AMD Unveils AMD G-Series SoCs For Embedded Applications

In 2011, AMD launched the G-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Unit) that combines the CPU and GPU into one chipset which then connects to a controller hub to handle I/Os, and recently the company announced AMD G-Series SoC at Design West 2013. The new solution combines a “Jaguar” CPU, a Radeon HD8000 series GPU and a controller hub into one and only SoC, further integrating functions. Both AMD G-Series APU and SoC target embedded systems such as industrial control and automation, digital signage, electronic gaming systems, SMB storage, IP-TV, medical and network appliances, set-top boxes and more. AMD claims G-Series SOCs offer up to 113 percent improved CPU performance compared to G-Series APU, and up to a 125 percent advantage compared to the Intel Atom (Dhyrstone, EEMBC CoreMark). The platform also includes support for DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2x and OpenCL 1.2 yielding up to a 20 percent graphics improvement over G-Series […]

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 […]

Embedded Linux Conference 2013 Schedule

The Embedded Linux Conference (ELC 2013) will take place on February 20 – 22, 2013 at Park 55 Hotel in San Francisco, California. ELC consists of 3 days of presentations, tutorials and sessions. There will be over 50 sessions during those 3 days. I’ll highlight a few sessions that I find particularly interesting, and that did not get presented at ELCE 2012 (AFAICR). February 20 11:00 – Anatomy of the arm-soc git tree by Olof Johansson, Google We are now two years into the new maintainer model for ARM platforms, and we have settled down into a workflow that maintainers have adjusted well to. Still, when new platforms arrive, or when maintainer ship changes hands, there’s sometimes a bit of ramp-up in getting used to how we organize our git tree and how we prefer to see code submitted to fit that model. This presentation will give an overview of […]

VIA ARMOS-800 Embedded System Features a Freescale i.MX537 based Pico-ITX Board

VIA Technologies has recently announced the VIA ARMOS-800, an fanless system designed around VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board powered by Freescale i.MX537 processor. The VIA ARMOS-800 provides a ruggedized low-power system for industrial and in-vehicle applications such as a digital signage. Here are VIA ARMOS-800 specifications: Processor – 800MHz Freescale Cortex-A8 single core i.MX537 System Memory – 1GB DDR3-800 SDRAM using 128M x16 memory devices Storage – „„ 4GB onboard eMMC Flash memory + ob-board micro SD connector Graphics – Supports two integrated graphics processing units: an OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics accelerator and an OpenVGTM 1.1 2D graphics accelerator Video Output – VGA and HDMI Audio I/O – Line-In, Line-out, Mic-in connectors Connectivity: Ethernet – 10/100 PHY transceiver (SMSC LAN8720A) Wi-Fi – Optional VIA 802.11n Wireless module VNT 9271 USB – 3x USB connectors + 1x on-board USB 2.0 pin header COM – 1x D-Sub 9-pin female connector CAN – […]

Norco BIS-6332A Freescale i.MX6 OPS Compliant Digital Signage Platform

Norco recently unveiled a BIS-6332A, a platform based on Freescale i.MX6 processor compliant with Intel’s Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) mainly to be used as a digital signage player, but also as a fanless Box PC, a media player, a point of sale and more. The open pluggable specification (OPS) defines mechanical and electrical characteristics so that you can easily replace a OPS compliant board or device with another compliant platform. Here are the specifications of the device: SoC – Freescale Cortex-A9 i.MX 6 series (Single-core/dual-core/ Quad Core CPUs) System Memory – Onboard 1GB/2GB DDR3 800MHz RAM Storage: 1xMicro SD 4GB/8GB iNAND flash 1x SATAII for 2.5″ HDD or SSD Video Output – 1x HDMI (front panel), 1x HDMI ( extended by OPS slot) and LVDS Connectivity: 10/100/1000Mbps LAN (Atheros AR8033) On-board USB WIFI 3G (optional) USB –  2x USB on front panel, 3x USB provided via OPS slot, one 2x5Pin USB […]

$159 CuBox Pro: Open Source Development Platform Based on Marvell ARMADA SoC

Back in 2011, SolidRun unveiled the CuBox, a miniature open source development platform based on Marvell Armada 510 SoC (88AP510) and aimed at applications such as multimedia, set-top-box, network attached storage (NAS), thin client, digital signage, automation… SolidRun has now announced an upgraded version called CuBox Pro based on the same platform but with 2 GB RAM, and a redesigned casing. Here are the specifications of this development platform: Marvell Armada 510 SoC – 800 MHz dual issue ARM PJ4 processor, VFPv3, wmmx SIMD and 512KB L2 cache. 2GByte DDR3 at 800MHz 1080p Video Decode Engine OpenGL ES 2.0 graphic engine HDMI 1080p Output (with CEC function) Gigabit Ethernet, SPDIF (optical audio), eSata 3Gbps, 2xUSB 2.0, micro-SD, micro-USB (console) Standard Infra-red receiver for 38KHz based IR controllers. No JTAG required. Unbrickable for Developers (i.e. you can’t brick the device to the point you have to physically remove the flash, burn it […]

Habey Unveils MITX-6500 mini-ITX Embedded Board Powered by Freescale i.MX53

There aren’t many mini-ITX ARM board, and the only one I can recall is Kontron KTT30/mITX based on Nvidia Tegra 3. But there’s now at least one more mini-ITX ARM board thanks to Habey MITX-6500 embedded board. This mini-ITX board feature Freescale i.MX535 or i.MX536 processors, 1GB DDR3 and a 4GB on-board SSD. Since this is mainly an industrial board, it also features 2 Ethernet NIC and a whooping 13 COM ports. The board is suitable for a range of applications such as human to machine interfaces, data acquisition, point of sale, vehicle telematics, digital signage, industrial automation, building controls and connected appliances. Contrary to many other embedded companies, Habey also sells the board available to individuals. Here are the specifications of this board: CPU – Freescale ARM Cortex A8 i.MX535 @ 1 GHz or i.MX536 @ 800 MHz System Memory – 1GB on-board DDR3 Storage – 1x SATA 3Gb/s, 1x […]

Direct Insight TRITON-TX6Q System-on-Module Powered by Freescale i.MX6Q

Direct Insight, a British company, has recently announced the TRITON-TX6Q, a SODIMM system-on-module based on Freescale’s iMX6Q quad core Cortex-A9 processor running at 1 GHz with 1 to 2GB RAM and 128 MB flash. This module targets embedded applications including medical devices, digital signage, and industrial multimedia products. Here are the TRITON-TX6Q specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX6Q 4x ARM Cortex-A9 up to  1GHz + Vivante GC2000, GC355 and GC320 graphics co-processors System Memory – 1GB or 2GB 64-bit DDR3 @ 1066MHz Storage – 128MB NAND Flash, 2 SD card receptacles on baseboard Display Connection – LCD controller 24-bit parallel up to 1080p, dual LVDS (optional). Resistive & capactive touch screen support. Connectivity – Ethernet 10/100 BaseT with PHY on module. USB – USB Host + USB OTG Peripherals and Interfaces: Up to 5x UART (RS232) with pin sharing 2x I2C, 1x 1-wire and 2x SPI interfaces SSP (synchronous serial /digital audio): […]