Posted on by Abhishek Jadhav - No Comments on Zora P1 Amlogic A311D Development Board interfaces with Orbbec 3D Cameras

Zora P1 Amlogic A311D Development Board interfaces with Orbbec 3D Cameras

We have already seen the powerful Amlogic A311D powered Khadas VIM3 SBC, and Orbbec announced the Zora P1 development board for Orbbec 3D cameras, supporting robotics, gaming, smart homes, etc. Some of the other products showcased at the CES 2021 by Orbbec include its first 3D sensor with time-of-flight (TOF) technology, the latest Astra+ camera, and a real-time industrial 3D camera. “Innovations in 3D imaging, combined with broader advances like 5G, artificial intelligence, and ultra-fast processors, are transforming the application landscape for designers and engineers,” said David Chen, co-founder, and director of engineering at Orbbec. “Our new camera with time-of-flight (TOF) technology is a great example. Its high resolution and tracking capabilities make it perfect for all kinds of products including fall detection, security, even at-home yoga and exercise products.”  Orbbec’s Zora P1 Development Board Zora P1 is a processing board for developers and enthusiasts to integrate 3D imaging and associated computing tasks for demanding industrial applications. Orbbec has specially designed this long-lasting solution to work with its 3D cameras. This board runs Linux on the Amlogic A311D processor. […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on Year 2020 in review – Top ten posts and stats

Year 2020 in review – Top ten posts and stats

It’s this time of the year when we look back at what happened, and what may be next. 2020 did not pan out as planned in more ways than one, but there were still some interesting developments. Based on 2019 announcements, 2020 was promising to be an exciting year for Amlogic and Rockchip with the expected launch of RK3588 and S908X high-end processors for 8K capable devices,  but we’ll have to wait for 2021 for this to happen. Instead, the most interesting processor of the year from the Allwinner, Amlogic, and Rockchip offerings was probably Amlogic S905X4 processing adding AV1 hardware decoding. As pointed out in our “RISC-V 2020 highlights” post, it was a fairly eventful year for RISC-V architecture, although there’s still a long road ahead, especially for application processors. We had seen some general-purpose and Bluetooth RISC-V MCUs in 2019, but 2020 saw the launch of the first WiFi IoT RISC-V chips with ESP32-C3 and BL602, Alibaba making […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Amlogic S905X3 vs S905X4 – Features Comparisons

Amlogic S905X3 vs S905X4 – Features Comparisons

AV1 capable Amlogic S905X4 processor has been expected for more than a year, and only now are we starting to see announcements of S905X4 TV boxes and development kits. So it may be a good time to compare the features of the new Amlogic S905X4 processor again its predecessor, namely S905X3, and see if there are other notable differences apart from support for AV1 open video codec. We’ll use data from S905X3 specifications,  S905X2 vs S905X3 comparison, and a post on SDMC LinkedIn page. Amlogic S905X4 will be slightly faster due to the higher (default) maximum CPU frequency of 2.0 GHz, but most people will not notice the difference.  S905X4 is supposed to support Vulkan 1.1, while S905X3 does not, but I believe this is just due to more up-to-date Android SDK, and not differences in the silicon itself. S905X4 supports Nagra DRM, a more recent version of HDCP, and integrates a dual-core audio DSP which may be why there’s […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Amlogic A113L Dual-Core Cortex-A35 Processor Targets Smart Audio and IoT Applications

Amlogic A113L Dual-Core Cortex-A35 Processor Targets Smart Audio and IoT Applications

Over two years ago, we reported about Amlogic A111, A112, A113 processors designed for audio applications such as smart speakers. A111 features four Cortex-A5 32-bit core, while A112 and A113D/A113X processors come with four Cortex-A53 cores instead. We have not heard much about those since then, but all those processors are still listed on Amlogic website, A112 is supposedly used in Xiaomi AI smart speaker, and Amlogic A113X1 Far-Field Dev Kit is still listed on Amazon’s list of devkits for Alexa voice service, but currently out of stock. Amlogic has been working on a more cost-efficient processor for smart audio and IoT applications with Amlogic A113L dual-core Cortex-A35 processor shown as Meson A1 in the Linux source code. It was just added in Linux 5.5. We don’t have much information about it, but it’s interesting as it’s the first Cortex-A35 processor from the company, and it targets the same smart audio application as Rockchip RK3308 quad-core Cortex-A35 SoC found in […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments on CNX Software is 10 Years Old – Top 10 Posts of the Last Decade

CNX Software is 10 Years Old – Top 10 Posts of the Last Decade

Around 10 years ago, I decided it might be a good idea to have an online presence. At the time, I just thought I would write from time to time, and I had no idea it would eventually become my main activity. My very first post was on February 14, 2010 about software development tools such as CVS and Bugzilla. That means today is the 10th anniversary of CNX Software website! So I thought it might be fun to look at the most popular posts of the last ten years. I only installed Google Analytics sometimes in 2011, but it should not affect the results since I did not have many readers at the time, and the post that really started to bring more visitors, and made me switch from a $1 monthly hosting plan to a VPS, was “74 USD AllWinner A10 Android 4.0 Mini PC” published in May 2012. So with any further delay, here are the top […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Amlogic S805X2, S905X4, and S908X AV1 Full HD/4K/8K Media Processors to Launch in 2020

Amlogic S805X2, S905X4, and S908X AV1 Full HD/4K/8K Media Processors to Launch in 2020

AOMedia AV1 open, royalty-free video codec has come a long way since it was first introduced in 2016, and we’ve recently seen AV1 hardware video decoding integrated into higher-end STB SoCs such as Broadcom BCM7218X or Realtek RTD1311/RTD1319 processors. But AV1 codec is also coming to lower-cost media processors as shown by Amlogic 2020 roadmap below. We should expect at least three new AV1 capable processors in 2020. Amlogic S905X4 Specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor GPU Arm Mali-G31MP2 Video 4Kp75 H.265, VP9, AVS2 4Kp120 AV1 HDR support Smart Audio Voice Activity Detector (VAD) Asynchronous Sample Rate conversion (ASRC) Equalizer (EQ) Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) 2x DSP for audio front end (AFE) and wake word engine (WWE) Amlogic S905X4 looks like an update to Amlogic S905X3  with AV1 codec support, and maybe extra audio features. Amlogic S908X We’ve previously seen Rockchip RK3588 with Cortex-A76 / A55 cores, 8K video output and decoding support, as well as 4K encoding, is […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 55 Comments on Amlogic S912 vs Amlogic A311D/S922X-B Benchmarks Comparison

Amlogic S912 vs Amlogic A311D/S922X-B Benchmarks Comparison

S922X-B vs S912

A few days ago we compared Amlogic A311D to Rockchip RK3399 since both the top of the line processors from Amlogic and Rockchip that are currently available. Rockchip RK3588 will even be faster, but we need to wait until Q1 2020 at least before it becomes available, and delays are not unheard of, so I’d expect it may take about one year before I can get my hands on a sample. Another comparison is against Amlogic S912, the previous high-end processor from the company. Amlogic A311D and S922X-B are newer and will be faster but it’s interesting to find out just how much. Note the Amlogic S922X found in ODROID-N2 is clocked at a lower speed compare to A311D/S922X-B, so performance will be somewhat lower. Since I recently benchmarked Khadas VIM3 with Amlogic A311D processor, I decided to dust off my old Khadas VIM2 Amlogic S912 development board, fit it a large heatsink, install the latest Android 7.1 firmware for […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments on Amlogic A311D vs Rockchip RK3399 Benchmarks Comparison

Amlogic A311D vs Rockchip RK3399 Benchmarks Comparison

A311D vs RK3399

I’ve run some benchmarks on Khadas VIM3 SBC earlier this morning. The board is powered by the latest Amlogic A311D hexa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor, and I’ve found results to be impressive. But let’s see how it compares to another hexa-core processor, namely the popular Rockchip RK3399 Cortex-A72/A53 processor released in 2016 and found in several Chromebooks, TV boxes, and development boards. To do so, I’ve compared Antutu 7.x, PCMark 10 Work 2.0, and 3Dmark benchmark results in Khadas VIM3 board running Android 9, against an actively-cooled Rockchip RK3399 SBC running Android 8.1. The results for A311D should be the same as for Amlogic S922X-B processor, so this post could also serve as an Amlogic S922X-B vs RK3399 comparison. Amlogic A311D vs Rockchip RK3399 – Key features Amlogic A311D Rockchip RK3399 CPU Quad-core Cortex-A73 @ 2.21 GHz Dual-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz Dual-core Cortex-A72 @ 1.8 GHz Quad-core Cortex A53 @ 1.416 GHz GPU Arm Mali-G52MP4 ARM Mali-T860MP4 NPU Yes (5.0 TOPS) […]

Support CNX Software – Donate via PayPal or cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or buy review samples