Leon ANAVI works as a software engineer, but designs some open source hardware boards as a hobby, and usually sends me his creations for review. That means I have a bunch of his products, and today I’ll be giving away ANAVI Light pHat Starter Kit, and ANAVI Infrared pHat. The light sensor in the kit above will not be included, since I have no idea where it is… The winner still get the board and RGB LED string, and a few stickers. After connecting to a Raspberry Pi board and adding a 12V power supply, you’ll be able to control the LED as I did in “Getting Started with ANAVI Light pHat Starter Kit with RGB LED Strip, Light Sensor“. ANAVI Infrared pHat will also be part of the winning package, and you may consider reading the instructions showing how to control an air conditioner with a Raspberry Pi board. […]
Linux on DeX (Linux on Samsung Android Phones & Tablets) Enters Private Beta
Samsung unveiled “Linux on Galaxy” a little over a year ago with the aim of allowing developers to running Linux desktop on their high Galaxy smartphones coupled with DeX Station dock, keyboard, mouse and display. It was not quite ready for public consumption yet, so I registered to their mailing list to get more information in due time. This morning, I received an email with the subject “Register for the Linux on DeX beta trail” that reads in part: As an early adopter, you signed up for Linux on Galaxy at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017. This service allows you to project a Linux development environment onto a desktop environment, complete with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. So you can bring your code with you, wherever you go. This year, we have renamed the service Linux on DeX, and are beginning a private beta trial. Please visit our booth […]
96Boards AI Sophon Edge Developer Board Features Bitmain BM1880 ASIC SoC
Bitmain, a company specializing in cryptocurrency, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI) application, has just joined Linaro, and announced the first 96Boards AI platform featuring an ASIC:Â Sophon BM1880 Edge Development Board, often just referred to as “Sophon Edge”. The board conforms to the 96Boards CE specification, and include two Arm Cortex-A53 cores, a Bitmain Sophon Edge TPU delivering 1 TOPS performance on 8-bit integer operations, USB 3.0 and gigabit Ethernet. Sophon Edge specifications: SoC ASIC – Sophon BM1880 dual core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz, single core RISC-V processor @ 1 GHz, 2MB on-chip RAM, and a TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) that can provide 1TOPS for INT8,and up to 2 TOPs by enabling Winograd convolution acceleration System Memory – 1GB LPDDR4 @ 3200Mhz Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Processing – H.264 decoder, MJPEG encoder/decoder, 1x 1080p @ 60fps or 2x 1080p @ 30fps H.264 decoder, […]
Rock Pi 4 Raspberry Pi Compatible RK3399 Board to Sell for $39 and Up
The long awaited RPi 4 is almost finally here! Except we’re not talking about Raspberry Pi 4, but Rock Pi 4 designed by Radxa team, back after three years following the launch of Radxa Rock 2 Square, with the new SBC just unveiled by Tom Cubie, Radxa founder. Rock Pi 4 single board computer is powered by a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor coupled with 1 to 4GB RAM, and following Raspberry Pi 3 and ASUS Tinker board form factor. There will be two variants with Rock Pi 4 Model A and Model B sharing most of the same specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.4 GHz, a Mali-T864 GPU with support OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC, and a VPU with 4K VP9 and 4K 10-bit H265/H264 decoding System Memory – 1, 2 […]
The First 802.11ax WiFI 6 Routers are Now Shipping for $350 and Up
802.11ax WiFi, to be known as WiFi 6 for consumer, promises a much higher throughput up to 10 Gbps, and a better ability to manage high density scenario (i.e.). crowded places where may users connect at the same time. ASUS announced several 802.11ax routers at CES 2018, and the entry-level model – ASUS RT-AX88U – with a combined maximum throughput of 6000 Mbps (referred to as AX6000) is now sold on Amazon for $349.99. NETGEAR has also unveiled their own WiFi 6 routers with respectively Nighthawk AX80 (RAX80) and Nighthawk AX120 (RAX120) routers. I’ve already covered ASUS routers in a previous post, and the 12-stream RAX120 will only become available in Q1 2019, so I’ll focus on the spaceship looking 8-stream RAX80 router since it’s available now. RAX80 WiFi 6 router specifications: SoC –Â Broadcom BCM49408 quad core Cortex-A53 processor @Â 1.8GHz with network packet co-processor @ 800 MHz WiFi […]
Xiaomi Mi Box S is Now Available Worldwide for $55.99 (Promo)
Xiaomi Mi Box S TV box running Android TV 8.1 launched last month as an upgrade to the popular Xiaomi Mi Box with very similar specifications, but a new remote control, and a cheaper $60 price tag. That means if you already own a working Mi Box you probably don’t want to upgrade, but if you haven’t already that’s a better deal. There’s one caveat however. It’s only available in the US at Walmart, so if you leave in another part of the world it’s not easily possible to order one, except going via a US forwarder. The good news is that you can now purchase it on GearBest for $55.99 with coupon GBMIBOXS (Note: they only have 1,000 pieces at this price). Xiaomi Mi Box S specifications as a reminder: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – […]
Foldables to Get Official Support in Android, Samsung Unveils Infinity Flex Display
Several Android mobile device categories have been launched to the market with smartphones, tablets, phablets, smartwatches, etc… But there’s a new category coming soon: foldables. They will be two variants: those with two display side-by-side such as ZTE Axon M, and smartphone with flexible displays that bend and fold, and are likely to be more popular. Google has just announced official support for foldables in Android, and Samsung has unveiled their Infinity Flex Display for foldables. Android will support both variants of foldables. When folded, foldables look like normal phones, but when unfolded, the screen size doubles transforming the phone into a tablet of sort. Android will automatically resize the screen in a seamless fashion which Google calls “screen continuity”. You can start a video with the phone folded, and when you open it it will neatly switch to the bigger screen tablet-like experience. Several manufacturers will come with foldables, […]
Rockchip RK3399Pro EVB and NPU Performance Demos (Video)
Rockchip RK3399Pro was announced as an updated version of RK3399 processor with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) capable of delivering 2.4 TOPS for faster A.I. workloads such as face or object recognition. There haf been some delays in the past because of a redesign of the processor that placed the NPU’s RAM on the PCB instead of on-chip for cost reasons. Eventually we got more details about RK3399Pro, and today I also received a 15-page presentation with some more information about the software, and processor itself. But even more interesting, that’s the first time I see Rockchip’s official RK3399Pro EVB (Evaluation Board), and the guys at Khadas uploaded a video to explain a bit more about the board, and showcase the NPU performance measured up to 3.0 TOPS with an object recognition demo, and an “body feature” detection demo – for the lack of a better word – running in […]