armStoneA8: 49 Euros ARM Cortex-A8 Single Board Computer

F&S Elektronik Systeme GmbH, a German company,  has announced the armStoneA8 , a Single Board Computer (SBC) based on an ARM Cortex A8 that will be available by the first day of the Embedded World 2012 Conference.  The great part is that for a limited period (27 February 2012 to 4 March 2012) you’ll be able to buy the board for 49 Euros on their (yet to be launched) online shop. The board, that comes in PicoITX form factor (100 x 72mm), is powered by a Cortex A8 CPU running at 1GHz and the company provides support for Linux, WinCE 6.0 and Windows Embedded Compact 7. The company says the bootloader, SDK, BSP and kernels are already available with support for DirectX, OpenGL and hardware accelerated GStreamer. The company plans to release the detailed specifications before Embedded World 2012, but in the meantime, I found some PDF about the board […]

Raspberry Pi Releases BCM2835 Datasheet for ARM Peripherals

If you have been following Raspberry Pi project, you may have noticed the dearth of documentation related to Broadcom processors. For BCM2835 (The processor used in Raspberry Pi board), Broadcom only has one laconic webpage. But the Raspberry Pi’s “super-team” has managed to get a (partial) datasheet for the SoC showing the details of BCM2835 ARM peripherals which is all that we may need. This would only be useful for people playing around with the Linux (and u-boot) drivers. The document includes details about the processor’s memory map as shown below. It also contains details (registers, implementation details, etc..) about the following ARM peripherals: Timers Interrupt controller GPIO USB PCM / I2S DMA controller I2C master I2C / SPI slave SPI0, SPI1, SPI2 PWM UART0, UART1 You can download BCM2835 datasheet to get the complete documentation. The Raspberry Pi foundation also announced that the boards will be ready on February […]

EMAC SOM-3517M: System-on-Module based on TI AM3517

Emac announced the SoM-3517M, a System-on-Module (SoM) based on TI AM3517 Cortex-A8 processor clocked at 600 MHz. This SOM has an Ethernet PHY included along with 4 serial ports. It supports up to 512MB of external DDR2 SDRAM, 1GB of NAND Flash, 2GB of eMMC Flash. Here are SOM-3517M specifications: CPU:  TI ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHZ Fanless processor System Memory: Up to 512 MB of DDR2 SDRAM (default: 256 MB) Storage: Up to 1 GB of NAND Flash (default: 256 MB) UP to 4 GB of eMMC Flash (default: 2 GB) LCD Interface – 16-bit DSTN/TFT Graphics: 2D/3D Accelerated Video w/ Resistive Touch Connectivity: 10/100 BaseT Ethernet I/O interfaces: 4 Serial Ports 2 Full Speed USB 1.1/2.0 Host ports 1 Full Speed USB OTG port 2 I2C and 2 SPI ports I2S Audio port High-End CAN Controller CAN 2.0B Controller Timer/Counters and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) ports 1 Channel, 12-bit […]

Penandfree PT- Pen Transforms Your Laptop into A Tablet

Penandfree has unveiled the PT-pen  (Presentation pen) at the 2012 ISE exhibition. The company claims this pen can transform ordinary laptops or netbooks  into touch-screen tablets, replacing the need for both a mouse and keyboard. PT-Pen can be used for capturing handwritten notes,  digital signatures and all sorts of creative sketches. MINT Interactive software is included with the PT-pen and provides access to a full color pallet, a variety of line thicknesses, a virtual keyboard and a handwriting recognition mode. Penandfree explains that PT-pen allows navigation in web browsers and can be used with office software such as Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint as it conforms with Microsoft tablet and standard HID specifications. Mint Interactive Software can be download for Windows XP/Visata/&, MacOS and Linux. For Android Tablet and/or iPad users, Penandfree unveiled the “Legato Smart-Pen”. The PT-pen digitally “inks” a laptop’s LCD using ultrasonic technology.  A magnetized receiver sits at […]

Texas Instruments Pico Projector Module: DLP LightCrafter

Texas Instruments announced the DLP LightCrafter, a Pico Projector evaluation module. This module is powered by an ARM9 TMS320DM365 processor @ 300 Mhz (with 1080p video co-processor) running Embedded Linux. It features a 20-lumen RGB LED light engine and projector, as well as TI DLP 0.3 WVGA chipset. The DLP LightCrafter EVM is intended to bring DLP (digital light processing) devices faster to market and targets the industrial, medical, security and scientific instrument markets with devices such as pico projectors, 3D fingerprint scanners and 3D printers. The DLP LightCrafter incorporates TI DLP3000-C300REF reference design with includes the 0.3 WVGA chipset, TMS320DM365 embedded processor and MSP430 micro-controller.   Here are the key features of the DLP LightCrafter: 20 lumen light output WVGA resolution (608×684 native) Up to 4kHz binary pattern rate Configurable I/O trigger DM365 embedded processor (ARM926E-JS) 128MB NAND flash memory USB, Mini HDMI, UART interfaces Dimensions: 117mm x 65mm […]

TI SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 Brings WiFi Connectivity to All Devices

Yesterday, Texas Instruments unveiled the SimpleLink product family, a portfolio of wireless connectivity technologies for low-power, low-cost embedded applications, which includes self-contained wireless processors supporting Wi-Fi, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, and ANT. The most noticeable product is the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000, a self-contained 802.11 (WiFi) network processor, that can be added to any embedded application and provide WiFi connectivity to the Internet of Things. With this solution, you can add WiFi to any device, even those powered by MCUs without operating systems such as dishwashers, toasters, refrigerators, thermostats, and factory automation equipment. I wish they’ll make new version of the MSP430 Chronos Wireless Watch with WiFi connectivity, this would remove the need for the RF Dongle. This solution features TCP, UDP and IP software stacks in the chip, it consumes 0.5% of the resources as compared to traditional Wi-Fi and only requires 6KB Flash and 3KB RAM. The company claims it can be […]

Raspberry Pi Beta Boards Are Being Auctioned

The Raspberry Pi foundation has setup an Ebay account and made some of the Raspberry Pi Beta Board Model B (Ethernet + 256 MB RAM) available on Ebay. This is for charity so you won’t be able to get them for 35 USD… The current bid is 1,320.00 GBP (2050 USD). They’ll add 2 boards on Ebay each day. The goal of this auction is to gather funds in order to hire a full-time staff and give as many Raspberry Pi away to kids as possible. If you win the bid, you’ll get one of the 10 boards for sale, a USB power, an SD card with Debian, and some kind of certificate showing you were one of the first to get a board. If you are interested, you can bid at http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raspberry-Pi-Model-B-beta-board-10-limited-series-10-/180786734741?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a17baa695 Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as […]

KT Keep In Touch Android Tablets

I’ve recently discovered some low cost tablets in one of the computer centers in Chiang Mai manufactured by a Thai company (SEC Intertech Thailand Co. Ltd) and sold under the “KT Keep In Touch” brand. They have their own shop in the center and sell exclusively those tablets as well as SD cards and 3G dongles. The prices range between 7,900 Baht to 9,900 Baht for 7″ Android 2.2 and 2.3 tablets, that’s equivalent to 250 USD to 315 USD. Those prices include VAT and all sort of custom duties that you may not get when you buy in other countries like the US, that means retail prices are usually 30 to 40% more expensive in Thailand compared to the US. The seller also had a 10″ tablet, but he looked like he did not want to show it to me as it was the an older model with resistive […]

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