Dell Edge Gateway 3000 Series Are Powered by Intel Bay Trail-I SoCs for Automation, Transportation, and Digital Signage

Dell has recently introduced Edge Gateway 3000 series with three models powered by Intel Bay Trail-I processor, running Ubuntu Core 16 or Windows 10 IoT, with each model targeting respectively general-purpose automation, transportation & logistics, and digital signage and retail. The specifications for the three models can be found in the table below. Dell Edge Gateway 3001 Model for General-Purpose Automation Dell Edge Gateway 3002 Model for Transportation & Logistics Dell Edge Gateway 3003 Model for Media & Retail Kiosks SoC Intel Atom E3805 dual core processor  @ 1.33 GHz (3W TDP) Intel Atom E3815 single core processor @ 1.46 GHz with GPU @ 400 MHz (5W TDP) System Memory 2 GB DDR3L-1066 Storage 8 or 32 GB eMMC flash Industrial-grade Micro-SD card: 8GB / 16GB / 32 GB / 64 GB Connectivity 1 x 10/100 Fast Ethernet (RJ-45) with PoE (15.4W) WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 LE Optional ZigBee […]

Karl’s Home Automation Project – Part 1: Home Assistant & YAML, MQTT, Sonoff, and Xmas Lights

Karl here. I am here to write about my home automation project. First thing I want to say is that I am very cost conscious and I don’t mind putting in extra effort into the setup of things to keep costs down. I did invest a lot of time and had to do a lot of reading to get my project going. It took while and I received a lot of groans from my wife while testing. I am still in the process of tweaking things. I started watching a series of videos on YouTube from Bruh Automation. He introduced me to Home Assistant. It got me really excited. He uses a Raspberry Pi as a server but I already had a Wintel Pro CX-W8 Smart TV Box which I use as a server. I run 3 Minecraft Servers, Emby Server, iSpyConnect DVR (2 IP Cameras), Unifi wifi controller, and […]

LibreELEC v8.0.0 Released with Kodi 17.0 (Krypton)

LibreELEC is a JeOS (Just enough Operating System) based on Linux that creates a media center appliance platform for Kodi (formelly XBMC), and a fork of OpenELEC. The developers have now released LibreELEC v8.0.0 with the latest Kodi 17.0 “Krypton”. Beside the update to Kodi 17, some of the changes since the last stable version (v7.95.3) include: Fix for TVheadend issues in the WeTek Play 2 DVB driver Fix for interactive governor causing slowdown issues on the WeTek Core Fix for missing Bluetooth “connect and trust” option when pairing Fix for missing ir-keytable streamzap support after recent changes Updates to refine lirc repeat timing changes Update WeTek Play 2 remote keymap to expose more buttons Updates to linux-amlogic 3.10 (arm) and 3.14 (aarch64) kernels Add hexdump busybox applet needed for Odroid_C2 overclocking The full list of changes can be found on github. While it’s possible to update from an existing […]

GPD Pocket Cherry Trail 7″ Portable Computer Runs Ubuntu 16.04 or Windows 10 (Crowdfunding)

GPD HK launched GPD WIN Windows 10 portable gaming console with a Cherry Trail Atom x7 processor and a 5.5″ display last year on Indiegogo, and while the crowdfunding campaign works very well with over $700,000 raised, the company realized many people just wanted an affordable portable computer, so they removed the joyticks, increased the display size, and upgraded the processor in their GPD Pocket 7″ portable computer powered by an Intel Atom X7-Z8750 SoC and pre-loaded with either Windows 10 Home or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. GPD Pocket specifications (subject to change): SoC –  Intel Atom x7-Z8750 quad core Cherry Trail processor @ 1.6 / 2.56 GHz  with a 16EU Intel HD graphics Gen9 System Memory – 8GB LPDDR3-1600 Storage – 128GB eMMC flash Display – 7″ multi-touch display with 1920×1200 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio; Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Video Output – micro HDMI port for final model (prototype has […]

Intel Atom Z3735F (Bay Trail) vs Intel Celeron N4200 (Apollo Lake) Benchmarks Comparison

