New Android 2.3.4 Release For ST Ericsson Snowball Development Board

Igloo Community – the team developing for ST Ericsson Snowball Nova A9500 development board – has released the second version of Android 2.3.4 for the board. It can be downloaded at http://igloocommunity.org/download/android/images/20111012/ for V3 and V5 boards. Here are the new features and main bug fixes for this release: GPS support enabled WiFi instabilities fixed and enabled in the UI The browser home page crash is gone and the known issues: Audio recording does not work Potrait mode does not work (rotating the device corrupts screen until rotated back) The phone app crashes (no modem support) The flashing instructions are available at http://www.igloocommunity.org/support/Flashing_howto Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com

Generate a Custom ARM Rootfs Easily with Rootstock

You may need to generate your own rootfs for your ARM target board, but do not want to cross-compile all libraries manually. You can achieve this with rootstock, a utility that generates Ubuntu armel rootfs tarballs and/or qemu image, to be uncompressed onto a root device. First install roostock: sudo apt-get install rootstock Then generate a rootfs with the required libraries: sudo rootstock –fqdn beagleboard –login cnxsoft –password temppasswd \ –imagesize 3G –seed xfce4,gdm,pkg-config,python,perl,g++,bison,flex,\ gperf,libnss3-dev,libgtk2.0-dev,libnspr4-0d,libasound2-dev,libnspr4-dev,\ libgconf2-dev,libcairo2-dev,libdbus-1-dev,libstdc++6-4.5-dev,libexpat1-dev,\ libxslt1-dev,libxml2-dev,libbz2-dev  –dist natty Here are the details of the command line parameters: –fqdn: Hostname to be used for the target system –login: Login ID of the admin user created during setup –password: Password of the admin user created during setup –imagesize: Size of the target filesystem to be created (default 1GB) –seed: List of packages to install –dist: Specify Release to build (jaunty, karmic, lucid, maverick or natty) Alternatively you could also use an […]

MontaVista adds HTML5 and Android support to its GENIVI-Compliant Automotive Technology Platform

Montavista announced secure HTML5 and Android support to its Automotive Technology Platform (ATP) which is GENIVI Compliant. HTML5 support is provided via MontaVista’s ModiiTM Digital Media Solutions Platform. Both Android and HTML5 are made independant of critical part of the software as they are executed in a MontaVista Linux Container (isolated virtualized container environment). Here’s an excerpt of the press release: SANTA CLARA, Calif. – October 10th, 2011 – MontaVista® Software LLC, today announced secure HTML5 and Android support for its Automotive Technology Platform (ATP). The addition of HTML5 support is provided via MontaVista’s ModiiTM Digital Media Solutions Platform which adds a powerful HTML5-based UI Framework to its recently released GENIVI-Compliant Platform. The Android support delivers a high performance Android runtime environment, which opens up access to a vast number of popular applications from the entire Android ecosystem. Complementing the Android and HTML5 capabilities, MontaVista has implemented a unique dual-layered […]

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4: MSM8960

Qualcomm initially announced the Snapdragon S4 is a blog post back in August. They have now released a white paper providing further information on this processor. The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (MSM8960) is composed of  two Krait CPUs clocked between 1.2 and 1.5 Ghz, an Adreno 225 GPU and a modem subsystem with LTE, GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth and FM support. It will be manufactured using 28nm technology and provide much lower power consumption compared to previous generations. Key features and improvements: New CPU micro-architecture: The Krait CPU offer a 60% performance improvement compared to the scorpion CPU used in previous generations. SIMD/VFP performance: Multimedia instructions (SIMD) and floating point operations have also been improved, but no metrics have been provided. Optimized memory subsystem: Krait includes dual-channel memory. Dual-channel memory is critical in order for the processor to being able to handle the large bandwidth requirements in multicore systems. 25/40% power improvement: […]

Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2011

Embedded Linux Conference Europe (ELC-E 2011) will take place on October 26 – 28, 2011 at Clarion Congress Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The event will be co-located with LinuxCon Europe 2011 and GStreamer Conference. The day before the official opening of the conference, two tutorials will be offered on Tuesday 25th of October:b Outside the Box: An Introduction to Embedded Linux and Hardware Interfacing Using the Snowball Board – 9:00 – 17:00 – Trainer: Chris Simmonds – Cost: 350 USD. Embedded Android Workshop – 9:00 – 17:00 – Trainer: Karim Yaghmour- Cost: 300 USD. ELCE consists of 3 days of presentations, tutorials and sessions. There will be over 50 sessions during those 3 days. I’ll highlight a few sessions that I find particularly interesting. October 26 10:45 – 11:45 – Linaro’s Android Platform by Zach Pfeffer, Linaro Android Platform team leader. Linaro uses components from the Android Open Source […]

AMD G-Series QSeven Module Conga-QAF by Congatec

Congatec announced the Conga-QAF, a Qseven module powered by AMD G-Series embedded processors. The module will come with either the AMD G-T40R single core or the AMD G-T40E dual core processor, with 2 GB DRAM by default (expandable to 4GB), numerous I/O interfaces and an optional on-board SSD with a capacity of up to 32 GB. If you are not familiar with the QSeven Form Factor and why it is used, please read the beginning of the blog post entitled “QSeven Form Factor Embedded Boards by Seco“. To summarize, this is a standard to allow developers to use modules (based on QSeven specs) to test their software on several processors by inserting those modules in a common main board. Here are the specification of the Conga-QAF Qseven module: CPU AMD G-T40E 1.0 GHz Dual Core (L1 cache 64KB, L2 cache 512kB x2, 6.4 W) AMD G-T40R 1.0 GHz Single Core […]

60 USD Android Tablet: Aakash UbiSlate 7 Tablet

After much delay, the low cost tablet promised by the Indian government is finally released. The Aakash UbiSlate 7 is designed primarily for Indian students and will be sold to them at a discount. The tablet will be manufactured by Datawind in Hyderabad, India. The retail price will be 2,999 Rupees (~61 USD), but it will be sold to the government for 2250 Rupees (~46 USD) and will end up in the hands of students for a sponsored price of 1300 Rupees (~26 USD). Here are Aakash UbiSlate 7 Tablet Specifications: Processor: 366MHz Conexant Processor Memory: 256MB RAM Storage: 2GB Flash memory + 2GB Micro SD card (expandable to 32GB) OS: Android 2.2 with Getjar Marketplace (not the default Android Marketplace) Display: 7″ resistive touchscreen Network: Wifi only. Later models will be GPRS and SIM enabled. USB: 2 x ports Audio out: 3.5mm jack / Audio in: 3.5mm jack Battery: […]

AMD G-Series based iBase SI-08 Digital Signage

Ibase announced the SI-08, a digital signage player with an AMD G-Series processor and a DVI output. The device features a 1.6GHz dual-core T56N processor, up to 2GB of RAM and 1TB of disk storage, gigabit Ethernet,  a serial port, 2 USB port, an audio jack (in or out) as well as a Mini PCI slot for optional Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Here are the specifications and features of the iBase SI-08 digital signage player: System Mainboard EB900-16-SI CPU Type AMD G-Series Dual-Core APU (Accelerated Processing Unit): T56N=1.65GHz @ 18W TDP CPU Package 413-BGA Chipset AMD A55M Controller Hub Memory DDR3-1333, up to 4GB Graphics ATi Radeon HD6320 series graphics processing system integrated in APU • DirectX 11 • Direct Compute 11 • Open GL 4.0 • OpenCL 1.1 • UVD3 Hardware Video Decoder – MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, VC-1, WMV9 • Hybrid-DVI connector supporting CRT, DVI, or HDMI devices LAN 1x […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC