iWave Systems Unveils iW-RainboW-G34M-SM i.MX 8M Mini/Nano System-on-Module

i.mx 8m nano system-on-module

NXP nomenclature for their i.MX 8M processors can be a little confusing. First discovered in 2016, the original i.MX 8M processor family comes with one to four Arm Cortex-A53 cores, a real-time Cortex M4 core, targets multimedia application with FullHD or  4K decoding/encoding support and is manufactured using a 28nm process. NXP then announced i.MX 8M Mini processor family in February 2018 with a 14-nm FinFET processor allowing a higher maximum CPU frequency of 2.0 GHz, less video output interfaces (no HDMI, nor DisplayPort), and optional Full HD video encoder and decoder, .e.g no 4K. Finally, earlier this year, the company unveiled NXP i.MX 8M Nano further power-optimized with the same 14nm manufacturing process, but a lower frequency of 1.5 GHz, and a Cortex-M7 core replacing the Cortex-M4 core found in previous i.MX 8M processors. This allows i.MX 8M Nano SoC to have a 2W TDP, and achieve sub-watt power […]

Friday Fun: Play Tetris in a Linux Terminal

Tetris Nanopi NEO

Here at CNX Software, we are all about providing useful information to our readers that will save them time, money and greatly increase their productivity. So I apologize in advance, and I’m sorry to say I’ve just found out it ‘s possible to play Tetris in a Linux terminal. Installation is super easy:

Now just run the program

and have fun. The screenshot above is from my Acer laptop running Ubuntu 18.04, but does it also work over SSH in NanoPi NEO running Armbian? You bet it works! 🙂 As a side note, June 6 is the Tetris anniversary since the first playable version was released on June 6, 1984. That means the game is not just 35 years old. If Tetris is not your thing, but it’s still a slow Friday, and the boss is not around, you can configure sudo to return insults when you type […]

C.H.I.P. is Back via PopCorn Computer with Allwinner or Amlogic Processor (Crowdfunding)

Super Popcorn

C.H.I.P was a $9 Linux computer launched in 2015 by Next Things Co., and followed by the $16 C.H.I.P Pro in 2016. Sadly the company eventually encountered financial troubles and had to fold last year. But the design was open source hardware, Source Parts managed to get hold of several original Allwinner GR8 systems-in-package, and in April we reported that they sold Kettlepop, a limited edition of a CHIP Pro derivative fitted with 8GB eMMC flash. Source Parts is now back with three CHIP lookalikes: Popcorn Original based on Allwinner R8/A13 Arm Cortex-A8 processor with 512MB RAM, and 32GB eMMC flash and 100% software compatible with the original C.H.I.P computer Super Popcorn Computer powered by Amlogic S905D quad-core Cortex-A53 processor Super ‘8’ Popcorn Computer powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor Popcorn Original is basically the same as C.H.I.P board except for the 32GB eMMC flash storage replacing the 4GB […]

MOVI Shield Enables Offline Speech Recognition of 150 Sentences on Arduino and Raspberry Pi

MOVI Shield Arduino

Smart speakers normally work both offline and online, but their offline ability is usually limited to just one or two wake words, that when detected let the speakers listen to speech that it will send the cloud for further processing. It’s done that way because the speakers would not have enough resources, e.g. processing power, storage to contain the whole data required for natural speech processing, and wake words reduce the number of requests to the cloud, and improve privacy. But in some cases, you may not need the full language, and instead would like to use several voice commands to control a device without the need or the ability to connect to the Internet/Cloud. So Audeme has designed an Allwinner A13 based Arduino shield named MOVI (My Own Voice Interface), and that can recognize and/or synthesize up to 150 full sentences of your choice in English, Spanish or German. […]

Software Development on Librem 5 and PinePhone Linux Phones is Progressing Nicely

PinePhone LuneOS

Several Linux phones are expected this year including Purism Librem 5 and Pine64 PinePhone. Both companies have sent phone development kits out to developers a few months ago, and we are starting to see some nice progress for both phones. What made me write this post is an update from Purism comparing the boot time on Librem 5 running PureOS Linux distribution without specific optimizations yet, and HTC One Android smartphone.  Librem 5 smartphone devkit takes 13 seconds to get to the lockscreen, while the Android phone takes over 40 seconds. Fair enough, most people won’t boot their phone often, but it still nice to know it won’t take long to turn on the phone from power off state.  They also posted a progress report at the end of May saying calls are now working with better audio quality, fixed various issue with messaging in Chatty, work on Linux […]

Pre-production HoneyComb LX2K 16-Core Mini ITX Arm Workstation is up for pre-order for $550

HoneyComb LX2K Arm Workstation

A few months ago, we wrote that SolidRun was working on ClearFog ITX workstation with an NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex-A72 processor, support for up to 64GB RAM, and a motherboard following the mini-ITX form factor that would make it an ideal platform as an Arm developer platform. Since then the company split the project into two parts: the ClearFog CX LX2K mini-ITX board will focus on networking application, while HoneyComb LX2K has had some of the networking stripped to keep the cost in check for developers planning to use the mini-ITX board as an Arm workstation. Both boards use the exact same LX2160A COM Express module. HoneyComb LX2K specifications: COM Module – CEx7 LX2160A COM Express module with NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 processor @ 2.2 GHz (2.0 GHz for pre-production developer board) System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR4 dual-channel memory up to 3200 Mpts via SO-DIMM […]

Khadas VIM3 Development Board to Launch for $69.99 and Up on June 24

Khadas VIM3

After ODROID-N2, Khadas VIM3 is the second Amlogic S922X powered development board to become available to the maker community. However, while the former have been available for a couple of month, we only knew most of Khadas VIM3 specifications so far. Shenzhen Wesion has now announced a launch date and pricing for the board, and as well as released a few more details. Khadas VIM3 Basic and Pro will start selling on June 24 for respectively $69.99 with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash, and $99.99 with 4GB RAM and 32GB flash. Those prices are very attractive, and competitive against ODROID-N2 due to the extra features like built-in flash. The downside is that those are introductory prices that will be effective for the first production batch and until July 22, 2019 only, after which prices will increase. The company also provided a comparison table showing the main difference between their earlier […]

Xibo Player for Linux Released (Open Source Digital Signage Player)

Xibo Player Linux

Xibo is an open source digital signage software comprised of a CMS and a player/client. Xibo CMS has always worked on both Windows and Linux, but in recent years, Xibo Client only worked on Windows, Android, and WebOS with the latter two being paid apps. Many years ago there was a Python-based Xibo player working in Linux but it was abandoned. However, recently the company restarted the development of a Linux player, and I even tried Xibo Player and CMS on MINIX NEO Z83-4U mini PC, but at the time the player was at the alpha stage and not very stable at least with the layout I experimented with. Around two months have passed, and the developers must have worked out the quirks, as Xibo Player for Linux has now been released, and just like the Windows player it’s entirely free to use, and open source (C++ code) under the […]

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