CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 17, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Google Releases Tensorflow Lite Developer Preview for Android & iOS

Google mentioned TensorFlow Lite at Google I/O 2017 last may, an implementation of TensorFlow open source machine learning library specifically optimized for embedded use cases. The company said support was coming to Android Oreo, but it was not possible to evaluate the solution at the time. The company has now released a developer preview of TensorFlow Lite for mobile and embedded devices with a lightweight cross-platform runtine that runs on Android and iOS for now. TensorFlow Lite supports the Android Neural Networks API to take advantage of Machine Learning accelerators when available, but falls back to CPU execution otherwise. The architecture diagram above shows three components for TensorFlow Lite: TensorFlow Model – A trained TensorFlow model saved on disk. TensorFlow Lite Converter – A program that converts the model to the TensorFlow Lite file format. TensorFlow Lite Model File – A model file format based on FlatBuffers, that has been […]

November 17, 2017January 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

BenQ W1700 4K HDR Video Projector to Sell for Less than $2,000

[Update: The project is now for sale on Amazon for $1,499 shipped] 4K UltraHD TVs have now become affordable, with prices not that far from HD television sets for a given size. But what about 4K projectors? We first find out about development in this space with a demo for Texas Instruments 4K DLP chip in January 2016 at CES. Close to the end of that year, I had another look while writing about a $70,000 Canon 4K projector based on laser technology, and found out the cheapest true 4K projector would sell for around $10,000. I did not pay to much attention to 4K projectors this year, but I’ve been informed that Benq has come up with an affordable 4K HDR projector: W1700 / HT2550 (US) that will start selling for 1,599 Euros including VAT (around $1,885 US) next January. This could well mean $1,600 once it is launched […]

Graperain Samsung, Rockchip, and Qualcomm CPU modules, SBCs, and carrier boards

November 17, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

WandPi 8M Development Board Coming Soon with NXP i.MX8M SoC for $89 and Up

Wandboard launched in 2012 using Freescale i.MX6 Solo/Dual processor, following soon after by Wandbord Quad. We are not hearing much about those boards today, but since the processor comes with 10 to 15-year long term support, they are still being sold, and software keeps getting updated. For example, the board first shipped with Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), and the company recently provided Android 7.1 (Nougat) images, and Android 8.x Oreo is likely coming next year. The company has now unveiled the next generation of Wandboard boards with WandPi 8M powered by NXP i.MX 8M Cortex A53/M4 processors, with up to 2GB DDR4, 16GB eMMC flash, and various network connectivity options and ports. Three versions of the board (Lite, Pro, Deluxe) will be available with the following specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX8M Quad with four ARM Cortex A53 cores, a Cortex M4F real-time core, and Vivante GC7000Lite GPU with support for […]

November 16, 2017November 17, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Now Fully Supports Arm servers

When hardware vendors announced Arm based servers they also claim support for operating systems such as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so I assumed software support was more or less where it needed to be with regards to Arm server. But apparently, it may not have been so, as Red Hat only announced full support for Arm servers in Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM a few days ago. It also started with SBSA (Server Base System Architecture) specifications in 2014, that aimed to provide a single operating platform that works across all 64-bit ARMv8 server SoCs that complies with the said specification. Red Hat then released a developer preview of the OS for silicon and OEM vendors in 2015, and earlier this week, the company released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 for Arm, the first commercial release for this architecture. RHEL 7.4 for Arm come with […]

November 16, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

STMicro Introduces Ultra-efficient STM32L4+ Series MCUs with Better Performance, Chrom-GRC Graphics Controller

STMicroelectronics has announced an upgrade to their STM32L4 series Cortex-M4 micro-controllers with STM32L4+ series upping the maximum frequency from 80 MHz to 120 MHz delivering up to 150 DMIPS (233 ULPMark-CP) , and ultra low power consumption as long as 33 nA in shutdown mode without RTC. The new family also adds Chrom-GRC graphics controller (GFXMMU) that can handle both circular and square TFT LCD displays together with a MIPI DSI interface and displayer controller, making it ideal for wearables, Chrom-ART 2D accelerator for better graphics performance, two Octo SPI interfaces, and more memory (640KB max) and storage (up to 2MB flash). If you want to know all differences between STM32L4 and STM32L4+, and/or learn how to use peripherals, STMicro has setup a nice free STM32L4+ online training page, which allow you to do just that either by downloading PDF documents, or following e-Presentations with slides and audio. STM32L4+ appears […]

November 16, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

LEAGOO T5c Smartphone Features Spreadtrum SC9853i Octa-core Intel Airmont SoC

Intel is supposed to have left the mobile and IoT markets, but a few month ago, I wrote about Spreadtrum SC9861G-IA, an octa-core Intel Airmont SoC designed for LTE smartphones. Airmont is the microarchitecture used in Intel’s Cherry Trail and Braswell SoC, so the Spreadtrum SoC is not based on a new microarchitecture, but it still shows Intel decided to still use the technology, just not with their name on the processor. The news was published in February, but so far I have not seen any phone based on the processor. Instead, a similarly specced SoC, namely Spreatrum SC9853i, is now found in LEAGOO T5c 5.5″ smartphone with 3GB RAM and 32GB flash. LEAGOO T5c smartphone specifications: SoC – Spreatrum SC9853i octa-core Intel 64-bit Airmont “Cherry Trail-T” processor @ up to 1.8 GHz (14-nm FinFET process) System Memory – 3GB RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC flash Display – 5.5″ SHARP […]

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

November 16, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Meet the Blue Version of Raspberry Pi 3 Board, For Brazil Only

It’s always fun to buy electronics and gadgets from China, while there are sometimes technical “headaches”, they are mostly solvable and part of the fun. But in some cases, government regulations and customs ruin the party even before you get the device. Most of the time, it’s just in the form of unexpected custom duties, but other times, you may get a phone call asking you to get some documents… With experience, I’ve learned to give up at that point, but I tried one before… The courier will usually not tell you exactly what you need, just some clues, so I’ll have to make a few phone calls… After 8 phone calls to different government officers, I discovered that I needed a document saying I do not need document… Hooray! But sadly, it could not be done over the phone, online, or by snail mail, I would have to go […]

November 15, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Allwinner H6 Datasheet and User Manual Released

Putting aside the ill-fated Allwinner A80 SoC, Allwinner H6 is the first Allwinner processor with multiple high speed interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and PCIe, and also support 4K HDR with the company’s Smart Color Engine for video processing. So far, it’s been found in some 4K HDR TV boxes such as Zidoo H6 Pro or Beelink GS1. We’ve already known Shenzhen Xunlong was working on Orange Pi 3 Plus board with the processor for a few months, but Pine64 appear to have joined the party, and will soon launch Pine64 H64 board according to their Wiki. No photos yet, but the company released various documents for the board including Allwinner H6 V200 datasheet (80 pages), and Allwinner H6 V200 user manual (965 pages). The documents should – for instance – allow sunxi-linux community to port drivers for the processor. Some corrections have been made to the first […]

Boardcon LGA3576 Rockchip RK3576 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications