CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 23, 2018July 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

MINIX NEO C Plus is a 9-Port USB-C Adapter with Dual HDMI Output

Hong Kong based MINIX Technology Limited is better known for their Android TV boxes and WIndows mini PCs, but the company also makes accessories for computers, and their latest product is MINIX NEO C Plus, a multi-port USB-C adapter providing 9 interfaces including two HDMI output ports capable of 4K UHD resolution at 30 Hz. MINIX NEO C Plus specifications: Input – USB type C port Ports / Interfaces 2x HDMI up to 4K @ 30 Hz for triple mirror or dual extend mode. Gigabit Ethernet 3x USB 3.0 ports (5Gbps) 1x USB type C port for power delivery Micro SD card and SD card readers The downside is that – for some reasons – the dual 4K HDMI display support, and triple mirror / dual extend modes are only available for Mac OS. It should also be noted that the HDMI displays connected to the adapter can only display the […]

July 23, 2018July 23, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Rockchip RK3308 & RK3326 Datasheets Released

Rockchip unveiled their first Arm Cortex-A35 processors with RK3326 “Gemini” and RK3308 SoCs last March. Both are designed for Smart AI solutions, and the company showcased two development kits for smart speakers and smart displays based on the new processors. We’ve already known the basic details for the processors for some times, with for example RK3326 featuring a Mali-G31 Dvalin GPU, but I’ve now been informed more details have surfaced since Rockchip published documentations including datasheets. Rockchip RK3308 Key features and specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 64-bit Armv8-A CPU with NEON, ARMv8 Cryptography Extensions, 256KB unified system L2 cache, and VFPv4 FPU, System Memory – 256KB internal SRAM, support for DDR2, DDR3/DDR3L, LPDDR2 external memory up to 512MB Storage Internal BootROM OTP – Support 4K bit Size, 3.5K bit for secure application External I/F – 8-bits Asynchronism Nand Flash, eMMC 5.1, SPI Nor/Nand Flash, SD Card all bootable; System […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

July 23, 2018July 23, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 36 Comments

Bootlin Releases Open Source VPU Driver for Allwinner Processors with MPEG2 and H.264 Video Decoding

allwinner-open-source-vpu-drivers-mpeg2-h264

At the beginning of the year, Bootlin – formerly Free Electrons – launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring open source Allwinner VPU driver to mainline Linux. VPU (Video Processing Unit) drivers are used to encode and decode videos. They were successfully in raising enough money from small donors, as well as several companies manufacturing Allwinner development boards including Olimex, Pine64, Libre Computer, FriendlyELEC, and Xunlong Software (Orange Pi). The amount raised (€31,612) was enough to assign two engineers to work on the main goals, as well as some stretch goals namely support for newer Allwinner H3, H5, and A64 processors, and H.265 video decoding. The good news is the company has now delivery the first release for their work on the main goals. The photo above illustrated a demo of Kodi running with bootlin open source Cedrus VPU driver on top of Linux 4.18-rc kernel. Both MPEG2 and H264 are […]

July 22, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite Android One Phone Now Up for Pre-order for $181.99 and up

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is the successor of Xiaomi Mi A1 smartphone, which will also run the latest Android 8 Oreo firmware, and receive regular firmware updates for at least 18 months since it’s part of Android One program. Mi A2 Lite phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor coupled with 3 to 4GB RAM, and 32 to 64GB storage. It will officially be announced on July 24th together with its big brother Xiaomi Mi A2 powered by Snapdragon 660 processor and a larger 5.99″ display, but some companies are already taking pre-order with Banggood starting at $199.99, and GeekBuying offering it for $181.99 shipped and up.. Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa core Arm Cortex A53 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Adreno 506 GPU System Memory – 3GB or 4GB RAM Storage – 32GB or 64GB RAM, micro SD card […]

July 21, 2018July 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Pi-Zero-UpTime is an UPS for Raspberry Pi Boards and Clones

Since for a headless Raspberry Pi it makes no sense to use a large UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to keep it running in case of power failure, I bought and tested a Raspberry Pi battery kit a couple of years ago. The kit included an acrylic case, a battery charging board, and LiPo battery and it worked most of the time as a UPS. “Most of the time” means the switch from mains to battery would not occur fast enough maybe 10% of the time (it depends on the load), so the Raspberry Pi board would reboot. The kit also did not include a GPIO / I2C interface to report the charge level of the battery, so you would not be able to safely power the board when the battery is almost fully depleted. In recent years, it’s become more and more difficult to get batteries shipped from overseas, so […]

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

Xiaomi Mi Box International Sold for $49.99 Shipped (Promo)

Xiaomi Mi Box (International) is one of the recommended TV boxes as it runs the official Android TV OS with support for Netflix and Amazon Prime HD/4K, and normally sells around $60. But Banggood currently has a promotion until July 24, 2018, where it offers the TV box for just $49.99 shipped. Stocks are limited to around 100 units for this promotion however. The device was released in 2016, so a little reminder of the specifications is in order: SoC – Amlogic S905X-H quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2 and CEC support Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF and 3.5mm audio jack Video Codecs – VP9 Profile-2 & H.265 MP-10 up to 4K @ 60 fps, […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

July 20, 2018July 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Firefly Baidu Face Recognition Kit Comes with Monocular, Binocular, or Structured Light Camera

Firefly AIO-3399J industrial board comprised of a Rockchip RK3399 SoM and a baseboard offering plenty of I/O & connectivity options has been bundled with various other accessories including a 10.1″ touchscreen display, and cameras to create a development platform for Baidu AI offline (aka “at the edge”) face recognition technology. The development kit is available in different variants with either a monocular camera, a binocular camera, or a structured-light camera. There’s also a deluxe kit with WiFi and a stand. Baidu Face Recognition Kit key specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with dual core ARM Cortex A72 up to 2.0 GHz and quad core Cortex A53 processor, ARM Mali-T860 MP4 GPU with OpenGL 1.1 to 3.1 support, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL and DX 11 support System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD card slot Display – 10.1″ 1280×800 capacitive touch display Connectivity – […]

July 20, 2018July 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Three 5W Intel Amber Lake Processors Coming Soon: Core m3-8100Y, Core i5-8200Y, Core i7-8500Y

When I talk about low power Intel processors, I usually think about atom-based families like Bay Trail, Cherry Trail, Apollo Lake or Gemini Lake with 2W to 10W processors that delivers entry-level performance at a reasonable price. But Intel has also been selling more powerful Core-m processors with a similar power budget, but with much better performance, at the cost of a significantly higher price tag. The company is now prepping to launch a new family of such processor with Amber Lake Y-series (aka Amber Lake-Y) family. Three Amber Lake processors are expected to be officially announced very soon: Core m3-8100Y dual core/quad thread processor @ 1.1 GHz (base) / 3.4 GHz (turbo) Core i5-8200Y dual core/quad thread processor @ 1.3 GHz (base) / 3.9 GHz (turbo) Core i7-8500Y dual core/quad thread processor @ 1.5 GHz (base) / 4.2 GHz (turbo) All three processors are manufactured with a 14 nm […]