FOSDEM 2016 Schedule – Open Source Hardware and Software Event in Europe

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is a 2-day event that usually takes place on the first week-end of February in Brussels, but this year it will be on January 30-31. The event brings thousands of developers, hackers, and other person interested in open source technology who present their projects and share ideas. FOSDEM 2016 schedule is now available, and There will be 557 speakers, 612 events, and 50 tracks this year including 7 main tracks: Distros, Enterprise, Hardware, Communications, Miscellaneous, Office, Systems Administration, and Virtualization. So I’ve had a look at some of the talks, especially out of  “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “IoT” devrooms, and prepared my own virtual schedule although I won’t be able to attend. Saturday 10:30 – 10:55 – MIPS, the other side of the embedded by Alexjan Carraturo For many years MIPS processors have been involved in the embedded market, particularly […]

Fleye is a Safe, Robust and Developer Friendly Drone Powered by NXP i.MX6 Processor (Crowdfunding)

In most cases, it’s a pretty bad idea to touch a drone while it’s flying, as you could potentially hurt yourself and others with the blades, so a startup based in Belgium has decided to design a safe drone with the blades hidden under a shell surrounded by protective grids, and with features such as obstacles avoidance. The design also makes the drone sturdier, and less prone to breakage should it fall or hit obstacles. The drone, dubbed Fleye, is based on NXP i.MX6 dual core processor, runs a Linux OS built with the Yocto Project, and the company also plans to provide APIs, and mobile SDKs to allow the developer community to experiment with the drone, and/or create mobile apps. Main hardware features of Fleye drone: SoC – Freescale NXP i.MX6 dual or quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 800 MHz with Vivante GPU System Memory – 512 […]

iMX6 TinyRex Module and Development Board Support HDMI Input in Linux (Video Demo)

A couple of years ago, I wrote about iMX6 Rex open source hardware project combining a Freescale i.MX6 SoM and baseboard that aimed a teaching hardware design (schematics and PCB layout). I had not followed the project very closely since then, until I watched a video showcasing HDMI input capabilities in Linux using the new version of the module and baseboard called i.MX6 TinyRex. i.MX6 Tiny Rex module specifications: SoC – Freescale iMX6 processor up to 1.2GHz and 4 cores System Memory – Up to 4GB DDR3-1066 (533MHz) Storage – EEPROM Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet PHY I/Os via 3 board to board connectors: Display / Video Output 1x HDMI (up to QXGA 2048×1536) 1x LVDS (up to WUXGA 1920×1200) 1x 20-bit parallel LCD display (up to WXGA 1366×768) or 1x Video Input (CSI) 1x MIPI DSI differential display output (up to XVGA 1024×768) Video Input 1x 20-bit parallel video input […]

Yocto Project 2.0 “Jethro” Released

The Yocto Project 2.0 was released a few days ago. The framework used to create embedded Linux distributions supports Poky 14 “Jethro” reference distribution by default, but other Linux distributions can also be built with the Yocto Project. Some of the key features and improvements of Yocto Project 2.0 include: Added gcc 5.2 which is now the default compiler (gcc 4.8 and 4.9 are also provided) Updated linux-yocto kernel for qemu* and reference BSPs to version 4.1 Added basic support for Altera Nios II and Adapteva Epiphany Added tune files for Cavium ThunderX, Cavium Octeon, ARM Cortex-A17, Intel Quark X1000, and ARM vfpv3 and vfpv3d16 features Toaster Web UI improvements – Better performance and reliability; simplified setup; user-friendly layout; etc… wic image creation tool version 0.2.0 with bug fixed and new features, such as GPT partition tables, native tools, image compression, etc… Image generation adds support for  qcow2, vdi (VirtualBox […]

Compulab Unveils CL-SOM-iMX7 Freescale i.MX7 System-on-Module and SBC-iMX7 Single Board Computer

