Hardware Category - Page 1093 of 1114 - CNX Software

April 7, 2012April 7, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Axiomtek MANO120 Mini-ITX Board Powered by AMD G-series APU

Axiomtek announced the MANO120 mini-ITX motherboard featuring an AMD G-Series APU dual core T56N with AMD A55E FCH which supports dual video output (dual views) via VGA, HDMI and LVDS interface. The board can support up to 4 GB of DDR3 1333 memory, up to 5 SATA hard drives and a CFast slot. The MANO120 also comes with one PCIe x4 slot and one PCI Express Mini Card slot. The company says the MANO120 industrial grade motherboard is ideal for digital signage, DVR (Digital Video Recording), and NVR (Network Video Recorder) applications. Here are Axiomtek MANO120 mini-ITX board specifications. CPU – AMD G-Series APU T56N @ 1.65 GHz with AMD Radeon HD6320 Graphic engine Chipset – AMD A55E FCH System Memory – 204-pin SO-DIMM supports DDR3-1066/1333 max (up to 4 GB) BIOS – AMI EFI 16Mb SPI SSD – CFast slot Expansion Interfaces: PCIe x4 slot PCIe Mini Card CFast […]

April 7, 2012April 7, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Daisy: An Exynos 5250 (Cortex A15) Based ChromeBook

Thomas Taschauer has reported on his blog that Google was working on several Chromebooks including one codenamed “Daisy” powered by an an ARM chip by just looking at Chromium OS’ issue tracker. By looking more into details, we can find out that Daisy development makes use of the kernel config for Samsung SMDK5250, Samsung development board for the Exynos 5250 (Dual Core Cortex A15) processor. Daisy also appears to have an Ethernet port, a feature not seen on other Chromebooks which only feature WiFi or 3G for connectivity. 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. www.cnx-software.com

April 3, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Calixto Systems Announces TI AM335x VERSA SOM

Calixto Systems is a technology company based in Bangalore, India, providing System-on-Modules (SoM), evaluation boards (EVM) and consultancy services for Android, Linux and WinCE. The company has announced an update to its VERSA families of system-on-modules by including support for Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x processors. The previous version is based on TI OMAP-L138 C6-Integra DSP+ARM Processor. The AM335x SoM will provide higher performance than the previous module and targets industrial automation, smart grid, remote terminals, healthcare, handheld point-of-service (POS) terminals and weighing scales. Here are M335x VERSA SOM specifications: Texas Instruments AM335x (Cortex A8) processor @ 720 MHz with 3D Graphics Support (PowerVR) 256/512 MB of DDR3 SPI Flash Wireless LAN (b/g/n) (Optional) Bluetooth 4.0 (Optional) Two 10/100 Ethernet (One PHY on SOM) 24 bit LCD with Touch Screen interface 2x USB 2.0 OTG, 2x CAN, 4x UARTs McASP, PRU , SPI, I2C etc. 200 pin SODIMM connector Dimension: 34mm x […]

March 29, 2012August 7, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Xilinx Zynq-7000 Extensible Processing Platform (EPP): Dual Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC

The Xilinx Zynq-7000 EPP (Extensible Processing Platform) is a new class of device, offering a mix of a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 subsystem (including cache, memory controllers, interface, and peripheral functions) with a 28-nm programmable digital FPGA and programmable analog capabilities. This combination opens the door to a range of demanding applications, including automotive (video processing and analytics requirements for driver assistance systems), broadcast (high-bit-rate bandwidth for high-accuracy video processing and analytics), and industrial control systems that combine high-processing demands with tight integration requirements. There are actually 4 models which share the same processing subsystem (CPU core, memory, peripherals, etc…) and only differ by the programmable logic used: Z-7010 – Artix-7 FPGA with 28K logic cells. Z-7020 – Artix-7 FPGA with 85K logic cells. Z-7030 – Kintex-7 FPGA with 125K logic cells. Z-7045 – Kintex-7 FPGA with 350K logic cells. The Zynq-7000 EPP platform allows concurrent software and hardware development: System […]

