Linux News - Page 305 of 434 - CNX Software

October 13, 2015October 13, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

How to Reduce SD Card Firmware Images Download Size

So I’ve just received a Roseapple Pi board, and I finally managed to download Debian and Android images from Roseapple pi download page. It took me nearly 24 hours to be successful, as the Debian 8.1 image is nearly 2GB large and neither download links from Google Drive nor Baidu were reliable, so I had to try a few times, and after several failed attempt it work (morning is usually better). One way is to use better servers like Mega, at least in my experience, but another way to reduce download time and possibly bandwidth costs is to provide a smaller image, in this case not a minimal image, but an image with the same exact files and functionalities, but optimized for compression. I followed three main steps to reduce the firmware size from 2GB to 1.5GB in a computer running Ubuntu 14.04, but other Linux operating systems should also […]

October 12, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

PicoZed SDR (Software Defined Radio) System-on-Module Supports 70 MHz to 6.0 GHz Frequency Bands

PicoZed SoM based on Xilinx Zynq-7000 series SoCs was introduced in 2014 by Avnet. The company has now introduced a new version specifically designed for software designed radios which combines Zynq-7035 SoC with Analog Devices AD9361 RF transceiver supporting 70 MHz to 6.0 GHz frequency bands. Target applications include portable agile wireless communications, P25 public safety Radio, point-to-point communication, femtocell & picocell base stations and portable instrumentation. PicoZed SDR SoM specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq XC7Z035-2L FBG676I AP SoC with a dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 800 MHz and Kintex-7 FPGA with 275K logic cells System Memory – 1GB DDR3L SDRAM Storage – 256Mb QSPI Flash, microSD Card Interface Network Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Ethernet PHY USB – USB 2.0 OTG ULPI PHY I/Os – 205+ User I/O + 4 GTX channels Radio Transceiver – Analog Devices AD9361-BBCZ integrated RF Agile Transceiver with: 2 × 2 RF transceiver with integrated […]

October 11, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

LeMedia is a Linux Distribution based on Debian and Kodi 15.2 for Actions Semi S500 Processor

LeMaker has recently released LeMedia, a Linux distribution based on Kodi 15.2 and Debian Jessie for their Guitar board powered by Actions Semi S500 quad core Cortex A9 processor, also found in Lemon Pi, ActDuino-S500 and Roseapple Pi boards. The good news is that H.264 and MPEG4 hardware video decoding is implemented, as well as PowerVR SGX544 GPU 3D acceleration. This is an early version and while IR receiver, WiFi, HDMI and LCD output, and audio are working, the company explained that HDMI support may be flaky, USB 3.0 speed is not optimal, and touchscreen support had to be disabled. They also included a “LeMedia Settings” in the image to have a similar experience as “RaspBMC Settings”. The images for booting from SD card or eMMC can be downloaded here. It’s quite likely they only work on LeMaker Guitar board, and I could not find the Linux 3.10.37 kernel, nor […]

October 10, 2015October 10, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

$249 TI AM437x Starter Kit for Industrial Design Launched by Element14

Element14 has recently launched their “Texas Instruments AM437x Starter Kit” based on Sitara AM4378 Cortex A9 processor, including a board and touch screen LCD, and targeting industrial, HMI (Human Machine Interface) and networking applications. Element14 Texas Instruments AM437x Starter Kit specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM4378 ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1 GHz with PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3L SDRAM (2x 4-Gb Micron chips). Storage – 64MB SPI NOR Flash (MX66L51235FMI), serial EEPROM with board specific data, 1x micro SD slot Display – 4.3″ Capacitive Touch LCD Connectivity – 2x 10/100/1000M Ethernet RJ45 ports (Micrel KSZ9031RN transceivers), support for COM8 form-factor wireless boards via J20 Samtec card edge connector. USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 2x micro USB ports Camera – 2x 12 header for custom-made camera module from TI Audio – TLV320AIC3106 audio codec, 2x audio jacks for headphone out, and Line In Sensors […]

