Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Cypress PSoC 4100/4200 (ARM Cortex M0) Prototyping Kits Sell for $4

I just wrote about Cypress Semiconductor PSoC 4 ARM Cortex M0 MCUs last week, as well as their $25 PSoC 4 pioneer development board. I’ve just found out there are cheaper, albeit very basic, evaluation boards called PSoC 4100 Prototyping Kit (CY8CKIT-049-41xx) and PSoC 4200 Prototyping Kit (CY8CKIT-049-42xx) that sell for only $4. PSoC 4×000 boards specifications: MCU PSoC 4100 ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 24 MHz with up to 32 kB of flash, Up to 4 kB of SRAM PSoC 4200 ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 48 MHz with up to 32 kB of flash, Up to 4 kB of SRAM USB – USB port using CY7C65211 USB-serial controller for PC connectivity and serial interfaces such as USB-UART, USB-I2C, USB-SPI, and USB-GPIO Onboard CMOD capacitors to enable CapSense development A bypass capacitor to ensure the high quality ADC conversions Prototyping – Breadboard compatible through holes for access to power, GPIOs, UART, USB etc… Misc – User and power […]

June 9, 2014June 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

QNAP TS-x51 NAS Supports Up to 16 Drives, On-the fly HD Video Transcoding, HDMI Output, Virtualization and More

QNAP has introduced their latest TS-x51 NAS family at Computex 2014 with four NAS supporting between 2 to 8 drives, expandable to a total of 16 drives via expansion enclosures. The storage devices powered by an Intel Celeron J1800 dual core processor boast video transcoding capability that’s 18 times faster than earlier Atom based solutions, feature an HDMI port, and support virtualization to allow you to run two operating systems such as Linux and Windows 8. QNAP TS-x51 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J1800 dual core processor @ 2.41 GHz (burst frequency: 2.58) with Intel HD graphics System Memory – 1GB SO-DIMM DDR3L-1333 or 4GB SO-DIMM DDR3L-1333 (Each model listed above has 1GB or 4GB RAM options), expandable to 8GB RAM via a second RAM slot Storage 512 MB flash (DOM – Disk On Module) Hot swappable 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA drives @ 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s. Expansion enclosures – UX-800P, or UX-500P RAID […]

June 8, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

$37 Shenzhen Visson V5 Android TV Box Features AllWinner A20 SoC

If you’re looking for a low cost dual core Android or Linux TV box or mini server, it won’t get much cheaper than Shenzhen Visson V5 powered by AllWinner A20 dual Cortex A7 SoC with 512 MB RAM, 4GB flash, as well as various port such as HDMI, Ethernet, and USB. Shenzhen Visson V5 specifications: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1 GHz + Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 512 MB Storage – 4GB flash. Video & Audio Output – HDMI and AV Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n USB – 2x USB host ports Misc – IR receiver, power button Power Supply – 5V/2A According to the specifications on Aliexpress, there’s also a (micro?) SD card, but I can’t find it on any of the pictures, so it’s safe to assume there isn’t any. This Android 4.2.2 box ships with a remote control, a 5V/2A […]

June 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel Atom Z3580 MooreField SoC Shown to Outperform Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 in Graphics Benchmark

This is not exactly an independent benchmark, as Intel provided the results showing an Intel Atom Z3580 SoC with PowerVR G6430 @ 533 MHz outperform a Snapdragon 801 with Adreno 330 GPU @ 578 MHz (Galaxy S5) in FutureMark’s 3DMark benchmark by 20997 to 18144, or a little over 15%. We’ve seen several CPU benchmarks before where Intel often has a edge over ARM based solution, but the previous generation with Intel Graphics was a bit weak on the graphics side, and this test seems to confirm, the new Intel smartphone SoC should provide very good graphics performance. It appears Atom Z3580 might have also outperformed Snapdragon 805 with Adreno 420, as Anandtech reported an overall score of 19,698 in 3Dmarks with Qualcomm Snpadragon S805 mobile development platform (MDP), and noticed it was not the most GPU intensive test there is. So it’s still possible the higher score found on Intel’s […]

