CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

MeLE PCG02U Intel Bay Trail TV Stick Runs Ubuntu, Costs $59

Once I asked MeLE if they planned to sells Bay Trail Ubuntu mini PCs, and they did not really seem interested, but the company has now changes their mind, as they are about to launch PCG02U TV stick powered by Intel Atom Z3735F processor with 1GB RAM, and 32GB flash for $59, which is likely to be the factory price, not the retail price. MeLE PCG02U specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.33 GHz (Bust freq: 1.83 GHz) with Intel HD graphics Gen 7 (2W TDP) System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SD slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 with external antenna USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port (for power only) Misc – Power button, Kensington lock Power Supply – 5V/2A […]

April 7, 2016April 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Rockchip RK3229 Video Playback Take 2 – 10-bit H.264 & H.265, Audio HD Pass-through with Zidoo X1 II

A few weeks ago I tried to play 4K videos in MXQ-4K TV box powered by Rockchip RK3229 processor. The device costs only about $30 including shipping, and it would have been if it could indeed play 10-bit H.265 and 10-bit H.264 videos for that price point, but sadly the results were catastrophic, and most of my 4K videos were unwatchable, either playing in slow motion, or with many slow downs and audio cuts. This happens in all players be it Kodi or Androids Video Player with the worst results occurring when playing from USB hard drive with network share video playback being a bit better. But I have now tested another Rockchip RK3229 based TV box – Zidoo X1 II – and the results are much better, so I also decided to show the results of HD audio pass-through over HDMI too. I played the videos from USB hard […]

April 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

ARM Cortex A72 is Getting into Sub $200 Android Smartphones Thanks to Mediatek Helio X20 SoC

Flagship Android smartphones now ship with processors featuring Cortex A72 cores, or custom variants from Samsung or Qualcomm, and normally cost several hundred dollars. Some new smartphones recently announced with MediaTek Helio X20 deca-core processor lower the price barrier in the $250 to $400 range, but at least two upcoming models will bring the cost below $200: Doogee P7 ($169.99), and Vernee Apollo Lite ($199.99). So let’s see what we’ve got for those prices. Doogee P7 Doogee P7 (preliminary) Specifications: SoC – Mediatek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core processor with 2x Cortex A72 cores @ 2.5 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 2.0 GHz, and 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 1.4 GHz and ARM Mali-T880MP GPU @ 850 Mhz System Memory – 3GB RAM Storage – 16 GB storage and micro SD slot up to 64GB (shared with dual SIM slot) Display – 5.5″ capacitive touchscreen, 1920×1080 resolution; 160K colors Cellular […]

April 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

BPI-GSM Arduino Compatible Board Integrates a GSM & GPS Module, Sensors and an OLED Display

Banana Pi team has come up with another board, but this time it does not run Linux or Android, as they’ve made an Arduino compatible board called BPI-GSM based on Atmel ATmega2560 MCU with a light sensor, DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor, and a GSM/GRPS & GPS module powered by a LiPo battery. BPI-GSM board specifications: MCU – Atmel ATmega2560 8-bit AVR MCU @ 16 MHz with 256 KB flash, 8KB SRAM, 4KB EEPROM Connectivity – Simcom SIM808 GSM, GPRS, and GPS module + SIM card slot + Sensors – DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor, light sensor Display – OLED display Expansion headers – 54x digital I/O (including 14x PWM), 16x analog input, 4x UART. Max DC current per I/O: 40 mA. Misc – Reset button, LEDs Power Supply 5V via micro USB port 3.7V LiPo battery (2,500 mAh battery included in kit) Dimensions – TBD The board can be […]

April 6, 2016April 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Amlogic S912 Processor Specifications

Amlogic plans to launch at least three new processors for OTT boxes and set-top boxes this year: Amlogic S905X, Amlogic S912, and Amlogic S905D. We already knew Amlogic S905 specifications, but I’ve recently received a document with some more details about Amlogic S912 revealing Mali-T820 GPU, a lack of USB 3.0 support, but still some interesting features such as HDMI 2.0a, 4K VP9, 10-bit H.265, Gigabit Ethernet Mac, and so on. Amlogic S912 specifications with highlights in bold showing differences with Amlogic S905X: CPU Sub-system – Octa core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2 GHz (DVFS) with two CPU clusters one optimized for high performance (big) and the other for low power (LITTLE) 3D Graphics Processing Unit –ARM Mali-T820MP3 GPU up to 750MHz (DVFS) with 3 shader engines supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.03.1, DirectX 11 FL9_3, OpenCL 1.1/1.2 full profile and RenderScript. 2.5D Graphics Processor – Fast bitblt engine with dual […]

April 6, 2016April 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

PULPino Open Source RISC-V MCU is Designed for IoT and Wearables

lowRISC is not the only open source processor project based on RISC-V instructions, as researchers at ETH Zurich university and the University of Bologna have developed PULPino open-source processor based on RISC-V instructions set, optimized for low power consumption, and targeting wearables and the IoT applications. PULPino is a single core processor derived from the PULP project (Parallel Ultra-Low-Power Platform) featuring a quad core RISC-V SoC with new RI5CY Signal Processing ISA extensions designed by the universities. The core has an IPC (instructions per cycle) close to 1, full support for the base integer instruction set (RV32I), compressed instructions (RV32C) and partial support for the multiplication instruction set extension (RV32M). PULPino also features peripherals such as I2S, I2C, SPI and UART. PULPino has already been taped out as an ASIC in UMC 65nm at the beginning of the year, but the RTL code be run on Xilinx Zynq-7010 powered Zedboard, […]

April 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

$50 Roku Streaming Stick 2016 Edition (Model 3600) Is Faster and Smaller

Roku has introduced a updated version of their Roku Streaming Stick with a faster quad core processor, that’s supposed to he 8 times faster than the previous model, and with more processing power than Amazon Fire TV stick and ChromeCast. The company did not release all hardware specifications, but here’s what we know: Processor – Unnamed quad core processor Video Output – HDMI with 720p or 1080p resolution Audio Output – Digital stereo over HDMI, DTS Digital Surround pass-through over HDMI Connectivity – 802.11 (a/b/g/n compatible) with WEP, WPA, and WPA2 support Power Supply- 5.0V – 1.5A USB power adapter; 3W typical power consumption when streaming HD video Dimensions – ~8.4 x 2.03 x 1.27 cm Weight – 17 grams The device runs the latest Roku OS 7.1, and ships with a point-anywhere RF remote, two AAA batteries for the remote, a USB power cable and power adapter, and a […]

April 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

$35 Arduino MKR1000 Board is Powered by Atmel ATSAMW25 WiFi Module

Arduino LLC has launched a new official Arduino board with MKR1000 board under the Arduino brand in the US, and Genuino brand in the rest of the world. The tiny board features Atmel ATSAMW25 SmartConnect module comprised of Atmel SAMD21 ARM Cortex-M0+ MCU, WINC1500 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi chip, and ECC508 CryptoAuthentication device. MKR1000 specifications: MCU – Atmel SAMD21 Cortex-M0+ MCU @ 48 MHz with 32KB SRAM, 256 KB flash memory WiFi – 802.11b/g/n WiFi (2.4 GHz) via WINC1500 with 1×1 PCN antenna, support for SHA 256 certificates. I/Os 8x digital I/Os 12x PWM pins 1x UART, 1x SPI, 1x I2C 7x analog input pins 1x analog output pin 8x external interrupts Operating voltage – 3.3V DC Current per I/O Pin – 7 mA USB – micro USB port for power and programming Misc – RTC, power and charge LEDs Power Supply 5V only via USB or VIN pin Li-Po […]