Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments on Rock960 Board is a 96Boards Compliant Board Powered by Rockchip RK3399 SoC

Rock960 Board is a 96Boards Compliant Board Powered by Rockchip RK3399 SoC

So it looks like Rockchip is soon going to join 96Boards family with Rock960 board. Developed by a Guangzhou based startup called Varms, the board will be powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core SoC, and comply with 96Boards CE specifications. Rock960 board preliminary specifications: SoC – Rochchip RK3399 hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with two ARM Cortex A72 cores up to 1.8/2.0 GHz, four Cortex A53 cores @ 1.4 GHz, and  ARM Mali-T860 MP4 GPU with OpenGL ES 1.1 to 3.2 support, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL 1.2 and DX 11 support System Memory – 2 or 4GB RAM Storage – 16 or 32GB eMMC flash + micro SD card Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0 up to 4K@60 Hz with CEC and HDCP Connectivity – WiFi 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO up to 867 Mbps, and Bluetooth 4.1 LE (AP6356S module) with two on-board antennas, two u.FL antenna connectors USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on 2.9″ ESPaper Lite Kit is a $40 ePaper Display Kit with an ESP8266 WiFi Module

2.9″ ESPaper Lite Kit is a $40 ePaper Display Kit with an ESP8266 WiFi Module

Squix (Daniel Eichhorn) has designed a 2.9″ ESPaper Lite Kite is a battery powered kit based on a black and white ePaper module, and ESP-WROOM-02 module based on Espressif Systems ESP8266 WiSoC. 2.9″ ESPaper Lite Kit specifications: Wireless Module – ESP-WROOM-02 WiFi module with Espressif ESP8266 Display – 2.9″ B&W ePaper module with 296×128 pixels resolution connect over SPI to ESP8266 Debugging / Programming – 6-pin serial port header USB – 1x micro USB port for programming Misc – 3 buttons: Reset (wake up from deep sleep);  S0 (flash/GPIO0); S1: user button connected to GPIO12; power switch; charging and (firmware) flashing LEDs Power – JST connector for LiPo battery; charging circuit You’ll need a 3.3V USB to TTL debug board for flashing the firmware to the board, and a LiPo battery to power it up. The solution is particularly useful if you want a battery powered display that is infrequently […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on Secure96 is a 96Boards Mezzanine Expansion Board To Experiment with Hardware Based Security

Secure96 is a 96Boards Mezzanine Expansion Board To Experiment with Hardware Based Security

With the Internet of things booming and taking a more important role in our lives, security will become more and more critical. So far, it has often been an afterthought with modems & routers frequently shipping with default username and password, and getting security right is really hard, as shown by the recent CLKSCREW attack that somehow leverages DVFS to break ARM TrustZone security, and that “is not a software bug, nor a hardware bug, it’s a fundamental part of the energy management design”, so most ARM platforms are vulnerable. Optimal security normally combines software and hardware, so having a platform to experiment with different HW security solutions would be useful, and that’s what Secure96 Mezzanine board for 96Boards aims for. Secure96 expansion board specifications: Security ICs Microchip Atmel ATSHA204A SHA-based CryptoAuthentication crypto element device Microchip Atmel ATECC508A crypto device with ECDH (Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman) key agreement Infineon SLB 9670 TPM […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Amazon Introduces Echo 2, Echo Plus, Echo Connect, and Echo Spot Alexa Devices

Amazon Introduces Echo 2, Echo Plus, Echo Connect, and Echo Spot Alexa Devices

Beside their “all-new” Amazon Fire TV 2017, Amazon has made a bunch of other announcements mostly related to their Alexa services with four new or updated Echo devices:  the “all-new” Echo, the Echo Plus, Echo Connect, and the Echo Spot. 2017 Amazon Echo (aka Echo 2) The new second generation of the Alexa based Echo has a new smaller design, improved sound with Dolby processing, and a lower price at just under $100. Some of the key features include: Speakers – 2.5″ woofer and 0.6″ tweeter Connectivity Dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi for streaming music from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc…, controlling smart devices Bluetooth LE Audio 3.5mm audio jack 7-mic array using beamforming technology and enhanced noise cancellation. Improved wake-word (“Alexa”) detection Various designs with 6 different fabrics Dimensions – 148 x 88 x 88 mm Weight – 821 grams The Echo can make free calls to the US, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on $69.99 Amazon Fire TV 2017 TV Box Supports 4K HDR-10 Video Playback

