Shuttle Fanless mini PCs Powered by Intel Celeron J1900 Quad Core Bay Trail SoC Sell for $200 and Up

A little while ago, Bay Trail-D (Desktop) motherboards started to show up for about $60 to $70, and I estimated a complete system with RAM, enclosure, and 1TB storage would cost around $250. Thanks to Shuttle XS35V4 and XS36V4, you can now buy such quad core system pre-assembled for well under $300, or just around $200 for a barebone system without RAM or storage. Shuttle XS35V4 / XS36V4 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J1900 Quad core processor (Bay Trail-D) @ with Intel 7th generation graphics. System Memory – 1x DDR3L SO-DIMM, up to 8GB DDR3 1333 MHz Storage – 1x 2.5″ SATA HDD / SSD bay, 1x SD card reader. XS35V4 only: optical drive. Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet (Realtek RTL8411), 802.11b/g/n WLAN support (1T1R), Audio – Realtek ALC269, 2.1 channel High Definition Audio Front panel Power button Power & HDD LEDs SD Card reader 1x USB 2.0 port XS36V4 only […]

Acme Systems Arietta EDU Open Hardware Baseboard for Arietta G25 SoM (ARM9)

Arietta G25 is a tiny system-on-module (SoM) powered by Atmel SAM9G25 ARM9 processor and running Linux that sold for a discount earlier this year (9.9 Euros) for early backers, and is now available for 20 Euros, and support an optional Wi-Fi module for as low as 7 Euros extra. Acme Systems, the company who made the board, is now considering designing and manufacturing an open source hardware baseboard for the module, and is asking for feedback from the community before going ahead. Currently the idea is to have a baseboard with the following: Arietta G25 SoM connector (Vertical mount) 1x USB Host port I2C Sensors –  Temperature and Humidity sensor,  Light sensor Mosfet output for RGB led strip 2x relay output 1x filtered dry input 2x servo RC motors output Audio interface with embedded microphone and jack for PC speakers using Wolfson WM8731 codec Expansion headers for external modules already […]

Giveaway Week Winners Announced

Regular readers will know that I organized a giveaways last week, with Linux and Android based TV boxes and TV dongles based on Amlogic, Rockchip, and Telechips processors, a total of 8 devices with a combined value closed to $1,000 if purchased new. I’ve now selected all the winners, and send the devices, so it may be nice to list them in one post, even I announced each individual winners in the comment section of each contest. Without further delays, let’s go through the winners and their country of residence, with links to the original individual winner announcements: Jynxbox M1V2 Pure Linux Richard, USA (Facebook contest) Pavlos, Greece (Comment contest) Mele X1000 – Vedas, USA Measy U2C – Umaar, Germany Matricom Gbox Midnight MX2 – Starsolaris, Ukraine Beelink A9 – Alcides, Brazil Jynxbox Live – Greg, Canada Tronsmart Prometheus – Roberto, Portugal All parcels have been sent today by Airmail […]

Low Power Mode (Suspend to RAM) in uCLinux for Freescale Kinetis K70 MCU

All ARM based micro-controllers and processors implement multiple power mode in order to save optimize power usage depending on the tasks. However, I’ve been told by some hobbyists/developers/makers that low power modes are not always implemented in Linux, especially for low cost systems either because of hardware limitations or the software is not implemented. EmCraft Systems has just released their latest embedded (uC-) Linux distributions for the MCU boards, and one of the features now available is “suspend to RAM” for their K70 SoM development kit, based on Freescale Kinetis K70 Cortex M4 MCU, which consume just around 600 to 700 uA @ 3.3V (2 to 2.3 mW) in this low power mode. They have connected a multimeter to measure the current drawn at different power modes. If you want to know all the details, you should probably read the company’s article on “Linux Low-Power Mode on Kinetis“, but I’ll […]

CubieTruck’s DVK570 Daughter Board and Add-ons (GPS, Zigbee, Sensors, RS485, and SPI Flash)