Intel introduced new processors every year, but in most cases the performance improvement from new processor with a similar power profile is only incrementally better, as we’ve seen in our Atom X7-Z8700 vs Pentium N4200 benchmarks comparison, which means it’s not really worthwhile to upgrade performance-wise, unless you really a specific feature or interface found in the new processor. But what if we compare to processor from 2 to 3 years ago? Intel Atom Z3735F was a popular choice two years ago, and if you’re looking for a cheap Intel mini PC or TV box, that’s still the cheapest option with prices under $80. So I’ve decided to compare Intel Atom Z3735F (Bay Trail) processor with 2W TDP to the latest Pentium Celeron N4200 (Apollo Lake) with 6W TDP. To do so, I gathered benchmarks results from MeLE PCG03 mini PC (PCMark 8) and PCG01 TV stick (Passmark + 3Dmark) […]

Older Intel Atom C2000 Series Server Chips May Stop Working After a While, and There’s no Fix

It takes time and efforts to debugging hardware and software to get a product right, but some bugs may be hard to reproduce, or only happen over time, and it appears some Intel Celeron C2000 series processor for microservers may stop working after about 18 months, with the likelihood of problems increasing over time, due to clock signals that stop functioning. This is documented in Intel Atom Processor C2000 Product Family Specification Update, with Errata AVR 54 explaining the issue: AVR54. System May Experience Inability to Boot or May Cease Operation Problem: The SoC LPC_CLKOUT0 and/or LPC_CLKOUT1 signals (Low Pin Count bus clock outputs) may stop functioning. Implication: If the LPC clock(s) stop functioning the system will no longer be able to boot. Workaround: A platform level change has been identified and may be implemented as a workaround for this erratum. Status: For the steppings affected, see Table 1, “Errata […]

Intel Atom x7-Z8700 (Cherry Trail) vs Intel Pentium N4200 (Apollo Lake) Benchmarks Comparison

Mini PCs based on Intel Apollo Lake processors have started selling, and they supposed to be upgrades to Braswell and Cherry Trail processor. I’ve recently had the chance to review Voyo VMac Mini mini PC powered by Intel Pentium N4200 quad core processor, that’s the fastest model of the Apollo Lake N series, and of course I ran some benchmarks, so I thought it would be interesting compare the results I got with an Atom x7-Z8700 “Cherry Trail” mini PC, namely Beelink BT7 which I reviewed last year. Both machines are actively cooled with a small fan, and storage performance is similar, albeit with a slight edge for the Apollo Lake SSD. A ratio greater than one (green) means the Apollo Lake processor is faster, and if it is lower than one (red) the Cherry Trail processor win. Benchmark Beelink BT7 Intel Atom x7-Z8700 @ 1.6 / 2.4 GHz (2W […]

Supermicro A2SAV mini-ITX Board Powered by Intel Atom E3940 SoC Features 6 SATA Ports, Dual GbE, and Up to 9 USB Interfaces

Intel introduced three Atom E3900 series Apollo Lake processors last fall that target IoT, industrial and automotive applications, and Supermicro has designed A2SAV mini-ITX board powered by Atom x5-E3940 SoC that comes with lots of interfaces include 6 SATA ports, two Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports, and up to 9 USB interfaces accessible from connectors or headers. Supermicro A2SAV motherboard specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad core “Apollo Lake” processor @ 1.6 / 1.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, 12 EU Intel HD graphics (6.5W TDP) System Memory – 1x 204-pin DDR3 SO-DIMM socket for 2, 4, or 8GB 1866/1600/1333MHz Unbuffered non-ECC 204-pin SO-DIMM DDR3 Storage 6x SATA3 ports include 2x from SoC, and 4x via Marvel 88SE9230 controller 1x SATA DOM (Disk on Module) power connector 64Mb SPI Flash EEPROM with AMI UEFI BIOS supporting Plug and Play (PnP), DMI 2.3, ACPI 5.0, USB Keyboard, SMBIOS 2.7.1, and UEFI mSATA […]

Youyeetoo X1 x86 SBC