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

January 22, 2014January 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

TransferJet Wireless Technology is NFC on Steroid with up to 560Mbps Transfer Speed

Today, our devices communicate between each others wirelessly thanks to standards such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and more, and the list of Wireless standards is getting bigger as I’ve just found out about TransferJet while reading an article about a new Toshiba ultra-small wireless chip for smartphone. TransferJet can transfer data at a peak speed of 560 Mbps, with an effective throughput up to 375 Mbps over a few centimeters, and appears to work in the similar fashion as NFC, except it’s focusing on large file/data transfers (no payment), and is much faster, about a 1000 times faster actually, as the latter is limited to 424 kbit/s. In real-time benchmarks, it has also been shown to be 5x faster than Wi-Fi to transfer a video. Here are TransferJet keys specifications: Center Frequency – 4.48 GHz Transmission Power – At or below -70dBm/MHz (average). Corresponds to low intensity radio wave regulation in […]

January 20, 2014January 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linux Kernel 3.13 Release

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.13 yesterday: The release got delayed by a week due to travels, but I suspect that’s just as well. We had a few fixes come in, and while it wasn’t a lot, I think we’re better off for it. At least I hope so – I’ll be very disappointed if any of them cause more problems than they fix.. Anyway, the patch from rc8 is fairly small, with mainly some small arch updates (arm, mips, powerpc, s390, sparc, x86 all had some minor changes, some of them due to a networking fix for the bpf jit). And drivers (mainly gpu and networking). And some generic networking fixes. The appended shortlog gives more details. Anyway, with this, the merge window for 3.14 is obviously open. Kernel 3.12 brought new features to BTRFS and XFS file systems, PC’s GPU drivers improvements, better memory handling, […]

January 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Telechips TCC893x Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 + Cortex M3 SoCs: TCC8930, TCC8933, TCC8935

Sometimes last year, Telechips discreetly released a triple core SoC comprised of 2 ARM Cortex A9 cores and one Cortex M3 core for tablet, set-top boxes, media player and car AVN (Audio, Video & Navigation). A dual core release in 2013 may not be that interested, but the addition of a Cortex M3, and high performance interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 may make it interesting. Let’s have a look. There’s very little information on Telechips TCC893x page, apart from the block diagram above and the following description: The TCC893x is a system-on-chip with powerful multimedia solution and high performance such as dual decoding. It is ideal for high-end multimedia devices such as Set top box, Media Box, Car AVN, and Tablet. TCC893x multimedia application processor based on Cortex-A9 Dual & M3 has multi-format hardware video accelerator optimized to reduce power consumption, high-performance 2D/3D graphic engine for rich […]

January 20, 2014February 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

$69.95 NanoPC-T1 by FriendlyARM Features Samsung Exynos 4412 SoC

If you like low cost boards by Hardkernel such as ODROID-U3, but the add-ons required, and/or shipping costs put you off, an alternative will soon be available thanks to FriendlyARM NanoPC-T1, a tiny computer designed and manufactured by CoreWind Tech FriendlyARM Guangzhou, and powered by Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 SoC with 1GB RAM, and 4GB built-in flash. FriendlyARM NanoPC specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex-A9 @ 1.5GHz + Mali-400MP4 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM, 32bit data bus Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash + SD Card slot Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45) Video Output – HDMI Audio – 3.5mm Audio Out jack USB – 1x micro USB OTG, 2x USB 2.0 host ports Expansions and I/Os: UART – 4 x TTL UART LCD – TFT LCD interface, support Capacitive/Resistive touch driver 2x Digital sensor input CMOS CAMERA Interface MIPI interface – Support HD […]

January 20, 2014January 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Review of Beelink A9 RK3188 Android Media Player

Beelink A9 is an Android TV Box powered by Rockchip RK3188 SoC with 2GB RAM, and 8GB RAM (See full specs). The hardware is pretty standard, but the company released Android 4.4 SDK for the device, so when Beelink / Nexteon told me they wanted to send me one for review, I accepted. I won’t test the Android SDK today, but I’ll just show the pictures of the device, and run my usual series of tests for review. The shipped sample is not running Android 4.4 (beta), but Android 4.2.2. Unboxing Pictures I’ve received this Android media player in the no brand package below. I’m not sure if Beelink will sell directly to individuals, so you’ll likely to received some different if you order Tronsmart A928 or Zero Devices Z6C which are based on the same platform. There are quite a few accessories in the package: The box itself, a […]

January 19, 2014January 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

ICE xPC Modular x86 Computer Is as Small as a Smartphone (Crowdfunding)

Until now, if we talked about mini PCs in stick form factor that always meant some ARM or MIPS processor were powering the devices. Intel is not yet into this type of form factor, but with ICE xPC (Indiegogo), you can now find an x86 computer module with the CPU, RAM, and SSD as well as connectivity modules and sensors into a box as small and thin as a smartphone. ICE xPC will also support other low power processors including Core i5 processor and/or ARM SoCs if the concept is gaining traction. ICE xPC modular computer specifications: SoC – Intel Bay Trail 4-cores Atom processor with Intel HD graphics System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 64 GB SSD Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi module + Bluetooth module Camera – 720p Sensors – Accelerometer, Gyro sensor Power Supply – 20 Watts. Energy used claimed: between 3 and 11 Watts. Dimensions […]

January 19, 2014January 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

9.99 Euros Arietta G25 Board Features Atmel SAM9G25 (ARM9) Processor

Acme Systems Aria G25 is a tiny system-on-module (SoM) based on Atmel SAM9G25 that sells for as low as 24 Euros. The company is now working on an smaller and lower cost ARM Linux module based on the same processor called Arietta G25. The board targets the hobbyist market and IoT (Internet of Things) applications. Arietta G25 specifications: CPU – Atmel AT91SAM9G25 ARM9 @ 400Mhz System Memory – 128 MB DDR2 Storage – MicroSD Socket for up to 32GB bootable Linux microSD (not included) I/Os and other available pins (via 2.54mm though holes): USB – 1x USB 2.0 host/device (High Speed), 1x USB 2.0 host(HS), 1x USB 2.0 host (FS) Serial – 1x UART (RXD,TXD,RTS,CTS), 1x I2C, 1x SPI bus 1 with 2 chip select (5 to 50 MHz) 4x PWM 4x 10-bit A/D converters 1-wire bus 5V, 3.3V, GND, VBATT signals Header for Wi-Fi module Power – Single 3.3 […]

January 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AllGo Embedded Systems Android IVI System Boots in 4 Seconds

We’ve already seen several sub-second boot times for embedded Linux systems with platforms such as Beagleboard (TI OMAP 3530) and an AllWinner A10 based device, but I had never seen fast boot optimization for Android before, or I just forgot… Typically Android boots within 20 to 40 seconds on most devices, but AllGo Embedded Systems has optimized Android Jelly Bean boot time for their IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) platform running a media player called RACE. Charbax interviewed then at CES 2014, where they demoed the 4 seconds (actually 4.2 seconds) boot on Texas Instruments OMAP5 from reset and power, as you can see in the video below. (The video starts at 2:20 to show the demo directly). Beside Texas Instrument OMAP5, the solution is also available for Freescale i.MX6. 0xlab did some boot time optimizations for Android dropping the boot time from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. AllGo Embedded Systems did […]