June 6, 2014June 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Google Unveils Project Tango Tablet Development Kit Powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC

Earlier this year, Google ATAP (Advanced Technology and Products) showcased project tango phone prototype, capable of generating 3D maps in real-time thanks to cameras, motion sensors, and two Movidius Myriad 1 Mobile Vision processors paired with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 application processor, and since March, they’ve already sent a few hundred samples to developers. Google has now announced another development kit, this time a tablet powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core SoC. Tango tablet has the following hardware specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 with Kepler GPU System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 128GB Display – 7″ screen Connectivity – WiFi, BlueTooth Low Energy, and 4G LTE Camera – 120 deg. wide angle front camera, 4MP rear camera, and motion tracking camera Sensors – Integrated depth sensing The tablet will run Google’s KitKat Android operating system, and support features such as OpenGL 4.4 thanks to the […]

June 6, 2014June 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AMD Introduces Embedded G-Series “Steppe Eagle” SoCs and “Crowned Eagle” CPUs

AMD has added six new members to is Embedded G-Series family with “Steppe Eagle” SoCs comprising a CPU, GPU and I/O in a single chip, and “Crowned Eagle” CPUs that are not actually CPUs in the old sense, but SoCs comprised of a CPU and I/O chipset, and all of them also include AMD’s ARM based PSP (Platform Security Processor) built upon ARM TrustZone architecture. You may also remember AMD G-Series APUs which are comprised of a CPU and GPU, and connected to an external I/O chipset, but none of these were announced today. The six new AMD G-Series processors are as follows: “Steppe Eagle” SoCs: GX-424CC – Quad core @ 2.4 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, and a GPU @ 497MHz. DDR3-1866 support. TDP: 25W GX-412HC – Quad core @ 1.2 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, ad a GPU @ 300MHz. DDR3-1333 support. TDP: 7W GX-212JC – Dual core @ 1.2 GHz […]

June 5, 2014June 5, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

First Tizen 3.0 Common Milestone Released, Developer Program Announced

The Tizen Steering Group has announced the first release of Tizen 3.0 Common. Tizen Common is the common subset of development / build / test platform of the Tizen profiles, used by platform developers to develop the next version of the profiles, and a Tizen 3.0 common release is planned every quarter. This milestone release includes: 64-bit support for both Intel and ARM architectures Crosswalk-based web runtime Multiuser support Systemd Security: three-domain rule system for SMACK and Cynara as authorization framework Wayland display server Pre-built binary releases for can be downloaded @ http://download.tizen.org/releases/daily/tizen/common/common-wayland-x86_64/tizen_20140602.26/ for Intel Atom 3815 NUC Kit and NEXCOM VTC1010 in-vehicle computer based on Intel Atom 3825. However, Tizen 3.0 Common will also be tested on Intel NUC Haswell (core i5), Lenovo x230 IvyBridge (core i5) and on the ARM side, ODROID-U3 development board. If you want to build your own, refer to the developer guide, using tizen_common_2014.Q2 tag. More details can be found […]

June 5, 2014June 5, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

EzeeCube is a Modular XBMC Media Hub with Up to 9TB Storage (Crowdfunding)

EzeeCube is a media hub that automatically synchronizes photos, videos and contacts from your iOS and Android phones or tablets. The hardware is based on Freescale i.MX6 Dual SoC, includes a 1 TB hard drive upgradable to 9TB with 4 extra drives, can be upgraded with hardware modules, and runs a custom version of XBMC on top of Linux built with the Yocto Project. EzeeCube specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX6 Dual with two ARM Cortex A9 cores @ 1 GHz and Vivante 3D GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 @ 1066MHz Storage – 4GB eMMC, 1TB 2.5″ hard drive @ 5400rpm, and SD/SDXC card slot Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi (2.4GHz), and Bluetooth 3.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with CEC support Audio Output – HDMI and optical S/PDIF Video Containers – AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, FLV, MKV/MKA, QuickTime, MP4, M4A, AAC, NUT, OGG, RealMedia RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMV8, OGM, 3gp, VIVO, […]