CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

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 […]

April 21, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mediatek MT8639 Wi-Fi Display SoC to Support 802.11ac, NFC

Wi-Fi display technologies such as Miracast and Airplay allow you to conveniently mirror your mobile device on your TV without the needs to connect any cables, and for over about a year we’ve seen Miracast, Airplay, DLNA, and EZcast dongles on the market. In theory, this is all great, but in practice, this is all too often disappointing because of lag, sometimes the video quality is very poor, and sometimes it won’t connect. Mediatek is now working on MT8639 supporting 802.11ac which will hopefully offer a more consistent and enjoyable user experience, if your mobile device also supports 802.11ac. Here are the main features of the chip: ARM Cortex A7 @ 1 GHz Wi-Fi Dual band 2.4Ghz and 5 GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ and 802.11ac Wifi-Direct, Wi-Fi SoftAP, and Wi-Fi Bridge support Optional NFC support Wi-Fi Display – DLNA, Airplay, Miracast, “Windows” mirror Video Output – HDMI 1.4 / MHL 2.0 […]

April 20, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 36 Comments

Banana Pi is a Raspberry Pi Compatible Board fitted with an AllWinner A20 SoC

So you’ve got a Raspberry Pi board, an enclosure, and a few add-on boards. Your application would however do with some more processing power, or you’d like to run Android, but you don’t want to have to purchase accessories all over again for another board. Banana Pi could be the solution, as it’s apparently [Update: it’s not. See comments] mechanically and electrically compatible with the Raspberry Pi, and comes with a dual core Cortex A7 AllWinner A20 SoC with 1GB RAM, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a SATA port, among other things. The board does indeed look familiar, with all external connectors at the exact same positions, but the hardware specs are fairly different: SoC- Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ 1 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – SD card slot, SATA connector Video output – HDMI, Composite, and LVDS/RGB Audio I/O […]

April 20, 2014April 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ACT M302 Android 4.3 Smartphone with Mediatek MT6592 Octa Core SoC Sells for $136

Android smartphones get better and cheaper all the time, but I would not have thought possible to get a 5″ FullHD smartphone with Mediatek MT6592 Octa core processor, 2GB RAM, and 16GB flash to be sold for less than $150. And that’s exactly what BuyinCoins is doing with ACT M302 for just $136. Let’s have a look at the hardware specs: SoC – Mediatek MT6592 octa core Cortex A7 @ 1.7GHz with Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB flash + microSD card slot Display – 5.0″ touch screen display, 1920×1080 resolution. Cellular networking – 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, 3G: WCDMA 850/2100MHz. Dual SIM Card Dual Standby Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Camera – 5.0MP front camera, 13.0 MP rear camera USB – 1x USB port Audio – 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speaker and microphone Misc – Home, return, menu, power, and vol +/- buttons Battery – […]

April 20, 2014April 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Xunity Eclipse Android XBMC TV Box Can Stream Live TV, TV Shows, and Movies

There are many Android TV Box based on Rockchip RK3188 that are pre-loaded with, or least claim to support, XBMC. Xunity Eclipse goes further as it promises to replace your satellite dihj or aerial TV with the ability to stream live TV, watch movies or TV shows thanks to their Stream platform which they integrated into XBMC. Here are the hardware specifications of the device: Soc – Rockchip RK3188 (not RK3188T) quad core Cortex A9 processor with Mali 400 MP4 GPU System memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage- 8 GB NAND flash Video Output – HDMI v1.4. Resolutions: True 720p, 1080p, experimental 1440p Audio Output – SPDIF Optical out, 5.1 DTS over HDMI Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 n/g/b , 10/100M Ethernet Port USB – 3x USB 2.0 ports Power supply – Data N/A Dimensions – N/A The device runs Android 4.2 (Jelly-Bean), supports NAND recovery via dedicated recovery button & CWM […]