Hardware Category - Page 991 of 1115 - CNX Software

April 16, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained Board Unboxing and Quick Start Guide

Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained is an evaluation board running Linux powered by SAMA5D36 ARM Cortex A5 micro-processor with 256 MB DDR2, 256 MB flash, two Ethernet ports, 3 USB connectors, and more. This embedded board targets industrial automation, networks, robotics, control panels and wearable applications. The only video output is an LCD connector so it is reserved for headless or flat panel based applications. You can check full specs on my Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained announcement post. The company kindly sent me a sample, so that I can share my experience with the board. I’ll first post some unboxing pictures, show how to get started with the pre-installed image, and build my own Linux image. The board can be purchased for $79 from Atmel e-Store, as well as several distributors (P/N: ATSAMA5D3-XPLD). Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained Unboxing I’ve been sent the board via DHL in the following package, which gives a short desscription […]

April 15, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

$14 Digispark Pro is a Tiny Arduino Ready Board Supporting over 25 Shields (Crowdfunding)

Digispark Pro is yet another small Arduino compatible board, but it costs only $14, and over 25 small form factor shields for Wi-Fi, BLE, mesh networking, etc.. are available for the platform. Let’s get straight into the hardware specs: MCU – AVR MCU @ 16 Mhz with 16KB Flash Memory (14.5K+ after bootloader) I/Os 14 I/O pins (2 shared with USB) I2C, true SPI, UART, LIN, and USI ADC on 10 pins 3 PWM Channels (which can be assigned to a selection of pins) USB – Micro USB for debugging, communication and power Misc – One button usable as reset, program, or user button, Power and Test/Status LEDs, user accessible solder jumpers to disable LEDs, and other features for lower power consumption Power – 5V via micro USB, or External Source – 5v or 6-16v (automatic selection). On-board 500ma 5V regulator Dimensions – 26.7mm x 18.3mm The board is compatible […]

April 14, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Rockchip RK3288 based Android and Chromium OS Tablets and TV Boxes (Video)

After the first RK3288 Android TV boxes started to be promoted on Alibaba, and the first RK3288 board was shown, Rockchip is currently showing their quad core Cortex A17 processor in reference designs, tablets, and TV boxes running Android or Chromium OS at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair. Charbax interviewed the company, and the first demo was a development board connected to an LCD display running Chromium OS, which is said to handle 30 tabs without issues. Rockchip RK3288 is now advertised as being a quad core Cortex A17 with a Mali-T764 GPU, but when Rockchip representative was asked, he strangely denied to comment on whether it was a Cortex A12 or A17, as both are very similar. He also said the GPU was a Mali-T760MP4… If this seems all confusing that’s because it is… Some interesting things are H.265/HEVC support for 4K2K videos, and HDMI 2.0 for 4K @ […]

April 13, 2014April 13, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

MINIX Unveils NEO X8 and X8s Android TV Boxes Powered by Amlogic S802 & S802-H SoCs

MINIX has been providing Rockchip based Android TV boxes for a couple of years notably with their NEO X5 and NEO X7. They will now also offer devices powered by Amlogic with NEO X8 and NEO X8s respectively powered by S802 and S802-H quad core SoC. The advantage of the former is that it fully supports DTS and Dolby decoding and pass-through. Let go through the hardware specs of both devices: SoC NEO X8 – Amlogic S802 quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with Mali-450MP6 GPU NEO X8s – Amlogic S802-H quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with Mali-450MP6 GPU including Dolby and DTS support. System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB (X8) / 16GB (X8s) eMMC + SD/MMC card reader Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, dual band support for X8s, Bluetooth 4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 4K @ 30 fps, with […]

April 12, 2014December 18, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 41 Comments

Review of Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite Amlogic S802 TV Box

Tronsmart Vega S89 is an Android TV Box based on Amlogic quad-core Cortex A9 processor. You can refer to Tronsmart Vega S89 specs for more technical details, and check out my Tronsmart Vega S89 Unboxing post for pictures of the device and the board. As a reminder, there are two models of the device: Tronsmart Vega S89 with 16GB flash and dual-band Wi-Fi (AP6330 module), and Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite with 8GB flash and 2.4 WiFi (AP6220 module). I’ve been sent the Elite version, but both versions should have similar performance. I’ll start by giving my first impressions, going through the user interface and settings, then I’ll switch to video and audio tests, Wi-Fi performance, and perform some other tests for Bluetooth, gaming, external storage, USB webcam, etc.. trying to cover most of the hardware features available on this device. First Boot, Settings, and First Impressions Vega S89 (Elite) comes […]

April 11, 2014May 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

Ugoos UT3 Rockchip RK3288 based Android TV Box (Board Pictures and Specs)

We’ve already seen RK3288 based Android TV boxes and sticks started to be advertised on Alibaba, and today Ugoos contacted me and shared some pictures and specs of their PCBA for Ugoos UT3 Android 4.4 TV box based on Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 + Mali-T764 GPU SoC. Here are the specs of the board and product: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core CortexA17 @ 1.8GHz + Mali-T764 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 (Option: 4GB) Storage – 8GB NAND Flash (Options: 16, 32 or 64GB) + micro SD card slot (up to 32 GB) Connectivity – 100M/1000M Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) and 802.11 a/c using external Wi-Fi antenna, Bluetooth 4.0 (option?) Video I/F HDMI 1.4a output (female) up to 4k2k @ 30 fps, 1080p60 AV output (3.5mm jack) HDMI input (female) up to 1080p Audio I/F […]

April 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Samsung Gear 2 Smartwatches are Powered by Exynos 3250 SoC

When Samsung announced their Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches running Tizen, they only vaguely mentioned a dual core processor running at 1 GHz powered the devices. SamMobile reports the two watches should be powered by a new processor called Exynos 3250 with two cores and clocked at 1 GHz as initially announced. Ifixit also made a tear down of the Gear 2 watch, and at first, it seems Exynos 3250 is nowhere to be seen, but it turns out it’s probably combined with a DRAM (and Flash?) package named KMF5X0005M, and shown inside a red square in the picture above. Samsung Galaxy Gear, the company’s first smartwatch, was a modified version of Exynos 4212 dual core processor, but using only one core and downclocked to 800 MHz. SamMobile thinks the Gear 2 can use a dual core processor @ 1 GHz, due to battery life gains achieved by […]

April 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Tronsmart Vega S89 (Elite) Android 4.4 Media Player Unboxing

Last review, I wrote an unboxing post about M8, an Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S802 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor with a Mali-450MP6 GPU. I’m still waiting for the firmware to test this device. In the meantime, Geekbuying sent me Tronsmart Vega S89 (Click for full specs), another Android Kitkat TV box powered by S802. There are actually two versions: Tronsmart Vega S89 (16 GB Flash, dual band Wi-Fi), and Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite (8GB Flash, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi) which is the model I received. I’ll write an unboxing post today with the device and the board, and test the firmware in the next few days. Tronsmart Vega S89 (Elite) Unboxing Geekbuying sent me the sample via DHL which I received in the package below. There are quite a few accessories included with the board. From left to right: IR remote control (2x AAA batteries not included), HDMI […]