ZTE ZX296702 Dual Core Cortex A9 SoC Boots Android in 10 Seconds with TuxOnice

ZTE XZ296702 is a dual core Cortex A9 processor with a Mali-400 GPU that targets Android set-top boxes and media players, and while Charbax filmed a video with ZX296702-AD1 development board at Linaro Connect HK, initial patchsets were recently submitted to the Linux ARM Kernel mailing list for XZ296702 SoC and the development board. There aren’t any product page for ZX296702 processor, so instead let’s have a look at the board’s specifications: SoC – ZTE ZX296702 dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512 MB RAM Storage – 4GB flash + micro SD card Video Output – HDMI + AV (RCA) Audio Output – HDMI + Stereo audio (2x RCA) Connectivity – Ethernet and Wi-Fi USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Power Supply – 5V Considering the board is running Android 4.4, the specs are quite low end, however the developers claim to have […]

TBS 2980 Matrix 2 AllWinner A80 Android TV Box Will Support USB Tuners

TBS launched their Matrix 2910 media player based on Freescale i.MX6 Quad processor in 2013, and what made the platform especially interesting was support for the company’s USB DVB tuners in their Android and Ubuntu images. The company has now unveiled its successor with TBS 2980 Matrix 2 powered by Allwinner A80 octa core processor that will also support USB DVB-T2, DVB-C & DVB-S2 tuners. TBS Matrix 2 specifications: SoC – AllWinner A80 4x Cortex 15, 4x Cortex A7 big.LITTLE processor with PowerVR GC6230 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC + micro SD card slot Video  Output – HDMI + AV port Audio – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 2x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – IR receiver, reset button Power Supply – 5V/3A Dimensions – 101 x 101 […]

Bubblegum-96 Development Board Complies with 96Boards, Features Actions Semi S900 64-bit ARM Processor

We’ve already have two 96Boards compliant boards formally announced with HiSilicon Hikey and Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c, and Actions Semiconductor was also expected to release theirs soon. Albeit it’s not been officially announced yet, the company has been showcasing their Bubblegum-96 board at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2015. Bubblegum-96 development board specifications: SoC – Actions Semi S900 quad core Cortex A53 with PowerVR G6230 GPU System Memory – 1 to 8GB LPDDR2 / LPDDR3(800MHz) / DDR3 or DDR3L Storage – 4 to 64 GB eMMC 4.5 flash + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP up to 4K, MHL 2.1 up to 4K Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x micro USB 2.0 port Expansion 40-pin LS (Low Speed) Expansion connector – UART, I2C, 12x GPIOs, SPI, PCM, 1.8V, +5V, GND… 64-pin HS (High Speed) Expansion connector – DSI, CSI, […]

Inforce 6501 Micro SOM is a Tiny Module with Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Processor

Inforce Computing has now launched Inforce 6501 micro system-on-module (SoM) based on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor found on their Inforce 6540 pico-ITX single board computer. The module measures just 50×28 mm, and integrates up to 3 GB RAM, up to 16 GB eMMC, and Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity. Inforce 6501 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 (APQ8084) quad core Krait 450 processor up to 2.7 GHz with Adreno 420 GPU, and Hexagon DSP V50 up to 800 MHz System Memory – 2GB to 3GB PoP LPDDR3 @ 800 MHz; 2×64-bit 26.5GB/s memory bus Storage – 4GB eMMC v4.5/v5.0, with options up to 16GB Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.1 & 2×2 dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi (QCA6174), and GPS (QCA1530) Peripherals and I/O via two 100-pin SoM connectors: Video / Display – 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x MIPI-DSI (4-lane) & touch screen, Audio 4x Line out, 3x Mic-in, 1x headphone […]

Cubieboard 4 Ubuntu Review – Setup, Usability, and Performance

Cubieboard4 is a development board powered by Allwinner A80 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC. I’ve already shown how to get started with the board using the pre-installed Android 4.4 image, and run some benchmarks in Android, so now it’s time to check out the Ubuntu Linaro 14.04 image provided by CubieTech. I’ll show how to install and setup Ubuntu 14.04 on the board using a micro SD card, run desktop applications like Chromium, Libre Office, and son on on the board, and complete the review with some Linux benchmarks. Setting up Ubuntu on Cubieboard4 Firmware images for Cubiebord4 can be downloaded @ http://dl.cubieboard.org/model/cc-a80/Image/. Currently Android 4.4, Debian server, Ubuntu Linaro server, and Ubuntu Linaro desktop with LXDE desktop environment. That’s the latter I’ll use for the experiment, and two images are available: linaro-desktop-cb4-card-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Bootable image from micro SD card linaro-desktop-cb4-emmc-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Installation image to eMMC to […]

Linaro 15.03 Release with Linux 4.0 and Android 5.1

Linaro has just announced their 15.03 release with Linux 4.0-rc4 (baseline), Linux 3.10.72 and 3.14.36 (LSK), and Android 5.1. The organization has worked on hardware platforms from members namely Qualcomm, ARM, HiSilicon, Samsung, and STMicro, including the recently announced 96Boards boards, and other ARMv8 platforms. Highlights of the release: Linux Linaro 4.0-rc4-2015.03 updated linaro-android topic added a few build/boot fixes for Arndale (llct-misc-fixes topic) GATOR topic: version 5.20.1 updated integration-linaro-vexpress64 topic by ARM LT (FVP Base and Foundation models, and Juno support) updated topic from Qualcomm LT (ifc6410 board support) simple EEPROM framework (via Qualcomm LT’s topic) updated topic from HiSilicon LT (Hi36xx, HiP04, and X5HD2 families support) rebased “ILP32 patch set v3” onto 4.0-rc2 Linaro builds of AOSP 15.03 updated all the baselines to AOSP 5.1 added commit based trigger feature to CI builds Linaro OpenEmbedded 2015.03 integrated Linaro GCC 4.9-2015.03 dismantled meta-aarch64 layer created meta-ilp32 layer cleaned out […]

Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c is Another 96Boards Compliant 64-bit ARM Development Board

Linaro announced the 96Boards initiative at Linaro Connect Hong Kong last month, and in collarabation with Huawei announced Hikey development board following this new standard. Qualcomm has now joined the Fray with Dragonboard 410c, a 96Boards board powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad core Cortex A53 processor. Dragonboard 410c specifications: SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (APQ8016) quad-core ARM CortexA53 @ 1.2 GHz with Adreno 306 GPU @ 400MHz System Memory – LPDDR2/3 533MHz, Single-channel 32-bit (4.2GBps) Storage – eMMC 4.51 + micro SD 3.0 (UHS-I) Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p Connectivity – Integrated 802.11 b/g/n, BT/FM, GPS USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port. Camera – Support for 13 MP camera with Wavelet Noise Reduction, JPEG decoder, and other post-processing techniques done in hardware Expansion: 1x 40 pin low speed expansion connector – UART, SPI, I2S, I2C x2, GPIO x12, DC power 1x 60 […]

Compulab Utilite2 Android / Ubuntu mini PC is Now Up for Sale for $192 and Up

Compulab Utilite2 is a new family of mini PCs powered vt Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad core Krait 300 processor, with 2GB RAM, 4GB eMMC and optional mSATA storage that runs Android 4.4 or Ubuntu Linaro, with CM-QS600 SoM found in the device being officially supported by Linaro. Utilite2 Standard 4G and Standard 4G + 32SSD (or just SSD for short) are now listed on UK based TinyGreenPC for respectively £158.00 ($241) and £181.00 ($276), but the two models can also be bought direct on Compulab website for $192 and $229 with a 4 weeks lead time. Utilite2 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064 quad-core Krait 300 @ 1.7GHz with Adreno 320 GPU compliant with OpenGL ES 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0 and OpenCL System Memory – 2GB DDR3-1066 Storage – 4GB eMMC, mSATA socket (mini-PCie form-factor, populated with 32 GB SSD on SSD model), and micro-SD slot up to […]