arm

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Upcoming ARM TrustZone Webinars Explaining Embedded Systems / IoT Security to Non-security Experts

Upcoming ARM TrustZone Webinars Explaining Embedded Systems / IoT Security to Non-security Experts

Most people understand that securing the IoT is important, but security is a highly a complex subject, and as seen with the many security breaches, even specialists – who in theory should now better – get their devices or online accounts hacked. So even if you are not a security expert, but are involved in the development of embedded systems, it’s important to get acquainted with online and offline security and understand how all this all work, at least from a high level perspective, without necessarily having to dig into the technical details. ARM is organizing two webinars catering to people who are not security experts, and explaining how they can secure embedded systems using the company’s TrustZone technology. The first webinar entitled “How to build trust and security into your embedded device” will allow participant to gain an understanding of the security that will need to be applied in […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Raspberry Pi 3 To Get ARM TrustZone Support with Linaro OP-TEE Port

Raspberry Pi 3 To Get ARM TrustZone Support with Linaro OP-TEE Port

If you ever wanted to experiment with ARM Trustzone, and IoT security, you’ll soon be able to do so with the Raspberry Pi 3 board thanks to a port of Linaro OP-TEE (Open Portable Trusted Environment Execution) by Sequitur Labs. Broadcom BCM2737 SoC found in Raspberry Pi 3 board already had TrustZone hardware for isolation and protection for sensitive material such as cryptographic keys, algorithms and data, but the upcoming software release will mean the feature can now be used, and it’s free for trial/evaluation, and  education. Trustzone is also used for DRM (digital rights management), but in the case of Raspberry Pi 3 it will most likely used to teach how to secure the Internet of Things (IoT). The release is scheduled for July 11, with source code and documentation to be available in OP-TEE github account. All you’ll need to get started is a Raspberry Pi 3 board, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on ARM announces “premium IP” for VR and AR with Cortex-A73 Processor and Mali-G71 GPU

ARM announces “premium IP” for VR and AR with Cortex-A73 Processor and Mali-G71 GPU

Today ARM has revealed the first details of its latest mobile processor and GPU, both said to be optimized for VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) applications. Starting with the ARM Cortex-A73, we’re looking at an evolution of the current Cortex-A72 with ARM claiming 30 percent “sustained” performance over the Cortex-A72 and over twice the performance over the Cortex-A57. ARM is already talking about clock speeds of up to 2.8GHz in mobile devices. Other improvements include an increase up to 64k L1 instruction and data cache, up from 48 and 32k respectively for the Cortex-A72, as well as up to 8MB of L2 cache. The Cortex-A73 continues to support ARM’s big.LITTLE CPU design in combination with the Cortex-A53 or the Cortex-A35. It’s also the first ARM core to have been designed to be built using 10nm FinFET technology and it should be an extremely small CPU at around 0.65 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Moly PcPhone Runs Windows 10 Continuum on Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Processor, Costs Less than $400

Moly PcPhone Runs Windows 10 Continuum on Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Processor, Costs Less than $400

Mobile and PC convergence is slowly happening both on Ubuntu with devices like BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet, and various Windows 10 Continuum smartphones. The most affordable offering is likely to come from mainland China vendors, such as Moly PcPhone 6″ smartphone based on Qualcomm 617 octa-core Cortex A53 processor with 3GB RAM, and running Windows 10 Continuum. Moly PcPhone specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Octa core Coretex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Adreno 405 GPU System Memory – 3 GB RAM Storage – 32 GB flash + micreo SD slot up to 200 GB Display – 6″ Full HD (1920×1080) LTPS display; Gorilla Glass 3 Cellular Connectivity Dual SIM Dual Standby, Adaptive SIM Slot 2G GSM: Band 2/3/5/8 3G WCDMA: Band 1/6/8/9/19 4G FDD-LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/7/8/9/19/26/28B 4G TDD-LTE: Band 38/40/41 Wireless Connectivity – Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC Camera – 13MP auto-focus rear camera […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Open Source Mali-200 / Mali-400 GPU Lima Driver Gets New Commits

Open Source Mali-200 / Mali-400 GPU Lima Driver Gets New Commits

The Lima driver, a project aimed at providing an open source driver for ARM Mali-400 and Mali-200 GPUs, was introduced 4 years ago, and after some reverse engineering work, a Quake 3 demo was showcase later in 2013 with an intermediate version of the Lima drivers. However, the main developer (libv) eventually lost interest or lacked time to further work, and the latest commit was made in June 9, 2013. But another developer (oklas) committed some code to limadriver-ng just a few days ago. But don’t get too excited, as the modifications are minor with some build fixes, some other Makefile modifications, and only one C file modified with 6 new lines of code. But maybe that’s just the beginning… We’ll see. Mali-400 GPU is now rather old, so why would somebody work on this? One explanation could be C.H.I.P and Pine A64 boards are both based on Allwinner SoCs […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on M2.COM is a Standard for IoT Sensors Based on M.2 Form Factor

M2.COM is a Standard for IoT Sensors Based on M.2 Form Factor

The IoT ecosystem really feels like a jungle now, not because of a lack of standards, but because everybody thinks about doing their own, so we’ve ended up with a wide range of communication protocols, initiatives, and consortia, and it will take some time until the winners and losers are sorted out. One the of the latest standard is M2.COM platform form factor for sensors that “adopts the standardized M.2 form factor and is defined as an evolutionary module that combines general wireless connectivity with additional built-in computing ability powered by MCU”. M2.COM architecture diagram above describes both software and hardware requirements, but the specifications themselves only define the form factor, as well as mechanical and electrical characteristics: Consistent with M.2 standard Module size: 22 mm x 30 mm PCB thickness: 0.8 mm ± 10% Pin count: 75 pins Module input voltage: 3.3V DC-in Connector mating force: 30N Maximum Connector […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Telechips TCC898x (Alligator) 64-bit ARM SoC is Designed for High-end 4K Set-Top Boxes

Telechips TCC898x (Alligator) 64-bit ARM SoC is Designed for High-end 4K Set-Top Boxes

Telechips processors were often found in consumer devices such as Android tablets, mini PCs and TV Sticks a few years ago, but it’s been a while since I have seen a devices based on Telechips. So after seeing an automotive SoC from the company, I decided to visit the company website to check if they were still designing processors for the consumer market, and found TCC898x quad core Cortex A53 processor for “Smart Stick, IP-Client and STB with 4K 60fps decoding” with some interesting features. Telechips TCC898x SoC specifications: CPU- Quad core Cortex A53 processor with NEON, TrustZone, 32KB/32KB L1 cache and 512KB L2 cache MCU – Cortex-M4 micro-controller GPU 2D – Vivante GC420 composition processing core for 4K user interfaces 3D – ARM Mali-400MP2 VPU – Multi-format VPU and 4K VPU with HEVC and VP9 support Memory I/F – DDR3/4 Storage I/F – NAND controller (60-bit ECC), SD/eMMC controller […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.5 on Sunday: So this is later on a Sunday than my usual schedule, because I just couldn’t make up my mind whether I should do another rc8 or not, and kept just waffling about it. In the end, I obviously decided not to,but it could have gone either way. We did have one nasty regression that got fixed yesterday, and the networking pull early in the week was larger than I would have wished for. But the block  layer should be all good now, and David went through all his networking commits an extra time just to make me feel comfy about it, so in the end I didn’t see any point to making the release cycle any longer than usual. And on the whole, everything here is pretty small. The diffstat looks a bit larger for an xfs fix, because that fix has […]