CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

ESP-14 WiFi Module Combines ESP8266 with STM8S MCU

ESP8266 WiFi modules can be purchased for less than $3, while some STM8S 8-bit MCUs board sell for just above $1. A.I. Thinker decided to combine both by adding an STMicro STM8S003 micro-controller to ESP-12E module and called that ESP-14. ESP-14 specifications: WiSoC – Expressif ESP8266-EX WiSoC MCU – STMicro STM8S003F3P6 8-bit MCU @ 16 MHz with 1KB RAM, 8KB flash, and 128 bytes EEPROM Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi I/Os – STM8: 15 GPIOs also supporting I2C, SPI, UART, and up to 5 10-bit ADC ESP8266: E_GPIO0 to select operating mode (running or download) Power Supply – 3.3V Power Consumption – System Standby mode 70 mA; 0.5 μA shutdown @3.3V Dimensions – 24 x 16 mm STM8S controls ESP8266 by AT commands, and all but one of the I/Os are directly connected to STM8S. I can see at least two advantages: 5 ADC inputs are available, and for battery […]

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Reeman Playmate is a Robot for Kids Based on Rockchip RK3288 SoC

Rockchip processors are usually found in tablets and TV boxes, but one Shenzhen based company called Reeman has designed Playmate robot for kids powered by Rockchip RK3288 processor, which can take picture, sing, dance, tell stories, be used for video chat, and goes to recharge itself automatically when the batteries are low. The Rockchip processor takes care of a 10.1″ touchscreen display, stereo microphones, speakers, camera, and artificial intelligence which recognizes Chinese and to a lesser extend English language, and take relevant actions, while the motors and sensors are managed by a few ARM Cortex M3 micro-controllers. The robot is still in development, and the company is working on adding a 3D camera to recognize objects, which will allow the robot to find its charging dock among other things. The Android 4.4 robot will be available for 2,999 RMB (~$473) in Q1 2016 in China. Charbax filmed the robot at […]

October 26, 2015December 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 27 Comments

Beelink X2 4K TV Box Powered by Allwinner H3 is Now Selling for $32

Allwinner launched Allwinner H3 in December 2014 for Android TV boxes supporting 4K resolution selling for $35 to $50, but the first devices that started showing up in January sold for about $80. As the year passed, prices became more reasonable such as the $59 Zidoo X1 TV Box or $35 Tronsmart Draco H3 TV stick , and when Orange Pi PC development board launched for $15 + shipping, it was clear Allwinner H3 was a dirt cheap processor. The good thing is that you can now buy a 4K Android media player for just $31.99 shipped with Beelink X2 sold on GearBest. Beelink X2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.2GHz with quad core Mali-400MP2 System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 8 GB NAND flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Video Output – […]

October 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Top 10 Antutu Scores of 2015 for Smartphones So Far

I’m mainly focusing on Android mini PCs, and not so much on mobile devices. But this year, silicon vendors launched 64-bit ARM processor for TV boxes based on the low power Cortex A53 cores, lowering costs instead of improving performance of their 32-bit ARM processors, as media player don’t usually need very fast processor simply because video decoding is normally handled by the video engine. Two exceptions being Amazon Fire TV 2015 which gets over 51,000 points mostly thanks to MediaTek MT8173‘s two Cortex A72 cores, and Nvidia Shield Android TV box getting over 68,000 points, but sadly these two devices are not (easily) available worldwide yet. But on the mobile space, the race to faster and faster performance is still on, and according to a recent post on Antutu website (in Chinese), the fastest smartphones now reach over 75,000 points in the popular benchmark. I had to look up the […]

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Kingnovel R8 Android TV Box Review (VLC Edition)

Kingnovel R8 is one of the many Rockchip RK3368 based TV boxes on the market, and since I’ve already provided the specs, as well as pictures of the device and board, I’ll carry on with the review today. While I’m usually testing video playback in Kodi, I’ve only spent a short time with Kodi 15.2 on this box, and instead switched to VLC (aka VideoLAN), an another open source media player, and my favorite program to watch videos in my Ubuntu computer. Of course, I’ve also tested most hardware features and performance of the device. First Boot, and First Impressions Since I like to test worst case scenarios, I also make sure I use all the ports of the devices, and connected a USB hard drive, USB RF dongles, USB webcam, and relevant cables to the device before powering it up. Once you connect the power, I recommend you have […]

October 24, 2015October 27, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

giggleBits Hackable ARM & FPGA Router Comes with an SFP Cage and 5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports (Crowdfunding)

Remember Snickerdoodle board? If you don’t, the board is one of the cheapest Xilinx Zynq available on the market, and the project is currently on CrowdSupply, and 75% funded with 28 days left. They’ve just posted an update about a new daughterboard that I found interesting: giggleBits which provides 5 Gigabit Ethernet and an SFP cage on top of WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity already found on Snickerdoodle board. giggleBits + snickerdoodle specifications: SoC/Memory/Storage/WiFi via Snickerdoodle board: SoC Xilinx Zynq-7010 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 667 MHz + FPGA with 430K gates or Xilinx Zynq-7020 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 866 MHz + FPGA with 1.3million gates (~430K ASIC gates) System Memory – 512MB or 1GB LPDDR2-800 Storage – micro SD card slot, 16MB boot flash Ti Wilink 8 – single or dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 Expansion – 4x 40-pin TFM headers for access […]

October 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Rikomagic MK36S mini PC is Powered by Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Processor

Rikomagic MK36S is one of the latest mini PCs featuring Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor combined with 2GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash, and is basically a processor upgrade to the company’s MK36 mini PC based on Intel Atom Z3736F processor. MK36S specifications with highlights in bold showing improvements over MK36: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz (Burst/Turbo frequency: 1.84 GHz) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 500 MHz System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI Audio I/O – HDMI, 3.5mm microphone jack Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 port Misc – Power button, LED on top of device Power Supply – 12V/2A Dimensions & Weight – N/A The device will come pre-installed with Windows 10, […]

October 23, 2015October 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Ugoos UT3+ Rockchip RK3288 TV Box Supports HDMI Input with PiP and DVR Functions

Ugoos has been working on four new TV box models for the end of year, and one of them is Ugoos UT3+, an Android 4.4 TV box powered by Rockchip RK3288 processor that includes an HDMI input. While it’s not the first RK3288 mini PC with an HDMI input, AFAIC it is the first that supports both picture-in-picture (PiP), and video recording function (DVR), which are also supported by Zidoo X9, but with an Mstar processor. Ugoos UT3+ specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 @ 1.8 GHz with ARM Mali-T764 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 (1GB optional) Storage – 16GB NAND Flash (Options: 8, 32 or 64GB) + micro SD slot up to 32 GB Connectivity – 100/1000M Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) and 802.11ac with external Wi-Fi antenna Video I/F Output – HDMI 1..4 output up to 4k2k @ 30 fps Input – […]