NXP i.MX Category - Page 54 of 68 - CNX Software

December 18, 2013December 18, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Fedora 20 “Heisenbug” Release Makes ARM a Primary Architecture

Fedora has been supporting ARM architecture for a while now, but it was only as a secondary architecture without official support. With the recent Fedora 20 release, nicknamed “Heisenbug”, the ARM architecture, more exactly ARMv7 hard float and greater, is promoted to a primary architecture meaning ARMv7 will have the same status as x86 and x86_64 architectures with packages officially build and supported by the Fedora community. What it does not mean however, due to the nature of ARM architecture, is that you can simply download an ISO to install on any ARM platforms, like you would do on an Intel or AMD computer. It’s a little more complicated than that, as it is platform specific, but instructions are available for the Beaglebone Black, Compulab Trimslice, the Wandboard, Calxeda Energycore Midway and Highbank, and Versatile Express in QEMU. You can download images with MATE, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, SOAS desktops, as […]

December 18, 2013April 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

TBS Matrix ARM mini PC Features Freescale i.MX6Q, Supports USB DVB Tuners

TBS, a producer of digital TV tuners for PC, has decided to launch their own ARM mini PC called Matrix to interface with their USB DVB tuners. The board is based on Freescale i.MX6 Quad ARM Cortex A9 SoC with 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, and costs about $150. The company also claims to have XBMC, VDR, Tvheadend software running on the platform. Here are the specifications for this quad core ARM board / computer (Codename: TBS2910): SoC – Freescale i.MX6 Quad (MCIMX6Q5EYM10AC) quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1.0 GHz with Vivante GC2000 3D GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR Storage – 16GB eMMC, SD card slot, micro SD card slot, and SATA interface USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB OTG Video Output – HDMI Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 802.11n/b/g Expansion – 16-pin header for […]

December 10, 2013September 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Most Embedded GPUs Do NOT Support Hardware Video Decoding Acceleration. The VPU Does.

Many people seem to get confused with the actual function of GPUs used in embedded (ARM / MIPS) SoC, and I can often read comments similar to “with lima drivers we should get video decoding in XBMc soon”, and I’ve just received any email reading “My main task is to build a full hd media player based on ffmpeg with hardware decoding acceleration for Linux. Is it possible with mali400mp4?”. So I’ve decided to write a short post about it to make things a bit more clear. Contrary to GPUs in the PC world, embedded GPUs only take care of 3D, and sometimes 2D graphics, and leave video encoding and/or decoding to another block called Video Processing Unit (VPU). There’s at least one exception with Broadcom Videocore IV GPU as found in the processor used in the Raspberry Pi that apparently takes care of 2D & 3D graphics as well […]

December 3, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

13.3″ PocketBook CAD Reader Features a Lighter, Thinner E-Ink Fina Display

E-Ink has announced its new E-Ink Fina, a new thin and lightweight electronic paper display (EPD) technology, has been embedded into PocketBook CAD Reader, the first Fina ePaper Android device designed specifically for displaying drawings generated with Autocad from Autodesk. PocketBook CAD Reader integrates a 1GHz dual-core CPU (probably Freescale i.MX6 DualLite) running Android 4.0.4 with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage allowing it to hold plans for up to 200 constructions projects. The product also comes with built-in Wi-Fi & 3G modules, and a 8000 mAh battery. The built-in touch screen and Wacom digitizer support both touch and a stylus for fine detail work. But that’s the display that make it stand out. E-Ink claims that Fina displays weigh less than 50% of the weight of an equivalent glass based TFT and are less than 50% of the thickness, and the 13.3″ display module installed in […]

November 29, 2013November 29, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 13.11 Release with Linux Kernel 3.12 and Android 4.4

