Linaro has announced several demos would take place at Linaro Connect on June 1st, 2012 in Hong Kong: Big.LITTLE in-kernel Switcher (Linaro) SIProp – Combat Scouter – How much your Combat Power? (SIProp) Android Toolchain Improvements (Linaro) Origen Running Awesome Code (Linaro) Snowball with MM enablement (Linaro) Tizen on Snowball (Linaro) Google+ Hangouts on an ARM Board (Linaro) Low-Cost Logic Analyzer (Linaro) XBMC on Snowball – ST Ericsson Snowball (Linaro) (Ubuntu) Unity 3D on Snowball (Linaro) Ubuntu TV on Snowball (Linaro) PCM (Phase Change Memory) : Linaro kernel meets with the PCM technology (Micron) ARM DS-5 & Linaro (ARM) Most of the demos will be organized by Linaro, but three others companies will also shown the “show”, namely SIProp, Micron and ARM. It’s always interested to see what happens at Linaro because it gives a view into the future to what may comes to the new products and developers can see what new features are available for […]
VIA Technologies Unveils the APC, an ARM11 $49 Android PC
VIA Technologies has today introduced the Android PC system (APC) powered by WonderMedia ARM11 processor, with 512 MB RAM and 2MB Flash in a small Neo-ITX motherboard and that will sell for a mere 49 USD, slightly higher than the 35 USD Raspberry Pi. But whereas the Raspberry Pi would struggle to run Android with 256 MB, the APC has just enough memory top run Android 2.3 and Android 4.0. Another advantage is the presence of a VGA connector which is missing on the Raspberry Pi, as well as a few other connectors. Here are VIA APC hardware specifications: VIA WonderMedia 8750 ARM11 CPU@ 800 MHz 2GB NAND Flash 512 DDR3 SDRAM Hardware Video Decoder supporting up to 1080p resolution VGA and HDMI display ports 4x USB 2.0 ports microSD slot 10/100 Ethernet port Audio-out/ Mic-in 15W power adapter Power consumption: 4 Watts (Idle) 13.5 Watts (Max. load) Dimensions: 17cm […]
Leap Motion Lets You Control Your Computer With Finger Gestures
Leap Motion is a tiny USB device, about the size of a thumb drive, that let’s you control your computer with hands and fingers (and even pencils) gestures in three dimensions using motion sensing and motion control technology. The company claims that Leap technology is 200 times more accurate than existing solutions with an accuracy up to 0.01 millimeter (which seems over the top). To use the LEAP, simply plug it into a USB port, install Leap Motion software, calibrate the device and you’re ready to control your PC a la minority report. This technology will probably not displace the mouse and keyboard, as your arms would get very tired after a while, but there are some good use cases: Stylus emulation and 3D images creation. Gaming. 3D modeling software interaction. Sign a document digitally with a pen. User interaction in Windows 7/8 or Mac OS X: Clicking, grabbing, scrolling, […]
Droid Stick KVD-13 Another Low Cost Android mini-PC
Following the steps of the $74 Android 4.0 mini PC (MK802), a couple more ARM based mini PCs have shown up, including Shenzhen Kimdecent Technology Droid Stick KVD-13 powered by a Renesas processor based on Cortex A9 with a PowerVR SGX530 GPU (possibly Renesas NEC EV2 processor), featuring 512 MB RAM, 4GB Flash and running Android 2.3. The good thing with this mini PC is that the HDMI connector is of the right gender: male. No offense to HDMI female connectors ;), but for this type of device, it’s just neat to plug it directly into the TV/monitor HDMI connector. Here are the device specifications: CPU Renesas Cortex-A9 Dual Core Processor @ 1GHz with PowerVG SGX530 GPU System Memory 512MB DDR3 Storage 4GB NAND Flash microSD card Connectivity WiFi 802.11b/g/n USB Ports 1x USB 2.0 Host 1x mini USB (for power) Video Output 1x HDMI 1.4 (Up to 1080p) Video Codecs […]
Linux 3.4 Release
Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.4 on the 20th of May: I just pushed out the 3.4 release. Nothing really exciting happened since -rc7, although the workaround for a linker bug on x86 is larger than I’d have liked at this stage, and sticks out like a sore thumb in the diffstat. That said, it’s not like even that patch was really all that scary. In fact, I think the 3.4 release cycle as a whole has been fairly calm. Sure, I always wish for the -rc’s to calm down more quickly than they ever seem to do, but I think on the whole we didn’t have any big disruptive events, which is just how I like it. Let’s hope the 3.5 merge window is a calm one too. Linus Linux 3.3 merged Android drivers to mainline, added further improvements to btrfs and ext-4 file […]
Getting Ubuntu armel/armhf Rootfs in Ubuntu 12.04
I’ve recently upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 and this is a great operating system. However, if you do some arm development and expect to be able to install cross libraries (armel/armhf) or easily generate an arm rootfs using the tools you’ve been used to, you’ll be disappointed. In Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric), I used xapt and dpkg-cross to retrieve armel libraries, but it’s broken for Ubuntu 12.04, at least on my system. I’ve been told to switch to multiarch because this will be how it’s done from now on. But I soon discovered this is work in progress as quite a few packages are not multiarched yet including python. Ubuntu developers also decided to remove rootstock (which makes sense since xapt/dpkg-cross will be deprecated), so if you want to generate a rootfs the “gool ol’” way (which won’t be supported much longer), you’d have to install an Oneric chroot to run rootstock, […]
VIA Technologies Announces VIA AMOS-3002 System For Embedded Applications
VIA Technologies has just unveiled the VIA AMOS-3002, a fanless system based on VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board, targeting embedded applications such as telematics, in-vehicle control, machine to machine controller (M2M), digital signage and kiosks. The VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board is powered by VIA Eden X2 dual core processor (1GHz) together with VIA VX900H media system processor (MSP) and VIA Chrome 9 video processor which render VIA AMOS-3002 systems capable of handling hardware video decoding for MPEG-2, WMV9 and H.264 codecs at 1080p resolution. Two models are available: AMOS-3002-2D10A1 and AMOS-3002-2D10A1. The latter features a 2.5” SATA hard disk drive bay which is not available in AMOS-3002-2D101A1. Here are the specifications for both VIA AMOS-3002 Models: CPU – VIA Eden X2 @ 1.0GHz Chipset – VIA VX900H Media System Processor Memory – 1x DDR3 1066 204-pin SODIMM socket (Up to 4GB) Storage: 1x CFast Flash disk socket 1 x 2.5” SATA hard […]
Phytec phyCORE-AM335x System on Module (SOM) Based on TI Sitara AM335x
PHYTEC announced the phyCORE-AM335x System on Module (SOM) powered by Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x Cortex-A8 processor clocked at 720Mhz and PowerVR SGX530 GPU. This SoM targets industrial applications and supports standards such as EtherCAT, Ethernet/IP, PROFINET, PROFIBUS, POWERLINK, SERCOS-III and CANopen. Here are phyCORE-AM335x SOM specifications: TI’s Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 processors @ 720 MHz (AM3352, AM3354, AM3356, AM3357, AM3358 and AM3359) PowerVR SGX530 Graphics (AM3359, AM3358, AM3354 only) 512 MB DDR3, 512MB/1GB NAND, 8 MB SPI Flash, 32 KB EEPROM 6x UARTs, 3x I2C, 2x McASP, 2x SPI, 2x CAN 2x USB OTG 2x 10/100/1G Ethernet (Gigabit PHY on carrier board) 24 bpp TTL or LVDS 44 x 50 mm form factor -40 degrees to +85 degrees C temperature range Linux, Compact 7, Android The phyCORE-AM335x SOM will be available in a PHYTEC Rapid Development Kit (RDK) including: phyCore-AM335x SOM A carrier board Board support packages (BSP) Demo images […]