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Texas Instruments MSP430 Devkit Facebook Promotion

Texas Instruments is currently offering 50% discount on selected development kits for its Facebook Fans for purchase on TI eStore until stocks last. The two development kits are sold at 50% discount: EZ430-Chronos-433 – eZ430-Chronos Wireless Watch Development Tool, a highly integrated, wireless development system based for the CC430 in a sports watch. It may be used as a reference platform for watch systems, a personal display for personal area networks, or as a wireless sensor node for remote data collection. The original price is 49 USD, but it can be ordered for 24.50 USD (including shipping) with the promo code: FCB-sfVwiUYe EZ430-F2013 – MSP430 USB Stick Development Tool, a complete development system with detachable target board and USB emulator. Ideal for new users. The original price is 20 USD, but it can be ordered for 10 USD (including shipping) with the promo code: FCB-ZC7Y86yQ I’ve ordered the Wireless Watch […]

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Qemu Linaro Versatile Express Image on Ubuntu 10.10

I’ve installed qemu-linaro and run an ARM image based on the instructions on https://wiki.linaro.org/PeterMaydell/QemuVersatileExpress. I used Ubuntu 10.10 desktop edition. First, install the Linaro images tools: sudo apt-get install linaro-image-tools Download the Linaro release and versatile hardware pack: wget http://releases.linaro.org/platform/linaro-n/nano/alpha-3/linaro-natty-nano-tar-20110302-0.tar.gz wget http://releases.linaro.org/platform/linaro-n/hwpacks/alpha-3/hwpack_linaro-vexpress_20110302-0_armel_supported.tar.gz You can download another hwpack for omap3, i.mx51, pandaboard, beagleboard, ST U8500, etc.. if needed at http://releases.linaro.org/platform/linaro-n/hwpacks/alpha-3/ Download the source, extract it, then configure, build and install qemu linaro: wget http://launchpad.net/qemu-linaro/trunk/2011.03-1/+download/qemu-linaro-0.14.50-2011.03-1.tar.gz tar xzvf qemu-linaro-0.14.50-2011.03-1.tar.gz cd qemu-linaro-0.14.50-2011.03-1 ./configure –prefix=/usr make sudo make install Make sure the prefix is set to /usr in order to overwrite any previous version of Qemu (It installed qemu linaro in /usr/local/ instead in my case). Failure to do so may generate the following error during linaro-media-create: qemu: fatal: cp15 insn ee1d6f70 Instead of compiling qemu, you can install qemu-linaro with apt-get (this will avoid possible version issues between linaro-media-create and qemu): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linaro-maintainers/tools […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Cross compiling SQLite for ARM and MIPS

Following my blog entry about Databases for Linux Embedded Systems, here are the instructions to cross-compile SQlite. First download the latest version of SQLite amalgamation with autoconf script (version 3.75): wget http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite-autoconf-3070500.tar.gz Extract the source code: tar xzvf sqlite-autoconf-3070500.tar.gz Configure and build the source code. I’ll use mipsel-linux-gcc, but any other cross-compiler could be used. cd sqlite-autoconf-3070500 ./configure –host=mipsel-linux –target=mipsel-linux –prefix=/home/jaufranc/edev/sqlite-mips make make install At this point the library is correctly configured and installed, so you’d just need to copy the relevant files to your target board (skip include and share directories and  libsqlite3.a) . Let’s check the size of the required files: ls -l ../sqlite-mips/bin/ -rwxr-xr-x 1 jaufranc jaufranc 125513 2011-03-14 14:21 sqlite ls -l ../sqlite-mips/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 -rwxr-xr-x 1 jaufranc jaufranc 2087584 2011-03-14 14:21 ../sqlite-mips/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 sqlite binary is 122.57KB and the dynamic library 2038.65KB. Let’s see if we can optimize the binary size with compilation flags and by disabling some […]

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Tablet Reference Design based on Samsung Exymos 4210

