Industrial Android/Linux mini PC ships with optional HDMI input, DTV tuner, 4G LTE modem

We’re seeing several companies known for their Android TV boxes switch to higher-margin industrial Android/Linux mini PCs with, for instance, Zidoo M6 mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3566 processor and designed for IoT applications, digital signage, and more. Geniatech APC820 is another industrial mini PC running either Android or Linux, on the older, yet more powerful Rockchip RK3399 SoC, and offering a different set of options including 4K or Full HD HDMI input, digital TV tuner, and/or a 4G LTE modem. Geniatech APC820 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores up to 1.8GHz,  4x Cortex-A53 up to 1.4GHz, Mali-T860 GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenCL, and DirectX 11.1 System Memory – 2GB or 4GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash by default (Option for  8GB to 128GB), MicroSD card slot Video Output HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 Internal LVDS connector with backlight Internal eDP connector […]

Zidoo M6 RK3566 mini PC & SBC supports GbE, WiFi 6, 5G connectivity

Zidoo M6 is both a complete mini PC and a single board computer based on Rockchip RK3566 processor with up to 8GB RAM with plenty of peripherals connectivity options including built-in Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5, and support for 5G modems. Several years ago, Zidoo used to serve the TV box market, but they’ve now veered towards higher-end media players, digital signage players, and industrial applications. While we’ve already seen some RK3566 TV boxes on the market, using the AIoT processor does not make much sense in this type of product, and instead, Zidoo M6 targets AI Edge gateways, digital signage, and other AIoT products. Zidoo M6 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 with a quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.8GHz, Arm Mali-G52 2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2. OpenCL 2.0. Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator, 4K H.265/H.265/VP9 video decoder, 1080p100 H.265/H.264 video encoder. System Memory […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

Pine64 unveils Quartz64 SBC powered by Rockchip RK3566 SoC

We may just have written about Geniatech RK3566/RK3568 development board, but as expected, Pine64 has now unveiled more details about Quartz64 SBC powered by Rockchip RK3566 SoC. As we’ll see below, the design is very similar to RK3399 based RockPro64, but the new model adds a native SATA 3.0 port, an integrated battery charging circuitry, an ePD port for e-Ink displays, and supports more memory with up to 8GB LPDDR4 RAM. Quartz64 Model A preliminary specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor up to 1.8 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU for AI acceleration System Memory – 2GB to 8GB LPDDR4 Storage SPI Flash optional eMMC module from 16GB up to 128GB capacity bootable SDHC/SDXC MicroSD card up to 256GB (or is it 2TB?) SATA 3.0 port (multiplexed with USB 3.0) Video Output / Display Interfaces HDMI 2.0a up […]

Linux 5.11 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linus Torvalds has released Linux 5.11 just in time for… “Valentine’s Day”: Nothing unexpected or particularly scary happened this week, so here we are – with 5.11 tagged and pushed out. In fact, it’s a smaller-than-average set of commits from rc7 to final, which makes me happy. And I already have several pull requests lined up for tomorrow, so we’re all set for the merge window to start. But in the meantime – and yes, I know it’s Valentine’s Day here in the US – maybe give this release a good testing before you go back and play with development kernels. All right? Because I’m sure your SO will understand. Linus Last time around, Linux 5.10 was an LTS release that added EXT-4 performance enhancements, improved post-Spectre performance, as well as the enablement of BCM2711 (Raspberry Pi 4) display pipeline, among other many changes. Some of the notable changes in […]

Rockchip RK3568 processor to power edge computing and NVR applications

We recently reported on the Rockchip developer conference (RKDC) 2020, and especially the upcoming Rockchip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 processor that packs a lot of power and features, and is now scheduled to launch in Q3 2021. But as you can imagine there were other products revealed during the conference, including the new Rockchip RK3568, similar to the previously announced RK3566, and designed for edge computing and network video recorder (NVR) applications. There’s also an RK353X processor specifically designed for NVR application that should have similar performance as RK3568, but a lower cost, as well as two UP camera SoC with RV1106 and RV1128. CNX Software managed to obtain the presentation for the RK3568 processor from the conference so we’ll focus on the quad-core Cortex-A55 processor in this post. Rockchip RK3568 specifications: CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with NEON and FPU GPU – Mali-G52 EE with support for OpenGL ES 1.1 to […]

Rockchip PX30 3.5-inch SBC Targets Automotive Infotainment, Retail PoS, and Digital Signage

While Rockchip RK3326 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor is found in ODROID-GO Advance portable game console, it was brought to my attention that there weren’t any RK3326 SoM nor SBC on the market. But Rockchip PX30, with virtually the same design, only adding support for dual VOP (dual independent display support), is already found on several system-on-modules including ADLINK LEC-PX30 SMARC module and ARBOR SOM-RP301. It turns out there’s also a Rockchip PX30 SBC courtesy of Shenzhen based TechVision “3.5’SBC-PX30-TVI3329A“. Specifications: SoC – Rockchip PX30 quad-core Arm Cortex A35 processor @ 1.5GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU Memory – 2 GB DDR3L Storage – 8GB, 16GB, 32GB or 64 GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot Video Output & Display Interfaces HDMI output via RK618 chip Dual-channel LVDS via RK618 2x eDP Ports 1x MIPI DSI Port shared with eDP 2 LED Backlight header Support for USB touch panel 2x independent displays support Audio […]

AAEON Intel Arc

MNT Reform Open Source Hardware Laptop Launched for $999 and Up (Crowdfunding)

MNT Reform DIY Arm Linux laptop has been in the works at least since 2017. The open source hardware laptop is also fully modular with Boundary Devices Nitrogen8M SoM featuring NXP i.MX 8M quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and 4GB RAM, M.2 NVMe SSD storage, and standard, replaceable 18650 batteries. The good news is the laptop is now almost ready for prime-time and has been launched on Crowd Supply with price starting at $999 in DIY kit form without storage, and $1,300 for a complete, assembled system with 256GB NVMe storage. If you don’t have that amount of money to spend, but would like to support the project, a $40 MNT Reform T-shirt is also offered. Alternatively, the motherboard only goes for $550. Here’s a reminder of MNT Reform specification: SoM – Boundary Devices Nitrogen8M SoC – NXP i.MX 8MQuad quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz, 1x Arm Cortex-M4F real-time core Vivante […]

Rockchip RK3566, RK3588, RV1109 SoC’s Coming in 2020 based on Rockchip Processor Roadmap

Last year, Rockchip had a presentation in China where they highlighted their processor roadmap for 2020, and we learned about processors such as Rockhip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55, RK3530 Cortex-A55 SoC’s, and RV1109 camera processor, but we had limited details about the processors at the time. CNX Software has now received a more detailed roadmap that reveals some of the specifications about the new processors, and some Rockchip products that people may not be aware of such as a 3D structured light module and a 4G module. Rockchip RK3566 Rockchip RK3530 is not shown in the roadmap, but there’s a similar RK3566 processor, so I assume the company just changed the name. Rockchip RK3566 specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 2EE NPU – 0.5 TOPS with support for INT8/ INT16 Multi-Media 8M ISP 2.0 with 3F HDR(Line-based/Frame-based/DCG) Support MIPI-CSI2,4-lane 1080p60 H.265, H.264 encoding 4K H.264/H.265/VP9 60fps […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC