Category: Operating Systems

Operating Systems used in Embedded Devices

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Raspberry Pi VideoCore IV Boards Get an Unofficial Vulkan Driver Good Enough to Play Quake 3

Raspberry Pi VideoCore IV Boards Get an Unofficial Vulkan Driver Good Enough to Play Quake 3

Raspberry Pi 3 Vulkan VideoCore IV GPU

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is collaborating with Igalia to work on everything related to graphics support for VideoCore VI GPU found in Raspberry Pi 4’s Broadcom BCM2711 SoC. This lead to OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance at the beginning of the year, and good progress with Raspberry Pi 4 Vulkan support. There’s no plan to work on an official Vulkan driver for earlier Raspberry Pi  boards with VideoCore IV GPU, but since the Raspberry Pi Foundation released open-source VideoCore IV driver and documentation several years ago, it’s, in theory, possible for skilled developers to improve on it. That’s exactly what Martin Thomas, an NVIDIA engineer, has done in his spare time, and after two years of work, a Vulkan driver for Raspberry Pi VideoCore IV board – RPi-VK-Driver – has been released on Github. Pi-VK-Driver implements a subset of the Vulkan, and since it is not fully conformant to the standard […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments on Checking Out Raspberry Pi OS 64-Bit on Raspberry Pi 4 8GB RAM

Checking Out Raspberry Pi OS 64-Bit on Raspberry Pi 4 8GB RAM

Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit on Raspberry Pi 4 8GB

The Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB RAM launched a couple of weeks ago together with the beta version of Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit. Note that you should currently use the 32-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS (previously known as Raspbian) as the 64-bit still has bugs and missing features, but I want to find out the current progress, so I installed raspios_arm64-2020-05-28/2020-05-27-raspios-buster-arm64.zip and had no problem to boot the board. Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit System Information After going through the setup wizard in the desktop environment to configure the language, time, networking, etc…, and make sure the OS is updated, I checkout some information:

I do have a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4 with 8GB Memory (revision: d03114), the image comes with a 64-bit Linux kernel:

and we do get a 64-bit rootfs.

All good. Known issues Before starting the review, let’s make ourselves aware […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on Getting a 3-inch Smartphone in 2020? You can with Unihertz Jelly 2 (Crowdfunding)

Getting a 3-inch Smartphone in 2020? You can with Unihertz Jelly 2 (Crowdfunding)

3-inch smartphone 2020

Most smartphones have 5″ or larger displays these days as it’s just more convenient to read emails, browse the web, or play games, than the smaller displays we had ten years ago. But some people may still prefer smaller smartphones that are lighter and really fit into any pockets. Those are just pretty hard to find, luckily some companies such as Unihertz are filling the needs for this niche market. Two years ago, the company introduced the Unihertz Atom smartphone with a 2.4″ display, and earlier this year launched Atom XL 4″ smartphone, but the company is now preparing to launch a new crowdfunding campaign for Jelly 2 smartphone powered by a MediaTek Helio P60 processor and equipped with a 3-inch display. Unihertz Jelly 2 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core with four Arm Cortex-A73 up 2.0 GHz and four Arm Cortex-A53 up to 2.0 GHz, Arm Mali-G72 MP3 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform Targets the Development of 5G and AI-Enabled Robots

Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform Targets the Development of 5G and AI-Enabled Robots

Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform

Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Development Platform powered by Snapdragon 845 processor gets an upgrade with Robotics RB5 Platform equipped with Qualcomm QRB5165 Robotics processor designed for industrial-grade temperature operating, and featuring a 15 TOPS Qualcomm AI Engine fo artificial intelligence and machine learning applications such as heterogeneous computing, enhanced computer vision, and multi-camera concurrency. The development platform also supports for 4G and 5G connectivity via a companion module and runs Ubuntu and ROS 2.0 operating systems. Qualcomm Robotics RB5 development kit specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QRB5165 with  Kryo 858 CPU @ up to 2.84 GHz,  Adreno 650 GPU, Adreno 665 VPU, Adreno 995 DPU, Qualcomm Hexagon DSP with quad HVX, and Qualcomm Spectra 480 ISP System Memory – 16GB LPDDR5 RAM (POP) Storage – 128 GB UFS3.0 storage, MicroSD card slot Video Output – 1x HDMI 1.4 port Audio – 2x WSA8810 Class-D on-board speaker amplifier, built-in PDM MIC, support for […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments on ODROID-H2+ SBC Gets Celeron J4115 Processor, Offers 2.5GbE Networking

ODROID-H2+ SBC Gets Celeron J4115 Processor, Offers 2.5GbE Networking

ODROID H2+

Harkernel ODROID-H2 is an Intel Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake powered SBC that offers great value and performs reasonably well as we’ve seen in our ODROID-H2 Ubuntu review. But there’s an upgraded model coming soon with ODROID-H2+ getting a slightly faster Intel Celeron J4115 processor, 2.5 GbE networking, a couple of extra I/O on the header for USB 2.0 and HDMI CEC, and a change to the 12V SATA power circuit to improve the suspend-resume power control sequence of 3.5″ HDDs. ODROID-H2+ specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J4115 Gemini Lake Refresh quad-core processor @ 1.8 GHz / 2.5 GHz (turbo single thread) / 2.3Ghz (turbo multi-thread) with 12EU Intel UHD Graphics 600 up to 700 MHz; Noted listed on Ark Intel just yet, but it’s real. System Memory – Dual-channel Memory DDR4-PC19200 (2400MT/s) supporting up to 32GB RAM in total Storage – M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 slot for one NVMe storage, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Beelink GS-King X Review – Part 1: Unboxing & Teardown

Beelink GS-King X Review – Part 1: Unboxing & Teardown

Beelink GS-King X Review

Beelink GS-King X is a 3-in-1 media center that works as an Android 9.0 TV box, a NAS with support for two 3.5″ hard drives, and a HiFi audio system with two ESS9018 audio DACs powering RCA and balanced audio outputs. The company sent a review sample, and I’ll start by checking out the hardware and accessories, show how to install the hard drive(s), and attempt to tear down the device to check what it’s really made of. Beelink GS-King X Unboxing There’s no mention of TV box nor Android on the package, just “STORAGE” and DTS plus Dolby Audio… The bottom of the package lists the Beelink GS-King X specifications which we already discussed in our previous articles. There’s a red ribbon that helps to take the device out of its package. I wish more companies would do this. Accessories include the voice remote control, an HDMI cable, a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments on Looking for an Android Phone with Long Term Support? Fairphone 2 Gets Android 9 Five Years After Launch

Looking for an Android Phone with Long Term Support? Fairphone 2 Gets Android 9 Five Years After Launch

Fairphone 2 Android 9

When you use a laptop or computer with Windows or Linux, you’re pretty much assured to get regular security updates. That’s partially why I prefer to do things like online banking on my computer rather than a phone, despite banks pushing for mobile apps. Why? Because most mobile phones get limited support. I selected an Android One phone, namely Xiaomi Mi A2, because I would get updates for at least 18 months. When you think about it it’s quite pathetic, but that’s about the best Android has to offer. It’s quite better on Apple side with updates for 4 to 5 years for iPhones, while Google Pixel phones are said to get updates for about 3+ years. How you deliver updates also matter, as I recently heard Samsung users complain about frequent updates, while they had somehow no such complaint about their iPhone. But if you’re not quite ready to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Laptop Doubles as Electronics Learning Kit (Crowdfunding)

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Laptop Doubles as Electronics Learning Kit (Crowdfunding)

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Laptop with Detachable Keyboard

CrowPi portable learning kit for Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and Pi Zero boards was launched in 2018. It comes with a 7″ display, several sensors, buttons, a breadboard, and more all packed in a small suitcase. Elecrow has now started a new crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to fund the second generation portable electronics learning kit: CrowPi2 which looks much more like a laptop than a suitcase found in the first model thanks to a large display, and a detachable keyboard placed on top of the electronic prototyping/learning area. It’s also more powerful thanks to the latest Raspberry Pi 4 SBC. CrowPi2 specifications: Compatible Raspberry Pi boards – Raspberry Pi 3B/B+, Raspberry Pi 4 Display – 11.6-inch 1920×1080 IPS screen Camera – 2MP camera Audio – Built-in microphone and stereo speaker; 3.5mm audio jack Keyboard – 2.4GHz detachable wireless keyboard (QWERTY only) with touchpad Sensors and Modules under the keyboard: Displays […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC