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March 16, 2019March 17, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Vnopn K1 Fanless AMD Mini PC Sells for $134 and Up

There are plenty of sub-$200 Intel powered fanless mini PCs, but if you’re looking for AMD models it’s more of a struggle. Vnopn K1 is one of the rare low cost fanless AMD mini PCs, and the good news is that it’s sold for just $133.68 on Aliexpress plus a few extra dollars for shipping. There are few tricks to achieve this low price. First that’s a barebone model, and if you want memory, storage, and WiFi, the cost climbs to $168.67 with 2GB RAM, and a 32GB SSD. The 8W AMD A6-1450 quad core processor APU found in the mini PC is rather old as well since it was launched in 2013, or almost 6 years ago. Vnopn K1 specifications: APU – AMD A6-1450 quad core “Jaguar” processor @ 1.0 / 1.4 GHz (Turbo) with 2MB L2 cache, Radeon HD 8250 GPU; 8W TDP System Memory -2GB, 4GB, or […]

March 4, 2019April 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linux 5.0 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.0: Ok, so the last week of the 5.0 release wasn’t entirely quiet, but it’s a lot smaller than rc8 was, and on the whole I’m happy that I delayed a week and did an rc8. It turns out that the actual patch that I talked about in the rc8 release wasn’t the worrisome bug I had thought: yes, we had an uninitialized variable, but the reason we hadn’t immediately noticed it due to a warning was that the way gcc works, the compiler had basically initialized it for us to the right value. So the same thing that caused not the lack of warning, also effectively meant that the fix was a no-op in practice. But hey, we had other bug fixes come in that actually did matter, and the uninitialized variable _could_ have been a problem with another compiler. Regardless – all […]

January 23, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

HP Chromebook 11A G6 EE is Powered by AMD A4-9120C 6W Processor

AMD recently introduced the “new” AMD A6-9220C & A4-9120C low power processors specifically designed for Chromebooks. As pointed by CNX Software readers, AMD A6-9220 & A4-9120 processors (no “C”) have been around since 2016, and the just announced “C” (Chromebook) versions appears to be the same processors but with lower clock speed to meet the 6W TDP requirement. Two Chromebooks based on the new AMD processors – HP Chromebook 14 and Acer Chromebook 315 – were also showcased at CES 2019, and the former is now sold for $269.99. HP has already announced another AMD Chromebook with a smaller 11.6″ display: HP Chromebook 11A G6 EE (Education Edition). This model is expected to launch in February with the following specifications: SoC – AMD A4-9120C dual core processor @ 1.6 GHz / 2.4 GHz (Boost frequency), Radeon R4 graphics with 3 GPU Cores System Memory – 4GB of RAM Storage – […]

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

AMD A6-9220C & A4-9120C Low Power Processors Target Chromebooks

Intel will usually release new low power processors under 10W TDP every year, but that has not been the case for AMD, with the company releasing several 12-15W processors in the recent past like Ryzen Embedded V1000 series and the Ryzen 7 2700U processor I’m currently using my Ubuntu laptop. However, AMD has now announced two new A-series processors with a 6W TDP, namely A4-9120C and A6-9220C dual-core processors that specifically target Chromebooks. AMD A4-9120C key features: Processor – 2x CPU cores, 2x CPU threads @ 1.6 GHz / 2.4 GHz (Boost) Cache – 160KB L1 cache, 1MB L2 cache GPU – Radeon R4 graphics with 3x GPU Cores up to 600 MHz, support for H.26x, VP9 decode Memory – Single channel @ 1866 MHz Video Output – HDMI and DisplayPort Process – 28nm CMOS Package – FT4 TDP – 6 watts AMD A6-9220C key features: Processor – 2x CPU […]

December 26, 2018December 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Linux 4.20 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architectures

After Greg K-H handling Linux 4.19 release, Linus Torvalds is back at the helm, and released Linux 4.20 just before Christmas: Let’s face it, last week wasn’t quite as quiet as I would have hoped for, but there really doesn’t seem to be any point to delay 4.20 because everybody is already taking a break. And it’s not like there are any known issues, it’s just that the shortlog below is a bit longer than I would have wished for. Nothing screams “oh, that’s scary”, though. And as part of the “everybody is already taking a break”, I can happily report that I already have quite a few early pull requests in my inbox. I encouraged people to get it over and done with, so that people can just relax over the year-end holidays. In fact, I probably won’t start pulling for a couple of days, but otherwise let’s just […]

August 20, 2018August 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Tranquil PC’s AMD Ryzen Embedded Mini PC Supports Up to 4 Displays

AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor family was introduced last February, but if you’d wanted to buy a Ryzen Embedded mini PC today, you’ struggle to do so at least for a retail model. One option is to get an UDOO Bolt V3/V8 development board together its metal case and assemble the mini PC yourself. The solution was launched on Kickstarter however, and will only start shipping in December 2018 if everything goes according to plans. If you’d rather get a Ryzen Embedded mini PC a little earlier, Tranquil PC’s Mini Multi display PC may be an option with a choice of three Ryzen embedded V1000 processors, a fanless design, and support for up to 4 independent displays. Transquil PC’s mini multi-display PC Basic/Advanced/Advanced+ specifications: SoC Basic – AMD Ryzen Embedded V1202B, 2C/4T @ 2.3 / 3.2GHz, TDP: 12W-25W Advanced – AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B, 4C/8T @ 2.3 / 3.6GHz, TDP: […]

August 19, 2018December 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 60 Comments

Acer Aspire 3 A315-41G (AMD Ryzen 7 2700U) Laptop – Installing Ubuntu 18.04 and “Hidden” M.2 SSD Socket

Everyday I’m using a tower PC running Ubuntu 18.04 to take care of this blog, but when I travel it’s obviously not so convenient, so a few years ago I bought an Acer Aspire E5-421G laptop powered by an AMD A4-6210 processor with 4GB RAM, 512GB HDD, and a 14″ display. I installed Ubuntu on the laptop and it works, but with 4GB RAM, it’s not always usable while multitasking. For example I can run Thunderbird and Firefox, but if I ever make a Skype call for example, the system becomes unusable, and I have to close one of the programs. Tasks like video editing are also quite slow on the machine. So since I’m going to travel in a few weeks, I decided I needed a new laptop. My requirements were 8GB RAM, SSD and HDD support, a 15″ display, the ability to run Ubuntu 18.04, and possibly a […]

June 1, 2018June 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

UDOO BOLT AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 SBC Goes for $229 and Up (Crowdfunding)

While Intel has been outing low cost and low power processors with less than 10W TDP over the years with their Bay Trail, Cherry Trail, Braswell, Apollo Lake, and now Gemini Lake processors, AMD has not really ventured into the low power space, and the latest announcements about 10-12W processors was for their Embedded G-Series J Family, which I have not seen in many products. More recently, the company introduced Ryzen Embedded V1000 family of processors with 4 to 8 Zen cores, 4K support, 10 GbE interface, and more with a TDP of 12 to 25W for Ryzen Embedded V1202B & V1605B dual / quad core processors. The latest x86 UDOO board – dubbed UDOO BOLT – will be one of the rare AMD development boards available on the market with pricing starting at $229. Two versions of the board will be available: UDOO BOLT v3 with Ryzen Embedded V1202B, […]