Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Khadas VIM3 SBC Launched with Amlogic A311D Processor, 5 TOPS NPU

Khadas VIM3 SBC Launched with Amlogic A311D Processor, 5 TOPS NPU

Khadas VIM3 Amlogic-A311D SBC

We’ve previously written about Khadas VIM3 Amlogic S922X development board and revealed the price tag for VIM3 Basic ($69.99) and VIM3 Pro ($99.99) with a launch date announced for June 24. As time has passed, this has become “fake news” except for the launch date, as Khadas VIM3 SBC has indeed launched but for $99.99 (Basic) and $139.99 (Pro). What’s going on? Why the large price increase? That’s because Khadas team has decided to provide a more powerful platform to the community, and replace Amlogic S922X processor with Amlogic A311D processor boasting higher clock speeds and a 5.0 TOPS NPU. Another version may also become available later on with the soon-to-be-released Amlogic S922X-B processor whose Cortex-A73 cores are clocked at up to 2.2 GHz, instead of 1.7 GHz for the original Amlogic S922X processor that will be referred to Amlogic S922X-A in the future. New Khadas VIM3 SBC specifications: SoC – Amlogic A311D hexa-core processor with 4x Arm Cortex-A73 cores …

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Posted on by Stephen Vicinanza - 1 Comment on PanGu Board an SBC Based on the STM32MP1 Processor

PanGu Board an SBC Based on the STM32MP1 Processor

PanGu Board

The PanGu Board is a single board computer (SBC) that is feature-rich and versatile, at an affordable price point. The board powered by STMicroelectronics STM32MP1 processor was released in February of 2019 and hadn’t really made much a splash in the pool of microprocessors available at the time. The processor is now the main feature of the PanGu Board, an SBC with a host of features and utilizing the Arm dual-core Cortex–A7 MPU and the Cortex-M4 coprocessor to allow for more enhanced multimedia ability and all the heavy real-time processing that users are calling for today. Hardware Features MPU Dual Cortex-A7, 650MHz Cortex-M4, 209Mhz 3D GPU Flash & Memory 16-bit DDR3L, up to 1GByte 8-bit eMMC Flash Quad-SPI NOR Flash Supports Micro SD Audio 3.5mm stereo headphone jack support microphone input Display Parallel RGB LCD interface, the resolution up to WXGA (1366×768) MIPI DSI interface Support for resistive and capacitive touch panel HDMI Type A connector includes audio output USB …

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments on Raspberry Pi 4 Benchmarks & Mini Review

Raspberry Pi 4 Benchmarks & Mini Review

Raspberry Pi 4 Review

Raspberry Pi 4 has just been released with many improvements over Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ including a faster processor, a proper Gigabit Ethernet port, USB 3.0 interfaces, and 4K video support. That’s the theory, but how does it work in practice? I can now let you know as I’ve received a Raspberry Pi 4 sample courtesy of Cytron, and ran some tests and benchmarks on the very latest boards from the Raspberry Pi foundation. System Info Before starting with the benchmarks, let’s go through some basic system info: For reference, you’ll find Raspberry Pi 4 Linux boot log here. Phoronix benchmarks Let’s go ahead and install the latest version of Phoronix benchmarks: Now let’s run the test to compare the performance of Raspberry Pi 4 model B to some other Arm Linux boards including Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. For reference, my office has an ambient temperature of around 28 to 30°C, and I’ve monitored the CPU temperature with …

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Raspberry Pi 4 vs Pi 3 – What are the differences?

Raspberry Pi 4 vs Pi 3 – What are the differences?

Raspberry Pi 4 vs Pi 3 B+

So now that the Raspberry Pi 4 model B has just been launched, it may be worth checking out the differences against the previous latest single board computer from the Raspberry Pi foundation, namely Raspberry Pi 3 model B+. Let’s get straight to the Raspberry Pi 4 vs Pi 3 B+ comparison table. Features/Specs Raspberry Pi 4B Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Release date 24th June 2019 14th March 2018 SoC Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 @ 1.5 GHz Broadcom BCM2837B0 quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.4 GHz GPU VideoCore VI with OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 VideoCore IV with OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 Video Decode H.265 4Kp60, H.264 1080p60 H.264 & MPEG-4 1080p30 Video Encode H.264 1080p30 Memory 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB LPDDR4 1GB LPDDR2 Storage microSD card Video & Audio Output 2x micro HDMI ports up to 4Kp60 3.5mm AV port (composite + audio) MIPI DSI connector 1x HDMI 1.4 port up to 1080p60 3.5mm AV port (composite + audio) MIPI DSI …

