Posted on - 10 Comments on Hailstorm Device Scaling Program To Enable Netflix Support on Amlogic and HiSilicon TV Boxes

Hailstorm Device Scaling Program To Enable Netflix Support on Amlogic and HiSilicon TV Boxes

Netflix Hailstorm Partners

If you’ve ever bought a random TV box you may have found out Netflix does not always work optimally, for example, HD or 4K UHD may not be available due to the lack of DRM, and/or Netflix certification even if you’re paying extra for the service. So you need to make sure you get a certified device and there aren’t that many. But thanks to Netflix Hailstorm – a program aiming at scaling the number of device officially supporting Netflix – we should see more and more TV box running Android TV with full Netflix support. I found about the Hailstorm program via an Amlogic press release, but the photo above shows some TV boxes based on HiSilicon processors will also be supported, and TV boxes manufacturers such as SDMC, Skyworth, and Himedia have joined the program. Amlogic explains they have now achieved pre-certification for its Android TV set top box (STB) reference solutions, and various Asia-Pacific (APAC) operators have …

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Posted on - 19 Comments on Compact Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ Launched for $25

Compact Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ Launched for $25

Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+

The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is likely the most popular maker board available today at $35, but it just got a little brother – Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ – that should also enjoy good popularity with a $25 price tag. The new model features the same BCM2837B0 quad core processor @ 1.4 GHz, and dual band WIFI connectivity, just in a smaller form factor. Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2837B0 64-bit ARMv8 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.4GHz with dual core VideoCore IV GPU System Memory – 512MB LPDDR2 Storage – micro SD slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 and 4-pole stereo audio and composite video port Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2 LE (via Cypress CYW43455 based module) USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port for power Expansion 40-pin GPIO header MIPI DSI for Raspberry Pi touch screen display MIPI CSI for Raspberry Pi camera …

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Posted on - 1 Comment on Arduino PRO Gateway for LoRa Features Raspberry Pi 3 Board

Arduino PRO Gateway for LoRa Features Raspberry Pi 3 Board

Arduino Pro Gateway for LoRa

Arduino has just introduced the Arduino PRO Gateway for LoRa based on Raspberry Pi 3 development board, a LoRa gateway mPCIe module, and a metal enclosure. The strange thing about this product is that it does not feature any Arduino MCU, so why did Arduino design it? That’s because it works as a LoRa gateway for their Arduino MKR WAN 1300 IoT nodes. The gateway is sold as a kit with a LoRa gateway Embit EMB-LR1301-mPCIe card with SX1301 baseband chipset, an adapter for Raspberry Pi, an aluminum enclosure, a Raspberry Pi 3 model B+, a 5V power supply, an Ethernet cable, and an external antenna. Specifications for the LoRa part of the gateway: Chipset – Semtech SX1301 Modulation – LoRa Spread Spectrum, FSK, GFSK 868MHz (EU) / 915MHz (US) Number of Channels – 8 LoRa Channels Operating Frequency – 868MHz (EU) / 915MHz (US) Frequency Range – 860MHz to 1020MHz Operating Temperature – -40°C to +85°C RF Output Power – Up …

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Posted on - 5 Comments on MAIX Development Boards with Sipeed M1 RISC-V AI Module Launched for $5 and Up (Crowdfunding)

MAIX Development Boards with Sipeed M1 RISC-V AI Module Launched for $5 and Up (Crowdfunding)

MAIX GO Board

Sipeed M1 (aka MAIX-I)is a compact module based on Kendryte K210 dual core RISC-V processor designed for low power artificial intelligence workloads at the edge, such as face detection, object recognition, or audio processing. The module and some development boards are available on Taobao for the Chinese market, as well as YOYCart for the rest of the world, but the company has now launched several MAIX boards based on M1 module through an Indiegogo campaign with price starting at just $5 a piece. Sipeed MAIX Bit (aka MAIX Micro) is the cheapest one at $5 (early bird) / $6 with the following specifications: SoC – Kendryte K210 dual core 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 400 MHz (overclockable up to 800 MHz) with KPU CNN hardware accelerator APU audio hardware accelerator with support for up to 8 mics, up to 192 KHz sample rate FPIOA (Field Programmable IO Array) mapping 255 functions to all 48 GPIOs on the chip. 8 MB general purpose …

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Posted on - 4 Comments on Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 with Myriad X VPU Finally Announced

Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 with Myriad X VPU Finally Announced

