Emtrion DIMM-AM335x SoM Supports Mainline Linux Kernel

When I cover system-on-modules (SoM), companies will usually provide some BSP (Board Support Packages) for older kernels, and did not submit their changes to mailine kernel, so I was interested in a news from Emtrion entitled “DIMM-AM335x: Linux mainline support ready“, which actually means they’ve done the work to support a recent Linux kernel (3.14) and provides instructions and code (device tree files), but did not submit patches to the linux-arm-kernel mailing list to get their changes added to kernel.org. Let’s look at the hardware specs first: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex A8 processor @ 720Mhz to 1GHz (AM3354 or AM3359) System Memory – onboard 512 MB SDRAM/optional 256 MB Storage – 512 MB NAND Flash (managed) + 2 SD card interfaces Display – LCDs I/F with resolution up to SVGA, with 4-wire touch interface Audio – Analog Audio with SSI I/F USB – USB 2.0 Host […]

Compulab Introduces $75 CM-QS600 Computer-on-Module Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC

CompuLab has just announced their CM-QS600 Computer-on-Module (CoM) powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 quad-core SoC with up to 2GB DDR3 RAM, up 32GB of on-board eMMC, dual-band WiFi 802.11, Bluetooth 4.0, and Gigabit Ethernet network connectivity, as well as PCIe, USB, SATA, HDMI, LVDS, serial ports and I/O lines. CM-QS600 targets multimedia applications such as digital signage, IPTV and media players requiring low power, and a small form factor. Compulab CM-QS600 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 quad core Krait 300 processor @ 1.7GHz with Adreno 320 GPU and Hexagon QDSP6 DSP System Memory – Up to 2GB DDR3 Storage – Up to 32GB on-board eMMC, SATA interface (via connector) Display HDMI 1.4a, up-to 1920 x 1080 LVDS, up-to 2048 x 1536 Audio – Audio codec with stereo line-out, line-in, mic Camera – MIPI-CSI, up-to 20MP Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, Dual-band WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy Other I/Os PCI Express […]

Hummingbird A31 Is a $70 Feature-packed Development Board Powered by AllWinner A31

Merrii Technologies introduced the Hummingbird development kit powered by AllWinner A20 last year. Since then they’ve sold 10,000 pieces, and have been working on another development board based on AllWinner A31 with lots of different ports and options, including an optional 7″ capacitive touch screen. “Quad Core” Hummingbird specifications: SoC – AllWinner A31 quad core ARM Cortex-A7 with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU compliant with OpenGL ES2.0, OpenCL 1.x, DX 9_3 System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB Flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI, VGA, LVDS Video Input – 3.5mm jack for CVBS (or YPbPr?) In (TV IN) Audio I/O – HDMI, 3.5mm jack for stereo audio, 3.5mm jack for Line IN (Same as TV IN). 2x 15w amplifier on-board. Camera – MIPI interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (AP6210 module) Cellular Connectivity – SIM card slot + mini PCIe connector for 3G […]

Yocto Project 1.6 “Daisy” Released

The Yocto Project Release 1.6 has just been announced. This release is codenamed “Daisy”, and features Poky 11.0.0, which is the reference system used by the project, but other systems could also be used. The Yocto Project is a framework that creates embedded Linux distributions, and is now being used by many Intel and ARM based embedded boards such as Wandboard, Atmel Xplained, Minnowboard MAX, and the Raspberry Pi. Some of the Yocto Project 1.6 features and updates include: Linux kernel 3.14 and 3.10 LTSI eglibc 2.19, gcc 4.8.2 Support for building Python 3 Toaster web UI for exploring build output Documentation – BitBake user’s manual improvment, and added section explaining how to “Write a New Recipe“. New reference BSP for beaglebone and edgerouter Change to use SHA512 password encryption with shadow by default Various performance improvement, and disk usage reductions. Add support for booting UEFI systems with gummiboot Image […]

