CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 27, 2015February 4, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments

Build a Raspberry Pi 2 Minimal Image with The Yocto Project

The Yocto Project is a build system that allows developers to make custom Linux distributions matching their exact needs. I’ve already shown how to build a 12MB Compressed image for the Raspberry Pi with Yocto, but the Raspberry Pi 2 has recently been added to the project, so I’ve tried to build it too in a machine running Ubuntu 14.04. I’ll use poky since it’s the default, but you could also build the system for Angstrom or without distributions (OpenEmbedded Core only). The steps to get the code is just the same as for the Raspberry Pi:

mkdir yocto
cd yocto
git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git
cd poky
git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-raspberrypi

mkdir yocto

cd yocto

git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git

cd poky

git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-raspberrypi

You just need to checkout master, and not any branch (like dizzy) since R-Pi 2 is not yet supported in any release. Initialize some environment variables and the build directory:

. oe-init-build-env build

1	. oe-init-build-env build

Now edit conf/local.conf with vim or nano to set the machine to raspberrypi2 instead of qemux86:

MACHINE ??= "raspberrypi2"
GPU_MEM = "16"

1 2	MACHINE ??= "raspberrypi2" GPU_MEM = "16"

There are more Raspberry […]

February 27, 2015February 27, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 37 Comments

Zsun Wifi Card Reader Adds up to 64GB to Your Smartphone

I’ve previously covered Zsun SD11x USB flash drives with 8 to 128 GB internal flash, a battery, and Wi-Fi connectivity in order to easily add storage to devices without micro SD slots. The company has now launched a new Wi-Fi card reader to do the same, but with your own micro SD card instead allowing up to 64GB extra storage, and easy replacement. Zsun card reader specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 WiSoC System Memory – 256 Mbit RAM (32 MB) Storage – Internal flash for firmware (capacity TBD), micro SD slot up to 64GB Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi @ 150 Mbps USB – 1x USB 2.0 port for power and use as standard USB card reader Dimensions – 33 x 30 x 13 mm There’s no battery, so you’d have to connect the dongle to a power bank, PC, car charger etc.. to power it. If you connect […]

February 27, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Linaro 15.02 Release with Linux 3.19 and Android 5.0

Linaro 15.02 has just been released with Linux 3.19 (baseline), Linux 3.10.68 and 3.14.34 (LSK), Android 5.0.2, and Ubuntu Linaro Utopic. Listed changes for Linux Linaro are exactly the same as last month, except they’ve used Linux 3.9 release. Power management tools have been added to their AOSP build, and some work has been done for Android 5.0 on the new Hikey board. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.19-2015.02 GATOR topic: version 5.20.1 updated integration-linaro-vexpress64 topic by ARM LT (FVP Base and Foundation models, and Juno support) updated topic from Qualcomm LT (ifc6410 board support) updated topic from HiSilicon LT (Hi36xx, HiP04, and X5HD2 families support) updated LLVM topic (the community llvmlinux-latest branch) included ILP32 patch set v3 rebased onto 3.19. Initial tests using syscalls LTP tests done. When using ILP32 userland, a few tests have to be skipped (msgctl07, msgrcv0[1-7], msgsnd01) to avoid the stalls, […]

February 27, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Imagination PowerVR GT7900 GPU is Made for Game Consoles and Notebooks

Imaginatino Technologies has just introduced the most powerful GPU of their new PowerVR Series7 GPU family with GT7900 featuring 16 unified shading clusters and 512 ALU cores for game consoles, micro-servers, and notebooks. PowerVR GT7900 is still an embedded GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1 + AEP (Android Extension Pack) compatibility, full hardware support for tessellation and ASTC LDR and HDR texture compression standards. The new GPU delivers up to 800 GFLOPS (FP32) or 1.6 TFLOPS (FP16) graphics and compute performance at 800 MHz (using 16 nm FinFET+ manufacturing process), which compares to about 550 GFLOPS (FP32) for an Nvidia GeForce GT730M at comparable frequency. This is even more powerful than the Maxwell GPU found in Tegra X1 which delivers 1+ TFLOPS (FP16), although the Nvidia processor may have a lower power envelope. Combined with PowerVR Series5 decode and encode video processors and PowerVR V2500 camera processor, GT7900 can […]

