Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Amlogic T968 Processor is Designed for Smart 4K UHD TVs and Smart Projectors

Amlogic T968 Processor is Designed for Smart 4K UHD TVs and Smart Projectors

Amlogic T968

Amlogic S-series processors are the most well-known processors by Amlogic with parts like S905X or S912, but the company is also offering other families with the new A-series for smart audio applications, and T-series processor for televisions. The latter have been around for a while, and also include HDMI inputs and digital TV tuners. We hear less about them since they are embedded into more expensive devices like Smart TVs or Android projectors, although in some cases they get into TV boxes with HDMI such as Alfawise H96 mini TV box powered by Amlogic T962E processor. Today, I’ll have at one of the top TV processor from Amlogic: T968 with four Cortex A53 cores clocked at up to 1.8 GHz, and an Arm Mali-T830MP2 GPU. Amlogic T968 processor key features and specifications: CPU – Quad core Arm Cortex-A53 processor clocked at up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-T830MP2 GPU System Memory I/F – DDR3/DDR3L RAM Storage I/F – eMMC […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on LG Releases webOS Open Source Edition Optimized for Raspberry Pi 3

LG Releases webOS Open Source Edition Optimized for Raspberry Pi 3

webOS-Open-Source-Edition

webOS, originally developed by Palm, is a Linux based multitasking operating systems with support for HTML5 and CSS3. It is now found in most (all?) new LG smart TVs, and the TV manufacturer has decided to expand the adoption of webOS by collaborating with the South Korean government and local startups,  and released an open source version , webOS Open Source Edition, available publicly at http://webosose.org. webOS Open Source Edition 1.0 is said to be optimized for the Raspberry Pi 3, and the company provides build instructions on the “setting up” page of the website to build the firmware image, which you can then flash to a micro SD card. The idea is to for a community around the open source version webOS, and let different categories of developers or users contribute to the project: System UI Developers – The System UI is based on Blink and Qt, and developers can add new features and integrate other open source technologies […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Touchjet WAVE Adds Android and Touchscreen Capability to Your TV (Crowdfunding)

Touchjet WAVE Adds Android and Touchscreen Capability to Your TV (Crowdfunding)

There are already ways to convert your TV into a smart TV running Android with touchscreen support, but you’d need to buy an Android mini PC and a infrared touch frame overlay for your TV both of which should cost several hundred dollars in total, and the larger your TV the costlier the price, and once you get the hardware, you may also need to modify your kernel source code to enable USB touchscreen… A US start-up is now working on a much cheaper and easier way to achieve this with Touchjet WAVE, a quad core Android mini PC that integrates an infrared sensor to track finger movements and taps across the screen of your existing TV. Touchjet WAVE specifications: SoC – Quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 2.0 GHz (Likely Amlogic S802 or S812) System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash Video Output – HDMI 1.4 Touchscreen Capabilities / Requirements Built-in optical touch sensor supporting 4 touch […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Google Formally Launches Android TV. Android TV Set-Top Boxes and TVs to be Available in H2 2014

Google Formally Launches Android TV. Android TV Set-Top Boxes and TVs to be Available in H2 2014

After Android L for mobile devices, and Android Wear for wearables, Google also announced Android for your television at Google I/O 2014, and after definitely killing “Google TV”, renaming it to “Google Services for Smart TV”, the company went for the obvious and called it “Android TV”, which will get messy with all the Chinese “Android TV” boxes that do not run “Android TV” but simply “Android”… Google apparently used an Android TV reference platform (ADT-1) based on Nvidia Tegra 4 K1 at I/O to showcase their latest implementation of Android the the living room. I’ve embedded the video of the demo below, but the key part of the demo can be summarized as follows: Android TV’s “TV Input Framework” can overlay notifications and other data on top of various video sources such as HDMI, TV tuners, and IP TV receivers Voice control demo (with smartphone) with requests such as: “Breaking Bad” to return the video, link to actors description, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Skyworth Announces K100 Smart TV, GS100 and GS300 Set-Top Boxes with “Google services for Smart TV” Powered by Marvell ARMADA 1500 Plus

Skyworth Announces K100 Smart TV, GS100 and GS300 Set-Top Boxes with “Google services for Smart TV” Powered by Marvell ARMADA 1500 Plus

