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

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

ASUS Chromebit CS10 Chrome OS TV Stick Launched for $85

Soon after Google and various partners announced Rockchip RK3288-C based Chromebooks in March of this year, Asus teased us with a Chrome OS stick called Chromebit to sell for less than $100, and also based on Rockchip RK3288 processor. After a few months wait, the company has now launched Chromebit CS10 for just $85. Chromebit CS10 have basically stayed the same: SoC – Rockchip RK3288-C quad core Cortex A17 processor with ARM Mali-T764 GPU. System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L Storage – 16 GB eMMC Video Output – HDMI Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 2×2 (MIMO) a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB OTG port Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions – 123 x 31 x 17 mm Weight – 75 grams The Chrome OS stick is fanless, but the company warns to use it with “reasonable ambient airflow and temperatures […]

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Compulab Unveils CL-SOM-iMX7 Freescale i.MX7 System-on-Module and SBC-iMX7 Single Board Computer

After a few years of speculations and developments about i.MX7 and i.MX8 processors, Freescale announced Freescale i.MX7 family this summer. The new processors are based on one or two Cortex A7 cores coupled with a Cortex-M4 MCU for real-time tasks, and are a low power alternative to Freescale i.MX6 processors. But so far I had only seen a few announcements such Toradex i.MX7 SoM or Freescale 96Boards, without any product actually shipping, and Compulab claims to the first to market with a Freescale i.MX7 system-on-module, namely their CL-SOM-iMX7 SoM which will ship in quantities in early January 2016. CL-SOM-iMX7 system-on-module specifications: SoC Freescale i.MX 7Solo single core Cortex-A7 @ 800MHz with NEON SIMD and VFPv4 + ARM Cortex-M4 @ 200Mhz Freescale i.MX 7Dual dual core Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz with NEON SIMD and VFPv4 + ARM Cortex-M4 @ 200Mhz System Memory – 256MB to 2GB DDR3L-1066 Storage – 128MB – 1GB […]

November 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

Videostrong K1 Plus Amlogic S905 Android TV Box Unboxing and Teardown

Many Amlogic S905 TV boxes have been announced, and thanks to Videostrong, I’ve received my first Amlogic S905 device for review with their K1 Plus media player (aka KI Plus). Today, I’ll start by listing the specifications, before taking a few pictures of the device and its board. with the full review following up in a few days. Videostrong K1 Plus Specifications K1 Plus is one of the entry level models with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage by default: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash (4 to 32GB optional) + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with HDCP 2.2 support, and 3.5mm AV jack Audio – HDMI, AV (stereo), optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – 10-bit H.265 up to 4K60, […]

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Raspberry Pi’s VideoCore 4 GPU Driver Added to Linux Mainline in Kernel 4.4

While your x86 and AMD64 computer will usually boot with Linux mainline without issues, most ARM boards and device won’t, and many of the ones that do boot only support headless mode, and limited functionalities. The Raspberry Pi had been supporting HDMI output with a simple framebuffer for a while, but a developer working on the Videocore 4 (VC4) GPU found inside Broadcom BCM2835 and BCM2836 processors, has recently submitted a patchset to add VC4 GPU to Linux mainline that should make it to Linux 4.4. The commit message does mention some features are still missing, but it’s a start: This pull request introduces the vc4 driver, for kernel modesetting on the Raspberry Pi (bcm2835/bcm2836 architectures). It currently supports a display plane and cursor on the HDMI output. The driver doesn’t do 3D, power management, or overlay planes yet. Via Golem and Sanders. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in […]

November 16, 2015July 19, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

DRM Info Android App Reports Widevine and Playready DRM Information

I test a fair amount of features in my Android TV boxes review, but I usually don’t test Netflix and other premium online video services since I don’t have any such accounts. These kind of applications appear to be limited by the DRM features enabled in Android. For example, Full HD and 4K video streaming in Netflix requires Google Widevine Level 1, and most devices only come with Level 3 which only supports standard definition, due to cost reasons. So I decided to look whether I could find an app that would list DRM features, and DRM info appears to be it. The app will report both Google Widewine and Microsoft Playready DRM information. The screenshots above show Google Nexus 5 and 6 firmwares include Widevine Security Level 1, but no Microsoft Playready support. So it looks like a neat and easy way to test DRM features of Android device, […]

November 16, 2015December 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AndroMeda Box Edge Brillo Starter Board Features Marvell IAP140 Processor, 96Boards Form Factor

Google announced Brillo, a new operating system based on Android and targeting the Internet of things, at the end of October. The company also disclosed that ARM, MIPS and x86 architectures were supported via respectively TechNexion Pico-i.MX6UL system-on-module and PICO-DWARF baseboard, MIPS Creator CI-40 board, and Intel Edison development board. A few days later, Marvell announced Andromeda Box, an IoT platform supporting Brillo and Weave, based on IAP140, a quad-core ARM Cortex A53 application processor for the “Edge” version, and ARMADA 385 dual core Cortex A9 processor for the “Connect” version, but without the full details. AndroidMeda Box Edge is now listed on Solid Run and Arrow websites, where it is sold for $74.99. If the board looks familiar, it’s because it clearly follows 96Boards form factor, but instead of officially being supported by Linaro, it has been designed specifically as a Google’s Brillo development platform with the following specifications: […]

November 16, 2015November 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Converting H.264 Videos to VP9 In Linux / Ubuntu

1080p videos are all good, but my Internet connection’s upload speed is limited to 512 Kbps, so for example uploading a 20 minutes H.264 video shot at 1080p30 may easily take 10 hours, even after some processing with Handbrake. So this week-end I investigated how I could reduce the upload size, and going with H.265 codec appeared to be a good idea at first. So I tried again H.265 encoding in Handbrake in Ubuntu 14.04, and discovered that adjusting CRF (constant quality factor) to 25 with H.265 was roughly equivalent to 20 with H.264, and both the compression ratio and encoding speed were greatly improved compared to default settings with a minor degradation in quality. If you happen to have a second generation Nvidia Maxwell graphics card you may want to check Nvidia Video Encoding SDK for speedier encoding. All was good until I decided to upload a test video, […]

November 15, 2015November 15, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Huawei Quick Charging Li-Ion Batteries Promise 10 Times Faster Charge

Watt Lab, part of Huawei’s Central Research Institute, has demonstrated new fast charging batteries for smartphone and tablets at the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan. The lab claims these new batteries can be charged 10 times faster than normal batteries, reaching about 50% capacity in a 5 minutes for a 3,000 mAh battery. Two video demos were uploaded online both using a special charger for the battery only, and compared it to a mobile phone charge with a power adapter. The first demo includes a depleted 600 mAh filled to 68% in just 2 minutes. The second demo is quite similar but with a 3,000 mAh battery (620 Wh/L energy density) charged to 48% in 5 minutes. That means you could get about half day worth of battery with a 5 minute charge. The feat can apparently be achieved by adding “heteroatoms“: According to Huawei, the company bonded heteroatoms to […]