Android News - Page 306 of 364 - CNX Software

February 20, 2013May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

$59 pcDuino – AllWinner A10 Board with Arduino Compatible Headers

pcDuino is a new development board based on AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 SoC that comes with 1GB RAM and 2GB NAND Flash, HDMI output, as well as USB and Ethernet RJ45 ports, and is said to feature 2.54mm pin headers compatible with Arduino boards. Here are the pcDuino specifications: SoC – AllWinner A10 ARM Cortex A8 CPU @ 1GHz + Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DRAM Storage – 2GB Flash + SD card slot for up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI USB – 2x USB 2.0 Host Connectivity: Ethernet – 10/100 Mbps (RJ45) Wi-Fi – Via USB Wi-Fi dongle (not included with the board) Headers – 2.54mm pin headers: 1x UART, 6x ADCs, 2x PWMs up to 24MHz, 14x GPIOs, 1x I2C and 1x SPI. Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – 125mm x 52mm The board comes preloaded with Ubuntu 12.10, but it also supports Android 4.0 ICS. […]

February 18, 2013February 18, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

PQ Labs iStick A200 Android mini PC Connects to G4 Series Multi-Touch Screens

PQ Labs iStick A200 is a Rockchip RK3066 Android 4.1.1 mini PC with 2 GB RAM, 4 GB Flash, an HDMI (female) output, a USB 2.0 Host port, and a miniUSB port for power. Pretty boring stuff if you ask me… And I would not be writing about it, if the company hadn’t interfaced their infrared touch frames to this mini PC to allow 10-point multi-touch on a large screen or projector output, making it a pretty good solution for conferences and interactive digital signage. Before going further, let’s have a look at the details of specifications for the iStick A200: SoC – ARM Cortex A9 Dual Core @ 1.6Ghz with HyperSpeed (Equivalent to 2.0Ghz Dual Core) and Quad Core Mali400 GPU (cnxsoft: It has to be Rockchip RK3066) System Memory – 2 GB DRAM chipset Storage – 4 GB NAND flash + microSD socket (Up to 32 GB) Video […]

February 16, 2013February 16, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ARM big.LITTLE Processing Demo (HMP) on ARM TC2 Test Chip

Samsung launched Exynos 5 Octa at CES 2013. This processor comes with 8 cores: 4 Cortex A15 cores and 4 Cortex A7 cores, and it’s the first processor that’s been announced to work in big.LITTLE configuration, where the big cores (A15) handle demanding tasks, and the LITTLE cores (A7) handle simpler tasks such as audio playback or background tasks. This is all done to optimize power consumption. There are 2 big.LITTLE software implementations: In-kernel switcher (IKS) and heterogeneous multi-processing (HMP). The first one is easier to implements but can only use 4 cores (in Exynos 5 Octa) at a time, and the second is more complex, but can handle all 8 cores, and assign individual tasks to a particular core. For more technical details about big.LITTLE implementations, you can read my previous post. ARM and Samsung recently uploaded a video providing an overview of big.LITTLE (but instead of IKS and […]

February 12, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Pipo Max M9 Android 4.1 Tablet Powered by Rockchip RK3188

I first heard about Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 at the end of 2012, Rockchip showcased an RK3188 tablet development platform at CES 2013, and we were told the first tablet would ship in March without more details about available models. It appears Pipo Max M9 may be one of the first RK3188 available for purchase. This Android 4.1 tablet features a 10″ IPS display with 1280 x 800 resolution, 2 GB RAM, and 16 GB Flash. Here are the full specifications for PiPO MAX M9: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 Quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.8GHz with Mali-400MP4 GPU @ 533 MHz. System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 16 GB flash + microSD slot Display – 10.1″ IPS display with 10-Point capacitive touch screen. Resolution: 1280 x 800 pixels Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 3G via external USB dongle Camera – 2.0MP front camera, 5.0MP rear […]

February 12, 2013February 20, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

MK812 mini PC Comes with 1GB RAM, a Webcam and an External Wi-Fi Antenna

Here’s yet another mini PC based on Rockchip RK3066. MK812 mini PC looks just like Kimdecent B12, but the version version has been updated by replacing one of the microUSB ports with a jack to insert the cable of a high gain 3dB antenna. The antenna has a magnetic base so that you can stick it on your metallic furnitures… They have also increased the amount of RAM, and you now get 2GB RAM in the device. Update: Only 1GB RAM finally. Here are the MK812 specifications as shown on MiniAndroidPC: SoC – Dual-core Allwinner? A9 1.2~1.6GHz CPU processor System Memory – 2 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash memory + microSD slot Video Output – HDMI (1080p/2160p) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n & Bluetooth 2.3 Camera – Build-in 2MP camera USB – 1x USB 2.0 Host, 1x USB OTG Misc – Build-in microphone, and reset button. Dimensions – 88 […]