CubieTruck is one of the development boards made by CubieTech. It is powered by AllWinner A20 with 2GB RAM, Gb Eternet, various ports, and supports Android and multiple Linux distributions. Waveshare Electronics has just launched DVK570 daughter board for the CubieTruck which adds support for TV in and out, a buzzer, and headers to connect modules such as GPS, RS485, an SPI flash, a Zigbee module, a magnetometer, or a temperature sensor. Hardware features of DVK570 daughter board: CubieTruck Headers – 1x 30-pin header and  1x 24-pin header for connection with the CubieTruck Video – TVIN in, and TV Out interfaces (CVBS) Audio – 3.5mm Line IN interface Debugging – UART interface, micro USB port with USB to UART chip (Profilic PL2303) Expansions for add-on modules: 1x 4-pin I2C interface to connect I2C modules such as PCF8563 RTC Module, MAG3110 Board, and more 2x 6-pin UART interfaces (UART4 and 7) […]

Raspberry Pi Compute Module Development Kit Is Now Available for $200

The Raspberry Pi foundation announced a computer-on-module which they called the (Raspberry Pi) Compute Module that will be mostly software compatible with the Raspberry Pi board, and sell for $30 in quantities. They have now announced the availability of the development kit that includes a baseboard (called Compute IO board), display & camera adapter boards, as well as a 5V power adapter, jumper wires, and a USB cable. As a reminder the Compute Module has the following hardware specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2835 ARM 11 processor @ 700 MHz with Videocore IV GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash SoM Connector – DDR2 200-pins SODIMM Dimensions – 67.6x30mm board which fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector The Compute IO Board come with two micro USB connectors (one reserved for power), a USB 2.0 host port, two DSI ports for display, two CSI ports for a […]

64-bit ARM Server Motherboards by SoftIron

We’ve already seen development board such as X-Gene XC-1, and 64-bit ARM servers have been demonstrated by Dell and HP, but SoftIron, a British startup, claims to be the first to provide a production ready ARMv8 solutions for the enterprise server market (e.g. data centers), with its SoftIron 64-0400 and 64-0800 server motherboards powered by Applied Micro X-Gene quad and octa SoC. Although the company did not release complete pictures of the board, they seem to have done a better job with specifications: SoC SoftIron 64-0400 – Applied Micro X-Gene APM883204 with 4x 64-bit ARMv8 cores @ 2.4 GHz, 4x 32-bit ARMv5 cores for Network/Security offloads and Acceleration, and 1x Cortex M3 for server management SoftIron 64-0800 – Applied Micro X-Gene APM883208 with 8x 64-bit ARMv8 cores @ 2.4 GHz, 4x 32-bit ARMv5 cores for Network/Security offloads and Acceleration, and 1x Cortex M3 for server management System Memory – Up […]

Advantech UTX-3115 Rugged Fanless Computer Powered by Intel Atom E3826 SoC Supports Intel Intelligent Systems Framework

Advantech UTX-3115 is a rugged low power fanless computer powered by Intel Atom “Bay Trail-I” E3826 dual core processor and lots of various ports that can be used as a digital signage, for machine or factory automation, & “smart IoT gateway”, and that happens to be supported by Intel’s Intelligent Systems Framework (ISF). Before checking out Intel ISF, let’s go Advantech UTX-3115 hardware specifications: SoC – Intel Atom E3826 dual core processor @ 1.46 GHz with 1MB L2 cache and Intel HD graphics. System Memory – 2 x 204-pin SO-DIMM DDR3 1333/1066MHz, up to 16GB Storage – 2.5″ bay for HDD or SSD storage Video Output 1x HDMI up to 1080p60 1x micro HDMI up to 1080p60 1x VGA up to 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Dual channel LVDS up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60Hz (shared with micro HDMI) Connectivity – Dual Gigabit LAN (LAN1: Intel I210AT, LAN2: Realtek […]

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