CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Linux Kernel Source Code and Chromium OS Overlay for Rockchip RK3288

A few days ago, we’ve seen Chromium OS running on Rockchip RK3288 development platform. I’ve been informed the source code could have already been released via the newly registered rkchrome github account with Linux kernel 3.10.30 and the overlay files to build Chromium OS for RK3288. There’s also a u-boot repository but it is currently empty. This Linux kernel can also boot Rockchip RK3188 based Radxa Rock development board, but more tests are needed to see if it’s really usable. I’ll have a look at the Linux kernel, and try to build it, and leave the Chromium OS part for later or other people. Let’s retrieve the source code:

git clone https://github.com/rkchrome/kernel.git
cd kernel

1 2	git clone https://github.com/rkchrome/kernel.git cd kernel

We’ve got two kernel config files related to Rockchip in arch/arm/config:

ls arch/arm/configs/ | grep rock
rockchip_chromium_defconfig
rockchip_defconfig

ls arch/arm/configs/ | grep rock

rockchip_chromium_defconfig

rockchip_defconfig

But since this is a recent 3.10 kernel with support for Flattened Device Tree support, and multi-platform support, there’s not much to be seen in these files, and […]

April 23, 2014April 14, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Techniques to Get more Space for Apps in Android

Many devices now have a single internal partition for apps and data on the internal NAND / eMMC flash, but some companies are still providing firmware with the flash partitioned with an “internal storage” partition for apps and systems, and another partition either called “phone storage” or “internal SD card” to order to store data. In the first case, no problem, but in the second, you may have issues where you have plenty of total space, but the device keeps telling you there is no space, leading to error messages such “email service has stopped”, app updates which can not complete, and app update downloads occurring in loops and draining the battery. I’ve experienced this issue with my phone (ThL W200) which features a mere 0.91 GB internal storage out of an 8GB NAND flash. Internal storage was 0.91 GB (94% full), phone storage 5.73 GB(3% full), and my micro […]

April 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

MotherBone PiOne is a 3.5″ Industrial MotherBoard for the Raspberry Pi and the BeagleBone Black (Crowdfunding)

Many people are currently using low cost development boards such as the Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone Black in real products, and 3.5″ single board computers are commonly in industrial applications, so APlus Mobile, a US based company specialized in rugged industrial PCs, has decided to combine the two and designed MotherBone PiOne, a 3.5″ motherboard that can be used in conjunction with the Raspberry Pi and/or the Beaglebone Black for industrial projects. Let’s go through the specifications: SoC / Memory / HDMI and Ethernet – Via BeagleBone Black and/or Raspberry Pi single board computers (usable simultaneously) I/Os: 16-bit GPIO – 5V TTL level 16-bit GPIO (I2C Slave) I2C, I2C2 Bus – Individual BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi 5-pin I2C Master access with additional BeagleBone Black 5-pin I2C2 voltage isolated port Analog Inputs – 7x wide range analog voltage inputs with trim adjust for voltage range select PWM Output – Two […]

April 22, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Habey HIO Project ARM Board and HIO Wallpad PoE Automation Panel (Crowdfunding)

Habey has recently unveiled HIO Project, a $100 ARM Linux board designed for rapid prototyping powered by Freescale i.MX6 dual lite or quad, and shortly after, the company launched a Kickstarter project for HIO Wallpad, an in-wall Power-over-Ethernet touch controller for home or office automation embedding HIO Project boards. HIO Project Boards HIO Main Board (HIO-EMB-1200) specifications: Soc – Freescale i.MX6 Dual Lite or Quad ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1 GHz + Vivante GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4G iNAND flash, 1x micro SD socket Video Output – 1x HDMI Audio – 1x on-board audio codec with 1W Amplifier built-in to I/O expansion headers Connectivity – 1x GbE PHY to I/O expansion headers Expansion Connectors: 1x PCIe PHY to I/O expansion headers 8x 50-pin 1.27mm pitch female header for I/Os: 24bit Parallel Display Port, dual channel 24bit LVDS, MIPI DSI up to 24bit, MIPI CSI up […]

April 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Phytec phyBOARD WEGA Industrial Pico-ITX SBC Features Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x SoCs

Phytec has recently announced phyBOARD WEGA board powered by Texas Instruments AM335x Sitara ARM Processors via their phyCORE-AM335x SoM, which comes with up to 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, and up to 2GB NAND Flash. This single board computer targets industrial HMI (Human Machine Interface) and is suitable for various automation and display applications. PhyBOARD WEGA specifications: SoM – phyCORE-AM335x with: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM355x ARM Cortex-A8 processor @ up to 1GHz, with PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 256 MB DDR3 RAM (Max: 1GB) Storage – 128 MB NAND Flash (Max: 2GB), optional 8 MB NOR Flash, 4KB EEPROM External Storage – micro SD card slot Connectivity – 2 x 10/100 Ethernet USB – 1 x USB Host, 1 x USB OTG Display I/F – 24bpp TTL Communication Interfaces – 6 x UART, 3 x I2C, 2 x SPI, 1 x CAN Expansion Connectors – 1x ADC(12Bit, 8Channel), GPIOs, […]

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

$11 ButtonDuino is Button-Sized Arduino Compatible Board (Crowdfunding)

Meet ButtonDuino yet another tiny, and cheap, Arduino compatible board. The board is breadboard mountable, measures just 18.64 mm x 18.25 mm, and sells for $10 (beta) and up, not including shipping. ButtonDuino specifications: MCU – Atmel ATTINY85-20H with 8K flash (6k available after USB bootloader), 512 bytes SRAM, 512 bytes EEPROM I/Os 6 x Available I/O Pins and I2C and SPI Expandable I2C and SPI Expandable 3 x 8 bit Hardware PWM pins 4 x 10 bit ADC pins Misc – Power LED, Test LED (Pin 1) Power – 5V, USB regulated powered up to 800mA via external power supply or 500mA from PC/Laptop. Dimensions – 18.64 mm x 18.25 mm (0.73in x 0.718in) The board is programmable via USB or AVR mkII, is compatible with Arduino IDE version 1.0 or greater in Windows, OSX and Linux, and supports NI LabVIEW. ButtonDuino’s schematics, code and bootloaders will be released once the product development […]

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

SolidRun HummingBoard is a Raspberry Pi Compatible Board Powered by Freescale i.MX6

Yesterday, I wrote about Banana Pi, an AllWinner A20 powered development board that’s mechanically and electrically compatible with the Raspberry Pi so that you can keep using your existing R-Pi accessories. It turns out another company is working on a similar concept. Solidrun who has brought us Cubox and Cubox-i in the past, will soon launch HummingBoard, a Raspberry Pi compatible board powered by Freescale i.MX6 solo/dual/quad SoC, bring even more power than the AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 SoC found in the Banana Pi. The HummingBoard, previously known as Carrier One, is composed of a baseboard and SolidRun microSOM (micro System-on-Module) have comes with the followings specifications: SoC = Freescale i.MX6 Quad @ 1 GHz with Vivante GC2000 3D GPU. The microSoM also comes in solo and dual flavors, and although it’s likely the HummingBoard will be sold with these variants too, it’s not 100% confirmed System Memory […]

April 21, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

AllWinner A80 To Support 5 Operating Systems, Products To Become Available in May

AllWinner has released some more materials about their AllWinner A80 Ultracore octa core big.LITTLE SoC ahead of the Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2014, and we’ve learned more about OptimusBoard, as well as tablets and TV boxes availability through a video interview shot by Charbax at the exhibition. Part of the release was more detailed specifications: CPU Octa-Core big.LITTLE Cortex-A15/7 Low-power CoolFlex power management architecture 2MB + 512 KB L2 Cache GPU – Imagination Technologies PowerVR 64-core G6230 with support for OpenGL ES 3.0/2.0, OpenCL 1.x, RenderScript, DX 9.3/10.0 Memory Supports dual-channel DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR3/LPDDR2, up to 8GB Supports Raw NAND with 72-bit ECC Supports eMMC V4.5 Video Supports UHD H.264/VP8 4Kx2K@30fps video playback Supports multi-format FHD video decoding, including MPEG 1/2/4, H.263, H.264. WMV9/VC-1, etc Supports H.265/VP9 1080p@30fps video playback Supports H.264 HP/VP8 4Kx2K@30fps video capture Supports 3840×1080@30fps 3D decoding, BD/SBS/TAB/FP supported Supports 3840×1080@30fps 3D encoding Supports RTSP, HTTP, HLS, RTMP, MMS […]