ARM TechCon 2014 Schedule – 64-Bit, IoT, Optimization & Debugging, Security and More

ARM Technology Conference (TechCon) 2014 will take place on October 1 – 3, 2014, in Santa Clara, and as every year, there will be a conference with various sessions for suitable engineers and managers, as well as an exposition where companies showcase their latest ARM based products and solutions. The detailed schedule for the conference has just been made available. Last year,  there were 90 sessions organized into 15 tracks, but this year, despite received 300 applications,  the organizers decided to scale it down a bit, and there will be 75 session in the following 11 tracks: Chip Implementation Debugging Graphics Heterogeneous Compute New Frontiers Power Efficiency Safety and Security Software Development and Optimization Software Optimization for Infrastructure and Cloud System Design Verification There are also some paid workshops that take all day with topics such as “Android (NDK) and ARM overview”, “ARM and the Internet of Things”, or “ARM […]

Inforce Computing IFC6540 Pico-ITX Board Features Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, High Speed Interfaces

Inforce Computing has been working the successor of their IF6410 development board based on Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC with IFC6540, another tiny board for Linux and Android, yet with interesting features such as 802.11ac, SATA III, USB 3.0 host and device connectors, and powered by the latest Snapdragon 805 quad core krait processor. IFC6540 specifications: SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 Quad core Krait 450 @ 2.5GHz with 2MB L2 cache, Adreno 420 GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0, OpenCL, and RenderScript support. System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC 4.5 (eMMC 5.0 also supported), 1 micro SD slot, and 1x SATA 3 interface Connectivity 802.11ac WiFi /ac (2.4 GHz/5 GH) + Bluetooth 4.1 via QCA6174 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet via AR8151 GPS via QCA1530 + GPS antenna connector Video and Audio Interfaces 1 x HDMI (Type D) Dual MIPI-DSI and Touch Screen 3.5mm headphone and Line In […]

MediaTek MT8127 SoC to Bring H.265 Video Support to Mid-Range Android Tablets

MediaTek has just announced MT8127, a quad core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP GPU, that provides hardware support for HEVC (H.265) video playback, and targets “super-mid” range Android tablets. HEVC/H.265 video codec will allow to half the required bandwidth and/or storage for a given quality compared to H.264, or to greatly improve quality at the same bitrate. The latest Mediatek processor will also support 1080p video playback and recording, and up to 13MP cameras, as well as  1920×1200 LCD screen display. As with other Mediatek SoCs,  a Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, FM receiver and GPS combo-chip can be coupled with MTK8127. The company also claims Miracast and NFC support. The first tablets to integrate this solution will be ALCATEL ONETOUCH PIXI 7 and Cube U25GT, as well as ALCATEL ONETOUCH PIXI 8, which will be launched later this year. Via Liliputing Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software […]

Review of M8 Android Kitkat TV Box Powered by Amlogic S802 SoC

A few days ago, I wrote an Unboxing and Specs post about the M8, an Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S802 quad core Cortex A9 processor. The review took a little as I was waiting for a new firmware. I’ve now upgraded this S802 Box, and been able to complete a review. As usual , I’ll start by giving my first impressions, have a look at the user interface and settings, test different king of video files, evaluate Wi-Fi performance, and try to cover most hardware features including Bluetooth, external storage, USB webcam, and so on. The overall user’s experience, is very similar to Tronsmart Vega S89, but there are some notable differences I’ll go through during the review. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions Shenzhen Tomato sent me a sample unit which they call TM8 (Tomato M8?), but I’ll just refer to the device as M8 in the […]

Review of Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite Amlogic S802 TV Box

Tronsmart Vega S89 is an Android TV Box based on Amlogic quad-core Cortex A9 processor. You can refer to Tronsmart Vega S89 specs for more technical details, and check out my Tronsmart Vega S89 Unboxing post for pictures of the device and the board. As a reminder, there are two models of the device: Tronsmart Vega S89 with 16GB flash and dual-band Wi-Fi (AP6330 module), and Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite with 8GB flash and 2.4 WiFi (AP6220 module). I’ve been sent the Elite version, but both versions should have similar performance. I’ll start by giving my first impressions, going through the user interface and settings, then I’ll switch to video and audio tests, Wi-Fi performance, and perform some other tests for Bluetooth, gaming, external storage, USB webcam, etc.. trying to cover most of the hardware features available on this device. First Boot, Settings, and First Impressions Vega S89 (Elite) comes […]

Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 & 810 ARM Cortex A57/A53 SoCs

Qualcomm has already announced the Snapdragon 410, then Snapdragon 610 & 615, all three 64-bit SoCs featuring an ARM Cortex A53 targeting mid-range smartphones and tablets. Anandtech has reported that the company will launch their first 64-bit ARM SoCs for high-end devices in 2015. Snapdragon 808 and 810 will respectively feature 6 and 8 cores using 2 or 4 high performance Cortex A57 cores, and 4 low power Cortex A53 cores in big.LITTLE configuration. Both processor shares the same 9×35 core, LTE Category 6/7 integrated modem, an eMMC 5.0 interface, and be manufactured using 20nm process. Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994) will also come with an Adreno 430 GPU, support H.265 harware encode and decode, feature a dual 32-bit LPDDR4-1600 memory interface, and a 14-bit dual ISP camera interface. Snapdragon 808 (MSM8992) will have an Adreno 418 GPU, support H.265 hardware decode, feature a dual 32-bit LPDDR3-933 memory interface, and a 12-bit dual […]

New ARM Set-Top Box SoCs – Sigma Designs SMP8734 / SMP8756, STMicro STiH312 / StiH412, and Entropic EN7310 (Videos)

Broadcom and STMicro has the two companies that dominate the set-top box SoC market with respectively 44.7% and 34% market share by revenue in 2012, followed by Ali, a distant third at 6.9%. Other companies include Entropic, who has acquired Trident Systems, (4.4%) and Sigma Designs (1.4%) which has suffered in recent years. MIPS was the predominant architecture in the STB SoC market, but with the advent of Android, most companies have announced ARM based STB SoC for better compatibility with Android apps. TV Connect 2014, an event gathering stokeholder involved in Connected TV such as STB manufacturers, content providers, and SoC vendors, took place on March 18-20 in London, and Charbax, armdevices.net, interviewed three companies who promoted their latest ARM based STB SoCs: Sigma Designs with their SMP5734 & SMP8756/58 SoCs featuring single or dual cores Cortex A9 and a Mali-400 GPU STMicro with their STiH312 Cannes and STiH412 Monaco […]

BrightSign 4K Digital Signage Player Delivers 4K 10-bit HEVC Video Playback at 60 fps via HDMI 2.0

When you buy a media player advertized as supporting 4K (aka 2160p, 4K2K, or UHD), you have to read the fine print to find out what you really get. First on the market were media players capable of decoding 4K videos put outputting to 1080p60 maximum such as Mele M9, then we’ve been shown some media players such as Geniatech ATV1800, decoding 4K video using 2160p resolution (3840×2160) as expected, but with a framerate limited to 24 fps or 30 fps due to limitation of HDMI 1.4. However, if you want to experience 4K video with the maximum framerate (60 fps) or “True 4K”, you’ll need a player and a TV support HDMI 2.0 standard. There are not many players currently supporting 4K @ 60fps, but BrightSign 4K digital signage media player is one of them, and it also happens to support  HEVC/H.265 video codec. The company did not disclose […]