February 8, 2013May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Headless Connected Oscilloscope based on Cubieboard or Beaglebone

Warsaw ELHEP (Electronics for High Eenergy Physics Experiments) Group is currently working on MMS (Mobile Measurement System) Project. This project features what I would call a “headless connected oscilloscope”, which can be detected on the network via SSDP, send the data via Websocket, and display it on iOS, Android, or Windows Phone devices. This oscilloscope does not feature any screen, and receives/transmits data via Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. The original hardware is based on three main boards: CTI-VMAX – ARM9 with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet connectivity. ARM SCOPE v1.0.1 with 8 channel ADC. ARM SCOPE v1.0.2 with 4 high speed ADC (100MSPS). The ELHEP researchers have been looking at replacing CTI-VMAX with low cost boards, and after considering several options, they chose to design two versions of their oscilloscope: one based on Cubieboard, and the other on the Beaglebone. So they designed expansions boards for the Cubieboard and Beaglebone in […]

February 6, 2013February 6, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments

U-boot, Linux Kernel, and Android Patches for Freescale i.MX6 HDMI TV Dongles

We can now get some quad core Android mini PCs (e.g. Hi802, GK802) featuring Freescale i.MX6Q processor, Freescale has released full documentation and source code its development platforms, Hi802 / GK802 HDMI TV dongles are easily hackable, and there’s even an Ubuntu image for the devices. So it looks pretty good ,right? Well almost.. there are some patches and config for GK802 that have not been released by Richtechie, so we can’t modify the bootloader and Linux kernel. But this may change, as ARMTvTech forum user hste noticed some Freescale i.MX6 HDMI dongle patches om IMX Community website. Even though I’m not sure those are fully compatible with Hi802 / GK802, this could be a starting point. Today, I’ll provide the instructions to build u-boot, the linux kernel and Android ICS with those patches in a machine running Linux 12.04 64-bit. Patch Sets Descriptions There are two set of patches that […]

February 5, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

linaro-android-tools Scripts Upgrade Android Kernel & Initrd via ADB

With Linaro 13.01 release, Linaro announced linaro-android-tools (aka Kernel Update Tools), a set of tools to improve development time for kernel developers. Today, they published a blog post explaining those scripts allow developers to update the kernel without having to take out the SD card from their development board, and instead update the firmware via ADB with a PC connected via the network or USB. Currently there are 2 shell scripts: update-android.sh – To update kernel files in boot partition such as boot.tar.bz2, single files (e.g. uImage) or kernel modules. Usage:

update-android.sh [--serial|-s serial] [--partition|-p boot-partition] &lt;boot.tar.bz2|uImage|board.dtb|...&gt;
Update the kernel files in the boot partition of the specified
android device with the specified boot.tar.bz2 file
update-android.sh [--serial|-s serial] kernel-source-directory
Push all the module files in the specified kernel directory
into the /system/modules directory of the specified android device

Update the kernel files in the boot partition of the specified

android device with the specified boot.tar.bz2 file

update-android.sh [--serial|-s serial] kernel-source-directory

Push all the module files in the specified kernel directory

into the /system/modules directory of the specified android device

For example:

./update-android.sh out/target/product/pandaboard/boot.tar.bz2

1	./update-android.sh out/target/product/pandaboard/boot.tar.bz2

update-uInitrd.sh – To update files in the initrd Usage:

update-uInitrd.sh [--serial|-s &lt;serial&gt;] [--partition|-p &lt;boot-partition&gt;] [--target|-t &lt;target-file&gt;] &lt;source-file&gt;
Update the target file in uInitrd of the specified device
with the specified source file
When the target file is not specified, will update the file in
the root directory that has the same file name of the source file

update-uInitrd.sh [--serial|-s <serial>] [--partition|-p <boot-partition>] [--target|-t <target-file>] <source-file>

Update the target file in uInitrd of the specified device

with the specified source file

When the target file is not specified, will update the file in

the root directory that has the same file name of the source file

For example:

./update-uInitrd.sh /tmp/init.rc

1	./update-uInitrd.sh /tmp/init.rc

Those 2 scripts are available in Linaro git repository:

git clone http://android.git.linaro.org/git-ro/platform/external/linaro-android-tools.git

1	git clone http://android.git.linaro.org/git-ro/platform/external/linaro-android-tools.git

Currently the scripts only support Pandaboard, Origen, Versatile Express, and Versatile Express A9 boards,but they could be easily modified to support other boards supporting linaro packages. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software […]