Mediatek Helio P20 Octa-core Cortex A53 SoC is Manufactured with 16nm Process, Supports LPDDR4X Memory

Mediatek has gotten used to releasing many different processors, often with one slight differences such as support for different screen resolutions, but the company’s latest Helio P20 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor, despite looking pretty similar to Helio P10 (MT6755) and X10 (MT6795), does confirm lower process nodes are now available in entry-level to mid range parts since it’s manufactured using a 16nm process, and the application processor also supports up to 6GB LPDDR4X memory which drops the voltage from 1.1V to 0.6V for even lower power consumption. LPDDR4X is said to provide 70% more bandwidth and 50% lower power consumption compared to LPDDR3. MediaTek Helio P20 (LP4) specifications: CPU – 8x ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.3GHz GPU – Mali-T880MP2 @ 900MHz Memory – Up to 2 x LPDDR4X 1600MHz (up to 6GB) + 1x LPDDR3 933Mhz (up to 4GB) Storage – eMMC 5.1 flash Display IF – 2x MIPI DSI […]

MediaTek MT8581 Media Processor Supports 4K UHD Blu-rays, 10-bit H.265, VP9, and HDR Imaging

Mediatek has unveiled MT8581 processor for UHD Blu-ray players at CES 2016, with support the latest 10-bit H.265 and VP9, as well as  High Dynamic Range (HDR) for better video quality. The press release provides limited info, but I found a temporary? page with more details (screenshot), and MT8581 specifications should be as follows: CPU – Quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor GPU – N/A, but could be ARM Mali-820MP2 according to AndroidPC.es Optical Disks support – Blu-ray, DVD and CD playback, including the latest BD-ROM format, such as BD-Live and BonusView. When combined with MT8577A Video Codecs – HEVC/H.265 10-bit, H.264 and VP9 Profile 2, Ultra HD 60p video decoder (3840×2160), MPEG-1/2/4, VP8 and VC-1 for Full HD 60p. Encode: H.265 and H.264. High Dynamic Range – HDR10 open standard and Dolby Vision IP Audio – AAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, and DTS HD Network […]

Mediatek Unveils MT2523 SiP for GPS Enabled, Bluetooth LE Wearables

Silicon manufacturers are starting to launch ever more integrated solutions specifically designed for wearables, and after Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor unveiled a few days ago, MediaTek has launched MT2623 ARM Cortex M4 System-in-Package (SiP) with GPS, Bluetooth LE, and a MIPI DSI interface. Other details are sparse but here’s what the company disclosed for MT2523: MCU core – ARM Cortex M4 GPU – 2D accelerator supporting true colors, per-pixel alpha channel, anti-aliasing fonts, and 1-bit index color to save memory. Connectivity – Dual-mode Bluetooth Low Energy and GPS Display – MIPI DSI and serial interfaces Integrated PMU Battery Life – More than a week (typical) The SiP’s printed circuit board area is said to be 41% percent smaller than competitors’ solutions. MT2523 will be available to manufacturers in H1 2016, and found in active and fitness smartwatches a little later. Thanks to Nanik for the tip. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software […]

Quick Start Guide for LinkIt Smart 7688 (Duo) Board

Mediatek Labs has announced LinkIt Smart 7688 development boards powered by Mediatek MT7688 WiSoC earlier today, but I was selected for a close beta several weeks before the launch, and I’ve had time to play a little with the boards, so today I’ll report my experience getting started with LinkIt Smart 7688 amd 7688 Duo by writing a Quick Start Guide showing how to setup the boards, upgrade firmware, access the serial console, run “Blink LED” sample applications with Python and JavaScript, as well as the Arduino IDE, and connect to the Internet. Initial Setup You’ll only need a micro USB cable and a computer with WiFi and USB ports to get started with the board. The green LED (top) for the MCU will turn on immediately, while the red LED (bottom) for WiFI will blink once, and only turn on continuously after 5 seconds, and within 30 seconds after […]

Mediatek LinkIt Smart 7688 and Smart 7688 DUO Boards Run OpenWRT for IoT Applications

MediaTek LinkIt is a collection of development platforms designed for the prototyping of wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and last year they started with LinkIt ONE board based on Mediatek MT2501 “Aster” micro-controller and featuring WiFi, Bluetooth, GPSD and GSM/GPRS connectivity. Mediatek Labs has now launched two new LinkIt board, namely LinkIt Smart 7688 and LinkIt Smart 7688 DUO, both powered by Mediatek MT7688 MIPS processor and running OpenWRT, with the latter also adding an Atmel ATmega32U4 for Arduino compatibility. LinkIt Smart 7688 Board LinkIt Smart 7688 is then the simpler of the two with the following specifications: Processor – Mediatek MT7688AN MIPS24KEc processor @ 580 MHz with WiFi System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM. Storage – 32MB flash + micro SD slot Connectivity – 1T1R Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with chip antenna and I-PEX conector USB – 1x micro USB host port, 1x micro USB port for power […]

Operys Process Explorer App Shows Android Processes in Your Computer’s Web Browser

Opersys is an Android and Embedded Linux company providing both development and training services, and they regularly attend conferences and release their training materials. The company has also developed a few Android apps to export the file system, the process list and info, and interaction between apps and Android system services exposed via Binder to your computer’s web browser. I found the most interesting app to be Process Explorer, so I gave it a try on Iocean M6752 smartphone. The application requires very little permissions to install, and it’s very simple to use. Simply tap on Start the service, and the app will provide the URL to browse the processes on your computer, in my case http://192.168.0.105:3000. The output is pretty useful, as you get much more information than you could get on your smartphone or tablet screen with CPU and memory usage, running time, logcat, etc… If you click […]

Linux 4.3 Release – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.3 last week-end: So it *felt* like the last week of the rc series was busy, to the point where I got a bit worried about the release. But doing the actual numbers shows that that really was just my subjective feeling, probably due to the kernel summit and travel back home from Korea. It wasn’t actually a particularly busy week, it’s just that the pull requests were more noticeable in the last couple of days. We had a network update and a late fix for a x86 vm86 mode bug introduced by the vm86 cleanups, but other than that it’s just a collection of various small one-liners all over. Ok, the vm86 mode thing was a one-liner too, it was just slightly more nerve-wracking because it looked scarier than it was before people (Andy) figured out what was going on. The changes from rc7 […]

ARM TechCon 2015 Schedule – IoT, Servers, 64-bit ARM, Power Usage Optimization, and More

The ARM Technology Conference (ARM TechCon) will take place on November 10 – 12, 2015, in Santa Clara Convention Center, and just like every year, there will be a free exposition for companies to showcase their latest innovation and/or products, as well as a technical conference with sessions and workshops sorted into various tracks: Automotive/Embedded Vision Embedded IoT Mobile/Connectivity Networking Infrastructure/Servers Tools & Implementation Wearables/Sensors ARM Training Day Sponsored Vendor Training Special Event General Event Software Developers Workshop You can find the complete schedule on ARM TechCon website. Although I won’t attend, I’ve created my own virtual schedule with some of the sessions I found interesting. Tuesday – November 10 8:30 – 9:20 – ARM Vision for Thermal Management and Energy Aware Scheduling on Linux by Ian Rickards (ARM), Charles Garcia-Tobin (ARM), Bobby Batacharia (ARM) This talk will cover the history and where are we going, for ARM’s Power Software (IPA, […]