CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 11, 2014June 7, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Huawei Kirin 920 Octa-core big.LITTLE ARM SoC Benchmarked

Huawei / Hisilicon Kirin 920 application processor has yet to be formally announced, but in the last few days, more details have surfaced. Huawei SoC will feature an octa-core processor with four ARM Cortex A7 and four Cortex A15 cores in big.LITTLE configuration, together with a Mali-628MP4 GPU and a 4G LTE modem. There’s also Kirin 910 with 4 cores @ 1.6 to 1.8 GHz and Mali-450MP4 GPU. The big.LITTLE processor will support DDR3 memory up to 800 MHz, cameras up to 32MP, screens up to WQXGA resolution (2560×1600), and be manufactured using 28nm process technology. According to AndroidPC.es it should be found in Huawei Ascend D3 smartphone to be released this September. A device called HUAWEI H300 has shown up in Antutu showing a score 37,363 with Kirin 920 SoC, just a few points shy of the score for hardware powered by Snapdragon 805 (37,780) with four Krait 450 […]

March 11, 2014March 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Texas Instruments Tiva C Series TM4C1294 Connected Launchpad Sells for $20

There are now many ultra low cost MCU development kit selling for $15 to $25 such as STMicro Discovery Board, but for this price, they’ll usually just feature the MCU, a micro USB, pin header, maybe and maybe some sensors, and they usually lack any form of connectivity, at least without extra hardware. With Tiva C Series TM4C129 Connect Launchpad, Texas Instruments brings a board that can be used for IoT application out of the box thanks to the addition of an Ethernet port. The board sells for just $19.99, which means you could easily make something like a connected 4-relay control system for about $25. Connected LaunchPad evaluation kit specifications: MCU – Texas Instruents TM4C1294NCPDT ARM Cortex-M4 @ 120MHz with floating point, 1MB Flash, 256KB SRAM, 6KB EEPROM, Integrated 10/100 Ethernet MAC+PHY, data protection hardware, 8x 32-bit timers, dual 12-bit 2MSPS ADCs, motion control PWMs, USB H/D/O, and many […]

March 10, 2014March 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

PC Engines APU System Boards Feature AMD G-Series T40E APU, 3 Gigabit Ethernet Ports

Up to now there were basically two embedded board based on x86 architecture available to hobbyists: Gizmo Board (AMD T40E) and Minnowboard (Intel Atom). There’s now another solution with PC Engines system boards, namely APU.1C and APU.1C4, that comes with AMD G-Series T40E dual core APU, 2 to 4 GB RAM, 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports, an mSATA connector, and more. Contrary to the other two boards however, there’s no video output, and that makes these APU boards suitable for routers, firewalls, VOIP, dedicated servers, special purpose network plumbing, etc.. PC Engines APU boards specifications: APU – AMD G -Series T40E dual core APU @ 1 GHz with 64 bit support, 32K data + 32K instruction + 512KB L2 cache per core, with Radeon HD6250 GPU. System Memory APU.1C – 2 GB DDR3-1066 DRAM APU.1C4 – 4 GB DDR3-1066 DRAM Storage – SD card (connected through USB), m-SATA, and one SATA […]

March 10, 2014May 18, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 42 Comments

Amlogic GPL Source Code Release – Kernel 3.10, U-Boot, and Drivers (Wi-Fi, NAND, TVIN, Mali GPU)

Last month, I noticed Amlogic provided links to the Android SDK for S802 / M802 on their open source website, but the only way to get the source was to share your SSH public with Amlogic, so that they give you access. It did not happen, but the company has released the source for Linux 3.10.10, U-boot 2011.03, Realtek and Broadcom Wi-Fi drivers, NAND drivers, “TVIN”drivers, and kernel space GPU drivers for Mali-400 / 450 GPU. There are also some customer board files for Meson 6 only (AML8726-MX / M6) but they do not seem to match the kernel… If you want to build the kernel, including the drivers, you’ll need to download a bunch of files: wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/kernel/arm-src-kernel-2014-03-06-d5d0557b2b.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8192du-2014-03-06-7f70d95d29.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8192eu-2014-03-06-9766866350.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8192cu-2014-03-06-54bde7d73d.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8188eu-2014-03-06-2462231f02.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/brcmap6xxx-2014-03-06-302aca1a31.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/wifi-fw-2014-03-06-d3b2263640.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/modules/aml_tvin-2014-03-06-fb3ba6b1c8.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/modules/aml_nand-2014-03-06-39095c4296.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/customer/aml_customer-2014-03-06-76ce689191.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/gpu/gpu-2014-03-06-0425a1f681.tar.gz You’ll need to extract these tarballs in specific directories:

tar xvf arm-src-kernel-2014-03-06-d5d0557b2b.tar.gz
mkdir -p hardware/amlogic/
mkdir -p hardware/wifi/realtek/drivers
mkdir -p hardware/wifi/broadcom/drivers
mkdir -p hardware/arm/
cd hardware/amlogic
tar xvf ../../../aml_nand-2014-03-06-39095c4296.tar.gz
mv aml_nand-amlogic-nand nand
cd ../wifi/realtek/drivers
tar xvf ../../../../rtk8192du-2014-03-06-7f70d95d29.tar.gz
tar xvf ../../../../rtk8192eu-2014-03-06-9766866350.tar.gz
tar xvf ../../../../rtk8192cu-2014-03-06-54bde7d73d.tar.gz 
tar xvf ../../../../rtk8188eu-2014-03-06-2462231f02.tar.gz
mv rtk8188eu-8188eu 8188eu
mv rtk8192du-8192du 8192du
mv rtk8192cu-8192cu 8192cu
mv rtk8192eu-8192eu 8192eu
cd ../../broadcom/drivers
tar xvf ../../../../brcmap6xxx-2014-03-06-302aca1a31.tar.gz
mv brcmap6xxx-ap6xxx ap6xxx
cd ../../../arm
tar xvf ../../gpu-2014-03-06-0425a1f681.tar.gz
mv gpu-r3p2-01rel3 gpu
cd ..
tar xvf ../../aml_tvin-2014-03-06-fb3ba6b1c8.tar.gz 
mv aml_tvin-amlogic-3.10-bringup tvin