HardKernel, a Korean company, announced the ODROID-A, a tablet reference design based on Samsung Exymos 4210 (codename Orion), dual-core ARM Cortex-A9, Mali-400 GPU, 1GB Low Power DDR2, 10.1 inch 1366 x 768 TFT with capacitive multi-touch, Dual Camera, HSPA evolution, 9-axis sensor and running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. They will update it to Android 3.0 later on. This development kit will be available at the end of March 2011 for 749 USD (800,000 Won) for developers only. This should offer similar performance as the Motorola Xoom (except 3D maybe), and cost less which is a bit surprising for a development platform. They have an online community to support development on this hardware and they’ll provide the full source code and schematics free of charge. ODROID-A Specifications: Processor Samsung Exynos4210 Cortex-A9 Dualcore 1Ghz with 1MB L2 cache Memory 1024MB LP DDR2 800Mega data rate 3D Accelerator Mali-400 MP Core Micro-Sd slot 8GB […]

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Cypress Semiconductors PSoC Development Kits

Cypress Semiconductors was at Embedded World 2011 exhibiting their PSoC 5 development kits based on ARM Cortex M3 and analog & digital programmable modules. They had different development boards and demos based on PSoC 5: A simple board with PSoC 5, capacitive sensing, radio and accelerometer where they lit up a LED when the board moves  (CY8CKIT-014 kit – see below for details). A similar board with a dot-matrix LCD and a potentiometer, where they display the voltage at the Analog input on the LCD. (CY8KIT-010 kit – see below for details). A full development kit with PSoC 5, PSoC 3 and PSoc 5. (CY8KIT-001 kit – see below for details). Several demo of multi-touch and motion sensors capabilities etc.. The development kits are already available (engineering samples), but PSoC 5 will only be mass-produced in Q3 2011 since they are currently qualifying the chip. You can see the development […]

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Android 2.2 Media Player: Cidecko Simple Box AB03

Cidecko, a Taiwanese company, demoed its new Android media player the Cidecko Simple Box AB03 running Android 2.2 on an undisclosed  500 Mhz CPU  (Based on this frequency, could it be one of Sigma Designs SMP8650 series, e.g. SMP8653?) at CeBit 2011. They have an innovative remote control (named Air Keyboard AK02d) in the shape of a game controller with a full keyboard, an accelerometer and of gyroscope to control the menu. The set-top box has HDMI, component (YPbPr) and composite video outputs, optical audio output, 2x USB Host, an SD card reader (supports SDHC),  an Ethernet port and support Wifi (802.11n)  via an external dongle. Although it’s running Android 2.2, note that it does not support full flash, but only Flashlite 9.0. It can support the most popular video codecs including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, RMVB and VC-1 and audio codecs such as MPEG, Dolby, DTS.. The retail price of the […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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Android 2.2 IETV Smart Player by Shenzhen Ider Technology

Shenzhen Ider Technology (亿典华科技) showcased two Android 2.2 media player prototypes based on a Samsung ARM Cortex A8 Processor (Probably Samsung SOPC100) at CeBit 2011.  They feature an Ethernet port, one or several video output ports(HDMI / Component / Composite),  several USB Host ports and can output up to 1080p. The low cost version on have HDMI ouput, whereas the other version has HDMI, component and composite. Both devices support wireless mouse and keyboard and come with a magic remote (wii-like) to control Android. This is interesting to note that whereas other set-top boxes doe not use the Android home as there main menu, those media players do. The low cost version would be around 60 to 80 USD for order larger than 1000 pieces and the higher cost version slightly over 80 USD.

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Freescale Home Energy Gateway Reference Platform

I’ve previously introduced Atmel / Mentor Embedded smart grid solutions, specifically Atmel In-Home Display hardware with Mentor’s Inflexion User Interface. Today, I’ll present Freescale Home Energy Gateway Reference Platform based on i.MX283 ARM 9 MCU, MC13224V Zigbee IC, 9S08QE32 MCU & MC34726 Regulator and running Windows® Embedded Compact 7. The home energy gateway is the interface between the utility-controlled smart grid and energy-consuming in-house objects. The graphical user interface (GUI) has been  design with Silverlight. Functions of the Home Energy Gateway Collect real-time energy consumption from smart meter and power consumption data from various in-house objects Control activation/deactivation of home appliances Generate dashboard to provide feedback about power usage Provide control menus to control appliances Provide a ubiquitous link to the broadband Internet Freescale home energy gateway solutions allow every point of the smart home to be connected and controlled from a central point, enabling power efficiency and energy optimization. […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications