Linux News - Page 212 of 435 - CNX Software

April 15, 2018April 16, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

How to Install and Use Ace Stream Easily in Ubuntu / Mint Linux

Ace Stream enabling the streaming of videos using P2P (peer-to-peer) technology – specifically BitTorrent protocol – and is especially useful for live streams, but also works for Audio and Video on Demand, and IOTT (Interactive-Over-The-Top). Ace Stream is implemented in a fork of VLC (Ace Player HD) working in Windows, Linux and Android, and I’ve found Full HD quality to be higher than services like YouTube, and with less buffering provided enough users watches the stream. It’s easy to use in Windows, and there used to be an Android app installable from the Play Store but it’s been removed, possibly because of the association of the solution with piracy. But just like Kodi, it’s up to do what you want to use it for. Using Ace Player was easy in Ubuntu up to version 14.04 thanks to a ppa, but with Ubuntu 16.04 it become a little more complicated as you […]

April 14, 2018April 14, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Optimizing JPEG Transformations on Qualcomm Centriq Arm Servers with NEON Instructions

Arm servers are already deployed in some datacenters, but they are pretty new compared to their Intel counterparts, so at this stage software may not always be optimized as well on Arm as on Intel. Vlad Krasnow working for Cloudflare found one of those unoptimized cases when testing out Jpegtran – a utility performing lossless transformation of JPEG files – on one of their Xeon Silver 4116 Server:

vlad@xeon:~$ time  ./jpegtran -outfile /dev/null -progressive -optimise -copy none test.jpg

real    0m2.305s
user    0m2.059s
sys     0m0.252s

vlad@xeon:~$ time ./jpegtran -outfile /dev/null -progressive -optimise -copy none test.jpg

real 0m2.305s

user 0m2.059s

sys 0m0.252s

and comparing it to one based on Qualcomm Centriq 2400 Arm SoC:

vlad@arm:~$ time ./jpegtran -outfile /dev/null -progressive -optimise -copy none test.jpg

real    0m8.654s
user    0m8.433s
sys     0m0.225s

vlad@arm:~$ time ./jpegtran -outfile /dev/null -progressive -optimise -copy none test.jpg

real 0m8.654s

user 0m8.433s

sys 0m0.225s

Nearly four times slower on a single core. Not so good, as the company aims for at least 50% of the performance since the Arm processor has double the number of cores. Vlad did some optimization on The Intel processor using SSE instructions before, so he decided to look into optimization the Arm code with NEON instructions instead. First step was to check which functions may slowdown the […]

April 12, 2018April 13, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

MeLE PCG02 GML (Gemini Lake) Fanless TV Stick Coming in June for $180 and Up

MeLE launched PCG02 Apo HDMI TV Stick based on Intel Celeron N3450 Apollo Lake processor and featuring a Gigabit Ethernet port last month. The company is now showcasing the product at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, and promoting their next generation TV stick based on the same design, but instead powered by Intel Celeron N4000 or N4100 Gemini Lake processor. MeLE PCG02 GML (PCHD26 GML3) specifications: SoC Intel Celeron N4000 dual core Gemini Lake processor @ 1.1 – 2.4 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 600; 6W TDP Intel Celeron N4100 quad core Gemini Lake processor @ 1.1 – 2.2 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 600; 6W TDP System Memory – 2GB, 4GB or 6GB LPDDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz Audio Output – HDMI, 3.5mm earphone jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band WiFi, Bluetooth […]

April 12, 2018April 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-W2 Multimedia Router / NAS Board Launched for $93

SinoVoIP has really been busy for products launches this month, as Banana Pi BPI-W2 is the fourth board they’ve started selling on Aliexpress. The board is designed for media, storage, and networking application, thanks to its Realtek RTD1296 quad core processor combined with 2GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual SATA interfaces, M.2 slots, USB 3.0/2.0 ports, HDMI 2.0a output and input, and more. Banana Pi BPI-W2 specifications have not changed since the early announcement last fall: SoC – Realtek RTD1296 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T820 MP3 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (optional 16, 32 or 64GB), 2x SATA 3.0 interfaces, micro SD slot up to 256GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz, mini DP Input – HDMI 2.0 input up to 1080p60 Playback – HDR, 10-bit HEVC/H.265 up to 4K @ 60fps, H.264 up to […]

