CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 25, 2015June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

NanoPi is a $16 WiFi and Bluetooth LE Linux Development Board

NanoPi is a new Linux development board powered by Samsung S3C2451 ARM9 processor with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE connectivity, connectors for a camera and an LCD display, as well as two expansion headers including a 40-pin “Raspberry Pi compatible” header. NanoPi specifications: Processor – Samsung S3C2451 ARM9 @ 400Mhz System Memory – 64M DDR2 Storage – micro SD slot Connectivity – AP6210 module for 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 1.1 host port, 1x micro USB OTG port for power and data (serial or Ethernet) Display I/F – LCD Interface: 0.5mm pitch SMT FPC seat, support full-color LCD (RGB: 8-8-8) Camera I/F – DVP Camera Interface: 0.5mm pitch FPC connector, including ITU-R BT 601/656 8-bit, I2C and GPIOs Debugging – Serial Port Expansion Headers “GPIO1” – 40-pin header including UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO pins (Raspberry Pi compatible) “GPIO2” – 12-pin header including I2S, I2C, UART pins Power – […]

July 24, 2015July 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

PiPo X1 is a Windows 10 Bay Trail HDMI TV Stick

PiPo used to the mostly know for its low cost tablets, but then they started launching ARM based mini PCs, and followed with x86 mini PCs such as the popular PiPo X7. Netbook Italia found out the company is now working on a new HDMI TV stick that will run Windows 10, but they must have run out of “lucky” names because the product will apparently be called PiPo X1, a name they already used for a Rockchip RK3188 TV stick… The hardware is not really interesting, as it has basically the same specs as the other Bay Trail-T sticks on the market: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.33 GHz (Bust frequency: 1.83 GHz) with Intel HD graphics Gen 7 System Memory – 2 GB Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SD slot up Video & Audio Output – HDMI Connectivity – 802.11 […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

July 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Kodi 15 Isengard Release

After several months of development, including H.265 hardware decoding in Android, Kodi 15 “Isengard” has recently been released by the developers. It’s available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android, and for the first time a stable release can directly be downloaded from Google Play store with so far over 400,000 active installs from the app store. Key features and improvements of Kodi 15 include: Android specific changes – 4K, refresh rate switching and H.265 for hardware that support it including several Amlogic platforms, and Nvidia Shield Android TV. Android 5.0 and greater is required. New chapter selector window – Allows users to visually browse and select chapters from mkv videos and other containers that support chapters Adaptive seeking (aka Skip Steps) – The more times a user presses a button to seek in a period of time, the larger the jump forward or backward will be. Audio and […]

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

ODROID-C1+ Board is an Upcoming Upgrade to ODROID-C1 Board

ODROID-C1 board has been relatively popular thanks to its great hardware features and good software support for its $35 price tag. In mid-June however, ODROID-C1 got out of stock due to sudden large orders, and it was only scheduled to sale again in early August because of long leadtime for some components. It turns out ODROID-C1 may never sell again, simply because it will be replaced by ODROID-C1+ with various improvements. It’s still very much based on ODROID-C1 with Amlogic S805 processor, 1GB RAM, and an eMMC sockets, but Hardkernel made the following improvements: HDMI connector change to Type-A from Type-D (micro HDMI). Improved SD card compatibility CEC function whether the RTC backup battery is installed or not ODROID-C1+ can be powered from the USB OTG port as well as DC-Jack I2S signals exposed for external audio DAC All of which are welcomed modifications. The board size will remain the […]

July 21, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Geniatech Showcases Amlogic T866 TV Box with 2 HDMI inputs, 1 HDMI output

Amlogic mostly makes SoCs for tablets, for example the M80x series, and TV boxes such as Amlogic S805 or S812, but they also have a processor family designed for Smart TVs such as Amlogic T866 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.8 GHz coupled with an octa-core Mali-450MP. Somehow, Geniatech has designed ATV1866 TV box based on the latter support two HDMI inputs, and one HDMI output. The box does not appears to support video recoding from the HDMI input, nor time-shifting, but the company showcased picture-in-picture (PiP) functionality, showing either input used in full screen or windowed mode on top of the Android user interface. HDMI version is 2.0 for the output, with H.265 codec supported, but I could not find details about the HDMI inputs. The box is running Android 4.4 for now, but will certainly run Android 5.0 at launch. The company is still developing the product, […]

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Remix Mini Android Mini PC Offers a Better Desktop Experience (Crowdfunding)

Android mini PC are great to consume content, but when I tried to blog with one, I found many shortcomings which made it not such as good user experience, and writing articles on an Android mini PC everyday, it would seriously decrease my productivity. That’s probably why Chinese start-up Jide Tech decided to work on Remix OS, based on Android 5.0 but with customizations for a better desktop experience including multitasking support, resizable windows, shortcuts support, a taskbar, and more. The company has now launched a Kickstarter campaign for a low cost mini PC powered by Allwinner A64 and Remix OS. They called it Remix Mini, and dubbed it the “First True Android mini PC”. Two versions are available, one with 1GB RAM + 8GB storage, and one with 2GB + 16GB storage. Specifications: SoC – Allwinner H64 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz System Memory – 1 […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

July 19, 2015July 19, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

ASRock N3150DC-ITX Mini-ITX Motherboard is Powered by a DC Adapter

Last week, I wrote about low cost ASRock Braswell motherboards with pricing starting at just under $60. But there were mainly two complaints about these boards: performance was about the same as similarly priced Bay Trail processors, and the requirements for a large – and relatively expensive – ATX power supply. There’s not much that can be done to improve performance, but ASRock also has launched N3150DC-ITX motherboard powered by a 19V DC adapter. ASRock N3150DC-ITX motherboard specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N3150 quad core processor @ up to 2.08 GHz with Intel HD Graphics Gen8 @ up to 640 MHz – 6W TDP System Memory – 2x 240-pin DDR3/DDR3L 1600/1066 for up to 16GB RAM Storage – 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug Audio Codec – Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec, 7.1 CH HD Audio Expansion – 1x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slot, 1x […]

July 18, 2015August 8, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Tronsmart Orion R68 64-bit ARM TV Box Sells for Up to 50% Discount

We’ve seen several Rockchip RK3366 TV boxes being announced recently such as Eny EKB368 or Beelink i68, and it’s no surprise that Tronmart decided to launch their own model Orion R68 based on the latest Rockchip processor. Two models are available: Orion R68 Meta with 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, GbE, and 802.11 ac WiFi, and Orion R68 Pro with 1GB RAM, 8GB eMMC, Fast Ethernet, and 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi. The latter appears to be the same Beelink i68 TV Box going for $66. Tronsmart Orion R68 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3368 octa core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with PowerVR G6110 GPU System Memory- 1 GB DDR3 (Pro); 2GB DDR3 (Meta) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (Pro); 16GB eMMC flash (Meta); SD card slot up to 64GB for both models Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF Connectivity Pro […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications