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

December 26, 2014January 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 44 Comments

Vensmile iPC002 is an Ultra Thin Windows 8.1 mini PC with a 7,000 mAh Battery

Several mini PCs and sticks based on Intel Atom Z3735f/g tablet processors have been announced in the last few months, including MeegoPad T01 and MINIX NEO Z64. But iPC002 introduced to me by VISSON, is a little different, as it includes most features of a tablet with a thin form factor, and an internal battery, but the display, and adds full sized USB ports. iPC002 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.33 GHz (Bust freq: 1.83 GHz) with Intel HD graphics Gen 7 (2W TDP) System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SD slot Video Output – micro HDMI Audio I/O – micro HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack, and built-in microphone Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG 2.0 port Misc – Volume Up/Down Key, Power Key […]

December 24, 2014December 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

WebGL Demos in Radxa Rock Pro Board Running Firefox OS 2.1

Radxa Rock Pro is a development board powered by Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 processor, and although 2D/3D graphics acceleration via Mali-400MP4 is shown to be possible in Linux with tools like es2gears and glmark2-es2, full integration is seldom worked on, and things like WebGL may not work in web browsers. But thanks to the work of naobsd and MatchStick team, Firefox OS has been ported to this Rockchip development board, and as you’ll see in the video below, some WebGL demos work amazingly well. The hardware setup for this demo is comprised of Radxa Rock Pro development board, a 7″ LCD display with touchscreen, and some lego bricks :). WebGL demos can be found @ https://developer.mozilla.org/ja/demos/tag/tech:webgl, so you could try your own platform to see how it performs. If you own a Radxa Board Pro (or Lite), you can even build Firefox OS by yourself by following the […]

December 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Full Version of Android 5.0 Ported to Nexus Player

Asus Nexus Player is the first consumer device running Android TV, which itself is a subset of Android 5.0 but focusing on usability and user experience for the TV. That means anything that works on this Intel based media player should work pretty well, but for the same reasons Android TV has limited features compared to Android 5.0 operating system used in tablets or smartphones. So the developer of Droidmote app decided to get a Nexus Player, and port the full version of Android 5.0 to it, and called it Nexus Player LolliRock. The Linux kernel used in this firmware support NTFS, NFS, CIFS, and F2FS file systems as well as USB webcam and USB audio, and LolliRock is based on AOSP source code, includes Google Play, and you can transfer files between the device and your PC via USB. It’s still a preliminary version, and a few things still […]

December 24, 2014December 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Kodi 14.0 Helix Release

XBMC (name) is definitely dead, as developers of the popular open source “entertainment center” project have announced the first stable Kodi release – the new name of XBMC – with XBMC 14.0 Helix. Key changes and new features include: Update to FFmpeg 2.4.4 – Adds H.265 / HEVC and VP9 video codecs support. Software decode only. Library Improvements – Scanning speed greatly improved, better UPnP support including with PlanOn and MediaBrowser servers. New Configuration features – Add-on update controls, choice of virtual keyboard layouts for tablets and remote control users in order to support multiple languages. Android, iOS and Embedded – 4K support for Amlogic S802, more ARM SoCs are now supported in Android, fast forward/rewind improvements. Airplay support fixed, except for Android. Freescale i.MX6 support for Kodi Linux. Windows, OSX, and Linux – Audio playback improvements. DXVA video playback has been improved for Windows too. A critical Kodi Linux […]

December 23, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

VidOn Box Android XBMC TV Box Unboxing

Vidon.me has sent me one of their Vidon Box (without asking). The box features an Allwinner A31s processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, and more. You can check my previous post for Vidon Box specifications. The company is also providing a membership for extra services such as HDMI / SPDIF pass-through, and Blu-ray menu navigation, among others, as you can see from the table below. The item with ** are upcoming features. VidOn Box Features Subscriber Non Subscriber Blu-ray Menu Navigation Y N Access to VidOn XBMC Pro Y N Access to VidOn Media Center Beta* Y Y Access to VidOn XBMC* Y Y Free XBMC Add-ons Y Y Media Library Info Collection Y Y Access Home Sharing Server Y Y 1080p Hardware Acceleration Y Y Blu-ray ISO Playback Y Y 3D Blu-ray Playback Y Y Firmware/Software Update Support Y Y SPDIF/HDMI Passthrough Y N Mobile Transfer** Y N Photo Backup** […]

December 23, 2014December 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

$142 Micromax Yureka Cyanogen OS Smartphone Features a 64-bit Qualcomm Processor

Micromax is one of the leading smartphone companies in India, battling with Samsung for the top spot, and they’ve recently announced Yureka, a 64-bit smartphone with Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, and Cyanogen OS 11 selling for just 8,999 Rupees (~$142 US) in India. Yureka smartphone specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) octa core Cortex A53 processor with Adreno 405 GPU, and Hexagon V50 DSP System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB internal storage + micro SD slot up to 32GB Display – 5.5″ IPS display with Corning Glass 3, 1280×720 resolution Cellular Connectivity LTE TDD B40 2300 MHz / B3 1800 MHz (150 Mbps DL / 50 Mbps UL) WCDMA 900/2100 MHz (42 Mbps DL/ 11 Mbps UL) GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz Dual SIM (micro) Wireless Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM radio Camera – 13MP rear camera with autofocus and flash, 5MP front-facing camera USB […]

December 23, 2014December 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

TyGL OpenGL ES 2.0 Backend for WebKit Speeds Up Web Rendering by Up to 11 Times

ARM, Szeged University in Hungary, and Samsung Research UK have been working on TyGL, a new backend for WebKit accelerated with OpenGL ES2.0, and developed and tested on ARM Mali-T628 GPU found in Samsung ARM Chromebook. It will typically provide 1.5 to 4.5 times higher performance, but in the best cases, it can achieve up to eleven times the performance of a CPU-only rendered page. The key features of TyGL include: Web rendering accelerated by GPU – Batching of draw calls delivers better results on GPUs. TyGL groups commands together to avoid frequent state changes while calling the Graphics Context API. Automatic shader generation – TyGL generates complex shaders from multiple shader fragments, and ensures the batches fit into the shader cache of the GPU. Trapezoid based path rendering – Work in progress. It will leverage GPU capabilities such as the Pixel Local Storage extension for OpenGL ES. No software […]

December 22, 2014December 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Gemalto Cinterion Concept Board Features 3G Connectivity, Arduino Headers for Secure Java M2M Applications

Gemalto is a digital security company providing software solutions, smart cards, and secure modules, and one the largest manufacturer of SIM cards. The company has launched a developer board earlier this year called Cinterion Concept Board with the company’s Cinterion EHS6 M2M Java embedded machine-to-machine (M2M) 3G module, and Arduino compatible headers. Cinterion Concept Board specifications: 2G/3G M2M Module – Gemalto Cinterion ESH6 with Java ME embedded support Cellular Connectivity GPRS/EDGE Class 12, HSPA, 5 bands 3G, 4 bands 2G. Voice support. On-board antenna (top left side on picture) SIM card holder Expansion Arduino Compatible headers 8 GPIO with level shifters, and corresponding LEDs USB – 1x mini USB port for power, 1x mini USB port for debugging and power Misc – Start on/off, and user buttons, LEDs for serial interface. Power – 5V via either mini USB ports, solder pads for external battery. Dimensions – N/A The board is […]