Raspberry Pi 4 gets Vulkan 1.2 conformance, Android Vulkan support

Vulkan deferred shading with shadows

Iglia has done more work on the graphics driver for the VideoCore VI GPU found in Raspberry Pi 4 and other Broadcom BCM2711-based hardware with Vulkan 1.2 conformance, and Roman Stratiienko added Vulkan 3D graphics acceleration to Android, or more exactly LineageOS. Raspberry Pi and Iglia have been collaborating together since the launch of the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC to develop a Khronos conformant Mesa 3D graphics driver for the board, and that’s a long-term project that’s been going on for over two years, and not quite finished yet. Here’s a non-exhaustive timeline of the project so far: February 2020 – Raspberry Pi 4 V3DV driver gets OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance, work on Vulkan starts with the basic triangle demo showcased June 2020 – Vulkan driver source code released with many demos working on Raspberry Pi 4 October 2020 – Iglia gives a project update status presentation for Raspberry Pi […]

23.8-inch touch screen system with EDLA GMS for sports, healthcare, education, advertising, and home appliances (Sponsored)

23.8-inch touch screen system arm VESA mount

DataMax DP03F touch screen system comes with a 23.8-inch Full HD touchscreen display with anti-bacterial plastics and healthcare-certified components and runs Android 11 on an hexa-core Arm processor, either Rockchip RK3399 Arm Cortex-A72/A53 SoC or Amlogic A311D Arm Cortex-A73/A53 processor. This type of touch screen system can be used as a medical bedside terminal, digital signage, conference terminal, treadmill terminal, smart PoS, industrial panel PC, robots, and more. It would typically be mounted on the device itself, or in the case of hospital settings a VESA-compatible flexible arm to provide the patient with easy access to entertainment and education, while doctors, nurses, or the patient him/herself can check out clinical records and vital signs. DataMax DP03F specifications: SoC (one or the other) Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores @ up to 1.4 GHz with Mali-T860 GPU Amlogic A311D hexa-core processor […]

Firefly Station M3 – A Rockchip RK3588S mini PC with up to 16GB RAM

Rockchip RK3588S mini PC

Firefly Station M3 is a mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor, the cost-down version of the RK3588, and equipped with up to 16GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash storage, support for M.2 SATA and NVMe SSD, 8K capable HDMI and DisplayPort (USB-C) video outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5, and more. The new model follows the Station M1 and Station M2 mini PCs with Rockchip RK3328 and RK3566 respectively and will deliver 4 times the CPU performance and up to 8 times the 3D graphics performance compared to the M2 model, but in a slightly larger and about twice as thick enclosure – probably for active cooling – than the first two Station M fanless mini PCs. Firefly Station M3 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores, Arm Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL […]

Inexpensive, Snapdragon 410-based “4G LTE WiFi Modem” made to run Debian 11

4G LTE WiFi Modem Debian 11 Linux 5.15

Some ultra-compact 4G LTE wireless routers housed in what looks like a largish USB dongle are based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 401 (MSM8916) quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and have been hacked to run Debian 11 with Linux 5.15 instead of the pre-loaded Android OS. Soon after Extrowerk had purchased a ~$20 “4G LTE WiFi modem” USB dongle, he noticed it would show as “Android” when connected to his PC. It also turned out that Chinese hacker HandsomeYingYan had already done some work on the device modding the lk2nd bootloader and the Linux kernel for the OpenStick project for “mainline Linux on msm8916-based 4G USB modem”, and documented his work (in Chinese) to run Debian 11 on the “4G USB WiFi Modem” pictured below. Let’s go through some of the specifications of the said wireless router: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) quad-core Arm Corte-A53 processor with System Memory – 512 MB RAM […]

Transpeed P10 Android 10 Full HD projector features Allwinner H700 SoC

Transpeed P10 Full HD Android 10 projector

Allwinner H700 is a “new” processor that has found its way into Transpeed P10 Full HD “portable” projector running Android 10. It is sold on Aliexpress for $125 including shipping. Allwinner H700 happens to be yet another derivative of Allwinner H616/H618 quad-core Corex-A53 processor, but adds an RGB LCD interface up to 1080p60 and video input interfaces that make it suitable for projector and smart displays. The processor also has two Ethernet interfaces (1x Gigabit and 1x 10/100M) like the H616, but no built-in PHY, so an additional Ethernet transceiver is needed on the board. Let’s first have a look a the Transpeed P10 projector specifications: SoC – Allwinner H700 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5GHz with Arm Mali-G31 mp2, 6K video decoder, and 4Kp25 H.264 video encoder System Memory – 2GB  RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Projector 1920×1080 native resolution LED bulb Brightness – 120 ANSI Lumens Projection […]

MECOOL KP1 projector review – Part 2: Android 11 TV OS and Full HD clarity

MECOOL KP1 projector review

In the first part of MECOOL KP1 smart projector review, I checked out the package content, projector design, and integrated HDMI stick running Android 11 TV, before going through the setup wizard, and trying the projector with Android 11. I’ve now spent more time with the device, so I’ll report my overall experience. The best way to install the projector is probably to mount it on a ceiling or a wall, but in my case, I just placed it on top of a shelf itself placed on top of a table to adjust the height for a comfortable viewing experience from our comfy seats. As we’ve seen before, the projector will boot directly to the Android 11 TV launcher from the included MECOOL KD5 TV stick. Android 11 TV OS runs on top of Linux 5.4.125, as we can see it’s a Hailstorm device that’s certified for Netflix and an […]

Allwinner H618 processor powers Android 12 TV boxes

Allwinner H618 TV Box Android 12

Allwinner H618 processor has started to show up in several TV boxes running Android 12, and capable of playing 6K/4K VP9 and H.265 videos with devices such as T95Z Plus and T95 Max, which may be confusing, as companies are reusing those model numbers over and over. Featuring a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, an Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, and 6K video support, the Allwinner H618 looks exactly like the Allwinner H616 processor except it can run the more recent Android 12 operating system. There’s not much public information about Allwinner H618 at the time of writing, but let’s check T95Z Plus specifications to see if we can find any other new hidden features: SoC – Allwinner H618 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.5GHz with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB or 4GB RAM Storage – 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card socket Video Output HDMI […]

Compact3566 – A Rockchip RK3566 SBC that closely follows Raspberry Pi 3 form factor

Rockchip RK3566 SBC vs Raspberry Pi 3

We’ve very recently written about Geniatech XPI-3566 SBC powered by Rockchip RK3566 CPU that somewhat follows the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B form factor. Boardcon Compact3566 offers similar features, but it appears to keep exactly the same port assignment as the Raspberry Pi SBC, so it should be compatible with more accessories. The Compact3566 SBC ships with up to 8GB LPDDR4 and 128GB eMMC flash, features Gigabit Ethernet & WiFi 5, four USB 3.0/2.0 ports,  HDMI 2.0 output, MIPI DSI and CSI interfaces, the 40-pin GPIO header, as well as extra built-in features such as an M.2 socket for storage, RTC with battery, and a built-in microphone. Compact3566 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.8 GHz with ARM Mali-G52 2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2. OpenCL 2.0. Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X Storage 8GB, 16GB, […]

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