CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 9, 2012July 9, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Jolla Smartphones To Run Meego (Born Again) Operating System

I saw a tweet about Jolla 2 days ago, but did not pay much attention because there was no info available. And to some extend, there isn’t much more info now, but a lot of hype about Jolla, a Finnish company recently founded and composed of ex-Nokia employees that aims to design, develop and sell smartphones based on the (thought-to-be-dead) Meego operating system. Jolla’s Meego will be based on the Mer Project & Qt and will feature a “brand new UI” designed by Jolla. The company has been working on the phone since late 2011 and a demo will be available later this year. You can follow the company on LinkedIn or Twitter, as it does not have a website yet.

July 9, 2012July 9, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Olimex Offers Up to 50% Discount on OLinuXino Boards to Open Source Developers

Olimex has been providing low cost MCU devkits for many years, and this year they started offering more powerful embedded Linux development boards called OLinuXino. The first family (iMX233-OLinuXino) is based on Freescale i.MX233 ARM9 processor @ 454 Mhz and comes in three form factor: iMX233-OLINUXINO-MAXI – 2x USB host, Ethernet, TV-out, GPIOs, SD-CARD, Audio-In, Audio-Out, UEXT – 44.95 Euros. iMX233-OLINUXINO-MINI – 3x USB host, TV-out, GPIOs, SD-CARD, Audio-In, Audio-Out, UEXT – 34.95 Euros iMX233-OLINUXINO-MICRO – USB host, TV-out, GPIOs, SD-CARD, ready for breadboaring – 23.95 Euros They are also working on A13-OLinuXino board featuring AllWinner A13 Cortex A8 processor. To promote their new boards (and reward open source developers – cf comment below), the company company has decided to offer discount to open source developers. The way I understand it: you need to buy a board first, publish the source code somewhere and write about it on your own […]

July 7, 2012July 7, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Equiso Smart TV: 69 USD Android mini PC with Wireless Remote

Here’s yet another Android mini PC HDMI Stick. Equiso has started a KickStarter compaign to raise funds to complete development and manufacture the Equiso Smart TV, an Android mini PC based on Telechips TCC8925 Cortex A5 processor. It looks very similar to CX-01 mini PC with Android 4.0 running on a TCC8925 processor, 512 MB RAM and the lack of a microSD card slot. The only hardware differences are that it includes 8GB internal storage (vs 4GB for CX-01), and it features an HDMI 1.4 port (vs 1.3 for others). Here are the specs of the device: Telechips TCC8925 Arm Cortex A5 Processor @ 1GHz + Mali 400 3D Graphics Processor 512 MB DDR3 RAM 802.11 N wireless radio 8 GB Memory Internal (WiFi) 1.4 HDMI Plug n’ Play Interface, 3D, ESD protection, CEC USB 2.0 port microUSB 2.0 port to power the device Dimensions – 80mm x 30mm x […]

July 6, 2012July 6, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Quick Binary Debugging in Linux with Strace System Call Tracer

I’ve recently come across strace, a debugging utility for Linux that “monitor the system calls used by a program and all the signals”. It may not be that useful if you have the source code and can run other debugging tools such as gdb, or simply add printf to your code. But if you don’t have source code of the program, or you are a system administrator who wants to check if the program fails due to file access reasons, for example, this is really a great tool as it may help you find out which file causes problem. In my case, I was trying OpenGL ES on an ARM platform, and at least part of the code comes in libraries that are only available in binary form. I got the following error message running es2_info (part of mesa-utils-extra): UMP: ump_arch_open() failed to open UMP device driver ********************************************************************* ERROR: In […]

July 5, 2012July 6, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Kontron Unveils KTT30/mITX Nvidia Tegra 3 Mini-ITX Board

Kontron has today unveiled the KTT30/mITX, its first embedded ARM based Mini-ITX board (and the first ARM mini-ITX board I’ve ever heard of). The motherboard is powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor @ 900 MHz with up to 2 GB DDR3L memory, and consumes less than 7W. Storage is available via 2 SD Card slots, one bootable eMMC, and one SATA 2.0 port. The company expects this ARM Mini-ITX motherboard to be used in applications such as thin clients, Panel PCs, digital signage and Mini-Box PCs. The solution is also suitable for industrial (rail road, instrumentation…) and medical fields as it will be available for at least seven years. By using the Mini-ITX form factor, Kontron KTT30/mITX board can be easily integrated in existing embedded solutions using (x86) mini-ITX boards. Here are the key features of Kontron KTT30/mITX motherboard: SoC – Nvidia Tegra 3 ARM Cortex-A9 Quad Core […]

July 5, 2012May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Rikomagic MK802 II Mini PC Will Be Available in September

Rikomagic announced that they are working on two new versions of the MK802 Android mini PC. The first version (MK802 II) will be based on basically the same hardware (AllWinner A10 SoC), but with a different casing, an HDMI male connector, and 3 USB connectors (2 microUSB and 1 standard USB). They will apparently add some holes to the casing for better ventilation in order to decrease excessive heat. The company also mentioned they are working on a version with a dual core processor without giving further details. If we want to play guessing games, it could be next generation AllWinner dual core Cortex A9 processor (codenamed sun6i), or a low cost dual core Cortex A5 processor such as TCC8925. Source: Rikomagic Forums

July 5, 2012July 5, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Toradex Releases Apalis Computer on Module Architecture Specification

Last month, Toradex released the preliminary specification for Apalis, a Computer on Module (CoM) architecture. Although the Apalis specification has been initially designed with ARM based processors in mind such as the Nvidia Tegra, Freescale i.MX and Texas Instruments OMAP processor families, it aims at being device and chip architecture independent. The Apallis specification defines the following: Interface Specifications: Signal Naming Convention – Rules to name pins (e.g. VCC, PWM1, PWM2, ) which are used for all modules. Signal Definition – Details about the pins named above Physical Pin Definition and Location Mechanical Specifications: Mounting and Fixation Module Size – Standard: 82 x 45mm | Extended: 82 x 56mm Pin Numbering – There is a total of 321 pin numbers (but a few less actually pins) Electrical Specifications: Power Supplies Power Control Back Feed Protection This specifications also defines mounting mechanisms for active cooling (e.g. heat spreaders) in case those […]

July 4, 2012July 5, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Amahi 6.1 for Ubuntu 12.04 Released

Amahi has just announced the release of Amahi 6.1, Ubuntu Edition, an Home Digital Assistant (HDA). Amahi used to only work for Fedora and this is their very first stable release for Ubuntu 12.04. The key features of Amahi 6.1, Ubuntu Edition include: Greyhole 0.9 (storage pooling technology) Reliability fixes and updates New look Support for 32 / 64-bit Desktop and Server versions of Ubuntu Improved cloud storage with Amahi Sync Preliminary support ARM platforms such as PandaBoard and BeagleBoard One-Click App installs via Amahi’s application store If you want to get started with Amahi, you’ll have to register (and get an install code), and follow a few command line instructions. The instructions are the same to install on ARM platforms (assuming you already have Ubuntu 12.04 running), but Amahi developers recommend to install it to an hard drive instead of an SD card for performance reasons. They are also […]