Xiaomi Mi Box Comes to the US with Android TV 6.0 Running on Amlogic S905X Processor

Xiaomi Mi Boxes have been available in China for a couple of years, and the only way to ship them to the rest of the world was to purchase via Chinese e-retailers. Xiaomi and Google have now worked together to bring Mi Box with Android TV 6.0, instead of the usual Chinese MIUI TV interface, to the US, and possibly to other countries. Xiaomi Mi Box (US) specifications: SoC –  Amlogic S905X-H quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2 and CEC support Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF and 3.5mm audio jack Video Codecs – VP9 Profile-2 & H.265 MP-10 up to 4K @ 60 fps, H.264 AVC up to 4K @ 30 fps, H.264 MVC up to […]

Programming ESP8266 Boards with a Smartphone

In recent days, I wrote about low cost MCU boards such as the $2 BluePill, and the One Dollar Board project, but several people commented that while the board themselves are very cheap, it might still be a problem in some developing countries, where access to computers cannot be taken for granted. So person suggested that such initiative would work better in some countries if programming was possible via a smartphone instead. Is that true? According to a 2014/2015 study by Pew Research Center, there is some truth to it, but it varies greatly between countries. For example,  55% of Brazilian adults own a computer at home, while only 24% own a smartphone, but in Kenya only 8% own a computer at home, while 15% own a smartphone. Some devices in the “cellphones but not smartphones” might be feature phones with WiFi and a web browser. Anyway ideally a low […]

Beelink BT7 mini PC Powered by Atom x7-Z8700 Processor Features 4GB RAM, Up to 320 GB SSD

When I reviewed Voyo V3 mini PC based on Intel Atom x7-Z8700 processor, I was quite satisfied with the experience thanks to very fast storage with decent capacity (120 GB), the fastest Cherry Processor available combined with 4GB RAM which made for a pretty good experience under Windows 10 for just under $200. However, the mini PC networking capabilities suffer, with the lack of Ethernet, and WiFi limited to 802.11n @ 2.4 GHz. Beelink has been working on their own Atom x7 mini PC, namely Beelink BT7, with both Gigabit Ethernet & dual band WiFi, as well as various SSD options up to 320 GB. Beelink BT7 mini PC specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x7-Z8700 Cherry Trail quad core processor @ 1.60 GHz/2.40 GHz (turbo) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 600MHz with 16EU (2W SDP) System Memory – 4 GB DDR3 Storage – 64, 128, or 320 GB SSD […]

Asu Cast One Android Smartwatch Features a Projector and Touch Panel

Smartwatches and wearables in general have to main implementations for the user interfaces, either using a display and physical button, or a touch screen display. Asu Cast 1 changed all that, as they removed the display, using a touch panel (no screen) combined with a projector, using your hand or other surfaces. Asu Cast One smartwatch projector specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (APQ8026) processor @ 1.2 GHz System Memory – 768 MB RAM Storage – 4GB flash Projector – 1280 x 600 resolution, 15 lumens brightness (equivalent to 100 lumens DLP projectors), “screen” size: 2″ to 60″. Touch panel – Multi-touch Connectivity – WiFi and Bluetooth Sensors – Gravity sensor and gyroscope Battery – 740 mAh battery Dimensions – 50 x 41 x 14.6 mm Weight – 65.9 grams The thing runs a heavily customized version of Android 5.1, and supports DLNA, Miracast and Airplay. The company did not disclose […]

NXP Unveils i.MX 8 Multisensory Enablement Kit with Hexa Core ARMv8 Processor

Freescale, now NXP, i.MX 8 processors have been a long time coming, but finally the company has now unveiled a Multisensory Enablement Kit based on i.MX 8 hexa core ARMv8 processor combined with a Vulkan-ready & OpenCL capable GPU. Key features of the development kit: Multisensory Processor Board Multisensory Expansion Board Isolation and separation of secure, safe and open domains Rich compute (6x ARMv8 64-bit main CPUs, OpenCL GPU) Vulkan-ready GPU with HW tessellation and geometry shading Efficient, multi-screen (4x) support via HW virtualization Failover-ready display path Up to 8x camera input for 360 degree vision Integrated vision processing HDR enhanced video Multi-sensor fusion and expansion Multi-core audio and speech processing NXP radio solution integration However, at the time of writing, there’s very little information about i.MX8 processors themselves, but I’m confident much more info should soon surface as NXP FTF 2016 is taking place now until May 19, 2016. […]

“BluePill” is a $2 Arduino Compatible Development Board Based on STMicro STM32 MCU

I’m amazed that if your budget for a board was just $5 for one MCU board, you now have so many options for your electronics projects: ESP8266 boards, a few STM8 boards, One Dollar Board project, and many more… Other options are “BluePill” or “RedPill” boards based on STM32 or GD32 32-bit ARM Cortex M3 micro-controllers that go for about $2 shipped, and can be programmed with the Arduino IDE thanks to STM32Duino project. BluePill board specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F103C8T6 ARM Cortex-M3 MCU @ 72 MHz with 64KB flash memory, 20KB SRAM. USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming Debugging – 4x pin SWD header or micro USB port Expansion – 2x 20-pin with power signals, I2C, SPI, GPIOs, ADC inputs, etc… Misc – Reset button, two jumpers (for boot mode), power and user LEDs. Power – 5V via USB, 2.0-3.6V power via 3.3V pin on […]

$44.90 BeagleBone Green Wireless Board Adds 802.11n WiFi & Bluetooth 4.1 LE and More USB Ports

After BeagleBone Air, there’s now another BeagleBone Black derived board with WiFi and Bluetooth, as BeagleBone Green gets a wireless version with WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, and four USB ports. BeagleBone Green Wireless Specifications The Ethernet port is also gone, but most of the other specifications remain the same as seen from the comparison table below. BeagleBone Black BeagleBone Green BeagleBone Green Wireless SoC Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358 ARM Cortex-A8 processor @ 1GHz with NEON, PowerVR SGX530 GPU, PRU… System Memory 512MB DDR3 RAM Storage 4GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot USB 1x USB client, 1x USB 2.0 host 1 USB client, 4x USB 2.0 host ports Network Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n & Bluetooth 4.1 LE Video Output HDMI N/A Expansion Headers 2×46 pin headers 2×46-pin headers and 2x Grove connectors Debugging 6-pin serial header and unpopulated 20-pin JTAG header Dimensions 86.3 x 53.4 cm Price […]

Preliminary Open Source Bootloader for Raspberry Pi Boards Released

Raspberry Pi boards require a closed-source binary to boot. I understand it this is handled by VideoCore IV GPU,  and so  far the Raspberry Pi foundation are not release source code for the bootloader, possibly due to legal reason (e.g. NDA to Broadcom). But I noticed people chatting about an open source bootloader for Raspberry Pi on sunxi-linux IRC channel. The bootloaded called rpi-open-firmware has been developed by Kristina Brooks (christinaa), who previously did some work on the VideoCore IV GPU, as you can see on her blog and github account. Kristina describe the project as follows: This is a small firmware for RPi VPU (VideoCore4) versions 1/2/3 that is capable of initializing VPU PLL (PLLC), UART, SDRAM and ARM itself. It’s intended to be used instead of stock bootcode.bin on RPi’s SD card. You need to have UART to see anything meaningful as far as output goes. This has […]