Linux

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 37 Comments on 96Boards Compliant HiKey 960 ARM Cortex A73 Development Board is Now Available for $239

96Boards Compliant HiKey 960 ARM Cortex A73 Development Board is Now Available for $239

The most powerful 96boards development board – HiKey 960 – has finally been launched, and can be purchased for $239 on Aliexpress, Amazon US, Switch Sense (Japan), Seeed Studio, or All Net (Germany). HiKey 960 specifications have not changed much since we found out about the board: SoC – Kirin 960 octa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x ARM Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, and a Mali-G71 MP8 GPU System Memory – 3GB LPDDR4 SDRAM (PoP) Storage – 32GB UFS 2.1 flash storage + micro SD card slot Video Output / Display Interface – 1 x HDMI 1.2a up to 1080p, 1x 4-lane MIPI DSI connector Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 with on-board antennas USB – 2x USB 3.0 type A host ports, 1x USB 2.0 type C OTG port Camera – 1x 4-lane MIPI […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Flint OS is a Chromium OS Build for Raspberry Pi & Firefly-RK3288 Boards

Flint OS is a Chromium OS Build for Raspberry Pi & Firefly-RK3288 Boards

Chromium OS for SBC aimed to bring Chromium operating systems to low cost development boards such as the Raspberry Pi 3 board, but the website is now down, and the developer announced he had stopped working on it several months ago due the hardware limitations of the Raspberry Pi 3 board. But others decided it was still worth the effort, and created Flint Innovation company (based in UK/China) to develop Flint OS, a build of Chromium OS with optimizations for Raspberry Pi 3 and Firefly-RK3288 boards with more boards likely coming soon. The developers also provide an x86 image, but after asking more details, it turns out they only changed the boot splash screen for now on the x86 image, with most of the early work done on Raspberry Pi board: At this moment our public Flint OS releases are still pretty much vanilla Chromium OS (we changed the boot […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments on SolidRun MACCHIATOBin Mini-ITX Networking Board is Now Available for $349 and Up

SolidRun MACCHIATOBin Mini-ITX Networking Board is Now Available for $349 and Up

SolidRun MACCHIATOBin is a mini-ITX board powered by Marvell ARMADA 8040 quad core Cortex A72 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz and designed for networking and storage applications thanks to 10 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, and 1 Gbps Ethernet interfaces, as well as three SATA port. The company is now taking order for the board (FCC waiver required) with price starting at $349 with 4GB RAM. MACCHIATOBin board specifications: SoC – ARMADA 8040 (88F8040) quad core Cortex A72 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with accelerators (packet processor, security engine, DMA engines, XOR engines for RAID 5/6) System Memory – 1x DDR4 DIMM with optional ECC and single/dual chip select support; up to 16GB RAM Storage – 3x SATA 3.0 port, micro SD slot, SPI flash, eMMC flash Connectivity – 2x 10Gbps Ethernet via copper or SFP, 2.5Gbps via SFP,  1x Gigabit Ethernet via copper Expansion – 1x PCIe-x4 3.0 slot, Marvell […]

Posted on by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 18 Comments on Beelink AP42 Apollo Lake mini PC Linux Review with Ubuntu, KDE Neon, Elementary OS….

Beelink AP42 Apollo Lake mini PC Linux Review with Ubuntu, KDE Neon, Elementary OS….

Beelink’s latest Intel mini PC offerings includes the AP34 and AP42 which are their first models using Intel Apollo Lake processors. The former uses an Intel Apollo Lake Celeron N3450 processor (burst frequency 2.2GHz, Intel HD Graphics 500 with Graphics Burst Frequency 700MHz and 12 Execution Units) while the latter uses the slightly more powerful Pentium N4200 (burst frequency 2.5GHz, Intel HD Graphics 505 with Graphics Burst Frequency 750MHz and 18 Execution Units). Both support Windows 10 (Home) and Beelink’s marketing claim they “support Linux system”. GearBest has given me the chance to review running Linux on the AP42 model so here are my findings. Normally I first make a disk image before booting Windows or installing Linux. However initial attempts at booting a Live USB with a variety of Linux systems failed so both the reseller and manufacturer were contacted for comment. Interestingly there was no immediate reply but early […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments on Want a Free Banana Pi M2 Ultra Board? Upload a 2 Minutes Video about Your Allwinner Experiences and Plans

Want a Free Banana Pi M2 Ultra Board? Upload a 2 Minutes Video about Your Allwinner Experiences and Plans

Banana Pi  BPI-M2 Ultra is a development board powered by Allwinner R40 quad core processor with a native SATA interface, as well as Gigabit Ethernet. If you are a developer, and would not mind getting a free sample, Allwinner is giving away boards to people uploading a 1 to 2 minutes video to YouTube. The rules are detailed below: Dear Developers of the World, Allwinner Technology would like to thank you for your outstanding contribution to our open source community and invite you to join our video-shooting program. Please cover the following topics in your video: Who are you and why did you choose Allwinner in the first place? What did you do with your Allwinner powered development board? What are your expectations for Allwinner’s latest open source platform, the R40? It needs to be: Shot in a video resolution of 720p or above 1-2mins in length Submitted between Apr […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 43 Comments on RDA Micro RDA8810 Android SDK with Linux & U-boot Source Code for Orange Pi 2G IoT Board Released

RDA Micro RDA8810 Android SDK with Linux & U-boot Source Code for Orange Pi 2G IoT Board Released

Orange Pi 2G IoT board was released a couple of weeks ago, shortly followed by Android and Ubuntu images, but since it was not based on Allwinner, but an RDA Micro  8810PL processor, we did not have any source code so far, which can be a real problem for a development board… Shenzhen Xunlong has now managed to upload a 6.7GB Android SDK to MEGA, with the link published via Orange Pi Resources page. MEGA has a download limit which depends on how much traffic they get at the time, and after 5.3 GB download,  I was asked to register for a PRO account, or wait for four hours before resuming the download. If you want to avoid this limit for any large MEGA download, you can run megadl instead. That’s what I did in Ubuntu 16.04 (remember to escape any special characters with \):

Once the download is […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on PocketBone Board Based on Octavo Systems OSD3358 SiP Fits into an “Altoids Smalls” Mint Tin Box

PocketBone Board Based on Octavo Systems OSD3358 SiP Fits into an “Altoids Smalls” Mint Tin Box

Last year, Octavo Systems introduced OSD3358 System-in-Package (SiP) that includes Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358 processor, 256MB to 1GB RAM, a PMIC and an LDO into a single package. Since then the SiP has been found in BeagleBone Black Wireless and BeagleBone Blue, and at the time of launch there was also some development around PocketBone, a tiny open source hardware Smalls mint tin sized board based on OSD3358, which is smaller than a CHIP board, but a little bigger than NanoPi NEO board. There’s now been some progress with prototypes of the board manufactured with the following specifications: SiP (System-in-Package) – Octavo Systems OSD3358 with TI Sitara AM3358 ARM Cortex-A8 processor @ up to 1 GHz,  PowerVR SGX530 GPU, PMIC + LDO, and 512MB DDR3 Storage – micro SD slot USB – 2x micro USB port one for power, one OTG port Expansion – 10-pin header (unpopulated) with SPI, I2C, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Mirabook is Laptop Dock for Smartphones, Development Boards (Crowdfunding)

Mirabook is Laptop Dock for Smartphones, Development Boards (Crowdfunding)

Motorola Lapdock may have been ahead of its time, as laptop docks for smartphone are back in vogue with products like NexDock, and Apple could soon launch their own iPhone laptop dock. Another option is Miraxess Mirabook laptop dock with a 13.3″ display, and a battery lasting up to 24 hours, that works for smartphones, development boards, and HDMI TV sticks thanks to its USB type C port. Mirabook specifications: Display – 13.3″ IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution (non-touch, except if they raise $2 millions…) Audio – Speakers, 3.5mm audio jack Video Output – HDMI port Storage – SD card slot QWERTY keyboard & multi-touch trackpad USB Integrated USB type C cable to connect to phone, board or HDMI TV stick USB type C port to charge the Mirabook battery 2x USB type A host port Battery – TBD capacity good for 24 hours while charging your phone Dimensions – […]