CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 27, 2018June 27, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

WPA3 WiFi Security Formally Introduced, WiFi Easy Connect Allows Easier Setup of Headless Devices

While I still see some open WiFi access points from time to time in the wild, most people are using WPA2 authentication to connect securely to their own WiFi router, or public ones instead of WEP that has been found to be insecure many years ago. WPA2 is not quite secure as it once was, as last year WPA2-PSK was cracked. It’s not that bad, as it may still take several days with a strong password requiring a large password file for the hack to work. Still a new revision was needed, and the WiFi alliance has just introduced Wi-Fi WPA3 security. Just like with WPA2, there are personal and enterprise modes for WPA3 WPA3-Personal WPA2-Personal Pre-shared Key (PSK) is replaced with Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), which is said to be resistant to offline dictionary attacks where an adversary tries possible passwords without further network interaction. WPA3-Personal/SAE enables: Natural […]

June 27, 2018June 27, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Snapdragon Wear 2500 Launched for the 4G LTE Kid Watch Market

Qualcomm has made several announcements at Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2018. We’ve already covered Snapdragon 632, 639, and 629 processors for mid- and high-tier smartphones, but the company has also finally announced a new SoC for wearables succeeding Snapdragon Wear 2100. Meet Snapdragon Wear 2500, specifically targeting 4G children watches. Qualcomm is usually not the best company when it comes to releasing technical details about their processors, but here what Snapdragon Wear 2500 specifications should look like: Processor – 4x Arm Cortex A7 GPU – Adreno-class GPU Connectivity – Fifth generation 4G LTE modem with RF front-end (RFFE), location engine, “Bluetooth streaming architecture”, NXP NFC solution Camera I/F – 5MP Ultra-low power sensor hub working with InvenSense sensors Power – Wearable PMIC reducing Rock Bottom Sleep Current (RBSC) by percent, charger, fuel gauge Compact package Snapdragon Wear 2500 is designed for low power with up to 14 percent longer battery […]

June 27, 2018June 27, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Qualcomm Introduces Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 Mobile Platforms

Qualcomm has announced three new snapdragon mobile platforms for high- and mid-tiers mobile devices with Snapdragon 429, Snapdragon 439, and Snapdragon 632 processors. The new chips will bring higher performance, better battery life, more efficient designs, improved graphics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into these classes of devices. Snapdragon 429 & 439 Designed for mid-range smartphones, both Snapdragon 439 and Snapdragon 429 processors are pin-to-pin compatible, equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities, X6 LTE modem, and deliver up to 25% performance increase over previous generation processor, respectively Snapdragon 430 and Snapdragon 425 that enhance the camera, voice, and security experience. Snapdragon 439 however features an octa-core Cortex A53 processor clocked at up to 1.95 GHz coupled with an Adreno 505 GPU delivering up to 20% faster graphics rendering compared to SDM430, while the Snapdragon 429 comes with a quad core Cortex A53 processor and an Adreno 504 GPU yielding up to […]

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

Xiaomi Mi Box Gets Android 8 Oreo Firmware Update

Xiaomi Mi Box US is one of the recommended TV boxes if you want a pure – and official – Android TV experience at an affordable price. However, updates to the latest version of Android has been slow, and until recently the device was running Android TV 6.x (Marshmallow) only, despite Android 8 being released in August 2017, and Nougat a year ealier. But according to reports from reddit users, Xiaomi Mi Box has finally gotten an OTA upgrade to Android 8.x Oreo. Some of the changes include support for Google Assistant, the new Android Oreo launcher for Android TV, and other new features introduce in Marshmallow and Oreo. More geeky users reported Linux has also been updated to version 4.9.54, and Project Treble is installed with should allow for more timely firmware updates in the future, although without seamless upgrade support. The Android Oreo upgrade has been reported in […]

June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SiFive Announces E20 and E21 RISC-V Cores for IoT and Wearables

