Allwinner Processor 2021-2022 Roadmap – Allwinner T827, T723 and T1033 SoC’s

Allwinner 2021 2022 roadmap

Last year, we published the Allwinner A-series processor roadmap for 2020-2021 with notably Allwinner A33E, A100, and A200 SoCs. Allwinner A100 was supposed to be released in 2019, but a search on Aliexpress showed exactly zero matches. We did write about Allwinner A100 mainline Linux support a little while ago, and today, I eventually found one Allwinner A100 tablet with the $60 Hyundai HyTab 7WC1. I had no better luck in my search for Allwinner A33E and A200 platforms. But I also got lucky today with another Allwinner roadmap for 2021-2022 with some very interesting new processors, provided they happen. A look at 2020 processors But let’s look at the year 2020 first. We already have most details about Allwinner A133 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, which is also called T509 apparently following the merging of the Allwinner A-Series business unit, focusing on tablets, into the Allwinner T-Series for industrial & automotive […]

Beelink SEI Review – A Core i3-10110U Mini PC Tested with Windows and Ubuntu

beelink sei review

Beelink has launched a new range of mini PCs called the SEi Series. Similar in size and appearance to an Intel ‘NUC’ they are available in various configurations. Beelink sent a Core i3-10110U SEi model for review which is the version that has now replaced their i3-1005G1 model which they had to discontinue due to the lack of processor availability. There is also an i5-8259U model in the series. Beelink SEi Hardware Overview The SEi physically consists of a 124 x 113 x 41mm (4.88 x 4.48 x 1.61 inches) rectangular plastic case. It is an actively cooled mini PC and uses Intel’s 14 nm++ Core i3-10110U Comet Lake processor which is a dual-core 4-thread 2.10 GHz processor boosting to 4.10 GHz with Intel’s UHD Graphics for 10th Gen Intel Processors. The front panel has a power button, a headphone jack, a Type-C USB 3.0 port, and two USB 3.0 […]

Rockchip RK3588 specifications revealed – 8K video, 6 TOPS NPU, PCIe 3.0, up to 32GB RAM

Rockchip RK3588 specifications

Rockchip RK3588 is one of the most anticipated processors for the year on this side of the Internet with the octa-core processor features four Cortex-A76 cores, four Cortex-A55 cores, an NPU, and 8K video decoding support. [Update December 2021: check out our post with the RK3588 datasheet for the latest details about the processor] The roadmap shows an expected launch date in Q3/Q4 2020, but sadly the release date will be pushed back in the future. Having said that, the Rockchip Developer Conference (RKDC) is now taking place, and the company has put up a poster that reveals a bit more about the processor. That means we now have more detailed Rockchip RK3588 specifications: CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 and 4x Cortex-A55 cores in dynamIQ configuration GPU – Arm Mali “Odin” MP4 GPU AI Accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU 3.0 (Neural Processing Unit) VPU – 8Kp60 video decoding support, 8Kp30 encoding […]

MINISFORUM EliteMini H31G Coffee Lake Mini PC Review with Windows & Linux

EliteMini H31G RAM & SSD

MINISFORUM have launched their EliteMini H31G which combines a desktop CPU with a discrete graphics card in a mini PC form factor. It supports various Intel 9th and 8th gen desktop processors combined with an NVIDIA Geforce GTX1050 Ti graphics card and targets both gamers and content creators. Available as a barebones device and in various configurations MINISFORUM sent a fully configured model for review. Hardware overview The MINISFORUM EliteMini H31G is a remarkably small mini PC for what it offers and physically consists of a 154 mm x 153 mm x 62 mm (6.06 x 6.02 x 2.44 inches) rectangular plastic case with a metal base. It is an actively cooled mini PC that uses Intel’s LGA 1151 socket and supports desktop processors up to a maximum TDP of 65W. The review model came with an Intel Core i5 9500F Coffee Lake processor pre-installed which is a six-core 6-thread […]

Intel NUC 9 Extreme “Ghost Canyon” Kit – NUC9i9QNX Review

NUC9i9QNX Review

I’ve previously written about Intel’s (relatively) new NUC 9 range of mini PCs and now I am following up with my experiences of having bought one. Whilst I’ll cover some performance metrics from both Windows and Ubuntu I’ll also discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using either OS together with a comparison of gaming, thermals, and power usage as well as a brief look at overclocking potential and implications together with highlighting the issues encountered. NUC9i9QNX Hardware Overview The model I purchased and will be reviewing here is the NUC9i9QNX from Intel’s Ghost Canyon lineup and is formally known as the Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit – NUC9i9QNX. It contains a “Compute Element” with an i9-9980HK which is an eight-core 16-thread 2.40 GHz processor boosting to 5.00 GHz with Intel’s UHD Graphics 630. The full specifications of the NUC9i9QNX include: The NUC9i9QNX is sold as a kit which essentially means […]

Amlogic S905X3-B SoC Powers Android 9.0 TV Boxes with Dolby Audio License

AX95-DB TV Box

Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor has been found in various TV boxes and single board computers such as ODROID-C4 for about a year.  But I’ve just been informed some new TV models come with Amlogic S905X3-B processor adding a Dolby Audio license. AX95 DB is one of those with the S905X3-B Android 9.0 TV box equipped with 4GB RAM, up to 128GB storage, HDMI 2.1 output up to 4Kp60, as well as Fast Ethernet, and USB 3.0/2.0 ports. AX95 DB specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X3-B quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU, Dolby audio license System Memory – 4GB DDR3 Storage – 64GB flash (32GB or 128GB optional), MicroSD card slt up to 32GB Video & Audio Output HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60Hz or 8K @ 24Hz 3.5mm AV jack for composite video and stereo audio Optical S/PDIF with Dobly Digital audio support Video […]

Beelink GT-R Review – An AMD Ryzen 5 Mini PC Tested with Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20.04

Beelink GT-R Review

Whilst Windows mini PCs have traditionally used Intel processors similar small form factor (SFF) devices using AMD based processors have recently been announced and Beelink is amongst the first manufacturers to deliver one with their newly released GT-R mini PC. Available as a barebones device and in various configurations Beelink sent a fully configured model for review. Hardware overview The Beelink GT-R is a slightly larger mini PC physically consisting of a 168 mm x 120 mm x 39 mm (6.61 x 4.72 x 1.54 inches) rectangular metal case with a plastic top. It is an actively cooled mini PC that uses a (previous generation) Zen+ microarchitecture 12 nm Ryzen 5 3550H mobile processor which is a quad-core 8-thread 2.1 GHz processor boosting to 3.7 GHz with Radeon Vega 8 Graphics. The front panel has a power button, two 3.0 USB ports, a headphone jack, and a Type-C USB port […]

Fraunhofer HHI H.266/Versatile Video Coding (VVC) Halves the Data Requirements of H.265

H.266 VCC

There’s a lot of hype around AV1 royalty-free video codec since it has backing from large companies, better characteristics than H.265 or VP9, and is already used by YouTube and Netflix. AV1 hardware decoders are also found in new processors like Amlogic S905X4 or Mediatek Dimensity 1000+. But we previously noted that H.266, aka VCC (Versatile Video Coding), was in the works, and Fraunhofer HHI has just announced the release and official adoption of the H.266/Versatile Video Coding (VVC) video compression standard. H.266 standard offers improved compression, which reduces data requirements by around 50% compared to the previous H.265/HEVC standard at the same visual quality. In practical terms, a 10GB H.265 video now only needs 5GB with H.266 video codec saving both storage and bandwidth. The standard can be used to transmit and store commonly used video resolutions from SD to HD up to 4K and 8K and also supports […]