Unuiga Game PC U1 mini PC Powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 Sells for $145 and Up

We’ve seen a few Nvidia Tegra K1 mini PCs from China with Warchief and MC8718 game consoles, but both are pretty hard to source outside China, and the latter may just be vapor-ware. Unuiga Game PC U1, however, is a game console based on Nvidia Tegra K1 that’s destined for oversea markets, and should run Android 5.0 with an interface supporting multiple languages, and not only Chinese. U1 Specifications: SoC- Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 CPU @ 2.3GHz 32bit 192-core Kepler GPU with support for OpenGL4.4, and DirectX11. System memory – 2 to 4GB DDR3 Storage – 16 or 32GB eMMC, micro SD slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K@60fps Video Decoding – H.265 up to  2160p @ 60fps, support for Kodi 14.1 Connectivity – Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2T2R Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 (AP62X2 module) USB – 2x USB3.0 ports, 2x USB2.0 host ports. […]

Nvidia Unveils $199 SHIELD Android TV Game Console Powered by Nvidia Tegra X1 Processor

Can it run Crisis? Yes! Nvidia has just announced SHIELD, an Android TV Game Console powered by the latest Tegra X1 SoC coupled with 3GB, 16GB flash, and which I believe to be the very first consumer ARM system with true 4K video output, decoding/encoding  up to 60 fps, as well as both VP9 and H.265 codec at 4K resolution. I’m still not 100% sure gaming will be feasible at 4K resolutions. Since they already have a Shield tablet, and Shield portable game console, it would have been nice to find another name though… SHIELD specifications: SoC – NVIDIA Tegra X1 octa-core processor with 4x Cortex A57 cores, 4x Cortex A53 cores, and a 256-core Maxwell GPU System Memory – 3GB RAM Storage – 16 GB + MicroSD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz Video – 4K playback and capture up to 60 fps […]

Warchief Nvidia Tegra K1 Android Game Console Supports Kinect-like 3D Motion Tracking

Nvidia Tegra K1 is still the one of the best low power processor for gaming with its 192-core Kepler GPU, and a few Chinese manufacturers are about the launch mini PCs or game console featuring the 32-bit and/or 64-bit version of the processor. Warchief is one of those products. It’s sold as an Android game console with a gamepad, a motion controller, and a webcam used for motion detection. Warchief specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 processor with a 192-core Kepler GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC Video Output – HDMI Connectivity – Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 4x USB 2.0 ports Power Supply – TBD Dimensions – 340 x 235 x 110 mm The package also include the Wii-like remote, a wireless gamepad, the camera, a power supply, a small USB dongle (for the remote or gamepad), and […]

Imagination PowerVR GT7900 GPU is Made for Game Consoles and Notebooks

Imaginatino Technologies has just introduced the most powerful GPU of their new PowerVR Series7 GPU family with GT7900 featuring 16 unified shading clusters and 512 ALU cores for game consoles, micro-servers, and notebooks. PowerVR GT7900 is still an embedded GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1 + AEP (Android Extension Pack) compatibility, full hardware support for tessellation and ASTC LDR and HDR texture compression standards. The new GPU delivers up to 800 GFLOPS (FP32) or 1.6 TFLOPS (FP16) graphics and compute performance at 800 MHz (using 16 nm FinFET+ manufacturing process), which compares to about 550 GFLOPS (FP32) for an Nvidia GeForce GT730M at comparable frequency. This is even more powerful than the Maxwell GPU found in Tegra X1 which delivers 1+ TFLOPS (FP16), although the Nvidia processor may have a lower power envelope. Combined with PowerVR Series5 decode and encode video processors and PowerVR V2500 camera processor, GT7900 can […]

ZRRO Android Game Console Includes a Hover and Touch Controller (Crowdfunding)

Android games are fun to play… on smartphones and tablets, but if you want to play such games on a TV screen via an Android mini PC, it can become more problematic, as most of the games were designed for touchscreen, so you have to be prepare to juggle between input devices.. In my reviews, I have to play Candy Crush Saga with an air mouse, and I switch to a wireless gamepad for racing games such as Riptide GP2 or Beach Buggy Racing, while some games are simply not playable at all without touch emulation, unless you install a software remote such as Droidmote on your smartphone, and use the latter as a controller, which may not be ideal either. ZRRO, an Israeli company, came with a new package comprised of an Android game console (ZRRO Box), and a game controller (ZRRO Pad) featuring a hover and touch surface […]

Review of Zidoo X9 Android Media Player and Video Recorder

Zidoo X9 is quite a unique product on the market, as it’s the only low cost Android platform that I know of that features an HDMI input port with recording capabilities. The hardware is actually based on Kaiboer F5, with some modifications, but the latter focuses on the Chinese market, while Zidoo X9 targets oversea markets with an English firmware by default. I took pictures of Zidoo X9 and its board about a month ago, but a busy schedule and some initial issues with Google Play Store delayed the review. Finally, I’ve completed testing of the device, and ready to share my findings about performance, stability, and features in this review. OTA Firmware Update I’ve had to go through two firmware updates before carrying on with the review, and this part is working great, and they even include a detailed changelog with each release, which they also publish on their […]

MeLE PCG03 mini PC Review and Benchmarks with Windows 8.1 with Bing

MeLE PCG03 is an Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC with 2GB RAM, and 32GB eMMC. I’ve already posted some pictures of the device and board, and since Windows 8.1 with Bing NTE (with proper license) is installed, I’ll first test the device with Microsoft OS as a reference, before trying Ubuntu or/and Android. MeLE PCG03 Setup The computer comes only with a power adapter, so you’ll need to find an HDMI or/and VGA cable for your display(s), and a USB keyboard and mouse to get started. Optionally, you’ll also want an Ethernet cable, and since storage is limited an extra storage device be it a USB hard drive, flash drive, or SD card. Once all is connected you can press the power button on the left side to boot the device. The boot normally takes about 20 seconds, but the first time, you’ll go through the usual Windows 8.1 setup […]

FOSDEM 2015 Schedule – January 31 – February 1 2015

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) takes place every year during the first week-end of February. This year the developer-oriented event expects to bring over 5000 geeks to share ideas and collaborate on open source projects. Contrary to most other events, it’s free to attend, and you don’t even need to register, just show up. FOSDEM 2015 will take place on January 31- February 1 in Brussels. There will be 551 sessions divided into 5 keynotes, 40 lightning talks, 6 certification exams, and with the bulk being developer rooms and main tracks,  divided into 7 main tracks this year: Languages, Performance, Time, Typesetting, Hardware, Security and Miscellaneous. I’m not going to attend, but it’s still interested to see what will be talked about, and I’ve concocted my own little virtual program out of the main tracks and developers’ rooms. There’s a few minutes overlap between some talks […]