Operating Systems Category - Page 375 of 1032 - CNX Software

July 1, 2019December 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

96Boards RK1808 & RK3399Pro SoM & Devkit Now Available for Purchase

Back in April, we covered the very first 96Boards SoM’s (Systems-on-Module) which were based on Rockchip RK3399Pro or RK1808 processors, and targeted applications leveraging artificial intelligence acceleration. There were not quite available at the time, but Seeed Studio now has both BeiQi modules for pre-order for $119 and $59 respectively, while the carrier board goes with $125 with antennas, and power supply. Note that the RK3399Pro SoM and the carrier board are basically available now with shipping schedule for July 4th, but you’d had to wait until the end of the month for the RK1808 module. BeiQi RK1808 AIoT 96Boards Compute SoM Module specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK1808 dual-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.6 GHz with NPU supporting 8-bit/16-bit operations up to 3.0 TOPS, TensorFlow and Caffe frameworks; 22nm FD-SOI process System Memory – 1GB LPDDR3 (I also read “4GB LPDRR3” (sic.) in other places, but the capacity is likely […]

June 29, 2019July 1, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 51 Comments

New Raspberry Pi 4 VLI Firmware Lowers Temperature by 3-5°C

Raspberry Pi 4 VLI Firmware Idle Temperature

The other day I tested Raspberry Pi 4 with an heatsink since previous multi-threaded benchmarks clearly made the board throttle when running those without any cooling solution. The guys at the Raspberry Pi Foundation somehow noticed my post, and I received an email from Eben Upton explaining a new Raspberry Pi 4 VLI firmware had “some thermal optimizations that are not installed by default on early production units.” I did not understand VLI at first, but eventually understood this referred to the firmware for VIA VL805 PCIe USB 3.0 controller on the board. The Raspberry Pi Foundation provided me with a test version of the firmware, which they’ll release in the next few days, or weeks after testing is completed. Now if you’re going to test a platform that will throttle due to overheating, it’s very important you do so at constant room temperature. I work in a office where […]

June 29, 2019June 29, 2019 by Tiwalade Joanna Okedara - 9 Comments

Microchip SAMA5 based Giant Board Launched on Crowd Supply for $50 and Up

Earlier this year we gave you details about some new development board, most especially about the Giant board. A tiny single board computer that runs Linux on Arm Cortex-A5 processor. This super tiny single-board computer (SBC) is based on the Adafruit Feather form factor. Unlike its name, the giant board is actually a small microchip. And it packs an awful lot of power for its size. The news is that it has launched on Crowd Supply for $50 and up. In addition, the giant board implements the power of size, which makes it unique. It squeezes SBC into a package the size of a microcontroller board. This will in turn relax memory, storage, and processing constraints. Consequently allowing you to effectively work on your projects. Another thing to know about the Giant Board is that it runs full Debian Linux. Giving developers and users access to an endless number of […]

June 28, 2019July 28, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Chuwi HiPad LTE Tablet Review – Part1: Specs and Unboxing

Chuwi HiPad LTE is an 10.1″ tablet running Android 8.0 Oreo on a MediaTek Helio X27 deca-core processor coupled with 3GB RAM, 32GB flash, and offering both dual band WiFi and LTE connectivity. The company just sent me a sample, and today I’ll quickly go through the specifications, before unboxing the two packages I received. Specifications SoC – Mediatek Helio X27 (MT6797) deca-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores @ 2.6 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 2.0 GHz, and 4x Arm Cortex-A53 cores @ 1.6 GHz, as well as an Arm Mali-T880 GPU clocked at up to 875MHz System Memory – 3GB RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card socket up to 128GB Display – 10.1″ IPS capacitive screen with 1920 x 1200 resolution Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack, built-in stereo speaker and microphone Camera – 5.0MP rear camera, 5.0MP front-facing camera Connectivity Dual band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 Bluetooth […]

