ubuntu

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on UP Core Intel Board Has Launched for 69 Euros and Up on Kickstarter

UP Core Intel Board Has Launched for 69 Euros and Up on Kickstarter

During spring, we discovered UP Core, a tiny board powered by Intel x5-Z8350 Cherry Trail processor  that promised to sell for as low as 69 Euros. But at the time, it was not available yet for purchase, and the good news is that UP has just launched a one month crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for mass production, and promote the board. UP Core specifications have not changed since the first announcement: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz / 1.92 GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel HD 400 graphics @ 200 / 500 MHz System Memory –  1, 2 or 4 GB DDR3L-1600 Storage – 16, 32, or 64 GB eMMC flash, SPI flash ROM Video Output / Display – HDMI 1.4 port, full eDP (embedded DisplayPort) connector Audio I/O – Via HDMI, and I2S Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi  @ 2.4 […]

Posted on by TLS - 2 Comments on ACT Power unveils its Project-X A1 production ready development board at Computex 2017

ACT Power unveils its Project-X A1 production ready development board at Computex 2017

These days developer boards are a dime a dozen, but Taiwanese ACT Power has taken a different approach from most companies out there by making their addition production ready. The Project-X A1 is the first in what is expected to be a series of boards that will utilize the same mezzanine board connectors, to make it easy to change hardware platforms over time. The board on display at Computex is still an early prototype and some things will change before the final product launches. Specification wise we’re looking at: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU @ 600 MHz System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage 8GB eMMC flash, SD card slot Video Output – 1x HDMI 1.4a up to 4K @ 30 Hz Audio Output – HDMI, I2S via pin-header Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet with optional PoE support USB – Two […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on MinnowBoard Turbot Quad Core Open Source Hardware Board is now Shipping for $190

MinnowBoard Turbot Quad Core Open Source Hardware Board is now Shipping for $190

MinnowBoard Turbot Quad Core board was announced last autumn, with shipping expected in December 2016, but there may have been delays as the MinnowBoard foundation has just announced that the Intel open source hardware board is now shipping. MinnowBoard Turbot Quad “MBT-4220” board specifications: SoC – Intel Atom E3845 quad core Bay Trail-I processor @ up to 1.92 GHz with Intel HD graphics @ 542 / 792 MHz (10W TDP) System Memory – 2GB DDR3L 1067 MT/s (Soldered) Storage – 1x SATA2 3Gbps, 1x micro SD card slot, 8 MB SPI Flash for firmware (Tianocore UEFI, Coreboot, SeaBIOS) Video & Audio Output – 1x micro HDMI connector Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet RJ-45 connector (with Intel i211 instead of Realtek NIC on dual core MinnowBoard) USB – 1x USB 3.0 host, 1x USB 2.0 host Debugging – Serial debug header Expansion headers Low-speed expansion (LSE) port – 2×13 (26-pin) male 0.1″ […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on ODROID-C2 Board Gets Experimental Ubuntu 16.04 Armbian Images with Linux 4.10

ODROID-C2 Board Gets Experimental Ubuntu 16.04 Armbian Images with Linux 4.10

Hardkernel is doing a good job at providing working images with GPU / VPU support, and documentation for their ODROID boards. But while Exynos based ODROID-XU4(Q) boards already get firmware images with a recent Linux 4.9 kernel, Amlogic S905 based ODROID-C2 board’s Ubuntu 16.04 images still rely on the Linux 3.14 kernel released by Amlogic, plus various patchsets. But we’ve seen BayLibre is working on a Linux mainline port for Amlogic processors, and Armbian community appears to have leveraged that work, and added Ubuntu 16.04 Server and Desktop images with Linux 4.10 to their build system. Those are experimental nightly builds so they may not have been tested, and it’s likely not working as well as the Ubuntu 16.04 “legacy” images released by Hardkernel. They are also not shown in Armbian ODROID-C2 page at the time of writing, but it’s a step in the right direction. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on Using GPIOs on NanoPi NEO 2 Board with BakeBit Starter Kit

