Linaro Connect SF 2017 Welcome Keynote – New Members, Achievements, the Future of Open Source, and More…

Linaro Connect San Francisco 2017 is now taking place until September 29, and it all started yesterday with the Welcome Keynote by George Grey, Linaro CEO discussing the various achievements since the last Linaro Connect in Budapest, and providing an insight to the future work to be done by the organization. The video is available on YouTube (embedded below), and since I watched it, I’ll provide a summary of what was discussed: Welcoming New Members – Kylin (China developed FreeBSD operating systems) joined LEG (Enterprise Group), NXP added LHG (Home Group) membership, and Xilinx joined LITE (IoT and Embedded). Achievements OPTEE open portable trusted environment execution more commonly integrated into products. Details at optee.org. LEG 17.08 ERP release based on Linux 4.12, Debian 8.9 with UEFI, ACPI, DPDK, Bigtop, Hadoop, etc… LITE group has been involved in Zephyr 1.9 release, notably contributing to LwM2M stack More projects to be found […]

Mictrack MT600 4G GPS Tracker Supports Traccar, OpenGTS, and Other GPS Tracking Platforms

Cellular GPS trackers have been around for a few years, but so far mostly 2G or 3G GPS trackers with products like Ping, Particle Asset tracker, and many other models selling on Aliexpress. 4G GPS tracker have been less common. However, recently we’ve seen platforms like Wio LTE and AutoPi that could handle GPS tracking over LTE connectivity, and another alternative would be Mictrack MT600 that ready-to-use solution to track your car or other vehicle with GPS and 4G. Mictrack MT600 hardware specifications: GNSS U-BLOX7 GPS Chip GPS sensitivity -162dBm Channel – 56 Positioning Accuracy – 10m Cold start: 30s; warm start: 15s; hot start: 1s SMA antenna connector Cellular Connectivity Qualcomm 4G LTE chip MT600-A model (North America): 4G FDD LTE: 700/850/1700/1900MHz 3G UMTS: 850/1700/1900MHz GSM: 850/1900MHz MT600-C model (Asia): 4G FDD LTE: 900/1800/2100MHz 4G TDD LTE: 1900/2300/2500/2600MHz 3G UMTS: 900/2100MHz GSM: 900/1800MHz MT600-E (Australia/Asia/Europe) 4G FDD LTE: 800/850/900/1800/2100/2600MHz 3G […]

NXP RoadLink SAF5400 is a Single Chip Secure DSRC/802.11p V2X Platform

Marvell unveiled 88W8987xA wireless SoC for V2X (Vehicle to Everything) applications supporting 802.11p WiFi, and DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) last June, but NXP has recently launched Roadlink SAF5400 which it claims to be the world’s first “automotive qualified, high-performance single-chip DSRC modem” Key features for Roadlink SAF5400: Compliant with IEEE 802.11p, IEEE 1609.4 Compliant with: ETSI EN 302663 – Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); Access layer specification for Intelligent Transport Systems operating in the 5 GHz frequency band ETSI EN 302571 – Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); Radiocommunications equipment operating in the 5 855 MHz to 5 925 MHz frequency band; Harmonized EN covering the essential requirements of article 3.2 of the R&TTE Directive Compliant with ARIB T-109M – 700 MHz Band Intelligent Transport Systems Single channel handling for 802.11p reception/transmission. Includes Channel Switching Optional ECDSA verification: 2000 messages/sec (Brainpool/NIST curves 256 bits) Qualified in accordance with AEC-Q100 grade 2 Host […]

UFS 3.0 Embedded Flash to Support Full-Duplex 2.4GB/s Transfer Speeds

All my devices still rely on eMMC flash for storage, but premium smartphones, for example, make use of UFS 2.0/UFS 2.1 flash storage with performance similar to SSD, with Samsung UFS 2.0 storage achieving up to 850MB/s read speed, 260 MB/s write speed, and 50K/30K R/W IOPS. UFS 3.0 promises to roughly double the performance of UFS 2.0/2.1 with transfer rates of up to 2.4 GB/s, and separately, the UFS Card v2.0 standard should deliver UFS 2.1 performance on removable storage. Several Chinese and Taiwanese websites, including CTimes and Benchlife, have reported that companies have started getting UFS 3.0 & UFS Card v2.0 licenses from JEDEC, and Phison is working on a controller to support both new standards, and scheduled to launch in 2018. Premium smartphone SoC are only expect to support UFS 3.0 in 2019 and beyond, and hopefully by that time eMMC will have been replaced by UFS 2.0/2.1 […]

