Posted on - 4 Comments on Android 8.1 Firmware and SDK Released for Orange Pi 4G-IoT Board

Android 8.1 Firmware and SDK Released for Orange Pi 4G-IoT Board

Orange-Pi-4G-IoT-Android-8.1

When Orange Pi 4G-IoT board launched a few months ago, it shipped with a not so recent Android 6.0 operating system. But the good news is that Shenzhen Xunlong Software has now released Android 8.1 firmware for their Mediatek MT6737M quad core Cortex A53 LTE Cat 4 board, as well as the corresponding SDK. This makes it the cheapest Android 8.1 board with LTE connectivity available on the market so far as it goes for just under $50. The SDK is a large tarball (22.6 GB) split into 11 smaller files. It’s hosted on MEGA so download is fairly fast, but due to the size I had to install MEGA Sync software in order to download it easily. Once the download is complete, it’s not recognized in Nautilus, but you can extract the SDK as follows in a terminal:

This will take a while and extract over a million files for a total of 64.8 GB. We can now …

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Posted on - 11 Comments on Beelink S2 Gemini Lake Mini PC Comes with an Intel Pentium N5000 Silver Processor, 8GB RAM, a 128GB SSD

Beelink S2 Gemini Lake Mini PC Comes with an Intel Pentium N5000 Silver Processor, 8GB RAM, a 128GB SSD

Gemini Lake 8GB RAM

I’ve written about Beelink S2 mini PC based on Intel Celeron N4100 Gemini Lake processor several times, simply because the motherboard appears to be used in other OEM models including Alfawise T1 and CHUWI GBox among others. However, all models I covered so far only came with 4 GB RAM, and 64GB storage, and Intel Celeron N4100 processor, so if you need something with more memory and storage, as well as a faster processor GeekBuying is now taking orders for Beelink S2 with Intel Pentium N5000, 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Price: $299.99 including shipping. Specifications of the model offered on GeekBuying: SoC – Intel Celeron N5000 quad core processor up to 2.7 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 605; 6W TDP System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 128GB SSD, 2.5″ SATA bay, micro SD card Video Output –  2x HDMI 2.0 ports Audio – Via HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 …

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Posted on - No Comments on ESP8266 based ANAVI Light Controller can be Programmed with Home Assistant or the Arduino IDE (Crowdfunding)

ESP8266 based ANAVI Light Controller can be Programmed with Home Assistant or the Arduino IDE (Crowdfunding)

ANAVI Technology previously launched a Light pHAT allowing for RGB Light strip connection to Raspberry Pi boards, and during my review of ANAVI Light pHAT with Raspberry Pi 2, it did the job, but if that’s all you want to do, the  Raspberry Pi board is clearly oversized & overpowered for the job. So Leon ANAVI got back to the drawing board and designed a similar open source hardware board – called ANAVI Light Controller – with an built-in ESP8266 module that removes the need for a fully fledged Linux board. ANAVI Light Controller specifications: Wireless Module – ESP8266MOD module based on ESP8266 Tensilica L106 32-bit processor Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Expansion Terminal block for 12 V RGB LED strip 3x I2C headers for sensors Debugging – UART header Misc – Button Power Supply – 12 V via power barrel jack Dimensions – 75 mm x 40 mm Certification – Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) BG000005 The board can …

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Posted on - 5 Comments on Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 Brings AI To Mid-Range Smartphones

Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 Brings AI To Mid-Range Smartphones

Qualcomm Snapdragon 710

Neural processing units (NPU) – also called Neural network accelerators (NNA) – can now be found in all premium smartphone SoCs in order to assist with artificial intelligence applications such as object recognition, face unlock, and better photography. There seems to be a trend now to add such AI accelerators into what some refers to as mid-range premium smartphones, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 mobile platform is another of those processors placing itself between mid range Snapdragon 600 series and premium Snapdragon 800 series. Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 mobile platform (SDM710) specifications: CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 360 CPU @ up to 2.2 GHz (in two clusters) GPU – Qualcomm Adreno 616 Visual Processing Subsystem supporting  OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan, DirectX 12 DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon 685 DSP with 3rd Gen Qualcomm Hexagon Vector Extensions (HVX),  Qualcomm All-Ways Aware Sensor Hub Memory I/F – LPDDR4x, 2x 16-bit up to 1866MHz, 8GB RAM Storage I/F – No info provided Display – Up …

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Posted on - 17 Comments on FriendlyELEC Launches a Rockchip RK3399 SBC for $129. Meet NanoPC-T4

