Linux

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments on $25 NanoPi NEO Plus2 Board Adds 8GB Flash, WiFi & Bluetooth, More RAM, and an extra USB Port

$25 NanoPi NEO Plus2 Board Adds 8GB Flash, WiFi & Bluetooth, More RAM, and an extra USB Port

NanoPi NEO 2 board has just got an update with NEO Plus2 board featuring the same Allwinner H5 processor and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, but FriendlyELEC updated the RAM from 512MB to 1GB, added an 8GB eMMC flash, a WiFi & Bluetooth module, and an extra USB port. NanoPi NEO Plus2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 processor with an ARM Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (Samsung KLM8G1WEPD-B031) +  micro SD card slot Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (via RTL8211E-VB-CG chip), 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 (via Ampak AP6212A wireless module) USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port (for power only), 2x USB via headers Expansion headers 24-pin header with I2C, 2x UART, SPI, and GPIOs 12-pin header with 2x USB, IR pin, I2S, and GPIOs 5-pin audio 2.0mm pitch header with microphone and LINE out […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 49 Comments on The First Amlogic S912 Development Board is Coming Soon with Khadas VIM2

The First Amlogic S912 Development Board is Coming Soon with Khadas VIM2

We have a decent choice of Amlogic S905 development boards like ODROID-C2 or NanoPi K2, but I was recently asked whether I knew of any Amlogic S912 development boards. I’m sure Amlogic has one for internal development, but those are hard to get, and probably expensive, and while you could probably get an S912 TV box board those lack I/Os, and software support may truly be a challenge. So I’m pleased to announce that Shenzhen Wesion will soon provide an update to their Khadas VIM Pro board with Khadas VIM2 powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core processor. The company will actually offer three variants of Khadas VIM2 boards (Basic/Pro/Max) specifications with highlights in bold showing differences with Khadas VIM Pro board: SoC –  Amlogic S912 octa core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-820MP GPU System Memory Basic – 2 GB DDR4 Pro/Max – 3 GB DDR4 Storage […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments on Orange Pi i96 96Boards IoT Edition WiFi & Bluetooth Development Board Finally Launched for $8.80

Orange Pi i96 96Boards IoT Edition WiFi & Bluetooth Development Board Finally Launched for $8.80

Orange Pi i96 board was first unveiled at Linaro Connect US 2016 in September of that year, as one of the first boards compliant with 96Boards IoT Edition specification, and expected to sell for just $9.99. The good news is that the board is now finally available for $8.80 plus shipping on Aliexpress ($12.19 in total in my case) Orange Pi i96 specifications: SoC – RDA Micro 8810PL ARM Cortex A5 processor @ up to 1.0 GHz with 2Gbit (256 MB) on-chip LPDDR2 RAM, 4Gbit (512 MB) on-chip SLC NAND flash , 256KB L2 cache, and Vivante GC860 3D GPU External Storage – micro SD slot Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth 2.1/EDR module (RDA5991) Camera – MIPI CSI-2 connector for camera sensor up to 5MP Video – 1080p30 H.264 encoding USB – 1x USB host port, 1x micro USB OTG port Expansion – 40-pin GPIO header with SPI, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments on Libre Computer’s Le Potato Amlogic S905X Development Board Goes for $25 and Up (Crowdfunding)

Libre Computer’s Le Potato Amlogic S905X Development Board Goes for $25 and Up (Crowdfunding)

Up to now there were two notable Amlogic S905(X) development boards: ODROID-C2 and Khadas Vim. Shenzhen Libre Technology Co., Ltd, a Shenzhen startup, is about to bring one more to the market with Le Potato board, aka AML-S905X-CC, powered by Amlogic S905X processor with 1 or 2 GB RAM, and in a form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi 3 board. Le Potato /AML-S905X-CC board specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with penta core ARM Mali-450MP GPU, and Amlogic Video Engine 10 System Memory – 1GB or 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage –  1x micro SD Card slot with UHS SDR104 support, eMMC module connector with HS400 support Video Output – HDMI 2.0 Port, 3.5mm TRRS “AV” jack with CVBS (480i / 576i) Audio Output – HDMI, AV jack (stereo audio), SPDIF output header, and I2S header Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet USB – 4x […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on NFV PicoPod is a Cluster of Six MACCHIATOBin Networking Boards for OPNFV, ODP, DPDK and OPF

