Shenzhen Xunlong Releases Two Orange Pi Boards with 64-Bit ARM Processor, 2GB RAM

Shenzhen Xunlong has already been selling 64-bit ARM development board with their Orange Pi PC 2 & Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5 boards based on Allwinner H5, as well as Orange Pi Win board powered by Allwinner A64 processor. However, so far none of them are equipped with much memory, with the only options being 512MB or 1GB RAM. The company has recently launched  two new boards with 2GB RAM, namely Orange Pi Win Plus featuring Allwinner A64 SoC, and Orange Pi Prime equipped with Allwinner H5 SoC. Orange Pi Win Plus That board is just an update to Orange Pi Win board with the only difference I could find being the 2GB RAM: SoC – Allwinner A64 quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 2MB SPI flash, micro SD slot up to 64GB, footprint for optional […]

NanoPi NEO2 Board Benchmarks with Ubuntu 16.04.2 using Linux 3.10 and Linux 4.10

I’ve received NanoPi NEO 2 boards, add-boards and sensor modules last week, where we could see how small the boards were, and how it could be suitable for IoT projects or “hardware hacking” education.  Before testing the board with the add-ons, I have to select the image to run on the board, and currently we have two choices: Ubuntu 16.04.2 FriendlyELEC image with Linux 3.10 “legacy” kernel, or Armbian Ubuntu 16.04.2 Xenial nightly build with Linux 4.10 “mainline” kernel. So I decided to try both: dfssf nanopi-neo2-ubuntu-core-qte-sd4g-20170329.img.zip (296 MB) is the image from FriendlyELEC (previously FriendlyARM) Armbian_5.27.170401_Nanopineo2_Ubuntu_xenial_dev_4.10.0.7z (222 Mb) is the image from Armbian, which I downloaded on March 31st despite the filename including “170401” string You can flash the image with Win32DiskImager (Windows) or dd (linux) to a micro SD card the usual way, and while I’ve never personally had troubles with dd, I’ve been told Etcher was better, […]

isorespin.sh Script Updates Ubuntu ISO Files with Mainline Linux Kernel

Devices based on Intel Bay Trail and Cherry Trail processors have been popular due to their integration into low cost system (for an Intel platform), but Intel did not prioritize Linux development for those processors, so while Linux could run, you’d have various problems with HDMI audio, system freezes, and wireless drivers, unless you used a custom kernel. The goods news is that Linux 4.11 will feature fixes for HDMI audio and system freeze, and so you won’t need a custom kernel anymore. Ian Morrison (Linuxium), who has been working on improving Linux for those devices since they were first released, has now released isorespin.sh script to automatically update any Ubuntu ISO image to the latest mainline Linux RC kernel built by Canonical, but not integrated by default in the ISO. Once you’ve downloaded isorepin.sh and your ISO of choice, e.g. ubuntu-16.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso, you can update the ISO with mainline Linux […]

NanoPi NEO2 Board, NanoHats, and BakeBit Starter Kit Review – Part 1: Hardware Overview & Assembly

NanoPi NEO 2 development board is an update of NanoPi NEO with a quad core 64-bit Allwinner H5 processor + 512 MB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and an extra audio header, which can be a great little board for headless application since there’s no video output. FriendlyELEC ask me whether I wanted to review to board with some of their NanoHATs add-on boards, and while I asked for NanoHat PCM5102A audio board and NEO Hub which I intended to use with Grove modules from my Wio Link Started Kit, I get a bit more than expected, as the company included sets of NEO 2 boards and accessories, NanoHATs, two serial debug board, and their BakeBit Starter Kit with several Grove modules to play with. Since I have so many things to look at in this first post, I’ll just describe the hardware, assemble it, quickly check the paper documentation, and give […]

Bosch Rexroth IndraControl XM22 PLC Runs Ubuntu Core IoT, Supports Industrial Apps

Canonical wants you to run Ubuntu apps (snaps) for everything and on all types of devices, not only on your computer or smartphone. For example, base station apps (4G LTE, Bluetooth, LoRa…) will soon be able to run on LimeSDR board, the company is pushing for branded app stores, like the one for Orange Pi Boards, and now they have introduced the concept of App Logic Controllers (ALC) which are PLC devices running apps, thus bringing the concept of apps to the industrial world. Bosch Rexroth demonstrated the solution at Embedded World 2017 on their IndraControl XM22 PLC running Ubuntu Core. Let’s have a look at the hardware first with IndraControl XM22 specifications: Processor – Intel Atom E620 one core / two threads processor @ 600 / 1300 MHz (3.3W TDP) Memory – 512 MB RAM Storage – likely some flash + SD card slot Networking Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet […]

UP Core is a Low Cost & Compact Intel Maker Board Powered by an Atom x5-Z8350 SoC (Crowdfunding)

The UP community has already launched Intel Cherry Trail and Apollo Lake boards in the past with UP Board and UP2 (squared) boards, and they are now about to launch a cheaper and smaller board called UP Core powered by Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor with to 1 to 4GB memory, up to 64GB eMMC flash, HDMI, USB 3.0, … and I/O expansion connectors. UP Core specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz / 1.92 GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel HD 400 graphics @ 200 / 500 MHz System Memory –  1, 2 or 4 GB DDR3L-1600 (soldered on board) Storage – 16, 32, or 64 GB eMMC flash, SPI flash ROM Video Output / Display – HDMI 1.4 port, full eDP (embedded DisplayPort) connector Audio I/O – Via HDMI, and I2S Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi  @ 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth 4.0 LE (AP614A) […]

Dell Edge Gateway 3000 Series Are Powered by Intel Bay Trail-I SoCs for Automation, Transportation, and Digital Signage

Dell has recently introduced Edge Gateway 3000 series with three models powered by Intel Bay Trail-I processor, running Ubuntu Core 16 or Windows 10 IoT, with each model targeting respectively general-purpose automation, transportation & logistics, and digital signage and retail. The specifications for the three models can be found in the table below. Dell Edge Gateway 3001 Model for General-Purpose Automation Dell Edge Gateway 3002 Model for Transportation & Logistics Dell Edge Gateway 3003 Model for Media & Retail Kiosks SoC Intel Atom E3805 dual core processor  @ 1.33 GHz (3W TDP) Intel Atom E3815 single core processor @ 1.46 GHz with GPU @ 400 MHz (5W TDP) System Memory 2 GB DDR3L-1066 Storage 8 or 32 GB eMMC flash Industrial-grade Micro-SD card: 8GB / 16GB / 32 GB / 64 GB Connectivity 1 x 10/100 Fast Ethernet (RJ-45) with PoE (15.4W) WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 LE Optional ZigBee […]

Shenzhen Xunlong Software & Canonical Launch Orange Pi App Store for Ubuntu Snaps

The maker of Orange Pi boards, Shenzhen Xunlong Software, has partnered with Canonical to launch Orange Pi app store, allowing developers to gain a simple mechanism to share their applications, projects and scripts with the Orange Pi community. The store relies on snaps instead of deb packages, with snaps allowing a secure distributions of apps bundled with all their dependencies, which according to Canonical can decreased the time for an half an hour installation process to just a few seconds. The community has already contributed hundreds of snaps in the Ubuntu snap store, including openHAB for home automation, Rocket.chat self-hosted chat platform, NextCloud for cloud storage, and wifi-ap for networking. You can get them from the App store, but installing a snap from the command line is easy, for example:

However, I cannot find any Ubuntu Core image for Orange Pi Boards yet on Ubuntu Core Getting Started page. […]

Memfault IoT and embedded debugging platform