Intel Neural Compute Stick 2

Intel Neural Compute Stick was first introduced in early 2017 as a USB compute that allows AI inference at the edge with low power consumption. The stick is based on Myriad Movidius 2 VPU (Vision Processing Unit), and was found to significantly improve inference performance on Raspberry Pi 3 board over a proprietary GPU accelerated solution. However, a little later last year, Intel also announced Movidius Myriad X VPU with claims of up to 10 times DNN performance over Myriad 2 VPU. But so far, we would only see solutions launched with the latter, and it looks like Intel is finally ready to bring Myriad X VPU to the market with the company announcing Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 at Intel’s artificial intelligence (AI) developer conference in Beijing taking place on November 14 and 15. Intel NCS 2 (Neural Compute Stick 2) specifications: Processor – Intel Movidius Myriad X Vision Processing Unit (VPU) with 16 SHAVE cores (128-bit VLIW Vector Processors) …

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Posted on - 1 Comment on Intel RealSense D435i Stereo Depth Camera Supports 6 Degrees of Freedom Tracking

Intel RealSense D435i Stereo Depth Camera Supports 6 Degrees of Freedom Tracking

RealSense D435i Camera

First unveiled in CES 2014, Intel RealSense Technology was introduced for perceptual computing application with hardware such as 3D sensing cameras, as well Nuance Dragon Assistant voice technology. Since then the company release various 3D sensing camera models and kits such as Realsense R200 Depth Camera robotics development kit, and just announced the new RealSense D435i stereo depth camera which adds 6 DoF (Degrees of Freedom) tracking over D435 model thanks to an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Intel RealSense Depth Camera D435i key features and specifications: Intel RealSense Vision Processor D4 – Purpose-built ASIC designed to deliver stereo depth data at up to 90fps at VGA resolutions or up to 1280×720 resolution at 30fps Intel RealSense module D430 – Depth camera imaging sub-system featuring a wide field of view (91.2 horizontal x 65.5 degrees vertical), global shutter stereo image sensors and an IR projector Depth Technology – Active IR stereo Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Image Sensor Technology – Global Shutter; …

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Posted on - 6 Comments on Giveaway Week Winners – November 2018

Giveaway Week Winners – November 2018

We just had a week of fun on CNX Software with our yearly “Giveaway Week” activity where 7 prizes – from development boards to Raspberry Pi add-on boards or solar chargers – were randomly given away to people who entered by leaving a comment. The winners are in, with Asia starting strong, but Europe quickly taking the lead, and the US ending up the giveaway with a great (again) finish. Here’s the full list of winners: Videostrong VS-RD-RK3399 development board – Việt trần, VIETNAM CHOETECH Solar Charger – Erki, ESTONIA ESP32-LyraTD-MSC audio mic HDK – Ron, The Netherlands ROC-RK3328-CC development board – Dainis, LATVIA (a second time winner having previously won during Giveaway Week 2016) ThaiEasyElec 3G GPS Raspberry Pi Hat – zmlopez, SPAIN ANAVI Infrared and RGB strip pHAT – Joe, USA NanoPC-T4 development board – Jeffrey, USA I’ve just send all 7 packages earlier this afternoon. Hopefully, the winners will received their prize before Xmas and have fun …

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Posted on - 12 Comments on Samsung Exynos 9820 Application Processor Supports 2 Gbps LTE, 8K Videos, UFS 3.0 Storage

Samsung Exynos 9820 Application Processor Supports 2 Gbps LTE, 8K Videos, UFS 3.0 Storage

Exynos 9820

Samsung has just unveiled a new high-end Exynos processor that comes with an enhanced NPU (Neural Processing Unit), and an LTE Advanced Pro modem supporting 2.0 Gbps downloads. Exynos 9820 is a tri-cluster octa-core processor with two custom Arm cores, two Cortex-A75 cores, and four Cortex-A55 cores coupled with an Arm Mali-G76 MP12, and manufactured using Samsung’s latest 8nm LPP FinFET process, which reduces power consumption by up to 10 percent compared to 10nm LPP process. Samsung Exynos 9820 key features and specifications: CPU – Dual-core custom CPU +  dual-core Cortex-A75 + quad-core Cortex-A55 GPU – ARM Mali-G76 MP12 Integrated NPU Memory I/F – LPDDR4x Storage I/F – UFS 3.0, UFS 2.1 Display – WQUXGA (3840×2400), 4K UHD (4096×2160) Cellular Connectivity LTE Modem – LTE-Advanced Pro Cat.20 8CA 2Gbps (DL) / Cat.20 3CA 316Mbps (UL) 4×4 Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO), 256-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), and Enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA) technology. Camera – Up to 22MP rear camera, up to 22MP front-facing …

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