open source News - Page 76 of 92 - CNX Software

August 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Parallax Propeller 1 P8X32A Open Source Multi-core MCU

Lots of electronics devices are now powered by open source software such as Linux, open source hardware is not as wide-spread, but gaining tracking traction thanks to the like of Arduino, Beagleboard.org, Olimex, and many projects on crowdfunding websites, and now we even start seeing some open source silicon. Existing open source processors include LEON3 (SparkV8) MCU, OpenRisc, and just very recently, LowRISC, based on 64-bit RISC-V instruction set architecture, has been announced with the backing of some of Raspberry Pi co-founders, Google ATAP, etc… and is currently being developed at the University of Cambridge, UK. Parallax Propeller 1 P8X32A is another MCU which has been open sourced last week. Propeller 1 P8X32A had however been released in April 2006, and can be sourced as a 40-pin DIP chip for prototyping, and 44-pin QFP and QFN for production, and come with the following key features: Power Requirements: 3.3 VDC […]

August 1, 2014April 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

EasyEDA is a Web-based Schematics Capture, Simulation, and PCB Layout Tool

I recently watched a video showing AllWinner R&D, and I noticed although most (all?) software engineer run Ubuntu in the PC, the hardware engineers all relied on Windows based EDA tools for schematics capture and PCB Layout. There are already Linux-based tools such as Kicad, which appears to be good for new projects, but importing existing projects can be an issue. An alternative to operating system dependent EDA software suites are web-based tools. I’ve already tried Fritzing which allows to draw circuits on breadboard, convert these to schematics and PCB layouts, and order the PCBs. It looks pretty good for its purpose, but it’s limited to mostly simple designs, and AFAIK can’t be used to replace an EDA suite. That’s where EasyEDA comes into play. It’s a web-based tool where you can draw schematics, perform simulation, and create PCB layouts for your project, either keeping them private, or sharing them […]

July 25, 2014December 3, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 36 Comments

Firefly-RK3288 Development Board To Support Android and Lubuntu

We’ve already got a long list of upcoming Rockchip RK3288 based Android media players, but no low cost development boards have been announced to date. We can certainly expect a Radxa Rock 2 board with the Cortex A17 processor, but it might not be the only one, as Firefly-RK3288 development board powered by Rockchip RK3288 is currently being developed by another Chinese team. Current specifications for Firefly-RK3288 board: SoC – Rockchip 3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-T764 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2G DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot Video I/O HDMI 2.0 up to 3840×2160@60p VGA out (D-SUB connector) VGA in is available via the expansion headers. LCD, MIPI and LVDS Audio Output / Input – HDMI, optical S/PDIF, microphone header, and built-in MIC Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with external antenna, and Bluetooth […]

July 15, 2014July 15, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Adapteva Announces Three Parallella Fanless Boards for Microserver, Desktop, and Embedded Applications

Adapteva’s Parallella low cost open source hardware “supercomputer” is a board powered by Xilinx Zynq-7010/7020 dual core Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC and the company’s Ephipany epiphany coprocessor, that’s had a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012 as the 16-core version sold for just $99, and is capable of handling applications such as image and video processing, and ray-tracing, and also comes with an OpenCL SDK. The board was fairly difficult to source after the crowdfunding campaign, and one the common complain of backers was the board had to be actively cooled by a fan. The company has fixed both issues by increasing slightly the price, and redesigning the board so that it can be passively cooled by a larger heatsink. There are now three versions of the parallela board: Parallella Microserver ($119) – Used as an Ethernet connected headless server Parallella Desktop ($149) – Used as a personal computer Parallella […]

June 30, 2014June 30, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Toradex Customized Single Board Computers Powered by Freescale Vybrid and i.MX6 Sell for 39 Euros and Up

Toradex has launched what they call “Customized SBCs” (Single Board Computers) comprised of the usual carrier board an computer-on-module (CoM) combination, using their Apalis & Colibri families. The company offers various combination of Freescale i.MX6 and Vybrid VF50 single board computers, with price starting at 39 Euros for 1k order, or 49 Euros for samples. I’ve already featured Toradex Colibri VF50 (and VF61) modules in another post, but to summarize Colibri VF50 is a computer modules based on Freescale Vybrid VF50 ARM Cortex A5 CPU with 64 to 128MB DDR3, and 128MB NAND flash that targets industrial applications requiring long term availability (15 years). VF50 sells as low as 19 Euros per unit for 10k orders. Viola is a new open source hardware carrier board with the following features: Compatible with all Toradex Colibri CoMs External Storage – microSD interface Video – RGB LCD Interface, 4 wire resistive touch interface […]

June 27, 2014June 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Acme Systems Arietta EDU Open Hardware Baseboard for Arietta G25 SoM (ARM9)

Arietta G25 is a tiny system-on-module (SoM) powered by Atmel SAM9G25 ARM9 processor and running Linux that sold for a discount earlier this year (9.9 Euros) for early backers, and is now available for 20 Euros, and support an optional Wi-Fi module for as low as 7 Euros extra. Acme Systems, the company who made the board, is now considering designing and manufacturing an open source hardware baseboard for the module, and is asking for feedback from the community before going ahead. Currently the idea is to have a baseboard with the following: Arietta G25 SoM connector (Vertical mount) 1x USB Host port I2C Sensors – Temperature and Humidity sensor, Light sensor Mosfet output for RGB led strip 2x relay output 1x filtered dry input 2x servo RC motors output Audio interface with embedded microphone and jack for PC speakers using Wolfson WM8731 codec Expansion headers for external modules already […]

May 18, 2014May 18, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Linux Kernel 3.10.33 Source Code Released for Amlogic S802 (Part of Tronsmart Vega S89 SDK)

We already had the kernel source for Amlogic S802. The previous code found on Amlogic website, and based on Linux 3.10.10. I’ve been informed there’s a new release based on Linux 3.10.33, and apparently the code based used for Tronsmart Vega S89 (aka Beelink M8, S82), and the new Tronsmart Vega S89-H with proper Dolby & DTS support. Beside a new version, the kernel adds support for a new platform called “meson8 baby” and HDMI IN support, as well a several changes in AMlogic source such as GPU cooling.. All device tree files also seem to have been amended mostly with I2C and thermal settings. It is not a full release, and the hardware directory with GPU, TVIN, Wi-Fi, and NAND drivers is not included. Having said that, it should be possible to use the drivers from the previous release. Meson6 (Amlogic AML8726-MX) source code is also included, and appears […]

April 25, 2014April 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Yocto Project 1.6 “Daisy” Released

The Yocto Project Release 1.6 has just been announced. This release is codenamed “Daisy”, and features Poky 11.0.0, which is the reference system used by the project, but other systems could also be used. The Yocto Project is a framework that creates embedded Linux distributions, and is now being used by many Intel and ARM based embedded boards such as Wandboard, Atmel Xplained, Minnowboard MAX, and the Raspberry Pi. Some of the Yocto Project 1.6 features and updates include: Linux kernel 3.14 and 3.10 LTSI eglibc 2.19, gcc 4.8.2 Support for building Python 3 Toaster web UI for exploring build output Documentation – BitBake user’s manual improvment, and added section explaining how to “Write a New Recipe“. New reference BSP for beaglebone and edgerouter Change to use SHA512 password encryption with shadow by default Various performance improvement, and disk usage reductions. Add support for booting UEFI systems with gummiboot Image […]