NFV PicoPod is a Cluster of Six MACCHIATOBin Networking Boards for OPNFV, ODP, DPDK and OPF

If you are interested in networking applications, you may have already heard about Marvell ARMADA 8040 based SolidRun MACCHIATOBin board with multiple 10Gbps and Gbps network interfaces, three SATA ports, and more. PicoCluster has decided to make a cluster of 6 MACHIATOBin boards coupled with a Marvell Prestera DX 14 port, 10GbE switch for OpenDataPlane (ODP), Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), OpenFastPath(OPF) as well as OPNFV (Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization) . The main features of the full assembled kit –  named Cube – include: 6x MACCHIATOBin quad core Cortex A72 boards (24 cores in total) 1x Prestera DX 10GbE 14-port switch board 6x fans Power Supply Acrylic case The cluster kit comes with 64GB micro SD cards pre-loaded with the latest OPNFV Danube software release for ARM integrated by ENEA Software AB. The cluster is said to be compliant with the OPNFV Pharos specification. Three pre-order options are […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 1200 Platform for Wearables Supports LTE Cat M1 and NB1 (NB-IoT)

Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 1200 Platform for Wearables Supports LTE Cat M1 and NB1 (NB-IoT)

After Snapdragon Wear 2100 and 1100 launched last year , Qualcomm has announced a new Snapdragon Wear 1200 platform still designed for wearables, but with lower power consumption, less processing power, a more compact package, and built-in support for LTE IoT communications standards such as LTE Cat M1 and LTE NB-IoT (Cat NB1).   Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 1200 key features and specifications: CPU – ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.3 GHz Memory / Storage – Support for discreet or MCP NAND and LPDDR2 Display – Support via SPI for simple UI and displays Modem Global multi-mode supporting Cat-M1 / NB1 / E-GPRS. Supports LTE FDD and TDD for Cat-M1 and E-GRPS and FDD only for Cat-NB1 Up to 300 kbps downlink and 350 kbps uplink for Cat-M1 10 kbps download and 60 kbps upload speeds for Cat-NB1 Integrated voice support for VoLTE Other Connectivity – Pre-integrated support for Qualcomm 11ac Wi-Fi […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments on Banana Pi BPI-R2’s U-boot & Linux 4.4 Source Code & MediaTek MT7623N Datasheet Released

Banana Pi BPI-R2’s U-boot & Linux 4.4 Source Code & MediaTek MT7623N Datasheet Released

Banana Pi BPI-R2 is a multimedia router board powered by MediaTek MT7623N quad core processor with 2GB RAM, 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, up to two SATA ports, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, and I/O headers. The board is not for sale yet, but the company has recently released the source code with U-boot and Linux 4.4.70, as well as a datasheet for MediaTek MT7623N processor. The source code can be found on Github, so let’s see if we can build it:

After a couple of minutes, the build would end with:

For the very last step, it asks you to login as root / sudoer, which it should not do… But we end up with the images, so at least it builds:

MediaTek has also been active by committing patchsets for MT7623 to the Linux Kernel Mailing List, so mainline Linux is an eventual possibility for […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on IceZero Lattice iCE40 FPGA Board is Designed for Raspberry Pi Zero

IceZero Lattice iCE40 FPGA Board is Designed for Raspberry Pi Zero

Yesterday, we reported about Olimex’s open source hardware iCE40HX8K-EVB board with a Lattice iCE40 (HX8K) FPGA, and today, another iCE40 FPGA board, also open source hardware, appeared in my news feed with Trenz Electronic’s IceZero board specifically designed to be programmed using a Raspberry Pi Zero board. IceZero board specifications: FPGA – Lattice ICE40HX4K with 3520 logic gates, and 80 Kbit memory Storage – SPI Flash for FPGA self-configuration Misc – 3x User LEDs;  User Clock: 100 MHz Expansion – 4x unpopulated PMOD Connectors; 40-pin Raspberry Pi female header Dimensions – 56 x 30.5mm (Raspberry Pi HAT Compatible) The board is supported by icoTC open source FPGA toolchain for Windows and Linux, which you can use in Raspberry Pi Zero (W), and other RPi board with a 40-pin header running Raspbian, as explained in that simple example in Github. Trenz electronic only shared part of the documentation, but you’ll find […]