OLPC demo’ed their 3rd generation laptop – OLCP XO 1.75 – based on Marvell Armada 610 at CES 2011. The good thing about this platform is that they opened most of it including the hardware, the software and for the first time the firmware. However, I found out it’s not so easy to find the hardware / software development information and source on the OLPC site, so I’ve decided to make a summary and provide links to the hardware, firmware and software for OLPC XO 1.75. OLPC XO 1.75 Hardware The XO-1.75 is powered by Marvell Armada 610 CPU (88AP610) with an ARM core clocked at 1Ghz. It has 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, 4GiB NAND Flash, a TFT display, an SD Card slot, Wi-Fi, a few USB ports and a camera. I believe the touchscreen is not part of the current hardware, but the block diagram below should be close to […]
Android Honeycomb Toshiba Tablet based on NVidia Tegra 2
Toshiba setup a website for its upcoming “The Toshiba Tablet,” running Android 3.0 on an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. It boasts a 10.1″ multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1280×800. It also offers dual cameras (5MP Rear Camera with Auto-focus / 2MP Front Camera), a replaceable battery, a USB, a mini-USB port, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, SD Card, a docking port, HDMI output and a head phone jack. Toshiba Tablet supports up to 720p HD resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The screen also boasts an ambient light sensor in order to provide consistency between indoor and outdoor viewing. The Toshiba tablet won’t be available until Q2 2011 according to Toshiba. While we’re all waiting, here’s “The Toshiba Tablet” teaser video. 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 […]
Freescale i.MX Overview, SDK and Development Boards
Freescale i.MX Processors Overview Freescale i.MX multimedia applications processors are based on ARM9, ARM11 and ARM™ Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 core technologies “delivering an optimal balance of performance and long battery life for rich multimedia experiences on the go”. There are quite a few families within the Freescale i.MX Series namely: i.MXS Processors:ARM9 Core @ 100-200Mhz (i.MX1 (not recommended for new designs), i.MXL and i.MXS). i.MX21 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 233-266Mhz (i.MX21 and i.MX21S) i.MX23 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 454 Mhz (i.MX233) i.MX25 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 400MHz for industrial and automotive applications (i.MX251, i.MX253, i.MX255, i.MX257 and i.MX258) i.MX27 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 400Mhz for Video over IP, VoIP, Cordless and Mobile phones… (i.MX27 and i.MX27L) i.MX28 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 454 Mhz for industrial and consumer applications (i.MX281, i.MX283, i.MX285, i.MX286 and i.MX287) i.MX31 Processors: ARM11 Core @ 400-532 Mhz for industrial, consumer and automotive applications (i.MX31 and i.MX31L) […]
Installing Android 2.2 on Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
XDA recently released a ROM with Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) for Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Bear in mind that this is still a BETA version with the following known bugs and limitations: Closing certain apps will cause the ROM to crash or reboot Youtube / Adobe Flash status uncertain No camcorder recording No native wifi/usb tethering You’ll need to log into the old market at least once before installing the new one Maybe more. All sort of bad things may happen to your phone, but if xRecovery is correctly setup you should be able to recover. If you still want to go forward, following the “simple” steps below. First download the following files: FreeX10-beta2.zip – Xperia X10 Android 2.2 Firmware FreeX10-beta2-hotfix1.zip – flash led brightness and Rockplayer hack gapps_1901_FreeX10.zip– latest Google Apps (Market, Youtube etc.) Here’s what you’ll need before installing Android 2.2: Rooted 2.1 ROM. Instructions for doing so are […]
Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Development Platform Available
Qualcomm has just announced the SnapDragon Mobile Development Platform (MDP) distributed by BSquare is now available for purchase. The development platform (SKU: EA-OBQ8655MDPAN) is based on Snapdragon MSM8655 and comes with Android 2.2. It costs 995.00 USD. The development kit contains: MDP device (preloaded with Qualcomm’s Deep Sea 3D UI, Qualcomm’s Power Profiling application (Trepn Profiler), 3D Graphics Adreno Profiler, Tactel’s Navigation application and SouthEnd Interactive’s ilomilo OpenGLES Game) 8GB SD card HDMI A/V USB cable Battery charger Quick Start Guide One hour of support Here are the MDP Technical Specifications: MSM8655 1 GHz central processing unit (CPU) 3.8″ WVGA Display HDMI port Multi-touch capacitive touch screen WVGA 3D/2D capable Adreno™ 205 graphics processing unit (GPU) 12MP Camera/Camcorder 720-pixel HD video decode and encode Stereo 16mm loudspeakers 512 MB of RAM (2x 32b ports) 4GB on-board Flash Keys: On/off key, Rotary wheel, including key press, Up to 6 side keys for […]
Android Set-top Box: Bonux HZ20A / HZ20B – ZiiLABS Processors
Bonux, a Taiwan company founded in July 2009, announced two Android 2.2 set-top boxes based on ZiiLABS processors: The Bonux HZ20A and HZ20B. If you can remember Bonux also showcased a 50 USD Android STB earlier on. Here are the specs of the two media players: HZ20A HZ20B OS Android 2.2 CPU Ziilabs ZMS-08 ARM Cortex A8 @ 800 MHz Ziilabs ZMS-05 ARM9 @ 400 MHz RAM 512 MB DDR2 256 MB DDR2 NAND Flash 512MB 256MB Wifi 802.11 b/g/n (Via optional external USB Dongle) Adobe Flash Flash 10.1 FlashLite Video Codecs /Formats MPEG-1/MPEG-2/MPG-4(MP4 & MOV)/DivX(4/5)/Motion JPEG/H.264/WMV9/VC1/Real Video (RMVB – VGA Resolution) Audio Codecs MP3/WAV/WMA/AC3/AAC/OOG Max Resolution/Bitrate 1080p 40 Mbps Subtitles SRT/SMI/SUB/SSA File Systems FAT32 / NTFS(Read-Only) They are not using the default Android user interface, but their own customize UI, which can be a good thing on a TV. Their user interface has the usual Videos, Music, Pictures and […]
Archos has released a new version of Appslib 2.0
Archos has just released a new version of AppsLib, the Android marketplace for tablets to be used with its Archos Android tablet including Archos 70 and Archos 101. The new version is Appslib 2.0 (Build 58): Faster, easier to use, multilingual, new icons, new category “adult content” and more to enjoy the thousands of apps available on AppsLib. The file is Appslib_2.apk. You can download it directly on your Archos device and install it there. You can also install it via your PC as follows: Click on the AppsLib icon on above to download the latest version of Appslib. Save the.apk file onto your PC’s hard drive. If the file extension is NOT “apk”, but is instead “zip”, change it to “apk”. Transfer the .apk file to a folder folder on your device. Unplug your device. Open the File Manager or AppInstaller on your tablet (note these names may be […]
Resources for Atmel AT91SAM9: SAM926X, SAM9GXX, SAM9M1X, SAM9XE…
Atmel AT91SAM9 – or simply Atmel SAM9 – series are versatile microcontrollers and embedded microprocessors used in variety of products such as internet radios, embedded p2p downloaders, smart grid in-home displays, and much more. Atmel SAM9 series are divided into five subsets: The original SAM9 MCU based on ARM926EJ-S running at between 210 and 240 Mhz, namely AT91SAM9260, AT91SAM9261, AT91SAM9261S and AT91SAM9263 SAM9G eMPU (Embedded MPU) based on ARM926EJ-S, a new generation based on SAM9 MCU architecture but running at between 266 and 400Mhz: AT91SAM9G10, AT91SAM9G20, AT91SAM9G45 and AT91SAM9G46. SAM9M eMPU based on ARM926EJ-S clocked at 400Mhz and with a video decoder: AT91SAM9M10 and AT91SAM9M11 SAM9R MCU based on ARM926EJ-S running at 210 Mhz with similar characteristic as the original SAM9 MCU, except it does not support USB Host but can be used as a High Speed USB device: AT91SAM9R64 and AT91SAM9RL64 SAM9XE MCU are also based on ARM926EJ-S running […]