Using GPIOs on NanoPi NEO 2 Board with BakeBit Starter Kit

NanoPi NEO 2 is a tiny 64-bit ARM development board powered by Allwinner H5 processor. FriendlyELEC sent me a couple of NEO 2 samples together with their BakeBit Start Kit with a NanoHat and various modules via GPIOs, analog input or I2C. I’ve already tested both Armbian with Linux 4.11 and Ubuntu Core Qt with Linux 3.10, and ran a few benchmarks on NanoPi NEO 2. You would normally prefer to use the Armbian image with Linux mainline since it provided better performance, but at the time I was told GPIO support was not there. Configuring NanoPi NEO 2 board with BakeBit library So this week-end, when I decided to test GPIO support and BakeBit Starter Kit, I decided to follow this advice, especially nanopi-neo2-ubuntu-core-qte-sd4g-20170329.img.zip image is still the recommended one in the Wiki. So I went with that image. I’ll use Python examples from Bakebit library, but if you […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Top Programming Languages & Operating Systems for the Internet of Things

Top Programming Languages & Operating Systems for the Internet of Things

The Eclipse foundation has recently done its IoT Developer Survey answered by 713 developers, where they asked  IoT programming languages, cloud platforms, IoT operating systems, messaging protocols (MQTT, HTTP), IoT hardware architectures and more.  The results have now been published. So let’s have a look at some of the slides, especially with regards to programming languages and operating systems bearing in mind that IoT is a general terms that may apply to sensors, gateways and the cloud, so the survey correctly separated languages for different segments of the IoT ecosystem. C and C++ are still the preferred languages for constrained devices, and developers are normally using more than one language as the total is well over 100%. IoT gateways are more powerful and resourceful (memory/storage) hardware, so it’s no surprise higher level languages like Java and Python join C and C++, with Java being the most used language with 40.8% […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments on Helios4 Personal Cloud DIY NAS Supports 3.5″ Hard Drives, RAID, and More (Crowdfunding)

Helios4 Personal Cloud DIY NAS Supports 3.5″ Hard Drives, RAID, and More (Crowdfunding)

A few months ago, we covered GnuBee Personal Cloud 1, a NAS that runs on open source software, and that supports up to six 2.5″ SATA drives. The crowdfunding has been successful – after lowering the funding target -, and backers should hopefully get the NAS right after summer. But at the time, some people complained about the  memory capacity (512MB),  the lack of support for 3.5″ drives, and a few other items. A new project called “Helios4 Personal Cloud” addresses many of those concerns. It comes with 1 to 2GB RAM, enclosure supporting four 3.5″ drives, supports RAID, and is powered by Marvell ARMADA 388 processor that has been specifically designed for this type of application. Helios4 NAS specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA 388 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1.866 GHz with RAID5/6 acceleration engines, security acceleration engines, etc… System Memory – 1 or 2 GB […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Packet 96-core Cavium ThunderX Baremetal ARMv8 Servers are Available for $0.50 per Hour, $372 per Month

Packet 96-core Cavium ThunderX Baremetal ARMv8 Servers are Available for $0.50 per Hour, $372 per Month

Last week, I wrote about Scaleway ARMV8 cloud servers powered by Cavium ThunderX processors. They are very cheap, as low as 0.0006 Euros per hour or 2.99 Euros per month, but you only get access to 2 to 8 cores, so obviously you don’t get a baremetal server for that price.  If you want the latter Packet.net has been offering just that since the end of last year with their Type 2A baremetal server with two Cavium ThunderX 48-core processors, 128 GB RAM, 384 GB SSD and 20 Gbps bandwidth. The servers can currently run Centos 7, CoreOS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS,  with support for container platforms such as CoreOS Tectonic, Rancher, Docker Cloud, ContainerShip, StackEngine, Docker Machine, etc… You can check the status for other operating systems and features and the roadmap page. They also have x86 servers, and I’ve included the hourly and monthly prices and features for all […]