Posted on - 5 Comments on Autoware is an “All-in-One” Open-source Software for Autonomous Driving

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

Autoware.AI Software Architecture

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 to be extended with proprietary software and third-party libraries for …

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Posted on - 7 Comments on Zotac Pico PI470 Amber Lake Mini PC is Powered by Intel Core i7-8500Y Processor

Zotac Pico PI470 Amber Lake Mini PC is Powered by Intel Core i7-8500Y Processor

Zotac Pico PI470

Intel announced Core-Y series “Amber Lake” processors last August. The new 5W SoC are designed for laptops and 2-in-1 hybrids with built-in Gigabit WiFi, and optional LTE cellular connectivity. But that does not mean they cannot be used in other form factors, and Zotac is showcasing their tiny ZBOX Pico PI470 mini PC powered by Intel Core i7-8500Y dual core / quad thread processor at CES 2019. Zotac Pico PI470 specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-8500Y dual core quad thread Amber Lake-Y processor  clocked at 1.5 GHz (base) / 4.2 GHz (turbo) with 4MB cache, Intel HD Graphics 615; 5W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR3 memory Storage – 32GB eMMC storage, micro SD/SDHC/SDXC card reader Video Output – HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2 Audio – HDMI audio output, 3.5mm headphone jack Networking & Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5 USB – 3x USB 3.0 ports including 1x USB type-C port Misc – Power button Power Supply – …

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Posted on - 7 Comments on Intel Project Athena Defines Guidelines for Always-On 5G Laptops

Intel Project Athena Defines Guidelines for Always-On 5G Laptops

Intel Project Athena

Arm, Qualcomm and their partners first introduced always-on always-connected mobile PCs running Windows 10 in 2017 with over 20 hours of battery life and LTE connectivity. The first models delivered on their battery life promise, but they were expensive while delivering underwhelming performance, but the upcoming Snapdragon 8cx processor should address performance concerns. Those type of laptops are still a niche market, and so far Intel and their partners have not delivered similar type of laptops with long battery life, cellular connectivity, and always-on capabilities. That’s where Intel’s Project Athena innovation program comes in. The program that defines a new class of advanced laptops running either Windows or Chrome OS operating systems, offering long battery life, 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, and consistently powered on. They may not target the 20 hours of battery life like on Arm platform, but the part of the infographic above reads “worry-free day of battery life” so that you can “confidence to leave the charger …

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Posted on - 31 Comments on Intel Unveils Foveros “big.SMALL” Hybrid x86 Processor, Roadmap for Atom Processors

Intel Unveils Foveros “big.SMALL” Hybrid x86 Processor, Roadmap for Atom Processors

Intel Foveros Hybrid Processor-Development-Board

Once upon a time Intel manufactured mobile processors for smartphones and tablets, but they eventually gave up as their solutions failed to gain traction. However, it looks like they may be back, as one customers required them to developer a chip with higher performance than Atom processors combined with a 2 mW standby power state. The chip was developed using “Foveros” 3D stacking technology was showcased at Intel’s Architecture Day 2018, but before going into further details, let’s have a look at Atom and Core processors roadmap to 2023 unveiled at the event. First, Intel will have developed three new Atom micro-architectures going into 2023. As we’ve seen previously, Tremont will succeed Goldmont Plus microarchitecture found in Gemini Lake and Denverton processors, and improve single-threaded performance, network server performance, and battery life starting in 2019. Around 2021, Gracemont will be launched with again higher single-thread performance and frequency, as well as improvement to vector performance, and two years later (2023), …

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Posted on - 11 Comments on ASUS ZenBook Pro 14 UX480FD Laptop Replaces the Touchpad with a 5.5″ “ScreenPad” Display

ASUS ZenBook Pro 14 UX480FD Laptop Replaces the Touchpad with a 5.5″ “ScreenPad” Display