After a few years of speculations and developments about i.MX7 and i.MX8 processors, Freescale announced Freescale i.MX7 family this summer. The new processors are based on one or two Cortex A7 cores coupled with a Cortex-M4 MCU for real-time tasks, and are a low power alternative to Freescale i.MX6 processors. But so far I had only seen a few announcements such Toradex i.MX7 SoM or Freescale 96Boards, without any product actually shipping, and Compulab claims to the first to market with a Freescale i.MX7 system-on-module, namely their CL-SOM-iMX7 SoM which will ship in quantities in early January 2016. CL-SOM-iMX7 system-on-module specifications: SoC Freescale i.MX 7Solo single core Cortex-A7 @ 800MHz with NEON SIMD and VFPv4 + ARM Cortex-M4 @ 200Mhz Freescale i.MX 7Dual dual core Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz with NEON SIMD and VFPv4 + ARM Cortex-M4 @ 200Mhz System Memory – 256MB to 2GB DDR3L-1066 Storage – 128MB – 1GB […]

SolidRun ClearFog Pro and Base Router Boards Feature Marvell ARMADA 380/388 Processor

Last month, I wrote about Turris Omnia an upcoming open source hardware router board with 6 Gigbit Ethernet ports and an SFP cage powered by Marvell ARMADA 385 processor. SolidRun has now unveiled ClearFog Pro router board with similar features, but opting instead for either Marvell ARMADA 380 or 388 processor. The company will also soon launch or lower-end version called ClearFog Base with the less ports, but with the same system-on-module as ClearFog Pro: Processor – Marvell ARMADA 380 (88F6810) single core or 388 (88F6828) dual core ARMv7 processor (Cortex A9 class) @ up to 1.6 GHz with 1MB L2 cache, NEON and FPU System Memory – 256MB to 1GB 16-bit DDR3L (ARMADA 380) or 32-bit DDR3L (ARMADA 388) Storage Pro version – M.2 slot, 1x micro SD slot, 2x mSATA/mPCIE Base version – M.2 slot, 1x micro SD slot, 1x mSATA/mPCIE Connectivity Pro version – 6x switched Gigabit […]

Wind River Introduces Free Cloud-based Operating Systems for IoT Applications

After Google Brillo operating system was officially launched last week, another company has announced free operating systems for IoT. What’s peculiar is that the company is Wind River a vendor of commercial operating systems whose typical business model is to sell licenses for their operating systems and fees for their development services. Nevertheless, the company has now introduced Wind River Rocket real-time operating system, and Wind River Pulsar Linux operating system.  Both OSes will interface with the company’s Helix Cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) products, which is probably how the company intends to monetize their work, on top of customization services. Wind River Helix App Cloud is currently made of three products: Helix App Cloud cloud-based development environment for building IoT applications Helix Lab Cloud cloud-based virtual hardware lab for simulating and testing IoT devices and complex systems. Helix Device Cloud cloud-based platform for managing deployed IoT devices and their data. Some […]

Calao Systems SMC-NTEK1 is a SMARC System-on-Module Powered by Nvidia Tegra K1

Calao Systems has introduced a new system-on-module compliant with SGET SMARC specifications, and powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 processor, that targets embedded systems for vision, video, data analytic and high computing applications. Calao SMC-NTEK1-IXX module specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 processor with a Kepler GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3L Storage – 8 GB e-MMC, 8 MB SPI Flash, 1x EEPROM with unique S/N and MAC address Security – 1x Trusted Platform Module (TPM), 1x Crypto Authentication I/Os via MXM3 edge connector: Storage – SATA 3Gb/s, 1x SDIO Video Output – 1x LVDS, 1x HDMI Video Input / Camera – 2x CSI Audio I/F – 1x I2S, 1x S/PDIF Out Debugging – 1x JTAG Network connectivity – 1x Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB 2.0 Host, 1x USB 2.0 OTG 1x PCIe x1 4x UART, 1x SPI, 3x I2C, 12x GPIO […]

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