F&S Elektronik Systeme, a German embedded systems company, has announced their efus A9 Computers-on-Module (CoM) based on Freescale i.MX6, are now in mass production. The CPU comes in two variants A9V2 for i.MX6 Solo, and A9V3 with i.MX6 DualLite, both of which are certified for automotive and industrial applications, and support commercial, extended, and industrial temperature ranges. eFuse A9 computer-on-module specifications: SoC – CPU Freescale i.MX6 Solo (eFus A9V2) or DualLite (eFus A9V3) @ up to 1.2 GHz + Vivante 2D and 3D GPUs System Memory – 512MB (Up to 1GB RAM) Storage – 256 MB NAND flash (Up to 1GB), 2 GB eMMC (eFus A9V3 only. up to 32GB), optional SPI NOR, optional I2C EEPROM Display I/F – 18-bit RGB, 2x 24-bit LVDS, and DVI Other interfaces available via 230 pins MXM-2 edge connector: 2x SD card I/F 1x Gigabit Ethernet 1x USB Host, 1x USB Device 2x CAN […]
Freescale LS1021A-IOT IoT Gateway Reference Design Powered by QorIQ LS1021A Dual ARM Cortex A7 SoC
Freescale has just launched a an IoT gateway reference design powered by their QorIQ LS1021A communication processors running Linux/OpenWRT, designed in partnership with TechNexion, and targeting various IoT applications such as building/home management, smart cities, networked industrial services, etc… Beside the dual core Cortex A7 QoirIQ processor, the board features six Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a SATA 3 port, two mini PCIe connector, an LVDS interface, HDMI output, Arduino UNO compatible headers, and various others expansions headers. LS1021A-IOT IoT gateway Specifications: SoC – Freescale QorIQ LS1021A dual core Cortex A7 communication processor @ 1 GHz (5,000 coremarks) MCU – Freescale Kinetis K20 Cortex M micro-controller System Memory – 1 GB DDR3L Storage – 1 Gb QSPI NOR Flash, SDHC slot (up to 32 GB) populated with a 4GB SD card, 1x mSATA 3 slot Connectivity – 6x Gigabit ports via SGMII (Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface) and […]
How to Upgrade Allwinner A80 OptimusBoard Firmware
After informing Allwinner I had some rather slow write speed (3MB/s) to the NTFS partition of my USB drive on my A80 OptimusBoard, they kindly provided a new compressed Android firmware image (sun9iw1p1_android_optimus_v1.2_20140930.img.7z) with some NTFS optimizations that can be downloaded from baidu (password: x2tz), mega.co.nz or simos.info (please only use this link, if the other two do not work as it’s a private website and monthly bandwidth may be limited). I vaguely remember tools like LiveSuit (Linux) or PhoenixSuite (Windows), and I ended up on sunxi-linux Livesuit wiki as I’m running Ubuntu 14.04 on my PC, but you should be able to flash the firmware with PhoenixSuite if you run Windows. The instructions below can also be used for other Allwinner based devices. First you need to install LiveSuit, and build Allwinner USB drivers as follows:
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sudo apt-get install dkms git build-essential git clone https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-livesuite.git cd sunxi-livesuite/awusb make sudo cp awusb.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/ sudo depmod -a sudo modprobe awusb cd.. |
In order to use LiveSuit as a normal user, you also have […]
Tronsmart T2000 EZCast Pro Dongle Supports MHL, Split Screen, Improves Wi-Fi Performance
EZCast dongles, tiny HDMI streaming Wi-Fi stick with support for Airplay, Miracast, DLNA, and their own proprietary EZCast protocol first appeared about a year ago. I’ve reviewed a few including Tronsmart T1000 and MeLeCast S1, and found them to work relatively well, with some caveats, in Android. There’s now a new EZCast Pro wireless adapters that adds features such for four split screens display, conference control via web browser, and content broadcast to multiple screens, as well as improved wireless performance thanks to 2T2R Wi-Fi. Tronsmart T2000 is the first device I’ve heard of, that’s EZCast Pro capable. Tronsmart T2000 hardware specifications: SoC – Action Semi AM8251 @ 500MHz (MIPS) System memory – 256 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 128 MB NAND Flash Video output – HDMI 1.2 / MHL 2.0 Wi-Fi – Single band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi 2T2R up to 300 Mbps Standards – Miracast, Airplay, DLNA, and EZCast […]