U-Boot & Linux BSP for STMicro STM32 Discovery Board

If you want to run Linux on STM32 Discovery board, more exactly STM32F429 Discovery board, it’s now possible thanks to Emcraft Systems’ BSP for STM32F429 Discovery Board. It will only work on that particular version of the discovery board as it features 64Mbit external SDRAM, which is required for uClinux, and missing on other STM32 Discovery boards. You can either get u-boot and (uC)Linux from the company’s github account which contains the required patches, but lacks complete documentation, and a default config file for the kernel for example, or purchase a BSP ($33) with 3-month support, and pre-built u-boot and Linux binaries. There’s also publicly available documentation explaining how to flash the bootloader and the kernel among other things, and links to relevant external resources, without the need to spend any money. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a […]

Emcraft Systems Announces Freescale Vybrid VF6 SoM With Cortex A5 CPU and Cortex M4 MCU

Emcraft Systems has recently announced Vybrid VF6 SoM, a System-on-Module powered by Freescale Vybrid VF6 dual core Cortex A5/Cortex M4 SoC with 128MB DDR3, and 512MB Flash, as well as a starter kit composed of VF6 SoM and a carrier board. Emcraft VF6 System-on-Module specifications: SoC – Freescale Vybrid VF6 dual-core microprocessor with the ARM Cortex-A5 (up to 500 MHz) and Cortex-M4 cores (up to 167 MHz). Either MVF61NN151CMK50 (No Security), or MVF61NS151CMK50 (with Security). System Memory – 128 MBytes DDR3 SDRAM; Storage – Up to 512 MBytes NAND Flash, 32 MBytes dual QSPI Flash; Connectivity – Two 10/100 Ethernet interfaces with L2 switch; External interfaces using two 80-pin 0.4 mm-pitch connectors: Two USB 2.0 OTG interfaces Serial console interface at the UART CMOS levels; JTAG interface to the Vybrid VF6 TFT LCD interface Synchronous audio interface (SAI) supporting I2S, AC97 and CODEC/DSP interfaces Multiple serial digital (UART, SPI, I2C, […]

Freescale i.MX6 Based Server Systems – Cornfed CONSERVER and Ventana Network Processing Boards

I usually spend most of my time writing about low cost hardware in this blog, but in this post, I’ll deal with higher-end and more expensive devices based on Freescale i.MX6 with Cornfed CONSERVER Server System and corresponding CONSERVER motherboard, as well as Ventana Network Processing Boards. Cornfed CONSERVER Conserver is a low power high-performance ARM processor server system based on Freescale i.MX6 with 4GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and SATA. The hardware specifications are as follows: SoC – Freescale i.MX6Q Quad Core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz System Memory – 4 GB DDR3 RAM Storage – ?? GB NAND Flash + 1x SATA2 connector for HDD/SSD Connectivity – 1x Gb Ethernet port USB – 4x USB Host ports Video Output – 1x HDMI port Misc – RS-232 Serial port Power Supply – 35W Internal AC Power Supply Dimensions – Mini-ITX form factor The system is preloaded with Ubuntu, and […]

$55 Phytec Cosmic Boards Feature Freescale Vybrid SoCs

Freescale Vybrid SoC family has been announced at the beginning of last year, with the low-end VF3xx and mid-end VF4xx featuring a single Cortex A5 CPU, and the higher-end VF6xx and VF7xx providing a multi-core processor with Cortex A5 and Cortex M4 cores, for respectively performance, and real-time/low power tasks. Phytec has just announced the Cosmic board featuring Freescale Vybrid VF6xx single core Cortex A5 processor, and Cosmic+ board with Vybrid VF6xx Cortex A5 + Cortex M4 processor. Both boards are comprised of a baseboard coupled with a Phytec phyCORE-Vybrid system-on-module (SoM), and can be used for Linux and MQX (Freescale RTOS) development. Cosmic / Cosmic+ boards specifications: Processor VF5xx ARM Cortex-A5 @ 500MHz (Cosmic) VF6xx ARM Cortex-A5 @ 500MHz + ARM Cortex-M4 @ 167 MHz (Cosmic+) System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 512 MB NAND + micro SD slot USB – HS USB OTG / HS USB […]