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 129 Comments on Raspberry Pi 4 Features Broadcom BCM2711 Processor, Up to 4GB RAM

Raspberry Pi 4 Features Broadcom BCM2711 Processor, Up to 4GB RAM

Raspberry Pi 4 SBC

Long expected, the Raspberry Pi 4 model B has finally launched, and it should not disappoint with a much more powerful Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor clocked at up to 1.5 GHz, 1 to 4GB LPDDR4, 4K H.265 video decoding and output support, a proper Gigabit Ethernet port, as well as USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. Raspberry Pi 4 comes with all those extra features, but the form factor remains the same, and importantly the price is still $35 for the version with 1GB RAM, making Raspberry Pi alternatives suddenly much less interesting. Raspberry Pi 4 specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARMv8) @  1.5GHz with VideoCore VI GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics System Memory – 1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – microSD card slot Video Output  & Display I/F 2x micro HDMI ports up to 4Kp60 (Currently 1080p60 max. in dual-display configuration, although 2x 4Kp30 is being worked on) 3.5mm AV port with composite video (and …

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on ODROID-H2 Rev B Review – Part 1: Kit Unboxing and Assembly

ODROID-H2 Rev B Review – Part 1: Kit Unboxing and Assembly

ODROID-H2 Case Type 3 Assembled

ODROID-H2 was announced in October 2018 as the first x86 SBC from Hardkernel. The board features an Intel Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake processor, two SO-DIMM slots for memory, two SATA ports and M.2 NVMe slot for storage, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a mix of USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, as well as HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs. The board went for sale the following month for $111, and the first batch of 2,000 boards was sold within 24 hours. In normal cases, this should not be a big problem, and in a few weeks, the company should have been able to produce more boards to fulfill the demand. But Intel decided to prioritize higher-end processors, and Gemini Lake SoCs’ manufacturing was put on the back foot. That means Hardkernel had to wait over 6 months to get supply of the Celeron J4150 processors. In the meantime, the company slightly redesign the board, now called ODROID-H2 Rev B, and the good …

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Posted on by Stephen Vicinanza - 5 Comments on Google to Roll Out RCS App as an Alternative to SMS

Google to Roll Out RCS App as an Alternative to SMS

The Rich Communication Services (RCS) is a messaging platform that allows messaging from carrier to carrier and between phone and carrier, that is positioned to replace SMS but has had its share of pushback from the communication industry. The service has been around for a long time but had very little noteworthy attention since its inception in 2007.  Named the GSM Association in 2008, there were many upgrades, but three years after the GSMA formed the steering committee to oversee the project, the project platform was named Rich Communication Services and now called simply RCS. Between 2007 and the present there have been many versions of the RCS platform, and Google stepped in in 2010 and has been helping with updates right up into its announcement that it would be offering an opt-in version of the platform on all Android devices this month, June 2019, called RCS Chat. The advantages and features offered by RCS are group chat, chat, capability discovery, …

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Create Minimal Debian Upstream Images with Debos and Armbian

Create Minimal Debian Upstream Images with Debos and Armbian

Debos Armbian Debian Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5

Armbian provides lightweight Debian or Ubuntu images for various Arm Linux SBC, and over the years has become the recommended source for stable firmware images for boards part of Orange Pi & Banana Pi families, and others. Uncompressed images are still over 1GB and come with Armbian-specific tools, kernel and bootloader. If you’d like to leverage Armbian images, but instead create a Debian upstream image with only the packages you intend to use, Collabora explains how to do just that with Orange Pi Zero +2 H5 and Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC (aka Le Potato) boards using Debos Debian OS builder. I’ve decided to give a try at the instructions for Orange Pi Zero Plus2 H5 in my laptop running Ubuntu 18.04 to better understand how this all works. I’ll assume you’ve already installed Docker, and made sure you’ve got it working as a non-root user, so we can install Debos as follows: Configuration for Debos is made through a YAML files. …

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