CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

SOOCOO G1 is a $54 Action Camera with a Flexible Stick

Last year, a company, now called BOUD, launched Flex Cam PIC actions camera with an innovative and cute stick that can bend as needed, either straightened to use it as a selfie stick, or rolled around an object. The project launched on Indiegogo, but had some delays, and over the course of last year I received a few emails asking me when the camera would be ready. While development is close to the end, and backers should receive their rewards soon, SOOCOO, a Chinese company known for their action & sports camera, must have thought it was a pretty neat idea, and decided to create their own version of Flex Cam PIC with G1 model using a similar, but removable, flexible stick. SOOCOO G1 camera specifications: SoC – “SUI chipset” (I could only “map” SUI to Sensor Unlimited Inc, but they don’t seem to mostly provide industrial solutions) Storage – […]

January 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Wi-Fi HaLow is the Consumer Name for 802.11ah Low Power Long Range WiFi

For some reasons, people who decide to name things like to give one name for technical people, and another for consumers. A few years ago, I went to buy a 1080p TV, but at first the seller was confused when I asked, and then I talked about resolution, and when he asked “Full HD” or “HD Ready”? It was my turn to me confused. There are several other example such as Bluetooth Low Energy for geeks may be Bluetooth Smart for consumers, and now the Wi-Fi alliance has just announced that IoT devices and gateway featuring the latest 802.11ah standard will be designed as Wi-Fi HaLow devices. They have not come up with a Wi-Fi Halow logo yet… Nevertheless, apart from the name, nothing appears to have changed. HaLow/802.11ah is still the same Wi-FI standard operating at 900MHz targeting IoT applications with low power, long range (up to 1km), and […]

January 5, 2016May 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mediatek Unveils MT2523 SiP for GPS Enabled, Bluetooth LE Wearables

Silicon manufacturers are starting to launch ever more integrated solutions specifically designed for wearables, and after Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor unveiled a few days ago, MediaTek has launched MT2623 ARM Cortex M4 System-in-Package (SiP) with GPS, Bluetooth LE, and a MIPI DSI interface. Other details are sparse but here’s what the company disclosed for MT2523: MCU core – ARM Cortex M4 GPU – 2D accelerator supporting true colors, per-pixel alpha channel, anti-aliasing fonts, and 1-bit index color to save memory. Connectivity – Dual-mode Bluetooth Low Energy and GPS Display – MIPI DSI and serial interfaces Integrated PMU Battery Life – More than a week (typical) The SiP’s printed circuit board area is said to be 41% percent smaller than competitors’ solutions. MT2523 will be available to manufacturers in H1 2016, and found in active and fitness smartwatches a little later. Thanks to Nanik for the tip.

January 4, 2016January 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

PiPO X6S is a Windows 10 Cherry Trail mini PC with 4GB RAM, 64GB Storage, Dual Ethernet, and SATA Support

PiPO X6S is a Windows 10 mini PC powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 quad core processor with up to 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, and a 2.5″ internal SATA bay, that includes support for 802.11ac WiFi, and two Ethernet ports. PiPO X6S specifications (preliminary since the specs on GeekBuying are a complete mess, and pictures are lacking): SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz/1.84 GHz with Intel Gen8 HD graphics System Memory – 4 GB DDR3 Storage – 64 GB flash, 2.5″ SATA drive support, and micro SD slot up to 128GB Video and Audio Output – HDMI and AV Connectivity – 2x 10/100M Ethernet ports, 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 via Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 Plus Bluetooth card USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 port Misc – Reset and power button Power Supply – 5V/3A Dimensions – […]

January 4, 2016January 20, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

NavSpark mini is a $6 Arduino Compatible GPS Board

One person asked me whether any of the low cost boards in my Raspberry Pi Zero vs CHIP vs Orange Pi One comparison post came with GPS, and the answer is not without some external hardware. The only low cost boards with GPS I could think of were LinkIt ONE and NavSpark. I wrote about the latter over 2 years ago when the board launched via a crowdfunding campaign, so I went to the update page to find out more about the current status, and found two updates made in the last 6 months, including one about Navspark mini, a tiny board with GPS support, removing the USB port and having fewer I/Os compared to its older brother. NavSpark mini specifications: MCU – Skytraq Venus828F 32bit LEON3 Sparc-V8 MCU @ 100MHz with IEEE-754 Compliant Floating Point Unit, 1024KB Flash Memory, and 212KB RAM GPS 167 channel Venus 8 engine Uses […]

January 4, 2016January 4, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Zotac ZBOX Pico T4 is an Intel Atom x7-Z8700 based mini PC

While there are plenty of mini PCs based on Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Cherry Trail processor on the market, it’s much more difficult to find more powerful Intel Atom x7 mini PCs, and the only option that I’m aware of is MagicStick Wave TV stick, but while the project was very successful in raising money on Kickstarter, they have not exactly delivered on their December 2015 shipping deadline, and instead shipping has been postpone to March 2016 for now. Luckily, there will be soon another option with Zotac ZBOX Pico T4 coupled with 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, USB 3.0, 802.11ac WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and more. ZBOX Pico T4 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x7-Z8700 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.60 GHz/2.40 GHz (turbo) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 600MHz with 16EU. System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 32 GB storage + micro SD slot Video Output – […]

January 4, 2016January 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 53 Comments

Faster H.265/HEVC Video Encoding with Nvidia GTX960 GPU and ffmpeg

H.265 promises the same video quality as H.264 when using half the bitrate, so you may have thought about converting your H.264 videos to H.265/HEVC in order to reduce the space used by your videos. However, if you’ve ever tried to transcoding videos with tools such as HandBrake, you’ll know the process can be painfully slow, and a single movie may take several hours even with a machine with a power processor. However, there’s a better and fster solution thanks to hardware accelerated encoding available in some Intel and Nvidia graphics cards. For this purpose, GearBest sent me Maxsun MS-GTX960 graphics card, a second generation Maxwell GPU, that supports H.265 accelerated video encoding and promised up to 500 fps video encoding. So I’ve put the graphics card to the test in a computer running Ubuntu 14.04, and reports some of my findings here. Similar instructions can also be followed in […]

January 3, 2016May 16, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 37 Comments

Raspberry Pi Zero, C.H.I.P, and Orange Pi One Boards’ Features and Price Comparisons

With Raspberry Pi Zero, Next Thing C.H.I.P, and Orange Pi One, we now have have three ARM Linux development boards selling (now or soon) for less than $10 excluding shipping and taxes. So I’d think it would be interesting to compare the features of the boards, and prices for different use cases. The comparison table below shows the three boards features side-by-side with items highlighted in green for the best or extra features, and in red for the weakest. Some cells will have to be filled later as data is currently not available (marked TBD). Raspberry Pi Zero C.H.I.P Orange Pi One Processor Broadcom BCM2835 single core ARM11 processor @ 1GHz (~1250 DMIPS) Allwinner R8 Cortex A8 processor @ 1 GHz (2000 DMIPS) Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz (4x 2280 DMIPS) GPU VideoCore IV ARM Mali-400 ARM Mali-400MP2 Video Decoding 1080p30 for H.264, MPEG2* and […]