March 28, 2012July 17, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Virtual Hardware Platforms: Test & Debug Software Before the Silicon is Ready

Historically software could only be tested and debugged when the first silicon sample was ready, and the software team could not participate in the design process. But thanks to Virtual Hardware Platforms, software can be executed at speeds close to real time on an abstract model of the hardware, available long before a design has been completed. The virtual platform is designed to simplify the creation and support of virtual prototypes and allow design teams to begin developing software weeks to months before a hardware prototype is available, and software teams can use it as their application development platform. For example, Freescale is using a Virtual Hardware Platform for their new Vybrid Controllers to emulate both Cortex A5 and Cortex M4 cores, as well as peripherals and run OS such as Linux or MQX before the Controllers are ready (Q2 2012). One Virtual Hardware Platform has just won the ACE […]

March 28, 2012March 28, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

TI SimpleLink GPS CC4000 Enables GPS For MCUs

Yesterday, Texas Instruments unveiled the SimpleLink GPS CC4000, a GPS self-contained module that can be interfaced with any MCU or MPU having a UART interface. Due to limited resources of microcontrollers, several GPS features have been implemented in hardware such as the push-to-fix function which can simply be controlled by the MCU via a GPIO to receive National Marena Electronics Association (NMEA) strings containing location, time and velocity information. TI Simplelink GPS CC4000 enables GPS-based applications such as asset tracking, industrial M2M, sports and fitness, and precision timing. It can deliver better than 2.5 meter accuracy and provides pulse-per-second output functions to provide precise location and timing data. It can also automatically reuse previously decoded satellite information thanks to its “watchful-eye” feature in order to deliver fast time to first fix (TTFF) and optimize power consumption. Here are SimpleLink GPS CC4000 key features: Driverless, fully integrated GPS solution which requires […]

March 26, 2012May 5, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

FSLBOT: Freescale (Dancing) Robot Kit

Freescale unveiled the FSLBOT prototype last year (and I missed it!), and today, the company has announced further improvements to the Freescale Tower System mechatronics robot and board, a bipedal robot and development board that allows designers to write software for a variety of sensor applications while making a robot walk and respond to touch, motion, vibration, tilt and other external stimuli. The new version of the robot uses a new programming language based on StickOS, has wireless capabilities and adds an Xtrinsic MAG3110 magnetometer. This robot has been designed with the collaboration of StickOS and CPUStick.com with the goal “to create a tool that would enable casual users and consumers of technology to become creators and innovators”. The Freescale FSLBOT Robot Kit comes with the following: Freescale Tower System mechatronics board powered by a 32-bit ColdFire MCU with 64K of RAM and 512K of flash. Leg mechanics and associated […]

March 22, 2012March 23, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Microchip Unveils Wi-Fi Comm Demo Board with 32-bit PIC32 MCU

After TI and Qualcomm, here’s another WiFi solution for MCU aimed at the internet of things (IoT). Yesterday, Microchip Technology announced the Wi-Fi Comm Demo Board, which combines a Microchip 32-bit PIC32 microcontroller (PIC32MX695F512H) with a low-power MRF24WB0MA embedded Wi-Fi radio transceiver module. This small (and cheap) demo board can be used to integrate with existing embedded designs and/or to evaluate Wi-Fi connectivity with a 32-bit MCU. Contrary to TI and Qualcomm, the IP network stack is not implemented in hardware, but Microchip provides a TCP/IP stack that can be freely downloaded at http://www.microchip.com/get/A3VP. This TCP/IP stack includes HTML, DHCP, DNS, IPv4/v6, SSL, etc… (See diagram below) The memory footprint is 28-34 KB depending on the modules used. I could not find details about power consumption, but the company claims their solution can also run with just 2 AAA batteries. Microchip explains that this solution can enable the rapid growth […]