June 28, 2019January 3, 2020 by Stephen Vicinanza - 4 Comments

THEC64 a Retro Functional Commodore 64

Retro Games has set December 2019 as the release date for their reimagined full-size fully functional C64, named THEC64. This somewhat smaller version of the original Commodore 64 comes with 64 games, a joystick and may include a handheld game console. THEC64 computing power is limited, but Basic is still functioning and can be booted, as well as Vic20 Basic. The original replica was a small keyboard facsimile of the original keyboard, called the C64 mini. The keyboard was just for “show” but did have 64 games included, which many people suspect are the same games that will be available on the “full-size” reissue. There are quite a few people willing to help out with the launch of the THEC64, offering video tutorials of how to program the fully functioning retro computer. There is a website called 64Bites, devoted to the Commodore 64 and it’s Basic programming, and this leads […]

June 27, 2019June 30, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

Raspberry Pi 4 Benchmarks – Heatsink Edition

A few days ago, I ran some benchmarks in Raspberry Pi 4, and quickly found out that using the board without a cooling solution will cause serious performance issues, as in some cases my board was slower than Raspberry Pi 3 model B due to severe overheating. After playing with LibreELEC yesterday, I’ve now reinstalled Raspbian Buster Desktop on the board, and fitted it with a largish heatsink and some old thermal paste. So I’ll run benchmarks again with and without heatsink. I’ll only run sbc-bench this time. SBC Bench Installation Open a terminal windows or connect to the board through SSH and run:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ThomasKaiser/sbc-bench/master/sbc-bench.sh

1	wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ThomasKaiser/sbc-bench/master/sbc-bench.sh

Raspbian Buster will automatically fetch the latest operating systems packages upon first boot, but apparently not the latest firmware:

/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd version
Jun 20 2019 16:04:31 
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 407b1da8fa3d1a7108cb1d250f5064a3420d2b7d (clean) (release) (start)

/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd version

Jun 20 2019 16:04:31

version 407b1da8fa3d1a7108cb1d250f5064a3420d2b7d (clean) (release) (start)

So I ran rpi-update to get the very latest firmware as well, and rebooted the board:

/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd version
Jun 26 2019 17:42:42 
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 1186f932808ed601ddd583a30a3ce055477b1a26 (clean) (release) (start)

/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd version

Jun 26 2019 17:42:42

version 1186f932808ed601ddd583a30a3ce055477b1a26 (clean) (release) (start)

Normally, you should not have to do it, […]

June 27, 2019June 27, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

NanoPi M4 RK3399 SBC Price Drops to $50 and Up

The launch of Raspberry Pi 4 SBC has generated lots of interest, especially with the extra performance and low $35 price tag that has made most alternatives suddenly less interesting. However, Raspberry Pi 4 benchmarks show it’s not quite the fastest board around, and for example, Rockchip RK3399 platforms are still quite faster, sometimes as much as twice as fast. They do cost much more though, often more than twice, and so far one of the cheapest RK3399 boards was NanoPi M4 going for $65. FriendlyELEC has now decided, certainly in response to Raspberry Pi 4 offering, to lower the price to $50 for the 2GB RAM version which compares to $45 with Raspberry Pi 4 2GB, as well as $75 for the 4GB RAM version (was $95). NanoPi M4 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up […]

June 27, 2019July 10, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - 2 Comments

Pi-Top [4] mini-PC runs the New Raspberry Pi 4

The features and design have changed, but the reliability and the advanced processing capability are all the well-known new Raspberry Pi 4, housed in the new Pi-Top [4]. The popular platform has come out with a portable design with expanded connectivity, scalability, and increased processing capabilities. It boasts an OLED display in a mini-PC form-factor that the company has announced will go on sale on Kickstarter. The SBC industry is seeing a general increase in features and processing ability. Added device connectivity, especially in multimedia capability. The Pi-Top [4] is no exception. The laptop version of Pi-Top is still a viable computer with many features for an SBC footprint. The new Pi-Top [4] mini-PC has expanded RAM, increased ports, and comes with an inventor’s kit. The Pi-Top [4] comes with a roster of accessories that include; sensors, LED’s, and potentiometers to get those just beginning their journey on the path […]