VIA Mobile360 ADAS System Includes a 4G Connected Rugged Computer, a 7″ Display and 4 to 6 Cameras

VIA Mobile360 ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) System is a road safety-enhancing solution that supports Lane Departure Warning, Forward Collision Warning, Blind Spot Detection, Pedestrian Detection, Vehicle Detection and Classification for special vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles, Speed Limit Detection, and Rear-end Collision Avoidance. The system is comprised of “Mobile360 System” rugged computer, 4 to 6 cameras, and an optional 7″ display. Mobile360 System computer specifications: SoC – Unnamed Octa-core big.LITTLE processor with four ARM Cortex-A17 cores @ 1.8GHz, and four Cortex A7 cores @ 1.4GHz (Likely Zhaxin ZX-5880 SoC also including Elite 2000 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenVG 1.1 and OpenCL EP 1.1) System Memory – 2GB Mobile LPDDR3 1600MHz RAM (Package-on-Package with SoC) Storage – 1x 512GB Transcend 2.5″ MLC SSD (-40°C-90°C); 16GB eMMC Flash memory; 1x Micro SD card slot; 1x full size SD card slot Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 1x 4G LTE module, 1x Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n […]

Axiomtek tBOX100-838-FL Fanless Transportation Computer Features BNC Video & Audio Inputs for DVR Function

Axiomtel tBOX100-838-FL is a fanless Bay Trail rugged embedded computer powered by an Intel Bay Trail-I E3845 processor with 5 BNC input ports for video and audio, and targeting vehicle, railway and marine markets. Axiomtek tBOX100-838-FL rugged mini PC’s specifications: SoC –  Intel Atom E3845 quad core Bay Trail-I processor @ up to 1.91 GHz with Intel HD graphics System Memory – 4 GB DDR3L-1333 Storage – 1x 2.5” SATA slot up to 9.5mm, 1x mSATA connector, flash for AMI BIOS Video Output – 1x VGA port Video / Audio Input – 4x video in BNC connector, 1x audio in BNC connector Connectivity – 2x M12 A-coded GbE LAN or 2x RJ-45 GbE LAN (via Intel i210) Serial – 1x RS-232/422/485 (DB9) USB – 2x USB 2.0 port Expansion – 1x Full-size PCIe Mini Card with mSATA; 1x SIM card slot Misc – 1x remote switch; 1x reset button; watchdog […]

Marvell 88W8987xA Wireless SoC Supports 802.11ac & 802.11p WiFi, Bluetooth 5 for V2X & IVI Automotive Applications

Marvell has introduced the new 88W8987xA wireless chip with 802.11ac, 802.11p and Bluetooth 5 Connectivity for V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) and IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) automotive applications such as Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) systems, and secure wireless Gateway systems. Key features of Marvell 88W8987xA family: Connectivity WiFI – IEEE 802.11ac (wave2) up to 433 Mbps / IEEE 802.11p WAVE (Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments) / 1609.x Bluetooth 5 including Bluetooth Low Energy Angle of Arrival and Departure (AoA/AoD) 2x antenna configuration for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth coexistence Host Interfaces – SDIO 3.0 interface (4-bit SDIO and 1-bit SDIO) @ up to 208 MHz;  high-Speed UART interface (for Bluetooth only) Audio Interfaces – Digital audio interfaces (PCM) Temperature Range – -40°C to +105°C (AEC-Q100 Grade 2 Qualification) Package – pin 8×8 mm QFN with wettable flanks The family now includes three pin-to-pin compatible SoCs: 88W8987A with 802.11ac + Qualified Bluetooth 5 Functionality 88W8987PA with 802.11p + […]

ARM Introduces Mali-C71 ISP (Image Signal Processor) for Automotive Applications

A camera in an embedded system is normally connected to an ISP (image signal processing) block inside an SoC to handle the data coming from the sensor, and with recent cars now requiring more and more cameras for car DVRs, car parking systems, and self-driving vehicles, ARM has now unveiled Mali-C71 ISP specifically designed for automotive applications with support for 4 real-time cameras and 16 camera streams with a single pipeline. ARM explains that you can’t simply use smartphone cameras in automobile, as automotive requirements in terms of clarity and reliability are much more stringent. For example, Mali-C71 supports UWDR (Ultra-wide dynamic range) up to 24 stops, against 15 stops for the best DSLR cameras, which removes noise and process multiple exposures from the camera, and allows the processor/computer vision engine to detect objects such as a pedestrian, while others systems may not detect it. The image is also much […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case