tar xvf arm-src-kernel-2014-03-06-d5d0557b2b.tar.gz

mkdir -p hardware/amlogic/

mkdir -p hardware/wifi/realtek/drivers

mkdir -p hardware/wifi/broadcom/drivers

mkdir -p hardware/arm/

cd hardware/amlogic

tar xvf ../../../aml_nand-2014-03-06-39095c4296.tar.gz

mv aml_nand-amlogic-nand nand

cd ../wifi/realtek/drivers

tar xvf ../../../../rtk8192du-2014-03-06-7f70d95d29.tar.gz

tar xvf ../../../../rtk8192eu-2014-03-06-9766866350.tar.gz

tar xvf ../../../../rtk8192cu-2014-03-06-54bde7d73d.tar.gz

tar xvf ../../../../rtk8188eu-2014-03-06-2462231f02.tar.gz

mv rtk8188eu-8188eu 8188eu

mv rtk8192du-8192du 8192du

mv rtk8192cu-8192cu 8192cu

mv rtk8192eu-8192eu 8192eu

cd ../../broadcom/drivers

tar xvf ../../../../brcmap6xxx-2014-03-06-302aca1a31.tar.gz

mv brcmap6xxx-ap6xxx ap6xxx

cd ../../../arm

tar xvf ../../gpu-2014-03-06-0425a1f681.tar.gz

mv gpu-r3p2-01rel3 gpu

cd ..

tar xvf ../../aml_tvin-2014-03-06-fb3ba6b1c8.tar.gz

mv aml_tvin-amlogic-3.10-bringup tvin

You […]

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Xserver XSDL X Window Server for Android Allows You to Run Linux Apps in Android

It has been feasible to run Linux apps in Android by installing a Linux distribution in a chroot using some app such as Complete Linux Installer, and accessing the graphical application via VNC. I tested this solution with Ubuntu in Android using ODROID-X development board, and it worked fine, except the performance was rather poor. There’s now another solution with XServer XSDL app, X Window System server for Android, that can be used to stream application from a Linux PC or to launch app from a Linux distribution installed in your Android device. I’ve given a quick try in my Android phone, and after installing and running the app, it will give instructions to launch gimp in your Linux PC to use it in the phone: Launch these commands on your Linux PC env DISPLAY=192.168.0.100:0 metacity & env DISPLAY=192.168.0.100:0 gimp Just type this command line into a terminal, and gimp […]

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

$79 Atmel ATSAMA5D3 Xplained Arduino Compatible, Open Source Hardware Board Powered by SAMA5D3 ARM Cortex-A5 Processor

A few days ago, at Embedded World 2014, Atmel has unveiled ATSAMA5D3 Xplained evaluation board based on SAMA5D36 ARM Cortex A5 micro-processor with 256 MB DDR2, 256 MB flash and numerous ports and expansion connectors, that targets industrial automation, networks, robotics, control panels and wearable applications. Atmel is one of the rare companies that provides support for the latest long term kernel (3.10) and mainline for their embedded solutions, and their latest board is fully open source hardware. Let’s have a look at the board specifications: MPU – Atmel SAMA5D36 Cortex-A5 Microprocessor @ 536 MHz System Memory – 2GBit DDR2 (Micron) Storage – 2GBit Flash (Micron), SD/MMCPlus 8-bit Card slot, 1x Micro SD Card 4-bit slot footprint (meaning not soldered) Connectivity – 1x Ethernet 10/100/1000M, 1x Ethernet 10/100M USB – 1x micro USB Device connector, 2x USB Host connectors Debugging – 1x 6-lead 3V3-level serial port, 10-pin J-TAG connector Expansion […]

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Finwe & Kolor 360 Degrees Video Solutions for Smartphones, Virtual Reality Kits and HTML5 Browsers

Google Street View allows you to have a 360 degrees panoramic view of a particular location, and you can move around to look up and down, left and right and so. Finwe & Kolor, two European start-ups, have gone further, as they do not only use pictures, but their 360 panorama video solution records videos in 6 to 12 directions simultaneously, and create a 360 degrees panoramic videos than you can watch on your smartphone or, even better, in a virtual reality kit for a complete immersion. Let’s go through all the steps and equipment required to make and watch 360 videos: Recording – You’ll need a mount system for 6 GoPro Hero cameras from companies like Freedom360 or 360 Heros. They also have rigs for 12 cameras for 3D 360 degrees videos, but I’m not sure this is supported by the video software yet. You just need to start […]

March 6, 2014March 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

AMLogic S802 TV Boxes Board Pictures

AMLogic S802 Android TV Boxes are currently available for pre-order, and are expected to ship by the end of the month. Last time I wrote Tronsmort Vega S89 and Eny ES8 featuring the latest quad core SoC from AMLogic. Geekbuying currently has test samples for both Vega S89 and M8 (similar to ES8), has open them, and taken some pictures of the boards. The good news, if you want to tinker, is that both of them appear to give relatively access to the UART port. Tronsmart Vega S89 Board There are two models: Vega S89 and Vega S89 Elite. The former is the high-end version with dual band Wi-Fi (2.4/5.0GHz) and 16 GB flash, and the latter only supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and comes with 8GB flash. Price: $120 and $105. The serial port appears to be on the left side of the board (TBC), just above the two USB […]