Grain Media 8136S / 8138S are Low Cost HD IP Camera SoCs

A few times, my readers told me they really like comments on this blog, and they liked to check recent comments on the left sidebar, and some even subscribed to the Comments RSS Feed, although it might quite busy at times, especially during giveaways. Recently, an interesting conversation started in the comments section about low cost IP camera chips by Grain Media 8136S and 8138S SoCs respectively supporting 720p and 1080p video recording, and cheap enough to make a sub-$10 IP camera board (BoM cost). Beside the maximum resolution supported, GM8136S and GM8138S are mostly similar except the later also supports Gigabit Ethernet against Fast Ethernet for the lower end version, different clock speeds, and some other (minor?) differences. There’s also GM8135S with 512 Mbit RAM (SiP) against 1Gbit RAM (SiP) for GM8136S, and GM8138 including a DDR controller for external memory, while GM8138S including 1Gbit RAM (SiP). Grain Media […]

Android 5.1 SDK Release for Rockchip RK3128 Based FirePrime Board

T-Firefly has just announced the release of Android 5.1 SDK for their newly announced Fireprime development board powered by Rockchip RK3128 quad core Cortex A7 processor. You can get the SDK (fireprime_android5.1_git_20150612.tar), a 6.1GB download with full source code for the board via Baidu or Google Drive, and then upgrade it to the latest version with git pull on the company’s bitbucket account as explained in the Wiki. The SDK must be specific to Fireprime board, but it should be feasible to use to create / modify Android 5.1 firmware for other RK3128 products. If you don’t need the source code, but would just like to install the firmware for Android 5.1, and the other image recently released (Ubuntu 15.04 Desktop or Server, or Android 5.1/Ubuntu 15.04 dual boot image)  via the links provided in the announcement. Thanks to Nanik for the tip. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in […]

AMD Announces 96Boards Enterprise Edition Server Board Powered by Opteron A1100 Processor

When Linaro announced the 96Boards initiative, they started by launching “Consumer Edition” boards with a target price of around $100, but they also had plans to launch more powerful and feature-packed “Enterprise Edition” board in the $300 to $400 range. The first Enterprise Edition is based on AMD Opteron A1100 quad core Cortex A57 processor. The company has not released the full specs yet, but the press release mentions the board features a 4-core AMD Opteron A1100 Series processor with two SO-DIMM memory slots, PCIe, USB, SATA (3x), and Gigabit Ethernet capabilities. It measures 160×120 mm. CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for ARM Development Preview are the main operating systems planned for the board but additional software and operating systems will be available later on. The board is should become available in H2 2015, and will be supported through the Linaro Enterprise Group’s 96Boards.org site. Exact price […]

Linaro 15.06 Release with Linux 4.1 and Android 5.1

Linaro 15.06 has been released with Linux 4.1-rc8, Linux 3.10.80 and 3.14.44 (LSK), and Android 5.1.1. Highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 4.1-rc8-2015.06 linaro-android topic updated to 4.1-rc8 and recent aosp/android-3.18 included GATOR version 5.21.1 updated integration-linaro-vexpress64 topic by ARM LT Linaro builds of AOSP 15.06 is released CI bring up: setup AOSP master build on Emulator implemented boot-to-gui test for Emulator CI bring up: setup AOSP 5.0 headless build for APM X-Gene Mustang Linaro OpenEmbedded 2015.06 updated linux-linaro to ll-20150616.0 (based on 4.1-rc8) updated linux-linaro-stable to 3.10.79 workaround meta-virtualization breakage upstreaming fixed bootimg.bbclass to work with all kernel image types imported xorriso v1.4.0 from luvOS cloud-image-*: catch up with OE-core class rename Linaro Ubuntu 15.06 – updated packages: fvp-pre-boot (FVP firmware), LSK 3.10.79/3.14.44/3.18.16 and linux-linaro 4.1-rc8 kernels CI bring up: uprobes/systemtap enabled build Visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1506/Release for a list of known issues, and further release details about the LEB, LMB […]

LeMaker Guitar is a $25 Single Board Computer Powered by Actions Semi S500 Processor

LeMaker, better known for the Banana Pi, has recently unveiled three boards at an event in China: LeMaker Bass – a 96Boards compliant board powered by Actions Semi S900 quad core processor LeMaker Piano – An industrial grade single board computer based on Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual or Quad LeMaker Guitar – A low cost board powered by Actions Semi S500 processor There are plenty of Freescale i.MX6 industrial boards on the market, and LeMaker Bass appears to be the previously announced Bubblegum-96 board now supported by Lemaker, so I’m going to focus on LeMaker Guitar in this post. It’s good to see at least one company dropped the “fruit + pi” theme for their new boards… The Guitar board is comprised of a system on module (SoM), and a baseboard. The SoM comes with the following technical specifications: SoC – Actions Semi S500 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor @ […]

Freescale Introduces a Coin-sized Single Chip Module (SCM) Based on Freescale i.MX 6Dual

As the Freescale Technology Forum 2015 is taking place in Austin, Texas, the company will announce a few new products over the 4-day conference. After the official launch of Freescale i.MX 7 series processors, Freescale unveiled a new product based on their existing i.MX6 platform with “i.MX 6Dual SCM” (Single Chip Module) that integrate a dual core i.MX 6Dual processor with 1 or 2 GB LPDDR2 (PoP), a 16MB NOR flash and a PMIC in a tiny, coin-sized module. Key feature of SCM-i.MX6D module: Freescale i.MX 6Dual application processor with two ARM Cortex A9 core @ 800 MHz and Vivante GPUs (2D/3D) System Memory – 1 or 2 GB LPDDR2 (PoP configuration) Storage – 16 MB SPI NOR (Micron N25Q128A13) Power Supply – Freescale PMIC PF0100 Dimensions – 17mm x 14mm x 1.7mm There are also 109 discrete components on the module. BSPs for Linux and Android will be provided. […]

Freescale Launches i.MX 7 Series Cortex A7 + Cortex M4 Processors for IoT Applications

Freescale announced plans for i.MX 7 and i.MX 8 processors in 2013, but it’s only in the last few months there have been some patchsets submitted to the ARM Linux Kernel mailing list, and so far all documentation was only available to companies and developers under NDA. Now the company has officially launched i.MX 7 series, and although all documents are not available yet, Freescale has released a factsheet providing an overview about the processors. Freescale i.MX 7 series processors targets applications such as wearables, e-readers, secure point-of-sale equipment, smart home controls, industrial automation products and other IoT solutions. Two processors are currently available: the single core i.MX 7Solo processor, and the dual core i.MX 7Dual processor. Both basically share the same specifications, but beside the extra Cortex A7 core, i.MX 7Dual also adds on extra USB host port, a PCIe interface, an extra Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 4th […]

DragonBoard 410c 64-bit ARM Development Board in Stock for $75

There has been a few 96Boards announced so far, and a Banana Pi96 could soon be launched, as LeMarker has just joined the Linaro Community Board Group, but so far the board that generated the most buzz was Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c, but at the time pricing was not officially disclosed, although a $75 target price was posted in several blogs. And now it seems Qualcomm 64-bit ARM board indeed costs $75, as it is listed for that price on Arrow Electronics website with a few pieces in stock. Dragonboard 410c specifications have also been further detailed: SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (APQ8016) quad-core ARM CortexA53 @ 1.2 GHz with Adreno 306 GPU @ 400MHz System Memory – 1GB LPDDR3 @ 533MHz, Single-channel 32-bit (4.2GBps) Storage – 8GB eMMC 4.51 + micro SD 3.0 (UHS-I) Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p Video Playback -1080p@30fps HD video playback and capture with H.264 […]

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