What do company executives do when a product is not selling as expected? They organize a board meeting, deliberate for hours, and come up with a brilliant idea like “Let’s change the name!”. If I count correctly, this year would have been the release of products based on Google TV 4.0, but the company decided to scrap it, and this year, we have devices with “Google services for Smart TV” thanks to Skyworth K100 Smart TV, as well as GS100 and GS300 set-top boxes, all powered by Marvell ARMADA 1500 Plus SoC. Marvell published a press release yesterday detailing the news: Continuing its leadership in the Smart Home ecosystem, Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) today announced a partnership with Skyworth, a global TV maker, to deploy Smart TVs and set-top boxes with Google services for Smart TV. The new offerings are powered by Marvell’s ARMADA® 1500 Plus (88DE3108) system-on-chip (SoC) platform, a full HD media processor designed for a vast array of […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Imagination Unveils OpenGL ES 3.0 Compliant Entry Level PowerVR Series6XE GPUs, and Series6XT Architecture Promising TFLOPS Performance

Imagination Unveils OpenGL ES 3.0 Compliant Entry Level PowerVR Series6XE GPUs, and Series6XT Architecture Promising TFLOPS Performance

Imagination Technologies has announced four OpenGL ES 3.0 compliant mobile GPUs based on PowerVR Series6XE Rogue architecture for entry level ($100) smartphones, tablets, and other low-end consumer devices such as wearables and smart TVs, as well as four high-end GPUs based on PowerVR Series6XT Rogue architecture capable of TeraFLOPS computing power. PowerVR Series6XE GPUs The new PowerVR Rogue GPUs will deliver the same fillrate performance as equivalent Series5XT multi-processor configurations but offer more in terms of features and functionality, including OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.x, and DirectX 9.3. Four entry-level GPUs have been introduced at CES 2014: PowerVR G6050 – Smallest fully-featured GPU core by Imagination with support for OpenGL ES3.0 and OpenCL 1.x. PowerVR G6060 – Same as G6050, but adds PVRIC2, the company’s second generation lossless PowerVR Image Compression. It reduces bandwidth requirements, and it likely to be used in entry-level tablets, HD TVs and STBs. PowerVR G6100 – Updated and optimized version of the original area-optimized Series6XE […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Marvell Unveils ARMADA 1500 Plus (88DE3108) SoC for Android and Linux Smart Video Platforms

Marvell Unveils ARMADA 1500 Plus (88DE3108) SoC for Android and Linux Smart Video Platforms

Building on top of it ARMADA 1500 SoC for Google TV, Marvell has recently announced the ARMADA 1500 Plus (88DE3108) HD secure media processor SoCdesigned for smart video products based on Android 4.2.2, and Linux, such as media players, OTT boxes, hybrid set-top boxes and smart TVs. ARMADA 1500 Plus features two ARM Cortex A9 cores, Vivante GC1000 and GC300 GPUs, respectively for 3D and 2D graphics,  and integrates an HDMI receiver and Gigabit Ethernet. Hisense will be among the first to use the platform with the upcoming H6 Smart TV and Pulse Pro set-top-box, but details have yet to be released for these two products. Here are the key features of 88DE3108 SoC: Processor – Dual core Cortex A9 with over 6000 Dhrystone MIPS Dedicated 3D and 2D graphics acceleration – dual threaded unified shader (Vivante GC1000 and GC300) with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 and DirectFB. Video vMeta Video Codec – Decoding: H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, AVS, VP8 and […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Unu is an Android Tablet, a Gaming Console and a Smart TV

Unu is an Android Tablet, a Gaming Console and a Smart TV

In the last year or so, we’ve started using Android set-top boxes or mini-PCs to make our TV smart and play games, and some products such as Ouya and Gamestick, using similar hardware, have been specifically designed for game play. But Unu Tablet, which can be used as a tablet (really), can also transform your TV into a gaming platform, and a smart connected TV, thanks to a docking station, and a game controller. Here are the known specifications for Unu tablet: SoC – 1.6 GHz quad-core chip (I’m guessing Rockchip RK3188). System Memory – Unknown Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + microSD card slot Display – 7″ IPS display, 1280×800 resolution. Connectivity – WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2 microUSB ports Video Output – mini HDMI jack Camera – 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera This Android 4.2.2 tablet comes with a docking station that handles charging and video output, an air mouse with a QWERTY keyboard (similar […]