FriendlyELEC Launches a Rockchip RK3399 SBC for $129. Meet NanoPC-T4

Earlier this year, we have a number of SBCs based on Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor from Orange Pi RK3399 to ODROID-N1, or Pine64 RockPro64 boards. FriendlyELEC has joined the fray with their NanoPC-T4, which they claim is the  the smallest RK3399 based high-performance ARM board. The SBC comes with 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash,  dual-band WiFi module and an  M.2 PCIe interface with  NVME SSD support. NanoPC-T4 board specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa core big.LITTLE processor with two Arm Cortex-A72 cores up to 2.0GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5GHz, and a Mali-T864 GPU withsupport for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC System Memory – 4GB dual channel LPDDR3 Storage –  16GB eMMC 5.1 flash, M.2 slot for NVMe SSD,  1x microSD slot Display / Video Output HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60Hz withHDCP 1.4/2.2 DisplayPort 1.2 Alt Mode on USB Type-C LCD I/F – 1x eDP 1.3（4 lane，10.8Gbps）, 1x 4-Lane MIPI-DSI Video – 4K VP9 and …

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Posted on - No Comments on A Closer Look at Mediatek MT8516 Cortex A35 SoM / Devkit for Android Things

A Closer Look at Mediatek MT8516 Cortex A35 SoM / Devkit for Android Things

Mediatek-MT8516-SoM

Earlier this month, Google released Android Things 1.0, the first stable release for the IoT operating system, and announced several certified SoMs (systems-on-module) based on NXP i.MX 8M, Qualcomm SDA212 & SDA624, and MediaTek MT8516 SoCs. However at the time, beside some information about the processor itself, there was not many details about MT8516 system-on-module. Since then, MediaTek wrote a blog post about their Cortex A35 solution for Android Things & Google Assistant, so let’s have a look. First the MT8516 SoM is not exactly what I had expected, but instead a complete single board computer, and this is why they call it virtual SoM (vSOM). Google defines the latter as reference design provided by the chip vendors and certified by Google. Mediatek MT8516 quad core Cortex A35 vSoM / development board specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT8516 quad core Cortex A35 processor without GPU System Memory – 4Gbit (512MB) DDR3L Storage – 4GB eMMC flash Connectivity – 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO …

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Posted on - 2 Comments on $240 CHUWI GBox Mini PC Offers HDMI and VGA Outputs, a Quad Core Gemini Lake Processor

$240 CHUWI GBox Mini PC Offers HDMI and VGA Outputs, a Quad Core Gemini Lake Processor

CHUWI-GBox

Another day, another Gemini Lake mini PC, with CHUWI GBox which has just been listed on GearBest for pre-order for $239.99 plus shipping. The device features Intel Celeron N4100 quad core processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, a slot for 2.5″ SATA drives or/and an M.2 SSD, HDMI and VGA video output ports, and more. CHUWI GBox Specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad core processor up to 2.4 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 600; 6W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash + 32GB SSD, 2.5″ SATA bay, micro SD card up to 256GB Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x VGA Audio – Via HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB type C port Misc – Power button and LED, reset pinhole Power Supply – 12V/3A DC The company shows Windows and Linux as supported operating …

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Posted on - 1 Comment on MediaTek Helio P22 SoC for “Mid Range Premium” Smartphones Relies on 12nm Manufacturing Process

MediaTek Helio P22 SoC for “Mid Range Premium” Smartphones Relies on 12nm Manufacturing Process

MediaTek already has plenty of Arm Cortex A53 processors in their portfolio, but with MediaTek Helio P22 they’ve now added another one. One of the selling point of the new processor is that it is manufactured using a 12nm manufacturing process, just like the recently announced Helio P60 SoC, which better performance for the similar power consumption thanks to a higher CPU clock (2.0 GHz). MediaTek Helio P22 specifications: Processor – 8x Arm Cortex A53 @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Imagination PowerVR GE8320 GPU @ up to 650MHz System Memory – Up to 4GB LPDDR3 @ 933MHz, up to 6GB LPDDR4x @ 1600 MHz Storage I/F – eMMC 5.1 Connectivity Cellular Technologies – Carrier Aggregation (CA), CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev. A (SRLTE), FDD / TDD LTE, HSPA + Specific Functions -TAS 2.0, HUPE, IMS (VoLTE\ViLTE\WoWi-Fi), eMBMS, Dual 4G VoLTE (DSDS), Band 71 LTE Category – Cat-4, Cat-7 DL / Cat-13 UL GNSS – Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, GPS 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFI Bluetooth 5.0 FM Radio Display – …

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