February 26, 2015February 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Spark Electron Cellular Module for M2M Projects Comes with a $3 Monthly Data Plan (Crowdfunding)

Spark IO started with Spark Core, a tiny Wi-Fi module, followed with Spark Photon is a cheaper, faster, and tinier Wi-Fi module, and now the company is launching Spark Electron to bring cellular connectivity to hobbyist projects at an affordable cost and small form factor. Spark Electron specifications: MCU – ST Micro STM32F205 ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller @ 120 MHz with 1MB Flash, 128K RAM Cellular Connectivity – U-Blox SARA U-series (3G) or G-series (2G) modem + NanoSIM card slot + u.FL connector for Antenna Headers – 36 pins with 28 GPIOs (D0-D13, A0-A13), plus TX/RX, 2 GNDs, VIN, VBAT, WKP, 3V3, RST USB – micro USB port for power and programming Misc – Setup and reset buttons, LED Dimensions – 5.08 cm x 2.03 cm x 0.76 cm (1.27 cm including headers) The board can be programmed with Wiring (Arduino’s programming language), C/C++, or ARM assembly. It’s longer than Spark […]

February 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Samsung Introduces Faster Full-Duplex UFS 2.0 Storage for Mobile Devices

eMMC (embedded multimedia card) provides a boost in read and write performance compared to traditional NAND flash memories, let alone micro SD cards. Samsung has now announced the manufacturing of the first 32, 64, and 128GB embedded memory solution based on Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard delivering up to 350MB/s read speed and 150MB/s write speed, or 40% improvement in read speed over eMMC 5.1.This should help further reduce boot time, and app loading times. Moreover, while eMMC read and write operating are sequential (half-duplex), UFS 2.0 allows for full-duplex operating, meaning writing and reading can happen at the same time. UFS can achieve this feat thanks to a LVDS (Low-Voltage Differential Signaling) serial interface with dedicated read/write paths contrary to the parallel 8-bit interface used for eMMC. Combined with a Command Queue(CQ), which sorts out the commands that needs to be carried out, UFS 2.0 allows three times […]

February 26, 2015December 13, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Console OS Developer Preview Image Released for Some Intel Haswell and Bay Trail Systems

Console OS is an operating system based on Android that’s designed to run on x86 machines side-by-side with Windows and with desktop-friendly user interface. The project has been funded via a Kickstarter campaign, so backers get the updates earlier, but the developers have now publicly released Console OS DR1 (Developer Release 1) based on Android 4.4.2 so that more people can download it and try it for free after registration. I wanted to try it on Mele PCG03, but it failed, even after copying bootia32.efi to /EFI/BOOT directory (I get stuck into Grub command line), and I found out that “Systems must have 64-bit UEFI firmware. Some systems have 32-bit UEFI firmware, and we are working on adding support for those provided you have one of the processors above”. So it won’t work on cheap Windows 8.1 dongles and mini PC like MeegoPad T01 or Pipo X7, but MINIX NEO […]

February 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Intel Introduces Atom x3, x5 and x7 Categories for Its Upcoming Low Power Processors

Intel has been using Core i3, i5, and i7 models for its desktop processor for a few years in order to help consumers chose between entry-level, mid-range, and high-performance processor, although you may also want to look at the launch date as some Core i7 launched in 2010 may be quite slower than Core i3 launched in 2013 or 2014 for example. Intel has now decided to use a similar naming scheme for its next generation Atom processor used in tablets, phablets, and smartphones with Atom x3, Atom x5, and Atom x7 product ranges instead of the often confusing names like Z3735F, Z3580, etc.. The company will still offer slightly more powerful Pentium and Celeron processor for 2-in-1 laptop designs and mini PCs, as well as new Core-M processors for low power and PC-like performance think laptops or tablets. Via Liliputing and UMPCPortal