$69.99 Amazon Fire TV 2017 TV Box Supports 4K HDR-10 Video Playback

Amazon has just announced a new Fire TV TV box with support for 4K Ultra HD and HDR (High Dynamic Range), and a cheaper price, as it is selling for $69.99 on Amazon US with delivery scheduled to start on October 25, 2017. Amazon Fire TV 2017 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905Z quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP3 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB flash Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2, Doby Atmos support Video – HDR-10. H.265, H.264 Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi + Bluetooth 4.1 LE USB – 1x micro USB port for power (and optional USB Ethernet adapter) Dimensions – 65 x 65 x 15 mm Weight – 87 grams Amazon just mentions “Amlogic Quad-core 1.5GHz | ARM 4xCA53” for Fire TV processor, so it first assumed it could […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on TECHBASE Moduino X Series Industrial IoT Modules / Endpoints are Based on ESP32 WiSoC

TECHBASE Moduino X Series Industrial IoT Modules / Endpoints are Based on ESP32 WiSoC

We’ve previously covered TECHBASE ModBerry industrial IoT gateways leveraging Raspberry Pi 3, FriendlyELEC NanoPi M1 Plus, or AAEON’s UP Linux boards. The company has now launched Moduino X series modules powered by Espressif ESP32 WiFi + Bluetooth SoC to be used as end points together with their ModBerry gateways. Two models have been developed so far, namely Moduino X1 and X2, with the following specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-WROVER with ESP32 dual-core Tensilica LX6 processor @ 240 MHz, 4MB pSRAM (512KB as option), 4MB SPI flash; External Storage – X2 only: micro SD card slot Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi up to 16 Mbps + Bluetooth 4.2 LE with u.FL antenna connector X2 only: 10/100M Ethernet Options: LoRa (Semtech SX1272); Sigfox (TI CC1125); LTE Cat M1/NB1; Zigbee Serial – 2x RS-232/485 Display – Optional 0.96″ OLED display with 128×64 resolution Expansion I/Os 4x Digital I/O (0 ~ 3V) 2x Analog Input: […]

AAEON Intel Arc
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on Mecool VS-RK3399 Board Linux Benchmarks

Mecool VS-RK3399 Board Linux Benchmarks

I’ve just showed how to install Debian, and build a Linux image from source on VS-RD-RK3399 board (aka Mecool VS-RK3399) last week-end, but at the time I did not run any benchmarks on the board. We already have plenty of benchmarks for Rockchip RK3399 in Android, so instead I started by installing the latest Phoronix Test Suite in Debian:

… and ran the tests I did on NanoPi NEO 2 earlier:

For whatever reasons OpenSSL and Mafft failed to download, but we still have the other benchmarks to compare with. Note that the Debian image is likely not optimized, and while the system runs an Aarch64 kernel, the rootfs is only 32-bit, which may have affected some of the benchmarks.

But let’s see what’s we’ve got, starting with John the Ripper password cracker, a multi-threaded benchmark. We’d normally expect hardware platforms based on Rockchip RK3399 SoC to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments on Banana Pi BPI-W2 is a Features-Packed Realtek RTD1296 Development Board

Banana Pi BPI-W2 is a Features-Packed Realtek RTD1296 Development Board

I’ve reviewed several Realtek RTD1295 platforms with Zidoo X9S and Eweat R9 Plus, and I was generally impressed by the storage, Ethernet, and WiFi performance. 4K video playback was good too, as long you don’t have any 4K H.264 videos at 30 fps or more. Most devices would also run Android and OpenWrt side-by-side bringing the best of both operating for respectively apps & multimedia, and server functions. HDMI input – with PVR, time-shifting and PiP functions – was also a bonus, However so far, nobody cared to design a maker board powered by RTD1295 processor. Since then we’ve learned Realtek was working on RTD1296 processor with even more Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and SATA interfaces, and SinoVoIP has now designed a board based on the SoC called Banana Pi BPI-W2. Banana Pi BPI-W2 preliminary specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1296 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T820 MP3 GPU […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC