Meet NXP i.MX8 Processor Families: i.MX 8 for High performance, i.MX 8M for Audio/Video & i.MX 8X for Low Power

Freescale and then NXP have been talking about i.MX8 processors for several years, and this spring unveiled i.MX 8 Multisensory Enablement Kit without giving much details about the processor except it would include both Cortex A72 & A53 cores. But NXP put out a press release yesterday about “Multisensory Automotive eCockpit Platform to Advance Multimedia Experiences in Future Cars” which appears to be the same news but with different words, except the content of the PR has more interesting bits such as: The new family, which is based on up to six 64-bit ARMv8-A technology processor cores and includes a HiFi 4 DSP, LPDDR4 and DDR4 memory support as well as dual Gigabit Ethernet with audio video bridging (AVB) capability, is designed to advance automotive dashboard graphics such as instrument clusters, infotainment visuals, heads-up displays, rear-seat screens and more. Capable of driving four HD screens with independent content or a […]

Hacking ARM TrustZone / Secure Boot on Amlogic S905 SoC

Amlogic S905 processor used in many Android TV boxes and ODROID-C2 development board implements ARM TrustZone security extensions to run a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) used for DRM & other security features. However, Frédéric Basse, a security engineer, worked with others and managed to bypass secure boot in one Amlogic S905 powered Android TV box, namely Inphic i7, but any other device based on the processor would have made the same thing possible. He explains the steps they went through and how they managed to exploit vulnerability to bypass secure boot in a detailed technical blog post. They first started by looking for info in Amlogic S905 datasheet, but most info about TrustZone had been removed from the public version. So not that much help here except a potential address for BOM Root (ROMBOOT_START   0xD9040000). The next step was to connect the UART pins in order to access the […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

VoCore2 WiFi IoT Board Launched with Audio, PoE & “Ultimate” Docks (Crowdfunding)

Vocore WiFi IoT board was popular at its launch in 2014 because affordable WiFi boards with I/Os were not common at the time, and it came with an Ethernet dock making it a complete router within a tiny and cute cube. The developers have been working on VoCore2 (aka Vocore V2) with a faster processor, more memory, a lower power consumption, a better WiFi signal, and more I/Os for several months, and have now launched the board on Indiegogo aiming to raise at least $6,000 for mass production. Vocore2 board specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7628AN MIPS processor @ 580 MHz System Memory – 128 MB DDR2 Storage – 16MB NOR FLASH, 1x SDXC via I/O pins Connectivity WiFi 802.11n 2T2R up to 300 Mbps with either 2 u.FL connector or 1 u.FL connector + on-board chip antenna (Max signal output >19.5dbm peak) 2x 10/100M Ethernet interfaces via I/O pins I/Os […]

Routers, IP Cameras/Phones & IoT Devices can be Security Risks even with the Latest Firmware, and a Strong Admin Password

ZTE-ZXHN-F600W

I’ve just read an interesting article entitled “who makes the IoT things under attack“, explaining that devices connected to the Internet such as router, IP cameras, IP Phones, etc.. may be used by Botnet to launch DDoS attacks, and they do so using the default username and password. So you may think once you’ve updated the firmware when available, and changes the default admin/admin in the user interface, you’d be relatively safe. You’d be wrong, because the malware mentioned in the article, Mirai, uses Telnet or SSH trying a bunch of default username and password. That made me curious, so I scanned the ports on my TP-Link wireless router and ZTE ZXHN F600W fiber-to-the-home GPON modem pictured below, and installed by my Internet provider, the biggest in the country I live, so there may be hundred of thousands or millions of such modems in the country with the same default […]

V-Bridge Muses Digital TV Modulator Boards Let You Broadcast Your Own TV Channel for $199 and Up (Crowdfunding)

I wrote about VATek VMB8202D Enmoder SoC handling both DVB, ATSC, DTMB and ISDB modulation and H.264 hardware encoding earlier this summer, and at the time, the company also planned to launch a crowdfunding campaign for two open source hardware DTV modulation boards in a couple of weeks. Weeks turned into months, but finally V-Bridge Muses boards and video input & RF daughterboards have now launched on Kickstarter where you can get your own live video broadcasting board for $199 and up. MUSES-α board MUSES-α board is the cheapest of the two boards, and features a header for the RF daughter board, and a USB port to connect to a computer. MUSES-α board specifications: SoC – VATek A1 32-bit RISC modulator chip Storage – SPI flash (unclear whether it can be accessed/modified by user) Modulation – DVB-T/C, ATSC/QAM, DTMB; RF header Video Encoding – N/A (handled by PC via USB […]

Two More Google Products: Google WiFi Mesh Router, and Google Home, an Amazon Echo Competitor

Google made a bunch a new product announcements with their Pixel phones, Daydream View VR headset, and Chromecast Ultra 4K dongle, but in this post I’ll write about two other new products: Google Home an Amazon Echo competitor powered by Google Assistant and supporting multi-room, as well as Google WiFi (Mesh) router aiming at providing WiFi all over the house by combining multiple WiFi routers. Google WiFi Router Most households now use a single router to provide WiFi to the home, but inevitably this introduce some dead or “slow WiFi” zones within the house. One way to work around this is to use WiFi repeaters, but it’s not always easy to setup and may lead to lower bandwidth. Google WiFi router uses a technology called mesh WiFi, where each router work together to determine the best path for your data using Network Assist technology to automatically choose and update the […]

UP 7000 SBC

Google Announces Pixel and Pixel XL Smartphones for $649 and Up

Google used to collaborate with smartphone manufacturers for their Nexus devices, but the company is now promoting their own Pixel brand, and has just launched Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, and running Android 7.0 Nougat operating system. Both smartphones share most of the same specifications, but XL has a larger screen, a bigger battery, and a higher price tag: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 (MSM8996 pro AB) Quad core Kryo processor with two cores at up to 2.15GHz, two cores at up to 1.6GHz, Adreno 530 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32 or 128 GB storage Display Pixel – 5.0″ FHD (1920×1080) AMOLED display; 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 Pixel XL – 5.5″ QHD (2560×1440) AMOLED display; 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 Camera 12.3 MP rear camera (IMX378 sensor) with laser and phase detection auto focus (LDAF + PDAF), f/2.0 aperture […]

Upcoming 4K HDMI Streaming Sticks – Chromecast Ultra and EZCast 4K

Google has been introducing several “MadebyGoogle” device including the latest Chromecast Ultra support 4K and HDR, but it’s not the only 4K HDMI dongle to stream videos from your phone that’s about to be release as EZCast sticks are also getting an upgrade with EZCast 4K dongle supporting 4K Miracast, DLNA, and EZCast own protocol. Chromecast Ultra Chromecast Ultra specifications: Connectivity – 802.11ac (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) WiFi, Ethernet port (on power adapter) Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K resolution, HDR support USB – 1x micro USB port for power and data Dimensions – 58.20 ⌀ x 13.7 mm Weight – 47 grams (device); 101 grams (power adapter) Chromecast Ultra ships with a power cable (2m) and a power adapter with an Ethernet port. The device can be used with devices and/or computers running Android 4.1 and higher, iOS 8.0 and higher, Mac OS X 10.9 and higher, Windows […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC