Qualcomm Atheros AR4100P Provides WiFi Connectivity to the Internet of Things

In January, Texas Instruments was the first company (to my knowledge) to release a WiFi chip for the internet of things, the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000, where WiFi is mostly implemented in hardware to lower power consumption. Now, the company has some competition with the announcement of Qualcomm Atheros AR4100P, an improved version of its AP4100 WiFi chipset, including IPv4/IPv6 support. The AR4100 targets the home, enterprise, smart grid and home automation and control applications that have lower data rates and transmit or receive data on an infrequent basis. The AR4100 system-in-package (SIP) features the following: Low energy Power saving modes as low as 5 µA Wake-up times as low as 2.2 ms Support for Quad SPI flash for faster wake times Low system resource requirements Low footprint host driver (25K Flash and 8K RAM) Simple, low-cost wireless system integration LGA package simplifies 2- or 4-layer PCB design Near zero RBOM […]

98 Raspberry Pi Boards Left for Qt Developers

In November 2011, the Raspberry Pi foundation announced that Nokia purchased codes for 400 boards from the 1st 10,000 batch, in order to give them away to selected developers that are interested in helping develop and test Qt 5 on the Raspberry Pi. This developer program is called QtonPi. The surprising part if that they struggle to distribute all those boards. Although to date 425 people have been selected, only 302 are currently eligible to receive a board because over 100 developers did not provide their details to receive the free Raspberry Pi board namely: Their full name The link to their wiki user profile. The area of the “QtonPi Accepted Page” where they are listed. The country where the board will be shipped If by chance, you are reading this blog, have been selected but you can’t see “OK” or “CODE SENT” next to your user ID, you should […]

Archos G10 xs Teaser Video with Sliding Keyboard Dock

Archos has just released a teaser video for its next generation Android tablet, the Archos G10 xs (xs stands for extra small). The video does not show much, except the concept of the new tablet which features a sliding keyboard where the tablet can be docked. Archos has not released the specifications for the G10 XS yet, but we do know the casing is made of stainless steel, is 7.6mm thick (12mm with the keyboard) and Archos has worked for 3 years on this design. There will be several models whose retail price should be between 200 and 300 Euros (Which would be between 200 and 300 USD in the US thanks to lower taxes). The new tablets will be powered by a Texas Instruments processor (probably OMAP 4) like the Archos G9 tablets and run Android 4.0 and Windows 8 depending on the model. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX […]

Designing An Android Sensor Subsystem: Pitfalls and Considerations – Android Builder Summit 2012

Jen Costillo of Lab 126 discusses the Android sensor subsystem at the Android Builder Summit in February 2012. Abstract: This lecture will arm Android device architects with the tactical knowledge they need to navigate the Android Sensor subsystem and make knowledgeable design choices to improve user experience and improve battery performance. The talk will address: Hardware architecture and trade-offs including latency, power, and software architecture implications: Wake up events and power considerations Gesture Detection Algorithm processing location and considerations Testing methodologies (Creating tools to aid develop and collect data. This talk targets the kernel/firmware developer responsible for the sensor architecture. They should be familiar with kernel drivers, embedded systems, hardware bring up, Android services, and the C language. You can also download the presentation slides on linuxfoundation.org website. 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 […]

Shenzhen Wabook EPC1029 ARM Netbook Runs Android 2.3 / 4.0

Shenzhen Wabook Technology, a manufacturer with a factory based in Zhuhai, China, showcases their Wabook Netbook at Cebit 2012. The Wabook EPC1029 is a netbook running Android 2.3 (upgradable to Android 4.0) on a Rockchip RK2918 (ARM Cortex A8) @ 1.0 GHz. The device features a 10.1″ TFT LED display (16:9 aspect ratio) with a resolution of 1024×600, 3 USB host ports, Ethernet. No other technical specs are available yet. Only Android is available, but it might be possible to hack Ubuntu or another distro to run on it. You can watch the video below by Charbax of armdevices.net to see the device. Don’t worry pink is not the only color as white and black are also available. The price for 1,000 pieces (MOQ)  is 93 USD and it takes around 25-30 days to get your order. They have already sold tens of thousands to a company in France. With […]

Huawei M2M Solutions: Android Rear-View Mirror, Smart Grid and more

Huawei is exhibiting their Machine to Machine (M2M) solutions at Cebit 2012 until March 10, 2012. They are showcasing Smart Meter solutions with home energy gateways, smart gas meters, smart electric meters, in-home displays.. all communicating via Zigbee. Their solution is currently being implement in the UK market. They are also exhibiting diverse modules (mainly based on Freescale i.MX5 processor) featuring Huawei 3G technology that could be used in tablets among other things. But the thing is really found interesting was their M2M solutions for the auto industry especially the Android car rear-view mirror where you can have the left half of the rear-view mirror displaying a menu so that you can access apps such as GPS maps, control your music or your phone and see information about your car. Here are some details above this rear-view mirror: Samsung SP5V210 Cortex A8 Processor 4.3″ TFT capacitive touchscreen – Resolution: 800×480 […]

Coolech HbbTV DTV Set-Top Box Powered By MStar MIPS SoC

Shenzhen Coolech Technology demoes an HbbTV Digital TV Set-top Box (STB) at Cebit 2012, in Hanover, Germany.  HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) is a new European standard for web-based smart TV applications for TVs and set-top boxes. There are already plenty of STB solutions and Smart TVs offering Over-The-Top (OTT) features where TV channels and internet data are superimposed, but those are usually proprietary and HbbTV offers a standard that can be used by broadcasters all over Europe. Here are Coolech’s HbbTV DTV STB specifications: M-Star MIPS CPU clocked at 800 Mhz. HDMI DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S/S2 support. Ethernet SD Card 3x USB host IR Sensor SPDIF Audio Out There is no info on the OS except it does not run Android, so it must be Linux… Charbax interviewed the company at CeBit 2012 where you can learn more about the device and see a demo of ARD HbbTV Interop Portal […]

Wyse T10: Thin Client Powered By Marvell ARMADA 510 SoC

Wyse Technology has announced a new thin client: the Wyse T10 running Wyse zero framework (aka ThinOS), powered by Marvell ARMADA 510 SoC (ARM v7 core) and supporting virtualization solutions by Citrix, VMWare, Marvell, Microsoft and Quest Software. This is the second device based on Marvell 510 SoC after the  Wyse T50 announced last year running Wyse enhanced Ubuntu Linux. The company claims the Wyse T10 is the first platform in the industry to include Wyse optimized versions of the Citrix Receiver and Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 7.1 technologies, leveraging 2D hardware acceleration capabilities of Marvell ARMADA 510 SoC. This optimized 2D graphics remoting stack enables high-end features such as HD video, dual monitor connectivity and L-shaped desktop support, features that are usually only supported by more powerful Intel/AMD x86 clients. The following virtualization solutions are supported: Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 VMware View Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Quest vWorkspace […]

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