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

January 15, 2014February 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Building a Low Power Fanless Intel “Bay Trail-D” mini PC for $250

Yesterday, I wrote about MSI J1800i, a motherboard based on Intel Celeron J1800 “Bay Trail-D” processor with 10W TDP, that is expected to sell for $60 by the end of the month. I’m sure some fully assembled fanless small form factor computers based on Bay Trail-D processor will eventually show up, but I’ve decided to find out what would be needed to build a complete fanless PC with this mini-ITX motherboard, and how much it would cost. First we’ll need a mini-ITX enclosure with a fanless PSU. I’ve found M350 Universal Mini-ITX enclosure (pictured above) coupled with picoPSU-80 80W picoPSU-90 90W 12V fanless power supply, and a 12V 60W AC-AC power adapter would probably fit the bill. The mini-ITX casing and power adapter are available from E-ITX.com, and the picoPSU power supply can be found on Amazon. I’ll also add a 1TB SATA HDD, and a 4GB SO-DIMM DDR3 memory […]

January 14, 2014May 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Radxa Rock and ODROID-U3 Quad Core Development Boards Comparison

If you want a quad core development board for less than $100, you only have two choices right now: Radxa Rock powered by Rockchip RK3188, and Hardkernel ODROID-U3 powered by Samsung Exynos 4412 prime. There are also a few Freescale i.MX 6Q boards such as Wandboard Quad and UDOO Quad for around $130 which you could consider because of potentially better software support and features like SATA, but in this post, I’ll compare Radxa Rock and ODROID-U3 to help you decide which one may be right for your application or project. Let’s get right to the subject, with a side-by-side comparison table. Radxa Rock Hardkernel ODROID-U3 Comments Processor Rockchip RK3188 ARM Cortex-A9 quad core @ 1.6Ghz Samsung Exynos 4412 Prime quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.7 Ghz Slight advantage for ODROID-U3, but it’s basically a draw. GPU ARM Mali-400 MP4 GPU ARM Mali-400MP4 GPU @ 440MHz Same GPU, that’s a […]

January 14, 2014January 14, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

eConais WiSmart EC19D is an 8x8mm Wi-Fi Module for the Internet of Things

eConais, a company specializing in ultra low power embedded Wi-Fi modules, has recently announced WiSmart EC19D Wi-Fi module which it claims to be “the world’s smallest, most easily integrated, and lowest standby power single chip 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi System In Package (SiP) modules for the Internet of Things”. This Wi-Fi module comes with the following features: Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n,Wi-Fi Direct, WPS, Wi-Fi Client Mode, Wi-Fi SoftAP Mode Security – WPA/WPA2 support ProbMe Configuration – Proprietary configuration method which enables any Wi-Fi device to configure the EC19D module without the need of any application Protocol – TCP/UDP sockets, HTTPS/SSL, DHCP Client/Server MCU I/F – Serial Cloud Service Support (Xively) Concurrent DLNA Renderer & Server (Q1 2014) OTA FW Upgrade (Q1 2014) Dimensions – 8x8mm Certifications – FCC, IC, and EC There’s no data about standby power consumption, so it’s difficult to verify the company claim, however at 8x8mm, it could well […]

January 14, 2014January 15, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

$60 MSI J1800i Motherboard Features 10W Intel Celeron “Bay Trail” Processor

We’ve now got plenty of low cost and low power ARM based boards and devices, but Intel is not sitting by idly, and in recent years they’ve worked to greatly reduce the power consumption of some of their processors, and relatively low power, cost effective Intel based motherboards will be available later this year. For example, MSI J1800i will be based on Intel Celeron J1800 dual core Bay Trail processor with 10W TDP, 64-bit support, and cost around $60 when it becomes available end of January or in February. Here are some of the specifications of this motherboard: SoC – Intel Celeron J1800i dual core @ 2.41 with integrated Intel HD graphics System Memory – 2x DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM slots (Up to 8GB) Storage – 2x Serial ATA 3Gbps ports Video Output – HDMI, VGA, and DVI Connectivity – 1x Ethernet USB – 2x USB 3.0 host ports, 4x USB 2.0 […]