Atmel Introduces SAMA5D4 Embedded MPUs With 720p Video Decoder And TrustZone Support
Atmel has expanded its SAMA5 Cortex A5 embedded processor family with SAMA5D4 series adding an optional video processing unit capable of decoding H264, VP8 and MPEG4 at 720p / 30fps, as well as support for ARM NEON and TrustZone technology. There are also some other changes with regards to connectivity: no Gigabit Ethernet, more UART interfaces, less SPI interfaces, etc… Key features listed of Atmel SAMA5D4 series:: ARM Cortex-A5 core up to 528MHz (840DMIPS) with NEON & TrustZone support, 2x 32KB L1 cache, and 128KB L2 cache. Optional 720p hardware video decoder supporting H264/263, VP8, JPEG, and MPEG4. Graphic LCD TFT controller with overlays for image composition, resistive touchscreen controller. CMOS image sensor interface. Three high-speed USB ports (configurable as three hosts or two hosts and one device port). Dual EMAC 10/100 with IEEE1588 support (Precision Time Protocol). Other I/Os – 8x UART, 8x SPI, 4x TWI, 2 HS SDIO/SD/MMC, […]
CALAO Systems Introduces PInBALL Industrial Board Based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module
CALAO Systems has just launched an industrial single board computer (SBC) for professional Raspberry Pi developers called PiNBALL or, if you prefer, PAC-1210-S200-B2835-EXX…. The board is powered by the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, features interfaces such as two mini PCIe slots (for USB, I2C, GPIOs,…), fast Ethernet, HDMI, opto-isolated inputs and outputs, etc., +6 to +36V power input, and can operate in -20°C to +70°C temperature range. PInBALL industrial SBC specifications (Items marker with ‘*’ are optional, and depend on model): SoC / Memory / Storage – Via Raspberry Pi Compute Module – Broadcom BCM2835, 512MB RAM, 4GB eMMC Flash. Other Storage – 1x 2Kb I²C EEPROM with EUI-48 MAC Address & 128 bit Serial Number (AT24MAC402). Video Output – 1x HDMI Out, 1x CVBS Out (BCM2835) Audio Output – 1x HDMI, 2x S/PDIF Out / Optical & RCA (WM8804), Connectivity – 1x Fast Ethernet (LAN9514), 1x Micro-SIM Socket USB […]
TP-Link TL-WDR7500 (Archer C7) 802.11ac Router Review
With several new Android devices coming with the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi, I decided I should buy a new router with AC1200 class or greater and Gigabit Ethernet support, and with a budget of $100. Xiaomi Mi Wi-Fi Mini router almost matched my requirements, but unfortunately only comes with Fast Ethernet ports. TP-Link Archer C7 selling for $96 Amazon US exactly matched my budget, and outmatched my requirements being an AC1750 router with 5x Gigabit Ethernet ports, and two USB ports. Since Amazon won’t ship to my location and shipping would have gone over budget, I expected to find it locally for a slightly higher price, but it ended up selling for over $200 here, allegedly because of a lifetime guarantee. Finally, I ended up buying TP-Link TL-WDR7500, the Chinese version of Archer C7 with 6 Wi-Fi antennas instead of 3, for $94.32 including shipping on Aliexpress. I’ll take some pictures […]
Firefly-RK3288 Development Board is Now Available for $189
Three days ago, a T-chip representative informed me privately that Firefly development board (Rockchip RK3288) would not be available on foreign websites, and that it was unclear when the board would be selling in China. So either I’ve been lied to, or there’s poor internal communication within the company, as they’ve now listed Firefly-RK3288 board on Taobao for 800 CNY (~$130), and it’s also available on GeekBuying for $159 including shipping, possibly by somebody unrelated to T-chip, especially there are only 3 units for sale. Let’s go the specifications that have slightly changed since the original announcement: SoC – Rockchip 3288 quad core ARM Cortex A12 / A17 up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-T764 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2G DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot Video I/O HDMI 2.0 up to 3840×2160@60p VGA out (D-SUB connector) Dual MIPI, Dual LVDS and and EDP […]