Embedian, an embedded company specialized in computers-on-module and single board computers, has recently unveiled SMART MEN and SMART BEE single board computers powered by their SMARC-T335X computer-on-module, compliant with the SMARC (Smart Mobility Architecture) standard, and based on Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x SoCs. SMART MEN SBC SMART MEN single board computer specifications: SoC – Texas Instrument Sitara AM335X ARM Cortex-A8 at 600MHz, 800MHz or 1GHz System Memory – 512MB DDR3 (303Mhz x 2) Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash (eMMC 5.0), 4MB SPI NOR Flash, AT24C32 EEPROM, and SDHC/SDIO slot Connectivity – 2 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet (vertical RJ45) Display – single channel LVDS 18-bit color depth, single channel LVDS 24-bit color depth. LCD LED backlight driver onboard USB – 2 x USB 2.0 Host, 1 x USB 2.0 OTG, 1 x Serial-to-USB (Client) Additional Interfaces: 6 x RS232s (transceiver onboard, two with handshaking and one can be configured as RS422/RS485), […]
Embedded Linux Conference 2014 Schedule
The Tenth Embedded Linux Conference (ELC 2014) will take place on April 29 – May 1, 2014 at the San Jose Marriott in San Jose, California. The event will feature 90+ sessions on embedded Linux, Android and IoT with over 450 attendees expected to attend. It will also be co-located with Android Builders Summit and the AllSeen Alliance Hackfest. Even if you can’t attend it’s still interesting to see what will be discussed at the event to get a grasp of on-going developments, learn a few things about different optimization techniques, and so on. So I’ve gone through the sessions’ description, and I’ve designed my own virtual schedule with sessions that could be of interest. April 29 9:00 – 9:30 – Keynote: The Paradox of embedded and Open Source by Tim Bird, Sony Mobile Linux has taken the embedded world by storm. Billions (with a ‘B’) of devices have now shipped […]
Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained Board Unboxing and Quick Start Guide
Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained is an evaluation board running Linux powered by SAMA5D36 ARM Cortex A5 micro-processor with 256 MB DDR2, 256 MB flash, two Ethernet ports, 3 USB connectors, and more. This embedded board targets industrial automation, networks, robotics, control panels and wearable applications. The only video output is an LCD connector so it is reserved for headless or flat panel based applications. You can check full specs on my Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained announcement post. The company kindly sent me a sample, so that I can share my experience with the board. I’ll first post some unboxing pictures, show how to get started with the pre-installed image, and build my own Linux image. The board can be purchased for $79 from Atmel e-Store, as well as several distributors (P/N: ATSAMA5D3-XPLD). Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained Unboxing I’ve been sent the board via DHL in the following package, which gives a short desscription […]
$99 MinnowBoard MAX Development Board Powered by Intel Bay Trail-I SoC
When Intel released the original MinnowBoard which was a step in the right direction, but there were some complains, as the company had chosen to use an older Intel processor, and the price was much higher than most high performance low cost ARM development boards. MinnowBoard MAX (aka Minnow2 Board) fixes all that, as it features the latest Intel Bay Trail-I (E3800 series) processor, and costs as low as $99 for the single core version, and $129 for the dual core version. Let’s jump directly to the specifications: SoC – 64-bit Intel Atom E3815 (single-core, 1.46 GHz) or Atom E3825 (dual-core, 1.33 GHz) both with integrated Intel HD Graphics coming with Open Source hardware-accelerated drivers for Linux OS System Memory – 1GB ($99 model) or 2GB ($129 model) DDR3 RAM Storage – 1x Micro SD card slot, 1x SATA2 3Gb/sec, 8 MB SPI Flash for firmware (UEFI) Video Output – micro […]
Linaro Connect Asia 2014 Opening Keynote – Status and Future of ARMv8 Linux & Android [Video]
Linaro Connect Asia 2014 has just started in Macau today and will take place until Friday. You can follow the sessions live and/or their recordings via Linaro OnAir YouTube Channel. I’ve watched the opening keynote, and embedded the video at the bottom of this post. The keynote focuses on ARMv8 for Linux and Android on servers, mobile devices, digital home, and more, and involves two main speakers: George Grey, Linaro CEO , and Jon Masters, Chief ARM Architecture at Red Hat. The speaker beginning of the video provides some practical information and the schedule for Linaro Connect. The keynote itself really starts around 15:50 with George Grey who spends the first 10 minutes introducing the latest Linaro members: Qualcomm, Mediatek, ZTE, AllWinner and Comcast. He then talks about the new Mobile sub-committee (MOBSCOM) that will focus on big.LITTLE, Android optimization and Android on ARMv8, as well as the soon-to-be-announced Linaro […]
Mentor Embedded ARM Hypervisor Automotive Demo on Freescale i.MX6 Board
Virtual machines are usually run on server or desktop PC to run several operating systems simultaneous. About 2 years ago, I wrote about an embedded hypervisor running Linux and Android on the Pandaboard develompent board, with the goal of separating home and enterprise operating systems in mobile devices so that enterprise data is safe. Since then, virtualization extensions are now part of ARM Cortex A15 / A7, and as well as the new Cortex A53 / A57 ARMv8 64-bit cores, but in my mind at least, those where mostly designed to address the server market. It turns out hypervisors are also useful in the automotive field, where for example, the dashboard and In-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems runs in two separate virtual machines controlling two different displays from one processor. Mentor Embedded showcased such automotive system at ARM Techcon 2013, where they showed a Freescale i.MX6 quad core board, which looks […]
XBMC on ARM News: Updated XBMC Image for i.MX6 Boards, Geniatech Releases XBMC for Android Source Code
Stephan Rafin has recently released a new XBMC image for Freescale i.MX6 based Wandboard development boards (dual and quad only) and Utilite computers. The images have been built with Yocto 1.5 (Dora) released last month, and are based on XBMC Gotham Alpha 9, the latest alpha before feature freezes. That means this is not a stable image just yet, but features won’t change, and this version of XBMC is now going though bug fixes. Stephan’s XBMC image includes the following: iMX6 hw accelerated decoding (VPU) for most standard formats iMX CEC support (for utilite only as wandboards are not properly wired) WIFI configuration thanks to network manager addon Support for HDMI/SPDIF/Analog sound outputs (including pass-through for HDMI and SPDIF) SMB/NFS/uPNP network shares and other standard XBMC features Bug fixes against previous version – No more transient black screens, trick modes (ffwd, frwd, ..) are now working, and smoother video playback. […]
MSC Q7-MB-EP4 Is a QSeven Starter Kit Powered by Freescale i.MX6
MSC Embedded, a company specialized in the design and manufacturing of embedded boards, has recently announced MSC Q7-MB-EP4, a complete Starterkit for the company’s Qseven modules based on Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual or Quad processors. The starter kit comes with a suitcase comprise of a heatspreader with heatsink, a 12V power supply, a cable kit (SATA data and power cable), a DVD, a getting started guide, and more importantly a 3.5″ Qseven carrier board (Q7-MB-EP4) with socket for Qseven modules Rev. 1.20 with the following specifications: CPU Module Interface – Socket for Qseven Rev. 1.20 compatible modules based on the Freescale i.MX6 Storage – 1x SATA connector + mSATA Socket with support for mSATA and mSATAmini cards, MMC/SD Card, and serial EEPROM for EPI/DP extensions Standard Interfaces: 7x USB 2.0: 4x USB (Series-A Jack), 1x USB internal pin header, USB on mini USB connector, USB at Mini PCI Express socket […]