April 8, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SudoProc is a Tiny LGA System-on-Module Based on Rockchip RK3288 SoC

Most systems-on-module are designed to be inserted into a baseboard thanks to an edge connectors or one or more board-to-board connectors, although I’ve also seen some with castellated pins allowing them to be soldered to the carrier board. The guys at Sudo Systems LLC have taken a different approach as they went with a custom designed 210-pin LGA (Land grid array) module instead, which is based on Rockchip RK3288 processor, and extremely compact at 65 x 40 x 4.3 mm. SudoProc module specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex-A17 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with Arm Mali-T764 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR3 (Samsung) @ 1066MHz; 2 x 32 bit, dual channel Video Decoding – H.264 decoder @ 2160p@24fps, H.265 decoder @2160p@30fps, and H.264/MVC/VP8 encoder 1080p@30fps Storage – 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB or 512GB eMMC 4.5 flash LGA package with 210 pins exposing: Storage I/F – 8-bit NAND […]

April 6, 2018April 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Droplet Computing Aims to Run Apps on any Device (Regardless of the Operating System)

The most popular apps are normally ported to all commonly used operating systems such Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS, but apps will a lower user base or older apps may not to ported to all operating systems due to the development time / costs involved. In order to solve this issue, UK based Droplet Computing has introduced Droplet Universal, a patent-pending application container solution that decouples applications from the operating system, and enables applications to run on any device, on- or offline. The solution relies on WebAssembly, and allows you to run the app – placed in a low footprint universal container – from a web browser with Chrome v60 (v62 for Android), Firefox v52, Safari v11, and Edge v16 or greater currently supported. Arm and x86 platform are supported, although it’s not yet possible to run Arm apps on x86 with Droplet Universal. It’s hard to know […]

April 6, 2018April 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Shedbuilt Binary Blob-Free Linux Distribution Works with Allwinner H3/H5 Boards (Orange Pi, Libre Computer)

Most open source Linux distributions are only partially open source, as while most packages will be built from publicly available source code, they usually come with closed source binary blobs for GPU drivers, wireless module firmware and so on. Shedbuilt is described as “a decentralized, self-hosting GNU/Linux for Arm devices built from the latest upstream sources”, and as the developer (Auston Stewart) explains – see comments section – it does not contain any binary blob. Eventually the distribution may support more boards, but for now, the current System 1 “Amano” release supports four Allwinner H3/H5 boards: Orange Pi PC, Orange Pi One, Orange Pi PC 2, and Libre Computer ALL-H3-CC “Tritium”. Orange Pi Lite (with WiFi) and Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC “Le Potato” images are said to be coming soon. You can download the SD card images and access documentation on Shedbuilt.net. The Linux distribution relies on Shedmake script to automate […]

April 5, 2018April 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

OSD3358-SM-RED Beaglebone Black Compatible Board Comes with Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, 4x USB Ports, and More

BeagleBone-Black-Compatible-Development-Board

Octavo Systems is known for their OSD335x system-in-packages (SiP) that integrate Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x Cortex A8 processor, memory, LDO, and some passive components into a single package, as well as related development kits such the $25 PocketBeagle which was introduced by the BeagleBoard foundation last September. The company has now launched OSD335-SM-RED development board featuring their OSD3358-512M-BSM SiP with 512MB RAM, with Gigabit Ethernet, micro HDMI, four USB 2.0 port, BeagleBone Black headers, some sensors, etc… OSD3358-SM-RED specifications: SiP – Octavo Systems OSD3358-512M-BSM with TI Sitara AM3358 Arm Cortex-A8 processor @ up to 1 GHz, 512MB DDR3 Memory, power management Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – micro HDMI port Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Ethernet USB – 1x µUSB Client, 4x USB 2.0 ports (via USB hub) Sensors – 9-axis IMU, barometer, temperature sensor + header Expansion – 2x expansion connectors compatible with BeagleBone Black […]