April 2014 - Page 2 of 9 - CNX Software

April 28, 2014April 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

HP SlateBook 14 Android Laptop Features a 14″ Display, a Quad Core Tegra SoC

Most Android laptops on the market come with tiny 7″ to 11.6″ screens, and those with larger displays (e.g. 13.3″) are often crippled with a subpar processor. Hewlett Packard is about to change that thanks to the SlateBook 14, an Android laptop with a 14″ touchscreen display, and a quad core Tegra SoC which could either be Tegra 4 or Tegra K1. The product has not been launched officially, but NetbookItalia found about it via a promo video (embedded below), and we don’t know the full specs just yet: SoC- Nvidia Tegra quad core Cortex A15 (Tegra 4 or Tegra K1) System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB flash + micro SD card slot Display – 14″ touchscreen display, 1080p resolution Video Output – HDMI Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, beat audio stereo speakers Connectivity – 802.11 b/n/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth USB – 3x USB host ports HP laptop will […]

April 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

ZTE FunBox Android Game Console Powered by Nvidia Tegra 4 Sells for $146

Since about a year, we’ve seen several Android based game console such as the Ouya or PlayJam GameStick coming to market. These are sold below $100, but feature some older hardware specs that may not run the latest games at optimal speed. Mad Catz game console, powered by an Nvidia Tegra 4, provides a much smoother gaming experience, but cost $199.99. If you’d like the performance of the Mad Catz but at a lower price point, ZTE Funbox also powered by Nvidia Tegra 4 quad core Cortex A15 processor is currently available on Aliexpress for $145.99 including shipping. ZTE FunBox specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra 4 quad core ARM Cortex A15 @ 1.8 GHz with 72-core GeForce ULP GPU (74.8 GFLOPS) System Memory – 2GB DDR3L Storage – 8GB eMMC 4.5 up to 120MB/s Audio / Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p60 or 4K30 Connectivity – Ethernet, dual band […]

April 26, 2014January 17, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

How to Make a $15 Web Server for IoT Applications

Arduino_Leonardo_Ethernet_ENC28J60_Assembled

If you have an embedded project that requires some GPIOs, and Ethernet connectivity, you now have a few choices of low cost low boards such as the Raspberry Pi with Broadcom ARM11 SoC for $35 + shipping, Texas Instruments Connected LaunchPad with an ARM Cortex M4 MCU for $20 including shipping, and today I’ve given a try at a solution to run an HTTP server with an Arduino Leonardo clone connected to ENC28J60 Ethernet module that together cost about $15 including shipping. This Ethernet module has been around for a while and is well supported, I just never took the time to give it a try before. I’ve purchased ENC28J60 module on eBay for $3.46 and connected it via SPI to an Arduino Leonardo clone I acquired as part of a kit via Indiegogo for $12. The kit is not available for purchase outside the crowdfunding campaign, but you can […]

April 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Nvidia to Give Away 50 Jetson TK1 Development Boards

Nvidia Jetson TK1 is a development board powered by Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 SoC including a 192-core Kepler GPU. This is one the the best, if not the best, ARM platform when it comes to GPU performance, GPGPU capabilities, and the only one I know of that supports OpenGL 4.4 “Desktop”, as well as Nvidia’s CUDA 6.0. You can buy the board for $192, but if you are a developer and have a project that could leverage and showcase Tegra K1 capabilities for computer vision solutions for robotics, medical devices, military, and automotive applications, you may well get one board for free via Nvidia’s Tegra K1 CUDA Vision Challenge. To apply, you need to submit your proposal via Nvidia’s TK1 vision challenge page by April 30, 2014. Please note, the contest is only open to US residents. The company will then consider the various proposals based on innovativeness, […]

April 25, 2014July 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

Amlogic STB SoCs Comparison – AML8726-MX, S802, S805, and S812

The second quarter of 2014 is promising to be an exciting time for Android TV boxes based on Chinese SoCs with lots of announcements. Devices powered by Amlogic S802 quad core SoC such as M8 and Vega S89 are already available, Rockchip RK3288 Android TV boxes are likely to sell in May, together with AllWinner A80 development board and tablets, and Android media players probably coming to market in June or July. But Amlogic S802 is not the only new quad core processor announced by Amlogic, with S805 and S812 soon to be featured in HDMI TV sticks and TV boxes. Amlogic IP/OTT STB SoC page has a comparison table for their four STB SoC. Let’s go through this table to see which processor may better match different end-users requirements. Multi-core CPU Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 Quad Core ARM Cortex A9 Quad Core ARM Cortex A9 Quad Core ARM […]

April 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

How to Root Mele X1000 (Telechips TCC8935)

Yesterday, I’ve explained to how update firmware on Telechips TCC8935 Android TV boxes, Mele X1000 more exactly. Today I’ll show how to root the device. The method uses Vroot, a Windows-only tool, that appears to be popular recently, as it is the same tool that’s used to root Amlogic S802 based devices. Let’s get started in a Windows PC or virtual machine: Download and install Vroot Start Mele X1000, and go to Settings->Android Settings, then in Developer options, enable USB debugging Connect a micro USB to USB cable between Mele X1000 and your Windows PC Start Vroot,. It should detect your device, download and install drivers and a daemion. Check root access in your device, and a Windows in your default language may pop up in Mele X1000. Accept. You should now see “Mele X1000 is connected. No root permissions” in Vroot, click on the green Root button to start […]

April 25, 2014April 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Yocto Project 1.6 “Daisy” Released

The Yocto Project Release 1.6 has just been announced. This release is codenamed “Daisy”, and features Poky 11.0.0, which is the reference system used by the project, but other systems could also be used. The Yocto Project is a framework that creates embedded Linux distributions, and is now being used by many Intel and ARM based embedded boards such as Wandboard, Atmel Xplained, Minnowboard MAX, and the Raspberry Pi. Some of the Yocto Project 1.6 features and updates include: Linux kernel 3.14 and 3.10 LTSI eglibc 2.19, gcc 4.8.2 Support for building Python 3 Toaster web UI for exploring build output Documentation – BitBake user’s manual improvment, and added section explaining how to “Write a New Recipe“. New reference BSP for beaglebone and edgerouter Change to use SHA512 password encryption with shadow by default Various performance improvement, and disk usage reductions. Add support for booting UEFI systems with gummiboot Image […]

April 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 14.04 Release with Linux Kernel 3.14 and Android 4.4.2

Linaro 14.04 has been released with Linux Kernel 3.14 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.37 (LSK), and Android 4.4.2. More work has been done on ARMv8 support, and big.LITTLE for both the Linux kernel and Android, as well as work on member hardware platforms such as Origen, Arndale, Arndale Octa, Broadcom Capri, and Hisilicon D01 boards. GCC 4.8-2014.04 Linaro is said to include performance improvements. Linaro Android engineering builds for Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 have been setup, but I can’t quite find the images. They’ve also added the BeagleBone Black to member builds. Here are the highlights of this release: Linaro Stable Kernel (LSK) 3.10.37-2014.04 Updates to Android support (from Google and Linaro) Added Big endian for ARMv7 and ARMv8 Thermal framework DT support Huge pages and transparent huge pages for ARMv8 Tagged pointers for ARMv8 Non-coherent DMA for ARMv8 Other Features big.LITTLE support – ARM MP patch set, IKS (ARMv7 […]