Category: AMLogic

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments on MINIX Unveils NEO X8 and X8s Android TV Boxes Powered by Amlogic S802 & S802-H SoCs

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 41 Comments on Review of Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite Amlogic S802 TV Box

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on How to Root Amlogic S802 Android TV Boxes

How to Root Amlogic S802 Android TV Boxes

I’ve received a Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite, and after publishing some pictures, I’m now testing the device. The firmware does not come rooted however, which can be a problem for screenshots, bluetooth gamepads, and a few other apps requiring root access. Geekbuying has published a guide to root the Vega S89, which should also work with other Amlogic S802 Android TV boxes, and devices. The instructions below require a PC or Virtual Machine running Windows XP/7/8. We need to make sure sure USB debugging is enabled in your Android device, and the developer options were not enabled in my firmware (with a Windows Metro like UI), so here are the first steps to follows: Go to Settings->Other->More Settings to access the default Android settings Go to “About Media” and click 7 times on “Build number” to enable the “Developer Options” Go to the “Developer Options” and make sure “USB Debugging” […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Tronsmart Vega S89 (Elite) Android 4.4 Media Player Unboxing

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments on M8 Android TV Box Powered by AMLogic S802 (Unboxing)

M8 Android TV Box Powered by AMLogic S802 (Unboxing)

Shenzhen Tomato Technology has send me a sample of their M8 Android TV Box based on the latest quad core AMLogic S802 processor which is said to run Android 4.4 Kitkat. In this post I’ll go through the specs, and show some pictures of the device, and internals. Later, I’ll write a full review with XBMC 13, which I’ve been told is pre-installed. I’ll also receive Tronsmart Vega S89 next week for unboxing and review. M8 Specifications M8 has more or less the same specs as other S802 Android TV boxes: SoC – AMLogic S802 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor @ 2GHz with Mali‐450MP6 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + SD card slot Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band Wi‐Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth Video Output – HDMI 1.4b, AV. HDMI supports 1080p, 4K2K 30fps Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Video Codecs and […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 42 Comments on Amlogic GPL Source Code Release – Kernel 3.10, U-Boot, and Drivers (Wi-Fi, NAND, TVIN, Mali GPU)

Amlogic GPL Source Code Release – Kernel 3.10, U-Boot, and Drivers (Wi-Fi, NAND, TVIN, Mali GPU)

Last month, I noticed Amlogic provided links to the Android SDK for S802 / M802 on their open source website, but the only way to get the source was to share your SSH public with Amlogic, so that they give you access. It did not happen, but the company has released the source for Linux 3.10.10, U-boot 2011.03, Realtek and Broadcom Wi-Fi drivers, NAND drivers, “TVIN”drivers, and kernel space GPU drivers for Mali-400 / 450 GPU. There are also some customer board files for Meson 6 only (AML8726-MX / M6) but they do not seem to match the kernel… If you want to build the kernel, including the drivers, you’ll need to download a bunch of files: wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/kernel/arm-src-kernel-2014-03-06-d5d0557b2b.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8192du-2014-03-06-7f70d95d29.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8192eu-2014-03-06-9766866350.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8192cu-2014-03-06-54bde7d73d.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/rtk8188eu-2014-03-06-2462231f02.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/brcmap6xxx-2014-03-06-302aca1a31.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/wifi/wifi-fw-2014-03-06-d3b2263640.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/modules/aml_tvin-2014-03-06-fb3ba6b1c8.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/modules/aml_nand-2014-03-06-39095c4296.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/customer/aml_customer-2014-03-06-76ce689191.tar.gz wget http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/gpu/gpu-2014-03-06-0425a1f681.tar.gz You’ll need to extract these tarballs in specific directories:

You […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on AMLogic to Unveil M805 & S805 Quad Core Cortex A5 SoCs with Mali-450 GPU

AMLogic to Unveil M805 & S805 Quad Core Cortex A5 SoCs with Mali-450 GPU

As we are still waiting for retail availability of Android TV boxes and mini PCs based on AMLogic S802 quad core processor, rumors have started to surface about another quad core processor by the company called S805 to be used in media players, and probably it’s equivalent M805 for tablets. M803 and M805 were already part of AMLogic roadmap and were said to feature quad core CPU and GPU. It turns out M805 and S805 will feature four ARM Cortex A5 cores @ 1.5 GHz combined with a quad core ARM Mali-450 GPU (Mali-450MP2 ?). That means S805 will be cost down version of S802 with four cortex A5 cores instead of four Cortex A9r4 cores, and Mali-450MP2 instead of Mali-450MP6. The new processor will also support hardware decoded of H.265 @ 1080p, and embed a Gigabit Ethernet controller. If the features listed in the roadmap are still correct, we […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments on AMLogic S802 / M802 Android 4.4 SDK, Documentation and Reference Schematics Are (Almost) Available

AMLogic S802 / M802 Android 4.4 SDK, Documentation and Reference Schematics Are (Almost) Available

We’ve seen in the past AMLogic sometimes pushes some updated GPL software releases on their Open Linux website. So I went to have a look a few days ago, and to my surprise they already had instructions to download and build Android 4.4 for AMLogic M802 (Tablet) and S802 (STB), “user’s guides”, as well as links to reference schematics for the tablets… Nice!!! I started with 4.4_ReleaseInfo for “Mbox” (S802), which explains how to get the SDK release on 2014-01-27 (kk-amlogic-20140127):

Unfortunately the joy stopped right there, as you need to send your SSH public key to your representative. I’ve just done that, and sent an email to support [at] amlogic.com, and mbox-android [at] amlogic.com on Sunday, and I have yet to gain access. I’ve found the “mbox-android” email in from Mbox page (similar to screenshot above) in a field right of “reference schematics” column, which has been removed […]

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