Operating Systems Category - Page 403 of 1034 - CNX Software

February 12, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

Ubuntu 18.04 Now Boots on Some Snapdragon 835 Arm Laptops

The first “proper” Windows 10 Arm laptops were unveiled at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, all based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with always-on LTE connectivity, 20+ hour battery life, a fairly expensive price tag, and somewhat underwhelming performance. Qualcomm was not interested in supporting Linux, but there was interest from the community, and now it seems Ubuntu 18.04 images are available for Lenovo Miix 630, HP Envy x2, and ASUS Novago TP370 thanks to Aarch64-laptop project currently hosted on Github. Now the prebuilt images are not really ready for end users since UFS storage and WiFi are not working on any laptop yet, the touchpad is not working on the ASUS laptop, and accelerated graphics needs to be implemented. Interestingly WiFi is related to UFS on those laptops, and Marc Gonzalez is said to be being actively worked on UFS upstream support, which should enable for […]

February 11, 2019February 11, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Nitrogen8M_Mini is the First NXP i.MX8 8M Mini SBC

Having just written about one of the first NXP i.MX 8M Mini systems-on-module, let’s stay with NXP’s latest 14-nm processor as Boundary Devices have been working on a variant of their Nitrogen8M SBC based on MXP i.MX 8M Mini processor and aptly called Nitrogen8M_Mini. The board is also known as the less human-friendly Nit8MQ_Mini_2r8e SBC, and comes with the following specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini with 4x Cortex A53 cores, 1x Cortex-M4F real-time core, Vivante GCNanoUltra 3D GPU, Vivante GC320 2D GPU System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 (Optional 4GB version) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, expandable up to 128GB, UHS SD card slot Display – 4-lane MIPI DSI interface up to 1080p Video Encode / Decode – 1080p H.264, VP8/1080p60 H.265, H.264, VP8, VP9 Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack, analog MIC jack, 2W audio amplifier, L&R speaker headers Camera Interface – 1x 4-lane MIPI-CSI interface Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet […]

February 11, 2019February 11, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

F&S Elektronik PicoCore MX8MM System-on-Module Features NXP i.MX 8M Mini Processor

Embedded World 2019 will take place at the end of this month on February 26-28 in Nuremberg, Germany, and we can expect plenty of news related to embedded systems. It’s very likely NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor will officially be launched, and we’ll see several modules and boards announced with the lower cost 14-nm processor. F&S Elektronik Systeme has already been promoting their upcoming PicoCore MX8MM system-on-module based on NXP i.MX 8M in their newsletter ahead of Embedded World, where they’ll showcase their solutions at booth 621 in hall 2. PicoCore MX8MM specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini single, dual, quad core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz processor, Cortex-M4 real-time core @ 400 MHz, 512KB L2-Cache, 2D/3D GPU System Memory – Up to 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – Up to 512MB SLC NAND flash or up to 32GB eMMC flash Video Decode – 1080p60 HEVC H.265, VP9, H.264, VP8 Connectivity 802.11ac […]

February 9, 2019May 10, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 49 Comments

Wechip R69 Allwinner H3 TV Box goes for $19 Shipped

A few years ago, it was relatively easy to purchase sub $20 TV boxes with some patience, but with the increase in RAM and flash prices, it’s been more difficult to find those ultra-cheap TV boxes. It turns out there’s such a deal now on Aliexpress where Wechip R69 TV box is sold for just $18.99 shipped. Now with an Allwinner H3 processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB flash, I would not necessarily recommend such device for your media needs, but they can be useful for some specific use cases like a simple digital signage, or even to run Linux with some efforts. Wechip R69 also looks to be similar to Sunvell R69 TV box that is officially supported by RetroOrangePi, but with the pin-to-pin compatible Allwinner H2 processor, so it could make an inexpensive retro gaming console as well. Wechip R69 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad-core Cortex A7 processor […]

February 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Adiantum Enables Faster File Encryption in Devices without AES Crypto Accelerator

File Encryption is enabled – even required – by default in most Android devices, as it protects your data would you lose your phone, or have it stolen. Encryption in Android leverages the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and most modern 64-bit processors – like the ones based on Armv8 – come with a crypto accelerator that boosts performance several folds compared to a software only solution. But there are also many low end devices, for example based on Arm Cortex-A7, that lack crypto extensions, and enabling AES encryption would make the devices even slower than they already are. So in order to provide file encryption on entry-level hardware without comprising too much on performance, Google has developed Adiantum encryption optimized to run on targets without crypto accelerator. As explained in a Google Security blog post, Adiantum uses the ChaCha stream cipher – as used in HTTPS – in a length-preserving […]

February 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Ivy5661 Bluetooth 5 + 802.11ac WiFi IoT Board Up for Pre-order for $35

There are many WiFi and/or Bluetooth board designed for the Internet of Things thanks to ESP8266 / ESP32, and other solutions, but usually they all work in the 2.4 GHz frequency band which can be an issue in crowded environments. Last October, we covered ucRobotics Ivy5661 96Boards compliant IoT board that offers a dual core Arm Cortex-M4F MCU with 802.11ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5 connectivity. It was still under development at the time, but today, I’ve noticed it was listed on Seeed Studio for $35 with shipping scheduled for the end of February. ucRobotics Ivy5661 board specifications: SoC – UniSoC UWP5661 dual core Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller @ 416 MHz manufactured with 28nm process Storage – 32Mbit NOR flash Connectivity (built in SoC) Dual band 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO WiFi 5 up to 866MHz; supports repeater mode, RTT indoor positioning Bluetooth 5 with support for high power mode, BT mesh, and […]

February 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Autoware is an “All-in-One” Open-source Software for Autonomous Driving

All major automotive companies, and some technology companies are all working on autonomous driving with the ultimate goal of achieving level 5 autonomous driving meaning no human intervention is needed at any stage. Development will take some more time, and companies are now competing with closed source software and hardware. But as I browsed through Linaro Connect Bangkok 2019 schedule, I found out there’s an open source autonomous driving software called Autoware.AI. Several “Autoware” projects are managed by the newly founded Autoware Foundation, a non-profit organization created to develop a synergy between corporate development and academic research in order to provide access to autonomous driving technology for everyone: Autoware.AI is the first version built on ROS 1, and Linux, and has been developed as a research and development platform Autoware.auto is the second version built on ROS 2, and Linux, with a complete redesign. Autoware.IO is an interface project for Autoware […]

February 6, 2019April 15, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Novasom SBC-U1 is a Tiny Industrial grade ESP32 Single Board Computer

Novasom Industries is an international company specializing in SBCs (Single Board Computers) with offices in Romania and the US. Most of their products are based on Arm and Intel processors, and they have two product lines their U-Line for low power IoT devices, and M-Line for applications requiring multimedia processing with various Rockchip, Qualcomm, and Intel processors. One model in the U-Line caught my attention, as beside an NXP i.MX6ULL SBC, the company is also offering an industrial temperature grade ESP32 SBC named SBC-U1 / SBC-U1A. SBC-U1/SBC-U1A board specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32 dual core Tensilica LX6 processor @ 240 MHz, 384KB RAM Storage – 4MB flash, micro SD card slot up to 32GB Connectivity – 802.11 b/n/g WiFi 4, Bluetooth 4.1 LE I/Os – 24-pin 2.54mm pitch header with up to 15 GPIO @ 3.3V, I2C, SPI, 2-ch 12-bit ADC, 2-ch 10-bit DAC, 2x protected inputs up to […]