CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 13, 2018November 13, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Tanix TX6 Allwinner H6 4K TV Box with 4GB RAM, Dual Band WiFi Goes for $43 (Promo)

Low cost Allwinner H6 TV boxes are now a thing, after the $40 EACHLINK H6 Mini TV box we covered last month, here’s another model slightly more expensive but with 4GB RAM instead of 3GB, and dual band WiFi. It does however drops the AV port found in EACHLINK model. Tanix TX6 can now be found on GearBest or Banggood for $42.99 and up. Tanix TX6 specifications: SoC – AllWinner H6 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.5 GHz with Mali-T720MP2 GPU System Memory – 4GB DDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot up to 128GB Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60hz with HDR support Audio I/F – HDMI, coaxial S/PDIF Video Playback H.265/HEVC Main/Main10 profile @ level 5.2 high-tier up to 4K @ 60fps / 6K @ 30 fps VP9 Profile 0/2, up to 4K @ 30fps H264/AVC BP/MP/[email protected], MVC, up to […]

November 13, 2018November 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

A Tale of Many Divisions – Naive Prime Factorization Across a Handful of Architectures

CNXSoft: Another guest post by blu where he looks at how a small piece of code involving divisions behaves on different architectures. Once upon a time (i.e. the other week) I was giving tips to my 5th-grader how to efficiently compute least common multiples, when it struck me I could do better ‒ I could write a prime factorizer that could be useful to the elementary-school-goers in this house, as well as to the people checking the formers’ homeworks. Moreover, a naive prime factorizer could show kids how computers would carry out algorithms taught in class. There was also a bit of curiosity involved ‒ last time I wrote a prime factorizer I was in high school, and the language was Applesoft BASIC, so 30 years later, armed with a modern C++ arsenal and a supercomputer (by late ‘80s standards), I wondered what one might come up with today, approaching […]

November 13, 2018January 15, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Khadas Edge Developer Package Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Captain and Edge-IO Expansion Boards

Shenzhen Wesion recently launched an Indiegogo campaign for their Rockchip RK3399/RK3399Pro based Khadas Edge, Edge-1S and Captain boards. The Edge boards have an interesting form factor as they are both standalone boards, and system-on-modules compatible with Captain carrier board, and the smaller Edge-IO board. While the crowdfunding campaign is on-going, the company decided to send me an early version of Khadas Edge Developer Package for evaluation. I’ll start out by checking out the content of the kit, and show how to get started with assembly, before reviewing the board with Linux at a later date. Khadas Edge Developer Package Unboxing I received the developer kit in a blank carton board package, but they’ll likely have a prettier package at launch like they did for heir VIM2 board. Anyway, the important part is the content. From top left to bottom right: An IR remote control, the package for the Edge board […]

November 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Intrinsyc Open-Q 670 HDK Development Kit Features Snapdragon 670 Processor

Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 670 this August with improved camera capabilities and improved performance, including a near doubling of the performance of the AI Engine over the one in Snapdragon 660. Intrinsyc is normally the first company to launch mobile development platform for Qualcomm processor, and this time is no exception, as the company has just introduced Open-Q 670 HDK Development Kit with Snapdragon 670 Mobile Platform. Open-Q 670 HDK specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon SDA670 Octa-core 64-bit Kryo 360 processor with 2x high-performance Gold cores @ 2.016 GHz, 6x low-power Silver cores @ 1.708 GHz, Qualcomm Adreno 615 GPU @ 430 MHz, and Qualcomm Hexagon 685 DSP dedicated for Computer Vision and Video Post Processing System Memory – 6GB LPDDR4x RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC 5.1 Flash Storage (non-PoP memory) + uSD card socket Display MIPI DSI connector with 1x 4-lane DSI port + Touch for included LCD panel […]

November 12, 2018March 16, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

MeWe is an Ad-free, Privacy Focused Social Network

This post will be fairly off-topic, but recently Google announced they’d be closing Google+ for consumers. CNX Software has a community about TV boxes and mini PCs with over 12,000 members on the site, and that means it will go away eventually. So Google+ is going away, Facebook is very popular – and we have our own page – but many people have privacy concerns, don’t like the way the company handles their data, and/or for sensitive subjects, censorship appears to have come into play recently. Twitter is another option which I also use, but there’s no such things as groups or communities. But the other day, I noticed people on Google+ complained about the lack of activity in a specific community, and a person replied that everybody moved to MeWe… OK, so what is MeWe? As described on the website: Engineered with privacy-by-design, MeWe turns the table on Facebook […]

November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

$6 C-SKY Linux Development Board Features GX6605S Media SoC with C-SKY ISA

We’ve got plenty of ultra low cost , media capable Linux boards in recent years, but most of those are based on Arm architecture. More recently RISC-V open source ISA has started to show up in various boards such as Sipeed M1, but none of those can play video, or at least don’t come with an hardware video decoder. C-Sky Linux development board does change that somewhat. It’s sold for about $6 (39 RMB) on Taobao, and $17.36 shipped on Aliexpress, and features Nationalchip GX6605S processor for DVB-S2 HD set-top boxes using C-SKY architecture, independent from RISC-V, although C-SKY is also a member of the RISV-C foundation. C-SKY Linux development board key features and specifications: SoC – Nationalchip GX6605S C-SKY ISA V1 CK610M 32-bit processor @ 574 MHz with 64MB DDR2 RAM, built-in DVB-S2/S demodulator Storage – 4MB SPI flash for bootloader and media player program Video Output – HDMI […]

November 11, 2018November 13, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 406 Comments

Giveaway Week – NanoPC-T4 RK3399 SBC

We started the week-end with a Rockchip RK3399 board, so it makes perfect sense to end giveaway week with a bang, and another RK3399 SBC: FriendlyElec NanoPC-T4. Like other such boards, NanoPC-T4 supports both Linux and Android, but since I had tested various RK3399 SBCs with Linux, instead I decided to review NanoPC-T4 with Android 7.1, and it performed mostly has expected although I found out a larger heatsink would be necessary for more consistent performance. FriendyElec normally provides good documentation and decent firmware images for their boards so that definitely a plus. The winner of the kit will receive half of what is shown in the photo above, as I received two kits with the board, a heatsink and screws, a remote control, a 12V power supply, and an acrylic case. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per […]

November 10, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

G12S Amlogic S905X2 Android TV Box Comes with 2T2R WiFi 5 Connectivity

Several Amlogic S905X2 TV boxes running Android have launched with products such as X96 Max, Beelink GT1 Mini, H96 Max X2, or Mecool KM9. Some of those boxes come with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, and others feature better WiFI 802.11ac (WiFi 5), but according to ACEMAX no model comes with a 2T2R (2 transmit / 2 receiver) antenna setup (aka 2×2 MIMO) except for their G12S TV box sold on Aliexpress for $55.99. So if you aim for the best WiFi throughput possible in your TV box, it might be worth having a go. ACEMAX normally adds their brand on OEM product, and the actual manufacturer should be ShiningWorth with the G12x2 model. G12x2 / G12S TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X2 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0 GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 “Dvalin” GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB or 64GB eMMC flash, micro SD card […]