Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Telechips TCC892X/TCC893X Android 4.2.2 SDK Leaked

I’ve been informed that an Android 4.2.2 SDK for Telechips TCC892x and the newer TCC893x (TCC8930, TCC8933, TCC8935) dual core SoCs has been leaked on the Internet. The file (v13.03_r1-tcc-android-4.2.2.tar.bz2) is a 2.7GB tarball, and appears to be a full SDK. You can download the file here if you are interested. After extraction, there’s 6.7 GB of data in the following directories: 40M ./libcore 5.8M ./docs 31M ./ndk 5.0M ./gdk 1.2G ./frameworks 324K ./pdk 95M ./development 18M ./bionic 544M ./kernel 228M ./device 106M ./hardware 24M ./bootable 295M ./packages 55M ./sdk 151M ./cts 2.4G ./prebuilts 1.7G ./external 40M ./dalvik 9.1M ./system 108K ./libnativehelper 6.9M ./build 104K ./abi 47M ./vendor The linux kernel is based on Linux 3.1.10, and there are a few config files to choose from with configs forh HDMI TV dongles, micro PCs, STBs, and evaluation boards for TCC8930, TCC8935, TCC8920 and TCC8925.

kernel/arch/arm/configs$ ls tcc*
tcc8920st_defconfig          tcc8935st_dongle_single_defconfig
tcc8925st_dongle_defconfig   tcc8935st_upc_defconfig
tcc8925st_upc_defconfig      tcc8935st_upc_single_defconfig
tcc8925st_yj8925t_defconfig  tcc8935st_yj8935t_defconfig
tcc892x_defconfig            tcc8935st_yj8935t_single_defconfig
tcc8930st_defconfig          tcc893x_defconfig
tcc8930st_single_defconfig   tcc893x_single_defconfig
tcc8935st_dongle_defconfig

kernel/arch/arm/configs$ ls tcc*

tcc8920st_defconfig tcc8935st_dongle_single_defconfig

tcc8925st_dongle_defconfig tcc8935st_upc_defconfig

tcc8925st_upc_defconfig tcc8935st_upc_single_defconfig

tcc8925st_yj8925t_defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_defconfig

tcc892x_defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_single_defconfig

tcc8930st_defconfig tcc893x_defconfig

tcc8930st_single_defconfig tcc893x_single_defconfig

tcc8935st_dongle_defconfig

YJ8925T boards supports HDMI and […]

February 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Review of Huawei MediaQ M310 Android TV Box

Huawei MediaQ M310 is an Android set-top box powered by HiSilicon K3V2 quad core SoC. AndroidPC.es have just written a review of the device in Spanish, and since it’s one of the only media player based on this processor, which also include a Vivante GC4000 GPU, I’ll translate some of the most interesting bits, but you can find many more pictures and screenshots on the original article. MediaQ M310 Unboxing Let’s remind us of the specifications first: SoC – Hisilicon K3V2 Quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor with Vivante GC4000 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 4GB Flash + microSD card slot Video I/O – 1x HDMI In,1x HDMI Out Audio I/O – HDMI, SPDIF, 3.5mm stereo jack, Mic mono USB – 2x USB 2.0 (1 extension from Y cable) + 1x micro USB Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n 2.4G/5G 2×2MIMO, Bluetooth 4.0 Beside the device and the Bluetooth remote […]

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

ARM Unveils Cortex A17 Processor, First Used in Mediatek MT6595 and Rockchip RK3288 SoCs

Finally all these ARM Cortex A17 marketing materials for Rockchip RK3288 were not some typos, but Rockchip marketing team may just have not received the memo reading “Confidential”, as ARM has now officially announced Cortex A17 processor based on ARMv7-A architecture, with support for big.LITTLE with Cortex A7, and that can be coupled with Mali-T720 mid-range GPU and Mali-V500 VPU. After Cortex A15, and Cortex A12, you may wonder “Why? But Why did ARM had to launch yet another new core?”. Here’s the company answer to that question: The Cortex-A17 processor offers 60% performance uplift over the Cortex-A9 processor, the current leader in mid-range mobile market, and betters the best efficiency enabling optimized solutions to address existing and new products. The Cortex-A17 processor is based on the popular ARMv7-A architecture, today’s most successful architecture in the mobile market. With over 1M apps supporting the ARMv7-A architecture, the Cortex-A17 processor is […]

February 11, 2014April 3, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

How to Convert Your HDTV into a Massive Touchscreen Enabled Android Tablet

Thanks to Android mini PCs, it’s now very easy and cheap to run Android on your HDTV, but most of the time touchscreen functionality is missing. There are already full products such as AIO Android PCs, and Smart Displays that brings Android to large display with touchscreen, and PQ Labs iStick A200 HDMI TV stick supports directly their overlay touch frames so you can “touchscreenize” your TV with their mini-PC and correct frame connected via USB. If you’d rather use another model of infrared touch frame for your TV and own Android device, Hardkernel has just explained how to do in the February edition of ODROID magazine using their ODROID-XU development board. In the magazine, they explain some details about the difference between capacitive and infrared touchscreens, and provide instructions to choose the right IR touch frame, how-to modify the software if necessary, and how to connect the touch frame to […]

February 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Keepod Unite Aims to Bring Computer Access to Africa with $7 USB Sticks and Refurbished Laptops (Crowdfunding)

The Raspberry Pi foundation has done a great job to bring to market $25 and $35 computers for kids to learn programming, but they have many other uses including hardware “hacking” and bringing low cost computers to developing countries. Keepod and NGO LiveInSlums have thought of an apparently more cost effective way to bring computing access to people living in slums in Nairobi, Kenya, by providing USB sticks (about $7) to boot refurbished laptops. This is absolutely NOT a $7 PC as a few other websites have mentioned. The goal is to facilitate NGO communication, the spread of knowledge and economic development in a way that’s personal and secure. The USB flash drives will belong to one person, and contains a Linux based operating systems with all files saved in the stick, and no modifications on the host computer which does not even need an hard drive to work, and […]

February 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

$50 Hotach HTV003 Android Media Player is Powered by Telechips TCC8935 SoC

The last few months have been pretty quiet in terms of new Android mini PCs and media players, at least when it comes to new platforms. But finally there’s something new, as Telechips TCC893x based devices are starting to show up on the marketplace. The devices won’t beat performance records as the new Telechips SoC features a dual core Cortex A9 processor with a Mali-400MP2 GPU, but they’ll be very affordable. Hotach HTV003 is one of the first media player powered by Telechips TCC8935, and sells for $50 on Aliexpress. Hotach HTV003 specifications: SoC – Telechips TCC8935 with two ARM Cortex A9 cores up to 1GHz, one Cortex M3 core, and an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot up to 32 GB Connectivity – Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Video Output – HDMI Audio Ouput – HDMI USB – 2x […]

February 10, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

DragonBox Pyra Open Source Handheld Game Console To Feature TI OMAP5432 SoC.. or AllWinner A80, or Intel Bay Trail, or Qualcomm Snapdragon…

Pandora is an open source handheld console which development started as far back as 2007. The project has had ups and downs, and some people have yet to receive the device they pre-ordered. As many components are now more difficult to source, Pandora has reach end-of-life, as Pandora 2 is now being developed with a subset of the original team, but has been renamed to DragonBox Pyra to start afresh. The new version aims to take to the good aspects of the original Pandora, and improve on the bad ones, so that DragonBox will have a faster hardware with a better looking case and better control. Here are the specifications listed on the project website: SoC – Texas Instruments OMAP 5432 SoC with 2x ARM Cortex-A15 @ 1.7Ghz with NEON SIMD, 2x ARM Cortex-M4, Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX544-MP2 GPU for 3D graphic, and Vivante GC320 GPU for 2D graphics System […]

February 9, 2014February 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

How to Upload YouTube Videos with the Command Line in Linux

Like many people, I access Internet via an ADSL connection at home. ADSL stands for “Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line”, with Asymmetric being the key word here, as it just mean your download speed will be (much) higher than your upload speed. My ISP promises a theoretical 10 Mbps download speed, and 512 Kbps upload speed, and this is pretty close in reality: Data Rate: 10240 (downstream), 509 (upstream) kbps. Assuming a 265MB video, in the very best case (63 KB/s), it would take 1 hour and 12 minutes to upload a video to YouTube, but in practice it’s often closer to 2 or 3 hours. If it’s a video you’ve shot yourself, and copied inside your computer, there’s very little you can do, except processing the video with tools such as HandBrake to make it smaller before upload. But if the video files are located somewhere in the Internet, and […]