AMLogic Category - Page 50 of 95 - CNX Software

October 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Hacking ARM TrustZone / Secure Boot on Amlogic S905 SoC

Amlogic S905 processor used in many Android TV boxes and ODROID-C2 development board implements ARM TrustZone security extensions to run a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) used for DRM & other security features. However, Frédéric Basse, a security engineer, worked with others and managed to bypass secure boot in one Amlogic S905 powered Android TV box, namely Inphic i7, but any other device based on the processor would have made the same thing possible. He explains the steps they went through and how they managed to exploit vulnerability to bypass secure boot in a detailed technical blog post. They first started by looking for info in Amlogic S905 datasheet, but most info about TrustZone had been removed from the public version. So not that much help here except a potential address for BOM Root (ROMBOOT_START 0xD9040000). The next step was to connect the UART pins in order to access the […]

October 4, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Linux 4.8 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has officially released Linux 4.8 last Sunday: So the last week was really quiet, which maybe means that I could probably just have skipped rc8 after all. Oh well, no real harm done. This obviously means that the merge window for 4.9 is open, and I appreciate the people who already sent in some pull requests early due to upcoming travel or other reasons. I’ll start pulling things tomorrow, and have even the most eager developers and testers hopefully test the final 4.8 release before the next development kernels start coming 😉 Anyway, there’s a few stragging fixes since rc8 listed below: it’s a mixture of arch fixes (arm, mips, sparc, x86), drivers (networking, nvdimm, gpu) and generic code (some core networking, with a few filesystem, cgroup and and vm things). All of it pretty small, and there really aren’t that many of them. Go forth and test, […]

October 3, 2016November 17, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Rikomagic MK22 Octa-core Android TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

Rikomagic became a much better known company when they launched MK802 TV stick in 2012, and over the years they’ve kept introducing new products, and I’ve just received a review sample of their latest Rikomagic MK22 octa-core Android TV box powered by Amlogic S912 processor. I’ve posted photos of the device and its accessories, and check out the hardware design in the first part of the review, before testing Android 6.0 firmware in the second part in a few weeks. Rikomagic MK22 Unboxing I received MK22 in its black and white retail package. The back of the package details the main features, and the hardware specifications. Instead of printing a user’s manual that anybody will hardly read, the company instead printed a QR Core to MK22 user’s manual download link. The TV box ships with a 5V/2.5A power supply, an HDMI cable, and an IR remote control that looks the […]

October 1, 2016October 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

Review of R-Box Pro OTT TV Box with 3GB RAM – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

R-Box Pro is just another Amlogic S912 TV box, except it comes with up to 3GB RAM, against 2GB for most other models on the market. Kingnovel sent me a sample with 3GB RAM to check it out, and today I’ll start by taking photos of the devices, and perform a teardown mostly to find out how the 3GB memory design is implemented. R-Box Pro Unboxing The retail package is minimal black box with “OTT TV Box Amlogic S912” and “R-Box Pro” markings and Kodi logo. A sticker on the side will also indicate whether you have received to 2GB or 3GB RAM version. The device ships with an IR remote control with learning function, a 5V/2.5A power supply, an HDMI cable, and a user’s manual in English. The day I received the sample the top cover looked to have many scratches, but after removing the plastic film on the […]

September 28, 2016September 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Tbee Android TV Box Supports Voice Command and Gesture Control

The first thing you notice with Tbee TV box is the beehives inspired hexagonal enclosure, as we’ve already seen with T95Z Plus TV box, but the features that really stand out are voice command, and especially gesture control thanks to the built-in microphone and camera. Tbee TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S812 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor @ up to 1.99 GHz with octa-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + SD card slot Video & Audio I/O – HDMI input, HDMI output Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz) and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – IR receiver, built-in HD ready camera and IR receiver Dimensions – 28.5 x 8.5 cm (full package) Weight – 860 grams (full package) The box ships with an air mouse with QWERTY keyboard and its RF dongle, a HDMI cable, […]

September 22, 2016September 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

YUNDOO Y7 Amlogic S905X TV Box comes with Faster DDR4 Memory

Most TV boxes on the market comes with DDR3 memory, but YUNDOO Y7 TV box based on Amlogic S905X processor instead comes with 2GB DDR4 memory, with the company claiming 50% higher bandwidth compared to DDR3 memory. YUNDOO Y7 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750MHz+ System Memory – 2GB DDR4 (bandwidth up to increased 50% compared to DDR3) Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD port Video Output – HDMI 2.0 with HDR and CEC support up to 4K2K @ 60 Hz, AV port Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and coaxial S/PDIF Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2 x USB 2.0 port Misc – Power button, IR receiver, LED screen Power Supply – 5V Dimensions – TBD (metal housing) The device runs Android 6.0, and is said […]

September 20, 2016September 21, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Amlogic S905L Processor Drops VP9 Codec, TS Inputs for Tuners, and the Camera Interface

[Update: I’ve received updated documentation for Amlogic S905X too, and the main differences are only the lack of VP9 codec, and HDMI 2.0b interface] Amlogic has apparently decided to launch yet another quad core Cortex A53 processor with Amlogic S905L, which appears to be based on Amlogic S905X with built-in stereo audio codec and 10/100M Ethernet PHY & MAC, HDR support, but without VP9 codec, camera interface, nor TS inputs, so it looks like a cost-down version purely designed for OTT/IP TV boxes. The document I have is dated June 2016, before the 1.5 GHz “limit” was discovered on Amlogic processors, and the maximum frequency is rated @ 2.0 GHz in the document. Amlogic S905L specifications (based on S905L Quick Referent Manual): CPU – Quad core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2GHz (DVFS) with Neon and Crypto extensions, unified L2 cache 3D GPU – Penta-core ARM Mali-450 GPU up to […]

September 19, 2016January 3, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Amlogic S905 vs Amlogic S912 Benchmarks Comparison

Amlogic has unveiled three new processors this year with Amlogic S905X, S912 and S905D. The latter is not found in devices yet, we’ve seen Amlogic S905X is a bit slower than Amlogic S905, but surely Amlogic S912 with eight Cortex A53 cores and its “multi-core high performance 3D GPU”, namely ARM Mali-T820MP3 must deliver a significant boost in performance. I now have full benchmarks results for two devices: M12N MXQ Plus and Qintaix Q912. M12N is the fastest devices of the two according to benchmarks, and I’ve been told YokaTV KB2 has about the same Antutu score (41K points) as M12N, so I feel confident enough that we have relevant benchmark’s results to compare Amlogic S912 and Amlogic S905 performance using M12N (MXQ Plus) and MINIX NEO U1 TV boxes. The comparison table below contains scores for Antutu 6.x, Vellamo 3.x, and 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme. MINI NEO U1 runs […]