CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

TV Box Market Data (for China): Weekly Sales, Average Prices, Most Popular Devices & Streaming Services

I’ve recently seen a tweet from IloveRockchip twitter account about the weekly sales data, and market share of octa-core, quad-core, and other OTT TV boxes. The chart below shows 108,000 Android TV boxes were sold on the 37th week of 2016 (September 12 – 18), and that while quad core TV boxes still held 77% market share that week, octa-core sales grew by 108%. The downside is that the data is only for the Chinese market. But I still found interesting to investigate whether I could get more information. The research company, All View Cloud, will release weekly data to their paid customers, but a free sample report for Week 21 (16-22 May) can be downloaded from their website (N.B.: The link does not work in Firefox for me, but it does in Chrome). “SALES” must be the quantity, roughly between 100,000 and 150,000 units sold per week, and if […]

September 28, 2016September 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments

FriendlyARM Introduces NanoPi NEO AIR Board with WiFi & BLE, Camera Interface and 8GB Storage for $17.99

FriendlyARM launched NanoPi NEO board with Allwinner H3 processor, Ethernet, and USB ports for $7.99 to $9.99 in July, and the company is back with a new board with the same form factor and processor, by trading Ethernet for WiFi, dropping one USB 2.0 port for a DVP camera interface, and adding an 8GB eMMC flash. NanoPi NEO AIR specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash (Samsung) + micro SD card slot Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 LE (via Ampak AP6212 module) with IPEX antenna connector USB – 1x micro USB OTG port, 2x USB via headers Camera – 1x DVP camera interface with optional 5MP CAM500B camera Expansion headers 24-pin header with I2C, 2x UART, SPI, PWM, and power signals 12-pin […]

September 27, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

BeagleBone Black Wireless Board Gets WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 LE, Drops Ethernet

The BeagleBone Black is still one of the most popular development boards around, but in a world going more and more wireless, it only comes with a wired Ethernet interface. Seeed Studio BeagleBone Green Wireless and Neuromeka BeagleBone Air already provided BeagleBone compatible boards with WiFi and Bluetooth LE, as well as Zigbee for the latter, but now BeagleBoard.org themselves have launched BeagleBone Black Wireless with WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 LE based on Octavo Systems OSD3358 System-in-Package with Texas Instrument Sitara AM3358 processor, 512 MB RAM, TI LDO and PMIC, and many passive components. BeagleBone Black Wireless specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358 Cortex A8 @ 1 GHz with PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3L Storage – 4GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot USB – 1x mini USB client port for power & communication, 1x USB host port Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth […]

September 27, 2016September 27, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

Orange Pi Zero and Orange Pi i96 96Boards IoT Edition Boards Coming Soon

Shenzhen Xunlong Orange Pi boards are relatively popular thanks to their low price, and support on communities such as Armbian, but two new upcoming Orange Pi boards might make the company even more relevant in the development board space. First, the company is nearing completion of the tiny, and hopefully ultra cheap, Orange Pi Zero board with Allwinner H2+ processor, and Linaro has announced that an Orange Pi i96 boards compliant with 96Board IoT specifications is also coming soon. Orange Pi Zero The board has not been released, but some pictures have been uploaded to Armbian forums. Orange Pi Zero looks quite similar to NanoPi NEO board but with different processor, a slightly larger form factor, and both Ethernet and wireless connectivity. We don;t have other information for now, but it still possible to get most of Orange Pi Zero specifications from the photos: SoC – Allwinner H2(+) quad core […]

September 27, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

BLE Carbon 96Boards IoT Edition Board Runs Zephyr OS

Linaro Connect Las Vegas 2016 is taking place right now, and the organization has some very interesting development, with a new focus on the Internet of Things thanks to the creation of LITE (Linaro IoT and Embedded) segment group that will work on “delivering end to end open source reference software for more secure connected products, ranging from sensors and connected controllers to smart devices and gateways, for the industrial and consumer markets”. The first LITE IoT Reference Platform release to be made in December 2016, but in the meantime, Linaro introduced 96Board IoT specifications, as well as the first compliant board with the launch of Carbon board (aka BLE Carbon) running Zephyr OS. Carbon 96Boards IoT Edition board specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F401 ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller @ up to 84 MHz with 512kB Flash, 96kB ram Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE via Nordic Semi nRF51822 SoC + chip […]

September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Parrot S.L.A.M Dunk is a Ubuntu & ROS Computer with 3D Depth Cameras for Drones & Robots

Parrot and Canonical have partnered to develop the Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk development kit for the design of applications for autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, indoor navigation and 3D mapping for drones and robots, and running both Ubuntu 14.04 and ROS operating systems. The name of the kit is derived from its “Simultaneous Localization and Mapping algorithm” (S.L.A.M) allowing for location without GPS signal. Parrot S.L.A.M Dunk preliminary specifications: SoC – NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor Camera – Fish-eye stereo camera with a 1500×1500 resolution at 60fps Sensors – Inertial-measurement unit (IMU), ultrasound sensor up to 15 meters range, magnetometer, barometer Video Output – micro HDMI USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 port, 1x USB 3.0/2.0 port Weight – 140 grams Parrot S.L.A.M dunk can be fitted various drones and robotic platforms such as quadcopters and fixed-wings, rolling robots and articulated arms using mounting kits. The computer module is then connected to the host […]

September 26, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Roqos Core AC Router Runs Debian on Intel Atom Bay Trail-I Processor for $19… Plus Monthly Subscriptions

Roqos Core router is interesting on several front. First it’s quite powerful and features-rich with an Intel Atom E3845 processor, five Gigabit Ethernet ports, 802.11ac WiFi, a USB 3.0 port, and even an HDMI port allowing you to use it as a Media Center too. It should also be quite customizable, software wise, since it runs Debian, and finally the business model is also different, as you only need to pay $19 for the router, with the catch that you need to subscribe Roqos Service with “advanced cybersecurity and parental control features” for $17 per month for at least 12 months, bringing the total to $223. After one year, you can opt out of the cloud service, and continue to use the router without the extra security features. Roqos Core RC10 router hardware specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Bay Trail-T E3845 quad core processor @ up to 1.91 GHz (10W […]

September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

SoftKinetic Announces DepthSense 544 ToF Camera for Mobile Devices

SoftKinetic has recently unveiled DepthSense 544 3D depth sensing ToF camera for mobile devices, which they claim is the world’s smallest ToF camera, with the “highest level of efficiency available on the market, perfect for small form factors such as smartphones and wearables”. That’s all nice, but what does ToF mean? ToF stands for Time of Flight, and ToF cameras calculate the distance by measuring the time the light signal travels between the camera and the object as explained by Wikipedia: A time-of-flight camera (ToF camera) is a range imaging camera system that resolves distance based on the known speed of light, measuring the time-of-flight of a light signal between the camera and the subject for each point of the image. The time-of-flight camera is a class of scannerless LIDAR, in which the entire scene is captured with each laser or light pulse, as opposed to point-by-point with a laser […]