Ubuntu Category - Page 83 of 175 - CNX Software

June 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

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

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 […]

May 30, 2019May 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

FriendlyELEC SOM-RK3399 Development Kit Targets AI & Machine Vision Applications

FriendlyELEC is better known for their low-cost tiny single board computers, but the company has also introduced systems-on-module in the past such as Smart6818 module powered by Samsung S5P6818 octa-core processor. The company has now launched another system-on-module with SOM-RK3399, which as its name implied features Rockchip RK3399 processor, as well as a corresponding carrier board mostly designed for artificial intelligence and computer vision applications. SOM-RK3399 System-on-Module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5GHz, Mali-T864 GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC, and VPU capable of handling 4K VP9 and 4K 10bits H265/H264 60fps decoding, Dual VOP, etc System Memory – Dual-Channel 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash Networking 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo module (AP6356S), dual antenna interface Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet transceiver USB – 2x USB-C […]

May 23, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Xilinx Arm FPGA, Snapdragon SoM’s, and Wandboard SBC Field Trip to Space

SpaceX Starlink Satellites Falcon Rocket

Most embedded systems are used here on planet earth, but some do take off heading for space, and this week I come accross two separate projects leveraging Arm processors and FPGAs, as well as Ubuntu/ROS and Android operating systems: SpaceX Starlink communication satellites and Astrobee robots roaming in the international space station (ISS) SpaceX Starlink Satellites with Xilinx Ultrascale+ Arm + FPGA SoC SpaceX is about to launch a cloud of 60 Starlink communication satellites that aims to provide internet communication anywhere in the world. That’s just a start as eventually the plan is to get up to 12,000 of those satellites. Usually, we would not know many technical details about the satellites, but as one reader pointed out (Thanks Lawrence!), a Reddit thread about the launch, also pointed to a NASA document revealing the satellites are powered by Xilinx Ultrascale+ quad core Cortex-A53 processor with FPGA fabric. Milestone 2 […]

May 20, 2019May 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments

Top 5 Raspberry Pi Alternatives in 2019

The Raspberry Pi boards are great little Arm Linux SBC’s with a low price and great community support. But the Broadcom processors used in the boards are also fairly old so they may not be suitable for some projects. If your application needs or would benefit from modern features such as memory over 1GB RAM, an actual Gigabit Ethernet port, USB 3.0 port(s), 4K video output, or H.265 hardware video decoding you’ll have to find Raspberry Pi alternatives. I’ll point out 5 alternative single board computers in this post from the point of view of existing Raspberry Pi users, who will want good software support and a board with the same or similar form factor as Raspberry Pi 3 Model B/B+ in order to reuse their add-on boards and/or enclosures. Price has to be competitive as well, so nothing above $80 will be mentioned. The boards are not listed in […]

May 16, 2019May 16, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

Blueendless X3 Networked “HDD NAS Case” Runs Ubuntu on Marvell ARMADA 3720 SoC

We’ve previously covered inexpensive Kimax’ Ethernet & WiFi HDD enclosures for 2.5″ SATA drives, powered by MediaTek processor and running OpenWrt. If you need something more powerful and versatile yet still affordable, the easiest way is now likely to go with SBC based solutions such as ODROID-HC1/HC2 or dual SATA NAS enclosure for RockPro64. There may be another interesting option, as I’ve just been informed about another model of those networked HDD enclosure called Blueendless X3 “HDD NAS case” with Ethernet only (no WiFi), and that is equipped with the same Marvel ARMADA 3720 dual core Cortex-A53 processor as found in Marvell ESPRESSOBin board. Blueendless X3 specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA 3720 (88F3720) dual core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.1 GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash for OS, SATA 3.0 interface for 2.5″ drives based on ASMedia ASM1092R port multiplier Networking – 1x […]

May 15, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

More Intel Processor HW Security Flaws. Meet Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS)

2018 did not start so well for processor vendors, especially Intel, but also AMD, Arm and others as some of their processors leveraging speculative execution were impacted by Spectre and/or Meltdown hardware security bugs. The workarounds to improve security had a downside as they affected performance in some specific use case. Panic ensued as the bug was revealed to the public a bit too early, so companies were not fully ready with their mitigations / workarounds. Then in summer of 2018, another hardware security flaw known as Foreshadow or L1 Terminal Fault came to light. The new flaw potentially enabled the attacker to access data stored in L1 cache. Provided you have updated your operating systems to the latest version, your computers and devices should be protected against those vulnerabilities, and you can even check with a script working in Linux or FreeBSD. But this now looks like a never […]

May 15, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Atomic Pi SBC is back with pre-orders on Amazon and Ameridroid

Atomic Pi single board board is probably the SBC with the best performance / value ratio on the market, so when we reported that Atomic Pi was available worldwide last month the 6,000 pieces available quickly ran out of stock. Many people suspect it was a limited product run from a previous project, and indeed Atomic Pi is most likely AAEON MF-001 board that was designed for Kuri robot designed for the now-defunct Mayfield Robotics. But we have some good news as Atomic Pi SBC does not appear to be a one-off sales getting rid of stock as it’s now back for pre-order on Amazon US and Ameridroid with shipping scheduled for the end of May. I won’t go through the whole specifications again but with an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad core processor, 2GB RAM, and 16GB flash, Atomic Pi board has hardware far more powerful than the similarly priced […]

May 7, 2019May 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

ARBOR IoT-800N Android/Ubuntu Panel PC Targets Automotive Applications, Industrial Automation

Rockchip PX30 is a low cost low power quad core Arm Cortex-A35 processor mostly designed for car infotainment systems. Last month, we also found the processor in ARBOR SOM-RP301 system-on-module designed for retails kiosks such as automated currency exchange machines, electronic restaurant menus, , ticketing kiosks, etc… ARBOR has now launched another Rockchip PX30 platform with their IoT-800N 8″ Panel PC running Android 8.1 or Ubuntu 16.04, and designed for automotive applications such as fleet management or driver fatigue monitoring thanks to interfaces like OBD-II, as well as industrial automation. ARBOR IoT-800N specifications: SoC – Rockchip PX30 Quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor System Memory – 2GB DDR4 memory soldered on board Storage – 16GB eMMC flash soldered on board, microSDHC/microSDXC/microSD card socket up to 128GB Display – 8” TFT LCD display with 1024 x 600 resolution, 5-point projected capacitive touchscreen Camera – 8MP front-facing MIPI CSI camera with auto-focus Audio – […]