Orange Pi RK3399 Board Gets 4GB RAM for $100

Orange Pi RK3399 4GB RAM

Orange Pi RK3399 development board launched last year, further crowding the RK3399 space. The board did not target the lower end of the market with a $109 price tag, but still came with only 2GB of RAM. Shenzhen Xunlong has now introduced a 4GB RAM version of the board for $99.96, with the 2GB version now selling for $89.38. Both boards can be purchased on Aliexpress. Apart from the RAM capacity, Orange Pi RK3399 “4G” specifications have not changed: SoC – Rockchip K3399 hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with two ARM Cortex A72 cores up to 2.0 GHz, four Cortex A53 cores, and an ARM Mali-T860 MP4 GPU with support for OpenGL 1.1 to 3.1 support, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, and DX 11 System Memory – 4 GB DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash, micro SD card, mPCIe (for mSATA/LTE), and SATA interface Video Output/Input & Display Interfaces 1x HDMI 2.0 up to […]

Radxa Rock Pi 4 Review – Part 1: A First Look at RockPi 4B Performance Set

Rock Pi 4

Hey, Karl here with another RK3399 board. This one is by Radxa and is called the Rock Pi 4. There are 2 main variants to this board and I was shipped the B version “performance set” which includes a power supply, heatsink, and acrylic case. Also shipped was 16gb eMMC 5.1 module, eMMC flashing board, and USB-TTL debug cable. It looks like the difference is the B version has AC wifi and GbE LAN with PoE support with a hat. The A version only has GbE. Rock Pi 4B Performance Set Unboxing Some of the more notable specs eMMC module support M.2 NVME SSD support (SATA not supported) HDMI 2.0 4k@60htz MIPI DSI 2 lanes via FPC connector 3.5mm audio jack MIPI CSI 2 lanes via FPC connector, support up to 8MP camera 802.11 ac wifi Bluetooth 5.0 40-pin expansion header :  1 x UART 2x SPI bus 2x I2C […]

Cosmo Communicator 2-in-1 Smartphone & Pocket Computer Runs Android 9, Linux

Cosmo Communicator

In recent years, we’ve started to see Windows 10 mini laptops with 6″ to 8″ display and a foldable keyboard coming to market thanks to products such as GPD Pocket 2 or One Mix 2 Yoga. They offer a full Windows 10 experience in an ultra-small form factor, but you’d still need to carry your phone around with you for things like calls or SMS. Cosmo Communicator offers a similar experience, but instead of relying on Intel processor and Windows, the device comes with a Mediatek P70 mobile processor capable of running Android 9 Pie or Linux distributions merging phone and mini laptop functionalities into a single device. Cosmo Communicator preliminary specifications: SoC – Mediatek P70 octa-core processor with four Arm  Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.0GHz, four Cortex A53 cores @ up to 2.0GHz, Arm Mali G72 MP3 GPU  @ 800MHz, and a  Dual-core mobile AI processor (APU) […]

Necunos NC_1 is a Pricey Open Source Linux “Phone” without Modem

Necuno Mobile

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the upcoming “Necuno Mobile” phone made by a company called Necunos and running Linux on NXP i.MX6 Quad processor. The phone was supposed to be 100% open source hardware which all software and hardware resources to be made available publicly. There has been progress since then, as well as a name change since Necunos NC_1 is now up for pre-order for 1,199 Euros including VAT and international shipping with delivery promised in March 2019. Necunos NC_1 specifications are said to include: SoC – NXP i.MX 6Quad quad-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor with Vivante GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8 GB storage Display – 5″ touchscreen (attached or detached) Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, built-in microphone, and speaker Connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Misc – Power, volume, and user programmable buttons USB – 1x micro USB port Battery – 3,500 mAh […]

FOSDEM 2019 Open Source Developers Meeting Schedule

FOSDEM 2019

FOSDEM – which stands for Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting – is a free-to-participate event where developers meet on the first week-end of February to discuss open source software & hardware projects. FOSDEM 2019 will take place on February 2 & 3, and the schedule has already been published with 671 speakers scheduled to speak in 711 events themselves sorted in 62 tracks. Like every year, I’ll create a virtual schedule based on some of the sessions most relevant to this blog in tracks such as  open hardware, open media, RISC-V, and hardware enablement tracks. February 2 10:30 – 10:55 – VkRunner: a Vulkan shader test tool by Neil Roberts A presentation of VkRunner which is a tool to help test the compiler in your Vulkan driver using simple high-level scripts. Perhaps the largest part of developing a modern graphics driver revolves around getting the compiler to […]

ClearFog CX 8K ARMADA 8040 Networking Board Complies with COM Express type 7 Specifications

ClearFog CX LX2K

After ClearFog GT 8K earlier this year, SolidRun has now launched another variant of their Marvell ARMADA based ClearFog networking boards: ClearFog CX 8K. The new single board computer features the same ARMADA 8040 quad core Cortex A72 processor as found in the GT 8K model, but complies with COM Express type 7 standard, and takes the company’s  CEx7 A8040 module, and in the future any compatible COM Express type 7 module that may be launched by the company, or others. ClearFog CX 8K specifications: Supported COM Module – CEx7 A8040 Marvell ARMADA A8040 quad-core Arm Cortex A72 Memory –  Up to 16GB DDR4 DIMM Storage – M.2b & M 2280 SSD, microSD slot, on-module eMMC flash, SATA 3.0 port Networking – 4x SPF+ cages including 2x 10GbE SFP, 1x 1GbE copper (RJ45) USB – 1x USB 3.0 Expansion 2 x mPCIe 1 x PCIe x4 Gen 3.0 I/O – […]

Compact Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ Launched for $25

Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+

The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is likely the most popular maker board available today at $35, but it just got a little brother – Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ – that should also enjoy good popularity with a $25 price tag. The new model features the same BCM2837B0 quad core processor @ 1.4 GHz, and dual band WIFI connectivity, just in a smaller form factor. Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2837B0 64-bit ARMv8 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.4GHz with dual core VideoCore IV GPU System Memory – 512MB LPDDR2 Storage – micro SD slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 and 4-pole stereo audio and composite video port Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2 LE (via Cypress CYW43455 based module) USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port for power Expansion 40-pin GPIO header MIPI DSI for Raspberry […]

Khadas Edge RK3399/RK3399Pro Board Crowdfunding Campaign Launched

Khadas Edge is another upcoming Rockchip RK3399 board that we initially covered this summer, and comes with a particular design in the sense it is both a single board computer with USB and Ethernet port, and a system-on-module through its edge connector. Later on we found out, the company was working on a variant called Khadas Edge-V with the edge connector being replaced by a more standard 40-pin header, as well as Khadas Edge1S powered by Rockchip RK3399Pro for AI applications. The company has now launched the three boards and accessories through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. I’ve already covered the two RK3399 boards in previous post, and  the RK3399Pro based Khadas Edge-1S (2GB RAM, 2x MIPI-CSI, …) will be similar to Edge board but with , so instead I’ll have a closer look at the specifications for Khadas Captain carrier board for Khadas Edge / Edge-1S: Edge connector – 314-pin […]