SiFive has just announced the availability of their new E2 Core IP Series low-area, low-power microcontroller cores designed for use in embedded devices. Two standards cores are currently part of the new family: E21 providing mainstream performance for MCUs, sensor fusion, minion cores and smart IoT markets E20, the most power-efficient SiFive standard core designed for microcontrollers, IoT, analog mixed signal and finite state machine applications SiFive E20 MCU Core SiFive E20 Standard Core IP Key Features: RISC-V ISA – RV32IMC Machine Mode only 2-stage pipeline System Port for external memory accesses Core Local Interrupt Controller (CLIC) with 32 interrupts Advanced debug with 4 hardware breakpoints/watchpoints Performance – 1.1 DMIPS/MHz; 2.4 CoreMark/MHz Power / Clock / Area 28nm HPC – 0.58 mW; 725 MHz and up; 0.023 mm2 55nm LP – 1.3 mW; 250 MHz and up; 0.064 mm2 The company compares E20 core to Arm Cortex-M0+ core in the […]

June 26, 2018June 27, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

$200 ACEPC GK2 Mini PC Features Intel Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake Processor

As expected after ACEPC GK1 announcement, the company has now launched ACEPC GK2 mini PC based on a slightly faster Celeron J4105 quad core processor. Beside the processor, the new computer has very similar specifications with 4GB RAM, 32GB flash, dual HDMI, SATA interfaces for M.2 and 2.5″ drives and so on. The enclosure design is however quite different. ACEPC GK2 specifications (highlights in bold show differences against ACEPC GK1): SoC – Intel Celeron J4105 quad core Gemini Lake processor clocked @ 1.50 GHz / 2.50 GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 600; 10W TDP System Memory – 4GB DDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, 2.5″ SATA 3.0 drive support, M.2 SATA SSD socket up to 2TB, micro SD card slot Video Output – 2x HDMI 1.4 ports (Should it be HDMI 2.0 instead?) Audio – Via HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth […]

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Ugoos UP1 is a DLP Android Projector Powered by Rockchip RK3328 Processor

Ugoos is a TV box manufacturer, but like many others, they’ve decided to expand their products family to other Android devices with their Ugoos UP1 projector powered by a Rockchip RK3328 processor and equipped with a 854×484 DLP projector. Ugoos UP1 specifications: SoC – RockChip RK3328 Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.5GHz with Arm Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Projector DLP Display Technology Image Brightness – 150 ANSI Lumen Resolution – WVGA 854*480 Projection Distance – 0.5 – 8m Projection Size – 40” – 300” Lamp life – 10,000 hours Audio – 3 Watts built-in speaker, 3.5mm audio jack (output) Video Input – HDMI 1.4 supporting 480p, 576p, 720p and 1080p Connectivity – Dual band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 2.0 port User Input – Touchpad and touch buttons on […]

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

VisionSOM-RT is an Industrial System-on-Module based on NXP i.MX RT Arm Cortex-M7 Processor

It’s hard to keep up with all the systems-on-module based on Arm Cortex-A “application class” processors, but so far I can’t remember seeing any Arm Cortex-M “microcontroller class” SoM. However, SoMLabs is currently working on VisionSOM-RT, a system-on-module based on NXP i.MX RT 1050 Arm Cortex-M7 processor clocked at 600 MHz. NXP i.MX RT series processors are actually promoted as a “crossover” processor delivering application processor performance with real-time capabilities right at the edge between the two classes of processors. VisionSOM-RT (SLS12Rx) module preliminary specifications: SoC- NXP i.MX RT Arm Cortex-M7 processor @ up to 600MHz with NXP PXP 2D graphics accelerator, and Graphics Engine PXP PiXel processing pipeline for imagine resize, rotation, overlay and color space conversion. Memory – 512kB on-chip RAM memory, up to 32MB SDRAM Storage – Up to 16MB QuadSPI flash, optional 4GB eMMC flash 200-pin SO-DIMM edge connector with Display Interface – 8/16/24-bit Parallel RGB […]