Category: Processors

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments on Accelerated 3D Graphics, Hardware Video Decoding, and Network Performance on Orange Pi One Board (Video)

Accelerated 3D Graphics, Hardware Video Decoding, and Network Performance on Orange Pi One Board (Video)

I’ve just written Getting Started Guide for Orange Pi One, a $10 development board based on Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor, where I explain how to install and configure Armbian distribution on the board. As promised, I’ve also tested 3D graphics acceleration, and hardware video decoding, and also included some Ethernet benchmarks. Since ARM Mali-400 GPU found in Allwinner H3 is only capable of OpenGL ES, as in most ARM SoCs, you can test 3D graphics acceleration by using es2gears (and not glxgears as I’ve seen some other do in the past):

The log shows the utility is using Linux-r3p0 Mali driver, and the gears are display at a high frame rate close to 300 fps. If I switch to full screen, the frame rate drops to about 43 fps, which should still be acceptable. CedarX is the infamous closed source and GPL violating media library released […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments on Orange Pi One Board Quick Start Guide with Armbian Debian based Linux Distribution

Orange Pi One Board Quick Start Guide with Armbian Debian based Linux Distribution

Orange Pi One board is the most cost-effective development board available on the market today, so I decided to purchase one sample on Aliexpress to try out the firmware, which has not always been perfect simply because Shenzhen Xunlong focuses on hardware design and manufacturing, and spends little time on software development to keep costs low, so the latter mostly relies on the community. Recently, armbian has become popular operating systems for Linux ARM platform in recent months, so I’ve decided to write a getting started guide for Orange Pi One using a Debian Desktop image released by armbian community. Orange Pi One Unboxing But let’s start by checking out what I received. The Orange Pi One board is kept in an anti-static bag, and comes with a Regulatory Compliance and Safety Information sheet, but no guide, as instead the company simply asks users to visit www.orangepi.org to access information […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Lattice and Mediatek Announce superMHL Smartphone Reference Designs Supporting 4K over USB-C

Lattice and Mediatek Announce superMHL Smartphone Reference Designs Supporting 4K over USB-C

Two standards are competing to bring 4K video output @ 60 Hz and 8K over USB type C connectors: DisplayPort 1.4 and superMHL. Lattice, who purchased Silicon Image last year, and Mediatek have collaborated to provide reference designs supporting superMHL and based on Helio X20 deca-core processor combined with Lattice components. Lattice SiI8348 MHL transmitter would handle 4K 60 fps video and MHL power, while Sil7033 USB type-C port controller would also handle USB 3.1 data transfer up to 10 Gbps, USB-C power delivery (PD), MHL Alt-mode on USB-C. Lattice also leverage their SiI7013 mobile USB Typer-C port controller, SiI9396 mobile superMHL/MHL to HDMI bridge, and other chips to offer accessories such as USB-C to HDMI adapters, MHL cables, USB-C charger, and USB-C dock with multiple USB ports and HDMI output. Anandtech notes that one the main problem with USB type C connector is likely to be the cable, as many […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Cleo35 Touchscreen Display for Arduino UNO Comes with Tutorials and Example Projects (Crowdfunding)

Cleo35 Touchscreen Display for Arduino UNO Comes with Tutorials and Example Projects (Crowdfunding)

There are already various options to add a (touscheen) display to Arduino board with software support including TFTLibrary for Arduino,  and recently I tried Nextion serial touchscreen displays that are supported by a WYSIWYG editor, but the latter is only supported in Windows and not exactly user-friendly, and I found the few provided tutorials would only work with a specific resolution incompatible with the displays I had been sent. So I gave up on the idea of interfacing the display with Arduino or ESP8266 as it would be too time-consuming. FTDI CleO project might be faster and easier to get started, as their CleO35 touchscreen display for Arduino UNO will come with a 20 chapter tutorial covering over 80 topics, and 20 projects to get started. Some of the key features and specs of Cleo35 display include: MCU – FTDI FT903 32-bit FT32 core @ 100MHz with 256kB on-chip Flash […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Rippl-TV V2 Android 5.1 TV Box Features an Android TV-like Launcher, Supports Widevine L1 DRM

Rippl-TV V2 Android 5.1 TV Box Features an Android TV-like Launcher, Supports Widevine L1 DRM

The maker of Rippl-TV media player are back with Rippl-TV V2 featuring Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor coupled with 1GB RAM and 8GB flash, but the most interesting part of this device is probably on the software side with support for two launchers: Rippl-TV and an Android TV-like launcher, as well as support for Winevine L1 DRM allowing for HD playback of online video services such as Netflix, and Google Cast. [Update: While the company confirmed support for L1 DRM, a trusted third party has claimed that L1 DRM is currently buggy on Amlogic S905… Update 2: The company replied and there’s still a bug with Netflix TV app] Rippl-TV V2 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 processor up to 2.0 GHz with penta core ARM Mali-450 GPU up to 750Mhz+ System Memory –  1GB DDR3 Storage –  8GB eMMC flash + micro SD […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.5 on Sunday: So this is later on a Sunday than my usual schedule, because I just couldn’t make up my mind whether I should do another rc8 or not, and kept just waffling about it. In the end, I obviously decided not to,but it could have gone either way. We did have one nasty regression that got fixed yesterday, and the networking pull early in the week was larger than I would have wished for. But the block  layer should be all good now, and David went through all his networking commits an extra time just to make me feel comfy about it, so in the end I didn’t see any point to making the release cycle any longer than usual. And on the whole, everything here is pretty small. The diffstat looks a bit larger for an xfs fix, because that fix has […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments on SPMC 16.1.1 (Kodi 16.1 Android’s Fork) Adds Bluray 3D ISO Playback, HD Audio Pass-through, and Other Improvements

SPMC 16.1.1 (Kodi 16.1 Android’s Fork) Adds Bluray 3D ISO Playback, HD Audio Pass-through, and Other Improvements

You may remember SPMC (Semper Media Center), a fork of Kodi/XBMC, was released a few years ago to fix some issues with Rockchip processors that would not make it to Kodi mainline code. Koying, the project’s developer, has now forked Kodi 16.1 to add some bug fixes and experimental features, and released SPMC 16.1.1. Changelog compared to Kodi 16.1: Based on Kodi 16.1 HD Audio pass-through (Nvidia Shield AndroidTV + some Amlogic devices such as Minix U1 & Wetek Core at least) Autostart at boot (xbmc.autostart=true in xbmc_env.properties) GUI size setting (Allows 4K GUI on Nvidia Shield) Only give codec priority to Mediacodec (Surface) for 4K Only stop video on minimize for Mediacodec (Surface) “System” screensaver to enable daydream; all other screensavers disable daydream Get removable storage names from system Basic Bluray 3D iso playback (experimental; amlogic) Android TV recommendations and voice search (experimental) SSL enabled MySql Stop video playback […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on K3 Wintel Windows 10 Keyboard PC Review

K3 Wintel Windows 10 Keyboard PC Review

GeekBuying sent me K3 Wintel keyboard computer since I was interesting in testing a device in this form factor, and at the time I listed the specifications, and took a few pictures of the device and its internals. I’ve now completed the review, and found it to perform very well for a Bay Trail computer. K3 Wintel Key Computer Setup & System Info But the initial part of the review did not start so well, as I was asked for a license key for the device as went through the initial setup right after selecting my languages and regional settings. GeekBuying clearly states the mini computer comes with a “Licensed Windows 10”, and I could not find any on the device or the user’s guide, which appears to be a near-exact copy of a Windows 10 Lenovo tablet PC user’s guide… So I contacted GeekBuying, and after a few days, […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC