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

April 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

Rockchip RK3288 based Android Mini PCs and TV Boxes Are Starting to Show Up (Wholesale)

Rockchip RK3288 based devices should be available soon. At the end of last month, I read Pipo was about to introduce RK3288 Tablets at the Hong Kong electronics fair this month, and yesterday I’ve been informed some RK3288 mini PCs and TV Boxes had started to appear on Alibaba. RK3288 HDMI TV Dongle (D368) D368 mini PC is said to come with the following specs according to a product page on Alibaba: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex-A17 with Mali-T7xx 3D GPU (OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0,and OpenCL 1.1) System Memory – 2GB DDR3 (Optional:1GB) Storage – 8GB NAND Flash (Options: 4GB and 16GB), micro SD card (up to 32GB) Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4a (Resolution 4K and 1080p60 support) Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and 802.11ac, optional Bluetooth 4.0. Video Codecs Decode – H.265, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4,H.263, H.264, AVS, VC-1, RV, VP6/VP8, Sorenson Spark, MVC […]

April 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

$249 Nitrogen6 MAX Development Board Features Freescale i.MX6 Quad, 4GB RAM, mPCIe Connector, and More

There are now many low cost development boards based on Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex A9 processors with Wandboard, Sabre Lite, UDOO, Nitrogen6X among others, all selling for less than $200. Boundary devices, the company behind Nitrogen6X board, has made a new version called Nitrogen6 MAX that maxes out the RAM to 4GB, adds a full mPCIE slot, a dual channel LVDS connector, and 4GB on-board eMMC. Nitrogen6 MAX specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6Q quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor at 1GHz with Vivante GC2000 3D GPU System Memory – 4GB 64-bit DDR3 @ 532MHz Storage – 4GB eMMC, SATA connector, two micro SDHC card slots, 2MB Serial Flash Connectivity – 10/100/1G Ethernet, TiWi 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth BLE module Display Output – HDMI, 2x LVDS, Parallell RGB Audio I/O – HDMI, Analog (headphone/mic) audio and 2W amplified audio Camera I/F – Parallel camera port with OV5642 Interface, MIPI […]

April 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Raspberry Pi Compute Module is a $30 Raspberry Pi Compatible System-on-Module

Albeit the initial goal of the Raspberry Pi board was to address computer science education, it has become extremely popular with hobbyists, has made its way in many different kinds of hardware, and is now clearly the number 1 low cost ARM Linux development board. The Raspberry Pi foundation has then decided to design and sell a system-on-module called Raspberry Pi Compute that people can use in actual products. Since the module will be mostly software compatible with the original Raspberry Pi board, the specs are similar: SoC – Broadcom BCM2835 ARM 11 processor @ 700 MHz with Videocore IV GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash SoM Connector – DDR2 200-pins SODIMM Dimensions – 67.6x30mm board which fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector The main difference is they’ve replaced the SD card slot found in the board, by an eMMC module which is more […]

April 8, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 & 810 ARM Cortex A57/A53 SoCs

Qualcomm has already announced the Snapdragon 410, then Snapdragon 610 & 615, all three 64-bit SoCs featuring an ARM Cortex A53 targeting mid-range smartphones and tablets. Anandtech has reported that the company will launch their first 64-bit ARM SoCs for high-end devices in 2015. Snapdragon 808 and 810 will respectively feature 6 and 8 cores using 2 or 4 high performance Cortex A57 cores, and 4 low power Cortex A53 cores in big.LITTLE configuration. Both processor shares the same 9×35 core, LTE Category 6/7 integrated modem, an eMMC 5.0 interface, and be manufactured using 20nm process. Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994) will also come with an Adreno 430 GPU, support H.265 harware encode and decode, feature a dual 32-bit LPDDR4-1600 memory interface, and a 14-bit dual ISP camera interface. Snapdragon 808 (MSM8992) will have an Adreno 418 GPU, support H.265 hardware decode, feature a dual 32-bit LPDDR3-933 memory interface, and a 12-bit dual […]

April 8, 2014April 8, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

PIPO X1 (Beta) Android TV Dongle Powered by Rockchip RK3188 Sells for $40

PIPO X1 is an HDMI TV Stick running Android 4.2 with more or less the same specs (2GB RAM, 8 GB Flash) as many other competiting products, but with a price much lower at $39.99 including shipping. The company however mentions the product is still in beta version, which may explain why it’s so cheap… Let’s have a look anyway. Pipo X1 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.6GHz + Mali 400MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Video & Audio Output – HDMI Connectivity – Buil-int 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – USB 2.0 host + micro USB (for power) Dimensions – 100 x 40 x 8mm Weight – 30g The device ships with a micro USB cable. That means you’ll need to provide your own 5V/2A power adapter. The company also highlights […]

April 8, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Microsoft Announces Intel Shark Cove Windows Development Board

There are now plenty of affordable ARM based Android and Linux development board which you can use to develop apps that access hardware drivers, and a few Intel based ones have also started to pop-up such as Galileo and Minnowboard MAX. The problem, for Microsoft, is that none of them currently support Windows. You could always use a PC to develop Windows apps, but this may become a problem once you start dealing with embedded devices and want to access undiscoverable buses such as GPIOs, serial interfaces and so on, as PCs are also protected by secure boot which limits developing and testing third-party drivers. So Microsoft has decided to join the affordable development boards bandwagon, starting with Intel Shark Cove development board for Windows developers. There are very few technical details about the board, but we do know it will based on an Intel Atom processor, and provide access […]

April 4, 2014April 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

M8 Android TV Box Powered by AMLogic S802 (Unboxing)

Shenzhen Tomato Technology has send me a sample of their M8 Android TV Box based on the latest quad core AMLogic S802 processor which is said to run Android 4.4 Kitkat. In this post I’ll go through the specs, and show some pictures of the device, and internals. Later, I’ll write a full review with XBMC 13, which I’ve been told is pre-installed. I’ll also receive Tronsmart Vega S89 next week for unboxing and review. M8 Specifications M8 has more or less the same specs as other S802 Android TV boxes: SoC – AMLogic S802 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor @ 2GHz with Mali‐450MP6 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + SD card slot Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band Wi‐Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth Video Output – HDMI 1.4b, AV. HDMI supports 1080p, 4K2K 30fps Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Video Codecs and […]

April 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

MYIR MYD-AM335X Development Boards & MYC-AM335X CPU Modules

MYIR has recently introduced MYD-AM335X development boards and MYC-AM335X CPU modules powered by Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex A8 SoCs, (AM3352, AM3354, AM3356, AM3357, AM3358, and AM3359) that come with 512 MB RAM, 512 MB Flash, and a Gigabit Ethernet PHY. The boards and modules target home automation, industrial automation, enterprise/educational tablets, portable navigation devices and networking applications. MYC-AM335X CPU Modules MYC-AM335X CoM specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments AM3352, AM3354, AM3356, AM3357, AM3358, AM3359 ARM Cortex-A8 up to 1GHz with SGX530 GPU (AM3354/AM3358/AM3359 only) System Memory – 512MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 512MB NAND Flash Connectivity – On-board Gigabit Ethernet PHY Headers: 2x 2.0mm pitch 60-pin expansion connectors to connect the SoM to a baseboard with the following signals: 2x USB2.0 OTG ports, 6x Serial ports, 2x I2C, 1x SPI, 7x ADC, 2x PWM, 3x SDIO 1x 2.0mm pitch 26-pin expansion interface 1x 2.54mm pitch 10-pin expansion interface Misc – […]