January 13, 2014January 13, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Tegra K1 based Devices Could be Just as Fast as Mid Range Intel Core i5 Laptops

Some benchmark results comparing Nvidia Tegra K1 reference tablet to Intel based laptops show the latest ARM SoC matches and even outperforms many Intel devices, at least when it comes to 3D performance thanks to the 192-core Kepler GPU found in Tegra K1. In T-Rex HD Offscreen test in GFXBench 2.7.5, Tegra K1 is hown to be about 4 times faster than Tegra 4, over twice as fast as Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, and interestingly it outperforms some Intel laptop such as Acer Aspire V5-573G powered by an Intel Core i5 4200U processor with HD Graphics 4200 GPU. It’s still twice as slow as a machine with an Intel Core i7-4000MQ and Geforce GT 740M. CPU performance will probably be equivalent to some Intel Core i3 machine however, at least for the quad core ARM Cortex 15 version, but that still probably means it’s very likely we’ll find computers and laptops […]

January 13, 2014January 13, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Raxda Rock Development Board Unboxing, Quick Start Guide, and Benchmarks

Radxa Rock is an Android & Linux development board based on Rockchip RK3188 with 2GB RAM, 8GB NAND Flash, several I/Os that’s been available in beta version to a small number of developers in September 2013, with general availability starting at the very end of December 2013. Radxa team has sent me a board for me to try out. I’ll start with some unboxing pictures, write a Quick Start Guide for the first boot with Android 4.2.2, and run some benchmarks on the board. In another post, I’ll try some of the instructions to build Android and Ubuntu for the platform. Radxa Rock Unboxing Pictures & Video I’ve received the board in the following package via Fedex. Beside the board, we’ve got a Wi-Fi antenna, a USB power cable, and a plastic casing. Checkout Radxa Rock unboxing video below, if you want to find out exactly what’s you get when […]

January 13, 2014January 13, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

CES 2014 Keynotes and Linux Conference Australia 2014 Videos

The Consumer Electronics Show and LinuxConf Australia are completely different events, the former targets consumers and takes place in the US, and the latter is for Linux users, developers & systems administrators, and occurs in Australia. However, both happened at the same time this year, and video recording for CES 2014 keynotes, and LinuxConf Australia 2014 (LCA 2014) sessions for both events are now available. CES 2014 Keynote videos While the event took place, it was quite difficult, and sometimes just impossible, to find videos of the keynotes, either live or recordings, and I could only watch Intel, Nvidia, Samsung, and Sony keynotes at the time. I’ve been informed that at least some of CES 2014 keynote videos are now available online. I can access 9 videos from Intel, Yahoo, Audi, Cisco, Sony, etc… Thanks to Csilie for the link. Linux Conference Australia 2014 LCA 2014 took place on […]

January 10, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 51 Comments

A80 OptimusBoard Features AllWinner Octa-Core big.LITTLE SoC

Allwinner is currently at CES 2014 showcasing their latest Octa-core A80 SoC, and corresponding development board, the A80 OptimusBoard. Apart from the picture below, there were very little details for the initial announcement, but we now know, the board comes with 2 GB RAM, 8 GB NAND flash, and other features of the board, as well as the company behind the GPU in AllWinner A80. A80 OptimusBoard specifications: SoC – AllWinner Ultra Core A80 4x Cortex 15, 4x Cortex A7 big.LITTLE processor with an unnamed Imagination Technologies PowerVR GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND Flash Video Output – HDMI 1.4a Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and Ethernet (GMAC) USB – 1x USB 3.0 OTG HIC, 2x USB 2.0 host ports Audio codec – AC100 Codec Camera I/F – 12MP MIPI CSI Debugging – UART and JTAG Expansion – 32-pin GPIO header Misc […]