.

One of my reader, Alex, pointed me to Ramos W32 Tablet, which appears to be the first Android tablet built around Intel Atom Z2460 (Medfield), although the processor has been unveiled in January 2011, and smartphones such as Lenovo K800  have been available for nearly half a year. I suppose the delay between tablets and smartphones releases is because whereas the first smartphones could be based on Android 2.3.x (gingerbread), tablets would have to use Android 4.0.x (ICS) or greater to have a proper large screen interface.

Ramos W32 Android 4.0.4 Tablet

Here are Ramos W32 Tablet PC specifications:

• SoC – Intel Atom Z2460 @ 1.6GHz with PowerVR SGX540 GPU
• System Memory – 1GB RAM
• Storage – 16GB Nand Flash, microSD card socket (Up to 32GB)
• Display – 10.1″ Capacitive Screen IPS Display (1280×800)
• Connectivity:
  • Bluetooth
  • WIFI 802.11 b/g/n
  • 3G via external 3G dongles such as E1916, ZTE AC2736, HUAWEI E1750, HUAWEI EC122, HUAWEI EM770W
• Camera – 1.3 MP front camera
• Video Containers – AVI/MOV/MP4/RMVB/FLV/MKV…
• Audio Codecs – MP3/WMA/WAV/APE/AAC/FLAC/OGG
• Audio I/O – 3.5mm earphone jack
• USB – 1x micro USB port
• Sensors – Gravity
• Battery -  5400mAh. About 6-7 hours on one charge
• Dimensions – 258.3 x 164 x 9.5mm
• Weight – 535g

The package also includes a charger, a USB cable, and a user’s manual in English, Russian, German and Spanish.

Intel Atom Z2460 is a single-core Saltwell processor running at 1.6 to 2.0 GHz with 512KB L2 cache and hyper-threading technology. This SoC also features an Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 540 GPU @ 400 MHz and hardware video decoder and encoder (up to 1080p).

Intel Atom Z2460 Block Diagram

Back in January 2012, reports showed very good performance and power consumption compared to existing solutions such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus based on OMAP4460, but time has passed, new SoCs have been released, and now that Z2460 is available in retail products it’s rather a mid-range solution. A video about a Ramos W32 sample uploaded in October shows Antutu 2.8.2 benchmark with a score of 5602. As a comparison, Rockchip RK3066 can achieve 8000 in Antutu 2.8. Of course, it’s possible the software has been improved since then, and that Antutu is not properly optimized for x86 processors. For those looking for faster performance, Intel has also recently released the new dual core Atom Z2760 with PowerVR SGX545, but it only appears to be used in Windows RT tablets for now.

Ramos W32 tablet is available for pre-order on Pandawill for $287.99, and will be available on the 8th of January 2013. Some shops on Aliexpress also offer it.