Intel Has Started Sampling Altera Stratix 10 ARM Cortex A53 + FPGA SoC

Intel bought Altera last year, which means Intel is now in the FPGA business, and the company has recently announced they had started to provide samples of Startix 10 SoC manufactured using Intel 14 nm tri-gate process. The interesting part if that beside FPGA fabric, the SoC also includes four ARM Cortex A53 cores. Intel / Altera Stratix 10 SoC key features and specifications: Processor – Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 MP Core up to 1.5 GHz Logic Core Performance –  1 GHz Logic Density Range – 500K LE – 5.5M LE Embedded Memory – 229 Mb Up to 11,520 18 x 19 Multipliers Up to 144 Transceivers up to 30 Gbps data rate (Chip to Chip) Memory Devices Supported – DDR4 SDRAM @ 1,333 MHz,DDR3 SDRAM @ 1066 MHz, LPDDR3 @ 800 MHz, RLDRAM 3 @ 1200 MHz, QDR IV SRAM @ 1066 MHz, QDR II+ SRAM @ 633 MHz, Hybrid […]

GOLE2 Mini PC Comes in Intel and ARM Flavors, Features a SATA Bay and Built-in Camera (Crowdfunding)

GOLE1 was an different and interesting product combining tablet and mini PC features into one, but I found the 5″ screen to be rather useless, and the battery did not work exactly well since it would only charge when powered off.  The new GOLE2 mini PC won’t have any of those issues since it does not come with neither a display or a battery, but instead comes into two flavors with a version running Windows 10 on Intel Atom x5-Z8350 Cherry Trail processor, and another running Android based Phoenix OS on Allwinner A64 quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor. The devices also include an HD camera and microphone for video conference, as well as 2.5″ SATA bay implemented through a USB to SATA bridge. Beside the processor and memory, both GOLE2 models share the most of the same hardware specifications: SoC Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ […]

Linux 4.8 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has officially released Linux 4.8 last Sunday: So the last week was really quiet, which maybe means that I could probably just have skipped rc8 after all. Oh well, no real harm done. This obviously means that the merge window for 4.9 is open, and I appreciate the people who already sent in some pull requests early due to upcoming travel or other reasons. I’ll start pulling things tomorrow, and have even the most eager developers and testers hopefully test the final 4.8 release before the next development kernels start coming 😉 Anyway, there’s a few stragging fixes since rc8 listed below: it’s a mixture of arch fixes (arm, mips, sparc, x86), drivers (networking, nvdimm, gpu) and generic code (some core networking, with a few filesystem, cgroup and and vm things). All of it pretty small, and there really aren’t that many of them. Go forth and test, […]

ARM Unveils Cortex-R52 ARMv8-R CPU Core for Safety-Critical Systems

ARM has introduced their very first ARMv8-R real-time 32-bit CPU core with Cortex-R52 designed for safety-critical applications in the automotive, industrial and health-care markets. It has been designed to address higher workloads with increased performance (up to 35%) compared to Cortex-R5 processor. The processor should be used in systems capable of fulfilling IEC 61508 SIL 3 and ISO 26262 ASIL D functional safety requirements. ARM explains the new processor address both random errors for example bit flipping from radiation, and systemic errors more related to software or design faults. The latter can be addresses with the right development processes, including following aforementioned functional safety standards, but random errors require some extra hardware features such as ECC memory, or dual core lock step processors, where instructions are run on two processors simultaneously and results compared. Normally, the whole software stack must be validated and certified on safety-critical systems, even for part […]

Orange Pi One Development Board Sells for $3.69 Shipped (Promo)

[Update: Sorry the promo is over, and price is back at $13.79] Last time, we had a promo for Orange Pi PC for $8.57 on GearBest, and it was legit, but quantity limited, so not so easy to get. There’s now another promo from the same parent company, as Orange Pi One is sold for $3.69 including shipping on Everbuying with 289 pieces and about 8 days left. In case you can’t recall Orange Pi One specs, it’s a development board based on Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 SoC, with 512 MB RAM, micro SD card for storage, 10/100M Ethernet,  a USB ports, and HDMI output. The best Linux OS for the board is probably Armbian. The normal price is around $13 to $14 shipped. Thanks to Theguyuk for the tip. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a […]

Explore M3 Board based on NXP LPC1768 Cortex M3 MCU Comes with Lots of Tutorials (Crowdfunding)

Explore M3 is an ARM Cortex M3 development board powered by a micro USB port, with plenty of I/Os, Arduino compatible, and the developers have also written many tutorials to help people getting started as fast and easily as possible. A starter kit with cables and sensors is also available with the board. Specifications: MCU – NXP LPC1768 ARM Cortex M3 @ up to 100MHz with 512KB flash, 64KB RAM, USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG port for programming and power Expansion Headers – 2x 20-pin male headers + 8-pin unpopulated header with 38x GPIOs, 4x UARTs, 2x CAN, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, 6x PWM, 5x ADC, 1x DAC, 2x interrupt pins, I2S audio, and power signal Debugging – JTAG/SWD Debug connector Misc – USB boot and reset buttons Dimensions – 55mm x 25mm The hardware is somewhat similar to mbed LPC1768 board but with a few more I/Os. […]

Rockchip RV1108 Cortex A7 + DSP SoC is Made for Audio & Video Conference and Recording Applications

[Update May 2017: Rockchip has renamed RK1108 to RV1108.] Rockchip has introduced RV1108 ARM Cortex A7 SoC with a 600 MHz DSP targeting visual communication, consumer electronics, automotive DVR, and security applications thanks to its 8-channel I2S audio codec and 1440p H.264 video encoder and decoder. Detailed specifications can be found on the official Rockchip Wiki: CPU – Single-core ARM Cortex-A7 Core processor with NEON and FPU,  32KB/32KB L1 I-Cache/D-Cache, Unified 128KB L2 Cache, and Trustzone Video/Image DSP – Up to 600 MHz, 32KB I-TCM and 32KB I-cache, 128KB D-TCM Memory 12KB internal SRAM DDR3/DDR3L interface – 16 Bits data width, 1 ranks (chip selects), up to 512 MB RAM NAND Flash Interface – 8-bit async NAND flash, 16-bit hardware ECC eMMC Interface – Compatible with standard iNAND interface, eMMC 4.51 standard. SD/MMC Interface – Compatible with SD 3.0, MMC 4.41 System Component 2x 64-bit timers with interrupt-based operation 8x […]

Acer Chromebook R13 is Powered by Mediatek MT8173 64-bit ARM Processor

The just announced Acer Chromebook R13 is both the first Mediatek Chromebook and the first 64-bit ARM Chromebook thanks to its Mediatek MT8173(c) quad core processor with two ARM Cortex-A72 cores, and two ARM Cortex-A53 cores. The Chromebook is also fitted with a 13.3″ touchscreen display, 4 GB RAM, and up to 64GB internal storage. Acer Chromebook R13 specifications: SoC – Mediatek M8173C quad core processor with 2x ARM Cortex A72 cores, 2x ARM Cortex A53 cores, and a PowerVR GX6250 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR3 RAM Storage – 16, 32 or 64 GB eMMC flash Display – 13.3″ touchscreen IPS display; 1920×1080 resolution; 10-point touch; 360-degree hinge design Audio – Integrated microphone, dual built-in speakers, microphone and headphone jacks Video Output – HDMI Camera – HD webcam (1280×720 resolution) with HDR and 720p HD audio/video recording Wireless Connectivity – 2×2 MIMO 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – […]