Author: Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on AW4P’s Rezence Specifications Now Support Wireless Charging for Laptops up to 50W

AW4P’s Rezence Specifications Now Support Wireless Charging for Laptops up to 50W

At the end of last year I wrote about Rezence, one of the existing wireless charging standards using magnetic resonance, which does not require end-users to perfectly align their mobile devices to charge them properly. At the time, specifications to charge feature phones and smartphone were already available, but the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) was also working on defining the requirements to charge laptops wirelessly. Work is now mostly complete, and A4WP has announced specifications supporting 50W wireless charging capable of charging your laptop, smartphones, and tablets simultaneously by simply placing the device on or close to a charging surface, without having to performance any specific alignment. The organization expects publication and upgrade to the existing Baseline System Specification and certification program by the end of 2014, and they’ve also announced over 100 companies have already joined A4WP including silicon vendors such as Broadcom, Mediatek Intel and Qualcomm, as well as devices manufacturers such as Dell, Fujitsu, Foxconn, Lenovo, Logitech and […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on MediaTek Unveils LinkIt Platform with MT2502 Aster SoC for Wearables and IoT Applications

MediaTek Unveils LinkIt Platform with MT2502 Aster SoC for Wearables and IoT Applications

After Ineda Systems Dhanush SoC and SHASTRA Devkit, here’s another Wearable SoC and development kit for today with Mediatek announcement of their LinkIt platform providing both hardware and software to develop wearables and IoT applications using their Aster SoC for wearables. Key features of LinkIt platform listed on Mediatek Labs: MediaTek Aster (MT2502) measures only 5.4 x 6.2mm and is specifically designed for wearable devices Developer platform supported by reference designs that enable creation of various form factors, functionalities and internet connected services Synergies between microprocessor unit and communication modules, facilitating development and saving time in new device creation Modularity in software architecture provides developers with high degree of flexibility Supports over-the-air (OTA) updates for apps, algorithms and drivers Plug-in software development kit (SDK) for Arduino and VisualStudio; planned (Q4 2014) support for Eclipse Hardware Development Kit (HDK) based on LinkIt board by third party No details have been provided for […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Ineda Systems Dhanush WPU is a MIPS based SoC Specifically Designed for Wearables

Ineda Systems Dhanush WPU is a MIPS based SoC Specifically Designed for Wearables

What’s a WPU? It stands for Wearable Processor Unit, and as you may guess it’s a processor specifically designed to be used in wearables such as smartwatches or fitness trackers. Currently, many wearables are based on application processors that are used in smartphones (e.g. Galaxy Gear), and lower-end versions are based on standard low power MCUs (e.g. Pebble), but none of them are actually based on SoC specifically designed for wearables, and analysts are asserting that new types of SoC are definitely needed if companies are to provide wearables with the battery life and features consumers want. Ineda Systems Dhanush WPU is not the first Wearable SoC announced, as for instance AllWinner mentioned their WX quad-core SoC for Wearables should become available in Q4 2014 in their roadmap, and Mediatek vaguely unveiled their Aster SoC at CES 2014, but it’s the first that I know of where we’ve got most of the […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Aaeon AIOT-X1000 Linux Gateway is Powered by an Intel Quark SoC

Aaeon AIOT-X1000 Linux Gateway is Powered by an Intel Quark SoC

Intel Quark SoC for low power embedded devices has been seen on platforms designed by Intel themselves, such as Intel Galileo board or Edison wearable development kit, but I had not found Quark SoC in actual products until Aaeon announced their AIOT-X1000 gateway for the internet of things running Linux on an Intel Quark X1000 SoC, and working with a Cloud Service by Asus, Aaeon’s parent company. The solution targets manufacturing, transportation, and energy applications. Aaeon AIOT-X1000 specifications: Processor – Intel Quark X1000-series SoCs @ up to 400 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 800/1066 SODIMM Storage – IDE port, and micro SD slot Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet USB 4x USB2.0 ports Serial – 1x RS-232/422/485, 1x RS-422/485 Other I/Os — I2C, GPIO, JTAG Mini-PCIe card expansion – 1x full-size and  1x half-size, allowing for WiFi, 2G/3G/LTE cellular, Bluetooth, CAN bus, ZigBee, and RFID add-on boards Power – 5V or 9-24V DC input Dimensions – 146 x […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Get Cypress PSoC 4 MCUs for $1 Delivered to Your Door by Fedex

Get Cypress PSoC 4 MCUs for $1 Delivered to Your Door by Fedex

How many times have you found a low cost MCU, or a development kit, ready to order, until shipping fees, sometimes several times the price of the item, curbed your enthusiasm, to the point you just decided to cancel your purchase? It happened to me several times, so I was pleased to find out Cypress Semiconductor will ship their PSoC 4 MCUs via Fedex anywhere in the world without actually charging for shipping. PSoC 4 are ARM Cortex M0 MCUs with up to 32 kB Flash, up to 4 kB SRAM, and analog and digital I/Os. CY8CKIT-042 PSoC 4 Pionner Kit is the corresponding kit development kit, which happened to be voted product of the year 2013 on Element14 community beating the BeagleBone Black, Freescale SABRELite, and PiFace Digital for the Raspberry Pi. Development can be performed using PSoC Creator, and there seems to be a developer community active enough to provide 100 projects in 100 days. So […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Beken Bluetooth Audio Chip Features Beyond Semi BA22-RT RISC Core

Beken Bluetooth Audio Chip Features Beyond Semi BA22-RT RISC Core

I would normally not mention a Bluetooth audio chip in this blog, but you may remember my posts about Beyond Semi BA21 and BA25 RISC cores. The Slovene company’s IP cores are not found in many silicons right now, but one Chinese fabless semiconductor company called Beken Corporation, has chosen BA22-RT core instead of an ARM core for their latest Bluetooth audio chip. Beken required a system capable of supporting real-time audio decoding plus a Bluetooth stack with the A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile), AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile), and HFP (Hands free Profile) protocols, and it also had to provide both a low cost and low power consumption solution. During their evaluation of several 32-bit IP cores, Beken engineers noticed their program code would fit into a 128KB memory using BA22-RT (Real Time) core, instead of 170 KB for a competing solution simply referred to as “the most obvious supplier”, which is likely to be […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Cavium ThunderX Server SoC Features up to 48 ARM 64-bit Cores

Cavium ThunderX Server SoC Features up to 48 ARM 64-bit Cores

ARM SBSA specification for server supports up to 268,435,456 CPU cores for the second level of standardization on one or a combination of SoCs. We’re not quite up there just yet, but Cavium ThunderX is an ARM server SoC with up to 48 cores on a single chip, which is the highest number of cores I’ve ever heard of in an ARM SoC. The company created their own custom processor cores using an ARMv8 architecture license, designing an SoC complies with ARM’s Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) standard with the following key features: ARM based SoC that scales up from 8 to 48 cores with up to 2.5 GHz core frequency with 78K I-Cache, 32K D-Cache, and 16MB L2 cache. Fully cache coherent across dual sockets using Cavium Coherent Processor Interconnect (CCPI) Integrated I/O capacity with 100s of Gigabits of I/O bandwidth 4x DDR3/4 72-bit memory controllers supporting up to 1TB RAM […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Intel Showcases Tablet / 2-in-1 Reference Design based on 14nm “Broadwell” Core M SoC

Intel Showcases Tablet / 2-in-1 Reference Design based on 14nm “Broadwell” Core M SoC

Intel has unveiled a thin tablet reference design at Computex 2014, in Taiwan, which is based on their upcoming “Broadwell” Core M processor manufactured using 14nm process technology, which will be the most power efficient Intel Core processor to date. Intel fanless mobile PC reference design features a 7.2mm thick, 12.5″ tablet that weights 670 grams. You can also connect it to a media dock providing additional cooling allowing more performance, as well as a keyboard dock. Intel expects 2-in-1 products (tablet + laptop) based on Intel Core M to be available later this year.     Intel claims 60% lower power dissipation, 20 to 40% better performance, and 10 to 45% low SoC power, and half the package footprint compared to third generation “Haswell” Core processors, which will allow fanless and thin designs. Currently Mobile Haswell Core processors have a maximum TDP of 11.5W to 47W, so in theory, at best, Broadwell SoCs might achieve […]

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