CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 26, 2013April 27, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Tronsmart MK908 Rockchip RK3188 Quad Core mini PC Unboxing Pictures

Tronsmart MK908 is one of the many Rockchip RK3188 Android mini PCs hitting the market this month. Beside the quad core Cortex A9 processor, this Android 4.1 HDMI TV stick comes with 2GB RAM, 8GB flash, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module, 3 USB ports, and a micro SD card slot. Geekbuying is selling the device for $89.99 including shipping, and the company sent me a unit for review. Today I’ll just show somes unboxing pictures, boot the device, and I’ll write a full review tomorrow. I received the device in the box below. But let’s move on to more interesting things, and see what’s inside the package. We’ve got a 5V/2A power adapter, MK908 itself, a short mini HDMI to HDMI cable, a mini UBS to USB cable for power, and a short mini USB to USB female adapter. I eventually found a manual user manual in English which hid […]

April 26, 2013April 26, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linaro 13.04 Release With Linux Kernel 3.9 and Android 4.2.2

Linaro 13.04 has just been released. It features Linux Kernel 3.9-rc7 and Android 4.2.2. A lot of work has been done on ARMv8 (Cortex A53) with further work on OpenEmbedded, more testing, and updates to the GCC toolchain. Calxeda EnergyCore server has been added to LAVA, Origen Quad now gets hardware video acceleration in Android Jelly Bean. Still more cleanup has been done on the kernel side with regards to Samsung and ST SoC, and a big.LITTLE porting guide is now available (linaro login required). Here are the highlights of this release: LAVA Prototype of a new publishing system is used to overcome performance problems with android-build.linaro.org. Calxeda EnergyCore support is merged in LAVA, and an isolated system has been set up for web benchmarking. Fedora support is merged in LAVA. A user can submit LAVA jobs using a Fedora pre-built image. Boot commands are untangled from LAVA dispatcher. They’re now […]

April 26, 2013May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

GV-17 Android 4.2 Set-Top Box Features Allwinner A20 SoC, a 2.0MP Webcam

After Clousto A20 Media PC, and Mele A100 Dual, here’s another set-top box powered by AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 SoC. GV-17 Android TV Box comes with 1GB RAM, 8GB Flash, and contrary to the other previous hardware also adds 2.0MP front camera. If you’ve heard about this model before, it’s because it’s an update of GV-17 set-top box based on AllWinner A10. GV-17 (A20) Specifications: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 + Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8G NAND Flash + SD card slot Video Output – HDMI, composite and VGA Audio I/O – HDMI, stereo jack, and S/PDIF – Integrated MIC Video Codecs – MPEG-1/2,MPEG-4 ASP, DivX 3/4/5, H.263, H.264, XviD, VC-1, WMV Audio Codecs – MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLAC, ALAC, APE, ACC-LC, ACC-HE, AC-3, DTS, Real Audio Connectivity: WiFi 802.11b/g/n (RALINK 8188) 10/100M Ethernet USB – 2x USB Host […]

April 25, 2013April 26, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

100 Euros “Little Black Box” Runs XBMC Linux

Most set-top boxes running XBMC, are actually Android devices running XBMC as an app, and I don’t know of other media players that are sold with XBMC Linux pre-installed. Until today, as an XBMC Linux STB called The Little Black Box has been officially announced today. This XBMC device is powered by AMLogic AML8726-M3 @ 1 GHz, and comes with 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash, HDMI and AV output and more. Little Black Box hardware specifications: SoC – AMLogic AML8726-M3 ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz + Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash Video Output – HDMI (1080p) and composite Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet + 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi USB – 2x USB host ports Weight – 500 g Dimensions – 10 x 10 x 3 cm The package will come with the box, a dual sided RF remote with a qwerty keyboard and standard remote buttons […]

April 25, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

AMD Unveils AMD G-Series SoCs For Embedded Applications

In 2011, AMD launched the G-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Unit) that combines the CPU and GPU into one chipset which then connects to a controller hub to handle I/Os, and recently the company announced AMD G-Series SoC at Design West 2013. The new solution combines a “Jaguar” CPU, a Radeon HD8000 series GPU and a controller hub into one and only SoC, further integrating functions. Both AMD G-Series APU and SoC target embedded systems such as industrial control and automation, digital signage, electronic gaming systems, SMB storage, IP-TV, medical and network appliances, set-top boxes and more. AMD claims G-Series SOCs offer up to 113 percent improved CPU performance compared to G-Series APU, and up to a 125 percent advantage compared to the Intel Atom (Dhyrstone, EEMBC CoreMark). The platform also includes support for DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2x and OpenCL 1.2 yielding up to a 20 percent graphics improvement over G-Series […]

April 25, 2013May 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 29 Comments

BeagleBone Black vs Raspberry Pi – Features and Price Comparison

The Beagleboard community officially announced the BeagleBone Black and its $45 price tag on the 22nd of April. Many blogs and news sites touted it as a Raspberry Pi killer, and R-Pi vs BBB fanboys fights ensued, and many articles with incorrect information or heavily biased were published. There’s however one decent BeagleBone Black vs Raspberry Pi comparison from a robotic point of view, so I’ll build from there with some corrections and additions. I’ll compare both the features and the price differential between the Raspberry Pi Model B and BeagleBone Black boards depending on use cases. BeagleBone Black vs Raspberry Pi – The Features BeagleBone Black Raspberry Pi Model B Comment Processor TI Sitara AM3359AZCZ100 Cortex A8 @ 1GHz(will be changed to AM3358BZCZ100 in future versions) Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 @ 700 MHz (Overclockable to 1GHz) Even thoughboth processors can run at the same frequency (after overclocking the R-Pi), but […]

April 24, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

PlayJam GameStick Devkit Unboxing (Video)

PlayJam GameStick is a video game console comprised of an AMLogic powered mini PC and a wireless game controller. They had a successful kickstarter campaign with 5,691 backers, and the company started to ship developer’s kits earlier this month. Those kits are designed for developers, and is not the final hardware which, as Liliputing reports, will be available in June for $79. The retail version of the GameStick will feature a smaller stick with mini USB port (instead of a full USB port in the devkit), and a controller with a better finish. In the meantime, PlayJam has uploaded an unboxing video of the development kits, showing the mini PC, controller and accessories (cables, power supply, etc..), as well as a quick demo. The demo shows the first boot setup (language, display layout, ethernet, Wi-Fi settings), the Gamestick store, and they play a RipideGP. If you’re a game developer, you can […]

April 24, 2013May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Using ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5) Streamline with MK802II mini PC

MK802-II is an Android 4.0 mini PC powered by AllWinner A10 (ARM Cortex A8) with 1GB RAM and 4GB flash. Instructions are also available to run Ubuntu, or other Linux distributions. ARM Development Studio 5 (ARM DS-5) is software development tool suite for ARM processors that can be used for both Linux and Android debugging, and available in 2 versions: professional edition and community edition, the latter being free of charge. I’m writing about both today, because Bob Peng, Technical Marking Engineer for ARM China, recently wrote a blog post in Chinese [Update: An English version is now available] showing how to use MK802-II, preloaded with the required drivers and daemon, with DS-5 Streamline Performance Analyzer with is part of both versions. The community edition may be missing some features of Streamline however. Streamline Performance Analyzer allows you to: Find out which modules or functions to take up most of […]