October 9, 2015October 11, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Weightless Development Kits are Finally Available (Sort of)

The first version of the Weightless standard aiming at lowering cost of IoT communications was published in 2013, but so far development kits were nowhere to be found. Nwave has now launched a Weightless-N SDK using sub-GHz spectrum, but not the white space spectrum used by Weightless-W, probably due to regulatory hurdles. Specifications and features of Nwave development board: MCU – Silicon Labs EFM32G210F128 ARM Cortex M3 MCU @ 32 MHz with 128KB flash, 16KB SRAM Connectivity – RM3 radio module (868MHz) and antenna connector (X3) USB – X1 USB port for connection to PC or UART interface, X2 micro USB port Debugging – UART, and 10-pin JTAG connector (X4) Expansion header – 16 through holes for GND, 3.3V, GPIOs, ADC, Timers output, I2C, etc… (X5) Misc – Three Jumpers for UART and other selections (TBD), reset buttons for USB ports? Power – 5V via USB ? Dimensions – N/A […]

October 9, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Marvell EZ-Connect MW302 IoT Starter Kit Supports AWS IoT Cloud Services

Amazon has just launched AWS (Amazon Web Services) IoT (Beta), a cloud platform that lets connected devices securely interact with cloud applications and other IoT devices. As pasrt of the announcement, they also released AWS IoT SDK that comes in three flavors: Embedded C SDK for C-based platforms such as Linux, RTOS, with variants for OpenSSL and mbed TLS. JavaScript SDK in Node.js Arduino Yún SDK. Ten started kits are currently officially supported by AWT IoT, many of them being existing platforms such as LinkIt One, BeagleBone Green, Intel Edison, or TI LaunchPad CC3200, with several of these kits including SeeedStudio’s Grove modules. One of the kits that’s completely new, at least to me, is Marvell EZ-Connect MW302 IoT Starter Kit which include a mini USB to USB cable, and Marvell 88MW302 development board with the following (preliminary) specifications: SoC – Marvell EZ-Connect MW302 ARM Cortex-M4 WiSoC with 512KB SRAM […]

October 8, 2015October 8, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Walabot MIMO Radar Board Can See Through Walls Thanks to Vayyar 3D Imaging Sensors

A few days ago, I wrote about Orbbec Astra 3D camera that can analyze distance and depth to form a 3D image of object. However, this solution uses an IR sensors, and while it can fulfill the needs of many application it does not allow to see through object, and that’s exactly what Walabot wideband MIMO radar board promises to do thanks to Vayyar 3D imaging sensor and a dozen of RF antennas. Some of the key features and preliminary specifications of Walabot board include: Vayyar VYYR2401 3D imaging sensor 12 (or is it 14?) non-contact antennas array system based on “Octopus A3 System on chip” Build in Tx/Rx linear polarized wide-band antennas from 3-10Ghz. On-board Cypress FX3 controller for communication and pre-processing EEPROM (for inventory and calibration information) Walabot interface connectors: Micro-USB 2.0 for high-rate data communication. Option to provide supply from USB. Single supply voltage 4.5-5.5v input for […]

October 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Snickerdoodle Xilinx Zynq ARM + FPGA Board Starts at $55 (Crowdfunding)

While Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ARMv8 + FPGA SoC is still in development, there are already quite a few Xilinx Zynq-7000 boards on the market today. The cheapest I know of is MYirTech Z-Turn board selling for $99, but krtkl (pronounced “critical“), US a based startup, will soon bring an even cheaper Zynq-7010/7020 board with their Snickerdoodle board currently listed on CrowdSupply platform for $55 and up, plus shipping. Snickerdoodle board specifications: SoC Xilinx Zynq-7010 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 667 MHz + FPGA with 430K gates or Xilinx Zynq-7020 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 866 MHz + FPGA with 1.3million gates (~430K ASIC gates) System Memory – 512MB or 1GB LPDDR2-800 Storage – micro SD card slot, 16MB boot flash Connectivity via Ti Wilink 8 solution 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 or Dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (2×2 MIMO) + Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x micro USB port […]