ASUS ScreenPad Laptop

Touchpads is a feature found in most laptops,  but AFAIK there’s not been much innovation recently apart from maybe support for multitouch and gestures. But I’ve just found out ASUS started to showcase laptops without touchpad a few months ago, instead integrating what the company calls a ScreenPad, a 5.5″ touchscreen display placed at the location where you’d normally expect a touchpad. The company’s latest (and second) laptop with a ScreenPad is Asus ZenBook Pro 14 UX480FD, which comes with a 14″ display, processor up to an Intel Core i7-8565U Whiskey Lake-U processor, up to 16GB DDR4 RAM, and up to 1TB PCIe SSD storage, as well as an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q graphics,  802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, and more. You can visit the product page for the full specs, as I’ll focus a bit more on the ScreenPad in this post. The ScreenPad in this laptop is a 5.5” FHD (1920 x 1080) Super IPS+ display, with 178˚ …

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Posted on - 27 Comments on Intel Core Y-series and U-series 8th Gen Processors Target Laptops with Built-in Gigabit WiFi, Optional LTE Connectivity

Intel Core Y-series and U-series 8th Gen Processors Target Laptops with Built-in Gigabit WiFi, Optional LTE Connectivity

Intel Whiskey Lake-U Block Diagram

We discovered three Intel Amber Lake processors with a 5W TDP through a leak last month namely Core m3-8100Y, Core i5-8200Y, Core i7-8500Y dual core/quad thread processors. Intel has now made an announcement confirming the launch of Core Y-series (formerly Amber Lake, 5W TDP) and Core U-Series (Whiskey Lake, 15W TDP) 8th generation processors featuring Gigabit WiFi, optional support for LTE and targeting laptop and 2-in-1 hybrids. Intel Core Y-Series “Amber Lake” Processors Let’s start with the 5W Core-Y family key features: 4MB Smart Cache Intel HD Graphics 615 Intel High Definition Audio with digital surround sound,  support for multiple audio streams, jack re-tasking. Intel Smart Sound Technology – Dedicated audio Digital Signal Processor designed to process audio for media playback and voice for PC interactions like Cortana, Nuance Dragon, or Skype. USB 3.0 – Up to 5x USB 3.0 ports supporting up to 5 Gbps USB 2.0 – Up to 6x USB 2.0 ports SATA – Up to 2x …

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Posted on - 5 Comments on Check for Spectre, Meltdown, and L1 Terminal Fault Vulnerabilities with Spectre-meltdown-checker Script

Check for Spectre, Meltdown, and L1 Terminal Fault Vulnerabilities with Spectre-meltdown-checker Script

Spectre Meltdown Foreshadow Checker

Yesterday, we wrote a little bit about the new speculative execution vulnerability known as L1 Terminal Fault (L1TF) or Foreshadow, and a reader – MHSadri – pointed to an interesting script that checks for all three speculative execution vulnerabilities, and runs in Linux and BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFlyBSD)  across multiple architectures: Intel x32, AMD64, Arm and ARM64. Other architectures will also work, but mitigation reporting may not be correct. So I tried it on my own machine, a computer running Ubuntu 18.04 on an AMD FX8350 processor. Installation is easy: The developer recommends to check the script manually first, just for security sake. You can have two way to run it: either directly inside your OS, or via docker which may be a better idea since it would not be able to mess with your system especially I had to run it with sudo to avoid permission issues. Here’s the full output while running the script in a terminal window …

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Posted on - 1 Comment on More Speculative Execution Exploits – Meet Foreshadow / L1 Terminal Fault

More Speculative Execution Exploits – Meet Foreshadow / L1 Terminal Fault

Speculative execution is a feature to speed up performance of recent processors which works by predicting and loading likely future instructions ahead of time.  The features became somewhat famous a few months ago with Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities exploiting the features. The exploits impact Intel, AMD, Arm, and other processors to various degrees, and since the feature is built-in into the hardware, there’s no easy fix, and instead operating systems vendors, cloud service providers, hosting services and other stakeholders implemented mitigations. While a lot of progress has been made, work is still going on with the just released Linux 4.18 still getting some code changes related to the exploits. But just as solutions were found for Spectre and Meltdown, a new speculative execution exploitation has raised its ugly head: L1 Terminal Fault also known as Foreshadow.  The new flaw appears to be just as serious, and a dedicated website has been setup. Two versions of the exploit have been announced …

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