Hardware Category - Page 1040 of 1132 - CNX Software

November 5, 2013November 5, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ARM Based Servers and Servers-on-a-Chip (SoCs) at ARM Techcon 2013

ARM Techcon 2013 took place on October 29 – 31, 2013, in Santa Clara, and several companies announced servers, or chips for server based on ARM technology. None of those are for home used, but for now ARM based servers target enterprise and cloud data. Yet end users may them indirectly when they access social networks such as Facebook, or other online services such as Paypal. Calxeda ECX-2000 SoC After their ECX-1000 quad core Cortex A9 Server-on-chip, Calxeda has announced ECX-2000 SoC featuring four Cortex A15 cores. The new SoC provides about twice the performance, 3 times the memory bandwidth, and 4 times the memory capacity (up to 16GB RAM) of the earlier chip. One of the key advantage of Cortex A15 over Cortex A9 is hardware virtualization that allows support for KVM and Xen hypervisors. ECX-2000 is supported in Canonical Ubuntu Linux 13.10 and can run Havana Openstack. Other […]

November 5, 2013May 22, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Motorola’s Project Ara Open Source Hardware Plaform for Modular Smartphones

A few months ago, I posted a video about “The Smarter Phone“, a concept smartphone that was supposed to be serviceable and upgradeable just like PCs used to be, in order to reduce e-waste among other things. Based on comments here and on Reddit, most people did not really believe the concept was feasible, practical or cost effective, myself included. Fast forward to September, a video about another concept modular smartphone called Phonebloks went viral with over 17 million views. The overall idea is basically the same, but this time there seems to be at least a mockup. Phonebloks features a base where you can attach blocks such as the display, a wifi module, processor module, bluetooth module and so on. It turns out Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group has been working on something similar for a year with Project Ara, and they recently partnered with Phonebloks’ guys, since […]

November 4, 2013November 4, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

$91 IPPLI Mars i8 is a Cylinder Shaped STB Based on Rockchip RK3188

Most of set-top boxes come with a casing with a rectangular shape. But some designs are more original: spaceship-like, spherical, or even in the shape of a pyramid. We’ve now got another option with IPPLI Mars i8, a media player based on Rockchip RK3188, that comes with a cylindrical enclosure. Here are the technical specifications of the device: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.6 GHz + Mali-400MP4 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + microSD slot (Up to 32GB) Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with external Wi-Fi antenna. Bluetooth Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR 10/100M Ethernet Video Output – HDMI v1.4 up to 1080p Audio Output – HDMI, optical audio, and 3.5mm jack Camera – 2.0MP with microphone USB – 2 x USB 2.0 port, 1 x Mini USB (OTG) Dimensions – 8.5 cm x 8.5 cm x 13.0 cm Weight – 252 g […]

November 4, 2013November 4, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

One2Touch Softpad C1 and S1 are NFC Keyboards for Android Devices

It’s pretty easy to find Bluetooth keyboards if you want to a keyboard to type more easily and faster on your phone. They have two small inconveniences however: they need to be paired, and need to be recharged. The first one is not really a problem, but the second can be. If your phone supports NFC, you can now get One2Touch Softpad C1 or S2 wireless keyboard using NFC technology. These do not require pairing, nor charging (but uses CR2025 batteries). Softpad S1 is similar to C1, expect there’s space in the middle of the keyboard to insert your phone. S1 has recently been (quickly) reviewed by Android Central. To make the keyboard work with your Android smartphone, you’ll need to download the drivers from Google Play, and you’re ready to go. You can watch the video below for some of the use cases with Softpad C1. I could not […]

November 1, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

VIA Announces $99 Springboard Platform for Android and Linux Development

Back in May 2013, VIA unveiled VAB-600 Pico-ITX board powered by WonderMedia WM8950 with an ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 800 MHz and a Mali-400 GPU. At the time they provided a starter kit with a 7″ display. The company has now announced the VIA Springboard Platform based on VAB-600 that is available without Wi-Fi for $99 or with Wi-Fi for $129. Here are the items included in the kits: VAB-600 Pico-ITX board with WM8950, 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, 4GB eMMC Flash memory and microSD slot. See VAB-600 post for detailed specifications. VIA VAB-600-A I/O extender card: 1 x Line-Out jack 1 x Mic-In jack 2 x USB 2.0 A-type ports 1 x Suspend LED power indicator 1 x Power On/Off button 3 x board-to-board connectors 1 x USB board-to-board connector VIA VNT9271 Springboard USB WiFi module (Wi-Fi Kit only) – Supports IEEE 802.11b/g/n standards and 802.11e WiFi Multimedia (WMM). Based […]

October 27, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Lenovo A10 Android Laptop is Powered by Rockchip RK3188

Lenovo has recently announced the Lenovo A10, an Android 4.2 netbook featuring a 10″ touchscreen display, and powered by Rockchip RK3188 quad core ARM Cortex-A9 processor coupled with 2GB RAM, and up to 32GB storage. Here are the specifications of this laptop: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 quad-core Cortex A9 processor System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – Up to 32GB storage + microSD card slot Display – 10.1″, 1366 x 768 display with 10-point multitouch Video Output – HDMI port USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Webcam – 0.3MP webcam Audio – Stereo speakers Battery – Up to 9 hours of video playback Dimensions – 17.3mm maximum thickness Weight – Less than 1kg The screen can be flipped around 300 degrees so that the device can be used in “laptop mode” or “stand mode”. In “laptop mode”, the company has designed a customized user interface, with an app launcher, task […]

October 22, 2013October 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

ISEE Introduces IGEPv5 Board Powered by TI OMAP5432 Processor

ISEE made a call to developers late 2012, asking them what features they’d like for an OMAP5 board. IGEPv5 board is now nearly completed, and people can register their interest to receive the development board in January 2014. IGEPv5 Specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments OMAP5432 dual core Cortex A15 up to 2GHz with POWERVR SGX544 dual-core GPU, and TMS320DMC64x DSP System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM expandable to 4GB Storage – Up to 32GB eMMC i-NAND, microSD socket, and mSATA2.0 Interface Connectivity: Ethernet controller: 1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet PHY controler (RJ45) Wifi: 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth v4.0 Antenna: Internal Wifi/BT Antenna USB – 1 x USB 3.0 OTG (miniAB receptable), 4 x USB 2.0 Host (Type A receptable) Video – 1 x microHDMI (Video + Audio) Audio – 1 x Stereo Audio In (Stereo minijack), 1 x Stereo Audio Out (Stereo minijack) Debugging – DEBUG SERIAL CONSOLE via RS232 (DB9), […]

October 14, 2013October 14, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Olimex Announces OLIMEXINO-NANO, a Tiny Arduino Leonardo Compatible Board

Last month, I wrote about Microduino, a tiny Arduino compatible board about the size of a coin. Olimex has also being working on their own tiny version of the Arduino board, OLIMEXINO-NANO, slightly larger than Microduino (30x30mm vs 25.4×27.94mm) but also featuring the UEXT connector which is an advantage if your own or plan to use UEXT expansion boards, but it could be an inconvenience if you don’t, as the connector is a little bulky. Here are the specs of the board: MCU – Atmel ATMega32U4 processor (Leonardo compatible) with 2.5KB RAM, 32KB flash memory, and 1KB EEPROM. Storage (external) – microSD card connector for data logging on SD-card USB – micro USB connector for programming and power supply when debugging Misc – RESET button, USER button, 2x status LEDs Expansion Connectors: UEXT connector for RF, Zigbee, Ethernet, RELAY, RGB LED, etc UEXT modules Connector 14 pin 0.05″ Connector 20 […]