CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 29, 2014September 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Tronsmart Orion R28 (Beta) TV Boxes with Rockchip RK3288 SoC Feature up to 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, Come with Android SDK

I’ve recently reviewed my first Rockchip RK3288 Android mini PC, UyeSee G1H, and while it’s not catastrophic, the box still have stability issues related to Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, AV video output, Wi-Fi performance and so on. Now Geekbuying has just announced availability of the beta versions of their Tronsmart Orion R28 Android TV box also powered by the quad core ARM Cortex A12/A17 processor. This first batch (180 pieces) is geared towards tinkerers and “ROM makers”, rather than people who just want something that works, and these first boxes will ship with an Android SDK (5.1GB) on a micro SD card. [Update: link to SDK] There will be three models: Orion R28 Pro (8GB flash, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi), Orion R28 Meta (16GB flash, 802.11ac Wi-Fi), and Orion R28 Telos (4GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC, 802.11ac Wi-Fi). They’ve just manufactured the first two models in the first batch, with 90 pieces […]

August 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

MeLE V10 Android TV Box Features an Internal SATA Bay, HDMI In, USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet

Like UyeSee T1H, MeLe V10 is a quad core Android TV box powered by Mstar 9810 with HDMI In, USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet, but adds an internal SATA bay supporting either 2.5″ or 3.5″ hard drives or SSDs. It also comes with better specs by default with 2GB RAM, and a 16 GB eMMC flash. MeLe V10 specifications: SoC – Mstar MSO9180 quad core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.5GHz with a quad (or octa-core ARM Mali-450 MP GPU @ System Memory – 2GB DDR3 @ 1866MHz? Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash, internal SATA bay for 2.5″ or 3.5″ hard drive or SSD up to 3TB, and an SD card slot Video I/O – HDMI 1.4a out up to 4K30, HDMI in, AV (CVBS) Audio I/O – HDMI in/out, optical S/PDIF, AV port Video Playback MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4, DivX, H.264, H.265/HVC, VC-1, H.263, Real Media, MVC… Up to 4K, 60Mbps (H.264) […]

August 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

ZOTAC ZBOX PI320 is a Pocket-Sized Intel Bay Trail-T Mini PC

If you’re a fan of HDMI TV sticks, but wished it could use an Intel processor, instead of the various ARM processors currently available, your dream may have come true thanks to ZOTAC ZBOC PI320 mini PC. Although it’s not quite as small as your standard HDMI TV stick, it’s small enough (115.5mm x 66mm x 19.2mm) to fit into your pocket, and it’s also much more powerful, as it features Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core Bay Trail-T processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB flash, wired and wireless connectivity and more. ZBOX PI320 pico-series mini PC specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.33 GHz (Burst freq up to 1.83 GHz) and Intel HD Graphics System Memory – 2GB DDR3L @ 1333 MHz (soldered) Storage – 32GB eMMC flash (soldered) + “3-in-1” card reader (micro SD/SDHC/SDXC) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11n + Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6383) Video Output […]

August 28, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

ESP8266 WiFi Serial Module Costs Just $5

Wi-Fi is great because it’s ubiquitous, and rather fast for a wireless standard. However, it drains batteries fast, and Wi-Fi modules are usually much more expensive than Bluetooth modules for instance. There’s not much that can be done with regards to power consumption, but thanks to ESP8266 module, it’s now feasible to add Wi-Fi to your Arduino board, or others, for just $5 including shipping on Aliexpress, but SeeedStudio also have it for $6.95. If you buy 1,000 pieces, it goes down to about $3 per unit. As reported by Hackaday, this module embeds ESP8266 SoC which takes care off all IP stacks, a bit like Texas Instruments CC3000 SoC, but it’s just much cheaper. Here are some of the specifications of the module (and processor): SoC – Espressif Systems ESP8266 32-bit RISC processor with 802.11 b/g/n support(32-pin QFN package), Interfaces: SDIO 2.0, SPI, UART, I2S Wi-Fi – 802.112 b/g/n […]

August 28, 2014February 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

MIPS Creator CI20 Development Board Formally Announced, Free to Selected Developers

