CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 29, 2018March 29, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

AOMedia AV1 Video Codec Specifications Released

AOMedia’s AV1 video codec is an open source, royalty-free video codec aiming to surpass H.265 capabilities, and considering the savings to be made, as no royalties need to be paid, and potentially lower bandwidth requirements, many companies are on board including Google, Arm, Facebook,. Amazon, Apple, Intel, Cisco, and many others. Back in February we got an AV1 progress update at FOSDEM 2018, and the speaker explained there was still a few items to work out to finalize the specifications. This is now complete, as AOMedia (The Alliance for Open Media) has just released the (draft) specifications. Beside the Bitstream specification, the AV1 release includes: Unoptimized, experimental software decoder and encoder to create and consume the bitstream Reference streams for product validation Binding specifications to allow content creation and streaming tools for user-generated and commercial video AV1 has already been shown to outperform both H.265 and VP9 in tests using […]

March 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Sonoff Pow R2 is a Power Monitoring WiFi Smart Switch with Better Accuracy, Safety and Extra Features

ITEAD Studio released several wireless switches / sockets with power monitoring capability over the years. Recently they company launched Sonoff S31 smart socket that plugs directly into your AC socket and does not require any wiring, but earlier they introduced Sonoff Pow that is meant to be connected directly into your circuit via terminals. ITEAD has now launched an upgrade to the latter – Sonoff Pow R2 – with many of the same features, including support for eWelink, but offering 99% measurement accuracy, overload protection defined by the user, and various other features like the ability to export data. Sonoff Pow R2 (Revision 2) specifications: WiSoC – Espressif ESP8266 (TBC) Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi with WPA/WPA2 support Voltage Range – 90 to 250 VAC input Max Current – Up to 16A Max Power – 3,500 Watts Terminals – 6 terminal for mains and load’s ground, live and neutral signals. […]

March 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Acer Chromebook Tab 10 is the First Chrome OS Tablet

Chrome OS has been found in laptops (Chromebooks), and mini PCs (Chromeboxes) or even All-in-One PCs (Chromebases) for a while, but a new category has launched with Chrome OS tablets starting with Acer Chromebook Tab 10. The tablet is powered by a Rockchip RK3399 / OP1 processor, comes with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage, a 9.7″ display, supports Wacom EMR stylus, targets the education market. Acer Chromebook Tab 10 (D651N) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399-C / OP1 hexa core processor with two Cortex A72 cores, four Cortex A53 cores, and a Mali-T860MP4 GPU System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Display – 9.7″ touchscreen IPS display with QXGA (2048×1536) resolution Audio – Headphone/speaker jack Connectivity – 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2 Camera – 2MP front-facing camera USB – 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C port for charging, data transfer and connection […]

March 28, 2018January 17, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Real Time Logic Releases Web-based SharkSSL FreeRTOS/lwIP ESP8266 IDE

Real Time Logic claims SharkSSL is the smallest, fastest, and best performing embedded TLS v1.0/1.1/1.2 solution. It works with ColdFire, Kinetis K60, all the Cortex-M3 and -M4 processors, as well as Tensilica LX3 based ESP8266. The solutions can be tuned via compile-time options to a less than 20kB footprint that still supports full x.509 authentication. SharkSSL is a commercial solution, but the SDK is free to use for non-commercial projects. In order to simplify development on ESP826, the company has released the SharkSSL ESP8266 IDE running in a virtual machine, and providing a complete FreeRTOS and lwIP based development environment using a web based interface. Once you’ve downloaded the virtual machine image, you can start it in VirtualBox or VMWare with bridged networking enabled. The IP address of the virtual machine will be shown in the console, and you can use it in your favorite web browser in the host […]

March 28, 2018February 29, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Logic Supply CL200 Series Compact Embedded Mini PCs To Ship with Ubuntu 16.04 or Windows 10 IoT

After launching their ML350 customizable fanless industrial computer, Logic Supply is back with another Apollo Lake family of mini PCs – CL200 series – with a much more compact form factor (Ultra Small Form Factor), and equipped with an Intel Celeron N3350 processor. Two models are available for now with CL200 featuring 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage and running Ubuntu 16.04, and CL210 with 2GB RAM, 32 GB storage, and shipping with either Windows 10 IoT or Ubuntu 16.04. Specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N3350 dual core processor @ 1.10 / 2.40 GHz with Intel HD graphics 500 System Memory & Storage CL200 – 1 GB LPDDR4, 8 GB eMMC flash, mSATA Up To 1 TB, micro SD slot CL210 – 2 GB LPDDR4, 32 GB eMMC flash, mSATA Up To 1 TB, micro SD slot Audio – CL210 only: 3.5 mm audio jack (mic in, line out) Video […]

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

1NCE to Offer a 10 Euros Plan for 10-Year of Cellular IoT Connectivity in Europe

For the Internet of Things to be successful, prices need to come down sharply, and eventually LPWAN connectivity should be possible with $1 to $2 modules, $5 to $10 development boards like we can get for WiFi today. Cellular IoT hardware is likely to be a bit more expensive – even when using NB-IoT – but hardware prices have to come down to acceptable levels, and so is connectivity. 1NCE brings us in the right direction for the latter with a SIM card selling for 10 Euros offering 10-year of 2G/3G/NB-IoT connectivity (1 Euro per year) with 500MB data included. That’s about 140KB of data per day, which should be OK for applications like smart meters. There are no other fees, except if your device goes over the limit, but the company has not provided any pricing details for the extra data. The service will cover 30 countries in Europe. […]

March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Turris MOX is a Modular Router with WiFi, SSD, LTE Modem, Ethernet, and SFP (Fiber) Modules (Crowdfunding)

The makers of Turris Omnia router – powered by a Marvell ARMADA 385 processor and running Turris OS based on OpenWrt – have been working a new product: Turris MOX modular router which can be extended with mPCIe add-on cards for LTE, SFP cage, M.2 SSD, and so on. They will soon launch an Indiegogo campaign for it, but in the meantimes, CZ.NIC association has a pre-campaign for a $69 MOX access point with dual band WiFI card, and intended for Turris Omnia users. The full details are not available, although we can find out a little more through root.cz and the video embedded below. The system is comprised of a basic MOX A module powered by a dual-core Armada 3720 processor coupled with 512 MB RAM, as well as USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and an I/O expansion header with GPIO, SDIO, UART and I2C. There’s also an mPCIe port […]

March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Mi MIX 2S Smartphone Launched with Snapdragon 845 SoC, Up to 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage, A.I. Dual Camera

Xiaomi has just unveiled their latest premium with Mi MIX 2S Android smartphone powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with up to 8GB RAM, up to 256GB storage, a dual camera with artificial intelligence, ARCore technology, wireless charging, and more. Mi MIX 2S specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor with four Kryo 385 performance cores @ 2.8 GHz, four Kryo 385 efficiency cores @ 1.8 GHz, Adreno 630 GPU, Hexagon 685 DSP System Memory + Storage options: 6GB LPDDR4x, 64GB UFS flash 6GB LPDDR4x, 128GB UFS flash 8GB LPDDR4x, 256GB UFS storage Display – 5 .99″ Full HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 AMOLED display Camera Rear Camera – AI dual camera with 12 MP wide-angle + 12 MP telephoto; DxO score: 101 Front-facing camera – 5MP camera AI features enable Face unlock, ARCore technology Wireless Connectivity Cellular 2x Nano SIM slots 43 global bands: GSM: 2/3/5/8 CDMA 1X/EVDO: […]