CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

Purism Librem 5 Linux phone development kits are now shipping

Purism Librem 5 is a privacy-focused open source Linux smartphone powered by NXP i.MX 8M processor that was launched via a crowdfunding campaign in August 2017 that ends up being extremely popular with over 1.5 million dollars raised. At the time, the phone was scheduled to ship on January 2019, but a $299 development kit with board, display and accessories was slated to ship in June 2018. There have been some delays, but the good news is that Librem 5 development kits are now shipping so third party software development for the phone will now really get started. Librem 5 development kit preliminary specifications: System-on-Module – Emcraft SOM-IMX8M module with NXP i.MX 8M Quad core Cortex A53 processor, at least 2GB LPDDR4 RAM and 16GB eMMC flash (I could not find exact RAM and storage capacities for the module used in the board) Display – 5.7″ LCD touchscreen with a […]

December 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

$30 MX10 MINI TV Box Runs Android 9 on RK3328 Processor

Android 9.0 TV boxes based on Rockchip RK3328 processor started to become available at the end of last month for $45 and up, but if you’d like a cheaper Android 9 TV box either for playing videos or as an inexpensive device to test apps with Google’s latest version of Android, MX10 MINI might be worth a look, as it sells for $29.99 plus shipping on Aliexpress. MX10 MINI specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a port up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10 and HLG support + 3.5mm AV port with composite video and stereo audio Video Codecs – 4K @ 60 Hz decoding of H.264, 10-bit H.265, and VP9 Connectivity – 10/100M […]

December 18, 2018December 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Balena EtcherPro Multi SD Card, USB, and Board Flasher Coming in Q2 2019

I previously wrote about Etcher Pro when posting about the fairly expensive SySTOR SD card duplicator that allows you to copy one (micro) SD card content to multiple cards on one go, for instance to speed up the process of flashing firmware for multiple single board computers. Made by the team behind the popular Etcher firmware flashing tool, EtcherPro promised to be a more cost effective solution, but there was not a lot of details at the time. Balena – previously resin.io – has now written a bit more about the project progress in a blog post. EtcherPro is a standalone hardware device, meaning no PC requires – with a user interface based on Etcher GUI, and allowing to copy a micro SD card, SD card, or USB flash driver to 16 destinations in one go thanks to USB 3.0 ports and SD card sockets. What makes the products even […]

December 18, 2018December 18, 2018 by Karl Johnson - 8 Comments

Tis the season so they say

Hey Karl here with a short post…I know everyone on here has their hobbies and thanks to Jean-Luc, and Gearbest I have been able to explore 3D printing for nearly 2 years. I want to express gratitude towards 3 extremely active individuals who help 3D printing, and donate a lot of their time. They help and rarely get showcased on their own. Thinkyhead aka Scott Lahteine You may not know Scott but I’m sure his code is in your 3D printer. Over the past two years I’ve opened a couple issues on Marlin on the Github page and he has helped out both times. I’m writing this today to encourage everyone to contribute to Scott’s Patreon. Marlin is at the cusp of releasing 2.0 which brings a lot a change and a lot of work. One thing that all the printers I have reviewed have in common is Marlin firmware. […]

December 18, 2018December 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

eduArdu is an Open Source Hardware Arduino Learning Board

Olimex has recently launched eduArdu, an open source hardware Arduino compatible board specifically designed for education with plenty of buttons, LEDs, and sensors, as well as tutorials and samples source code to help young and older aspiring makers get started with Arduino programming. eduArdu hardware specifications: MCU – Microchip ATMega32U4 AVR microcontroller (as used in Arduino Leonardo) Display – 8×8 LED matrix display Audio – Built-in microphone, buzzer User Inputs – Joystick with push button, 6 Maykey-Makey type buttons Sensors – Utrasound distance sensor, light sensor, PIR sensor, temperature sensor (-45 to +125C) Expansion Two servo motor connectors UEXT connector Debugging / Programming – 1x micro USB port Misc – RGB LED, IR transmitter, IR receiver, status LED, reset button Power Supply LiPo charger and battery connector 5V via USB port Dimensions – 170 x 75 mm Programming can be done with the Arduino IDE, or Snap4Arduino visual programming IDE. […]

December 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Wave Computing to Open Source MIPS Architecture

There has been a lot of talks about RISC-V open source, royalty-free instructions set architecture this year, including the launch of RISC-V MCUs and Linux capable RISC-V processors, and corresponding development boards such as Hifive Unleashed. This even lead Arm to create a – now shutdown – microsite telling why people should stick with Arm instead of RISC-V. While RISC-V was clearly on the rise this year, MIPS architecture once a dominant players in routers and set-top box has been on the decline, even prompting Blu to write a guest review entitled “Baikal T1 MIPS Processor – The Last of the Mohicans?” hinting at the near extincsion of MIPS based solutions. But there may be hope, or at least a last ditch effort, with Wave Computing purchasing MIPS from Imagination Technology earlier this year, and now announcing the MIPS Open Initiative to effectively open source 32-bit and 64-bit MIPS ISA […]

December 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Kontron pITX-iMX8M Industrial Pico-ITX Motherboard is Powered by NXP i.MX8M Processor

We’ve had a fair amount of boards and modules based on NXP i.MX 8M dual or quad core Cortex A53 processor this year, including one pico-ITX motherboard with F&S Elektronik ArmStone MXM8 supporting up to 8GB RAM. Another i.MX 8M pico-ITX board will soon be launch courtesy of Kontron. pITX-iMX8M will also features the dual or quad core version of the processor, but will differ thanks to the presence of dual Gigabit Ethernet, mini DP and HDMI video outputs, an M.2 PCIe/USB 3.0 socket, and built-in TPM 2.0 security. Kontron pITX-iMX8M preliminary specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Dual or QuadLite Arm Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core, and Vivante GC7000Lite GPU with support for OpenGL/Es 3.1, OpenGL 3.0, Vulkan System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD card / SIM slot combo Video Output – mini DisplayPort, HDMI […]

December 17, 2018December 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

HOMTOM C1 Android Go Smartphone Sells for $65

Android Go is a lightweight version of Android operating system launched by Google targeting low end smartphones with the OS & apps optimized for low memory and storage. Smartphones with the latest Android 9 Go Edition were expected around Q4 2018 with further storage optimization, better security, and faster boot time. It’s unclear whether the just launched HOMTOM C1 Android Go edition features the Android 9 version, as all screenshots appear to show Android 8 Go Edition. But eventually it might get a firmware update, and it’s now sold for around $65 shipped on Aliexpress. HOMTOM C1 specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT6580A quad core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 128GB Display – 5.5″ touchscreen display with 1280×640 resolution Cellular Connectivity Dual SIM dual standby SIM card socket for […]