This release includes Linux Kernel 3.12 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.20 (LSK), Android 4.4 for the first time, and Ubuntu Linaro 13.11 (still based on Raring). Beside Android Kit Kat support, other noticeable updates include initial documentation for LAVA, and further work on ARMv8 support. Here are the highlights of this release: Android Engineering Android 64-/32-bit updated to 4.4 KitKat Fastboot/UEFI – Created Fastboot app design Builds and Baselines Linaro Stable Kernel 3.10.20-2013.11 released – Includes an updated big.LITTLE MP patchset Linux Linaro 3.12-2013.11 released: gator version 5.16 (same version as in 13.10 release) updated big-LITTLE-pmu, iks, iks-cpufreq, and interactive-gov-updates topics from ARM LT updated basic Capri board support from Broadcom LT (generic phy support for USB, watchdog, updated bcm_defconfig) updated big endian topic updated topic to support K3V2 board from Hisilicon LT updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT vexpress64 support (updated FVP Base model files, added support for FVP […]

November 19, 2013November 19, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

iMX6 Rex Open Source Hardware SoM and Baseboard Designed to Teach Schematic and PCB Layout Design

Voipac, a Slovakian manufacturing company, has recently unveiled iMX6 Rex module and iMX6 Rex development baseboard, which have mainly been developed in order to support FEDEVEL Academy Schematic Design and Advanced PCB Layout courses, but can also be used for other purposes. The module is powered by Freescale i.MX6 Dual (Solo and Quad also available on request), and comes with 512MB RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), and up to 32MB SPI flash. The complete hardware will be released under an open source hardware license, but with some caveats as I’ll explain later. iMX6 Rex module specifications (basic configuration): SoC – Freescale iMX6 processor up to 1.2GHz / 2 cores (1 and 4 cores also available) System Memory – 512MB DDR3-1066 (533MHz), up to 4GB Storage – 2MB On board SPI Flash, up to 32MB 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet PHY 2 high speed board to board connectors (only one required) with signals for HDMI, […]

November 14, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

XBMC on ARM News: Updated XBMC Image for i.MX6 Boards, Geniatech Releases XBMC for Android Source Code

Stephan Rafin has recently released a new XBMC image for Freescale i.MX6 based Wandboard development boards (dual and quad only) and Utilite computers. The images have been built with Yocto 1.5 (Dora) released last month, and are based on XBMC Gotham Alpha 9, the latest alpha before feature freezes. That means this is not a stable image just yet, but features won’t change, and this version of XBMC is now going though bug fixes. Stephan’s XBMC image includes the following: iMX6 hw accelerated decoding (VPU) for most standard formats iMX CEC support (for utilite only as wandboards are not properly wired) WIFI configuration thanks to network manager addon Support for HDMI/SPDIF/Analog sound outputs (including pass-through for HDMI and SPDIF) SMB/NFS/uPNP network shares and other standard XBMC features Bug fixes against previous version – No more transient black screens, trick modes (ffwd, frwd, ..) are now working, and smoother video playback. […]

November 9, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

MSC Q7-MB-EP4 Is a QSeven Starter Kit Powered by Freescale i.MX6

MSC Embedded, a company specialized in the design and manufacturing of embedded boards, has recently announced MSC Q7-MB-EP4, a complete Starterkit for the company’s Qseven modules based on Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual or Quad processors. The starter kit comes with a suitcase comprise of a heatspreader with heatsink, a 12V power supply, a cable kit (SATA data and power cable), a DVD, a getting started guide, and more importantly a 3.5″ Qseven carrier board (Q7-MB-EP4) with socket for Qseven modules Rev. 1.20 with the following specifications: CPU Module Interface – Socket for Qseven Rev. 1.20 compatible modules based on the Freescale i.MX6 Storage – 1x SATA connector + mSATA Socket with support for mSATA and mSATAmini cards, MMC/SD Card, and serial EEPROM for EPI/DP extensions Standard Interfaces: 7x USB 2.0: 4x USB (Series-A Jack), 1x USB internal pin header, USB on mini USB connector, USB at Mini PCI Express socket […]