Earlier this month, I discovered MIPS Creator CI20 development board based on Ingenic JZ4780 dual core MIPS processor thanks to one of my reader. Imagination Technologies has now launched the board, which will run Debian 7 first, soon support Android 4.4 and others Linux distributions, and the company places their MIPS board as a competitor to the popular ARM based boards such as the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black. This is the first board part of Prpl initiative for open source Linux and Android software for the MIPS architecture. As a reminder, I’ll list the hardware specifications again: SoC – Ingenic JZ4780 dual core MIPS32 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Imagination PowerVR SGX540 GPU. 32kI + 32kD per core, 512K shared L2. System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NOR flash, 1x SD card slot, 1x SD card slot via expansion Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p Audio […]

August 28, 2014August 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Samsung Exynos 7 ARM Cortex A57 Processor Linux Code Submitted

Samsung has not announced any 64-bit processor yet, but according to a recent patchset Exynos 7 may be their first 64-bit ARM SoC, and it will be based on the faster Cortex A57 cores. A quick way to learn a little more is to check the device tree file (exynos7.dtsi). Here’s an interesting snippet:

+	cpus {
+		#address-cells = ;
+		#size-cells = ;
+
+		cpu@0 {
+			device_type = "cpu";
+			compatible = "arm,cortex-a57", "arm,armv8";
+			reg = ;
+		};
+	};

+ cpus {

+ #address-cells = ;

+ #size-cells = ;

+ cpu@0 {

+ device_type = "cpu";

+ compatible = "arm,cortex-a57", "arm,armv8";

+ reg = ;

+ };

As it stands, Exynos7 would be a single core Cortex A57 processor. This sounds unlikely that a company would launch a single core processor at this stage, so it’s probably early code that may not support all cores just yet. We also know Samsung uses ESPRESSO board for development with Samsung Exynos 7 processor and 3 GB RAM. Thanks to David for the tips.

August 27, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Review of UyeSee G1H Rockchip RK3288 Android TV Box

UyeSee G1H is one of the first Android TV boxes powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 SoC. I’ve already listed specs, and shown a few pictures of the device and the board in my “UyeSee G1H Unboxing” post, so today I’ll write a full review, checking out the user interface, testing video playback capabilities, network and storage performance, play a few games, check hardware features are working as expected, and runs some benchmarks on the platform. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions There’s an infrared remote control with the device. I’ve inserted a CR2032 battery, and although it works great in the user interface, it becomes useless with Android apps, so instead I’ve opted to use Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse which brings mouse and keyboard support. Before powering up the device, I’ve connected an HDMI cable, the RF dongle for Mele F10 Deluxe, a USB hard drive, […]

August 26, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

AllWinner A80 Linux SDK Released

After Android 4.4 SDK for AllWinner A31 last week, another AllWinner software development kit has been seen in the wild, this time for the new AllWinner A80 octa-core processor. A80 SDK includes source code for the Linux Kernel and U-boot, as well as buildroot, and various AllWinner tools. I’ve also noticed AllWinner A80 datasheet is available, but with the strict minimum information (45 pages). Let’s get the code, and extract it:

wget http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/SDK/A80/A80_SDK_20140728.tar.gz
tar xvf A80_SDK_20140728.tar.gz
cd A80_SDK_20140728

wget http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/SDK/A80/A80_SDK_20140728.tar.gz

tar xvf A80_SDK_20140728.tar.gz

cd A80_SDK_20140728

Now we need to configure the build:

./build.sh config

Welcome to mkscript setup progress
All available chips:
   0. sun9iw1p1
Choice: 0
All available platforms:
   0. android
   1. dragonboard
   2. linux
Choice: 2
All available kernel:
   0. linux-3.4
Choice: 0
All available boards:
   0. optimus
   1. p1
   2. perf
   3. perf5
   4. perf-lpddr3
Choice: 0

./build.sh config

Welcome to mkscript setup progress

All available chips:

0. sun9iw1p1

Choice: 0

All available platforms:

0. android

1. dragonboard

2. linux

Choice: 2

All available kernel:

0. linux-3.4

Choice: 0

All available boards:

0. optimus

1. p1

2. perf

3. perf5

4. perf-lpddr3

Choice: 0

sun9i is the codename for AllWinner A80, not sure what w1p1 means. Dragonboard must be the internal Allwinner development board, but I just selected Linux, since the SDK does not come with Android, and finally I opted for optimus, which could stand for OptimusBoard. You may need to install extra dependencies in your build machine, for example (in Ubuntu 14.04):

sudo apt-get install flex texinfo build-essential

1	sudo apt-get install flex texinfo build-essential

Now let’s start buildroot which should retrieve the toolchain, […]