MeegoPad T01 was one of the first Intel Atom Bay Trail-T TV sticks, announced and released well before Intel’s own Compute Stick, but it initially sold without a proper Windows 8.1 license, although some sellers would sell with an activated version for $25 to $30 more. The company has launched the second version, MeegoPad T02, with either a properly licensed/validated Windows 8.1 with Bing for $109, or an Ubuntu version (or Windows 8.1 non validated) for $90, both prices including shipping. MeegoPad T02 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.33 GHz (Bust freq: 1.83 GHz) with Intel HD graphics Gen 7 (2W TDP) System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SD slot up to 64GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4, 1x audio jack Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB host […]
Windows 10 IoT Preview for Raspberry Pi 2 and MinnowBoard Max
When Raspberry Pi 2 Model B was released, we were promised a Windows 10 image for the board, and today, Microsoft released “Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview” for both the Broadcom BCM2836 based Raspberry Pi 2 and Intel Atom E3800 series based Minnowboard MAX boards. To get started with either board, simply go to Windows IoT – Getting Started page. I’ll quickly go through the instructions for Raspberry Pi 2. Beside the board, you’ll also need a PC running Windows 10 Insider preview (Virtual machine not supported), a 5V power supply, a HDMI cable (optional but recommended), an Ethernet cable, and a 8GB micro SD card, class 10 or better. The you’ll need to configure a connect account, where I had to accept two EULA including “Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview EULA”, and once this is done the area of the page for EULA should just be blank, […]
How to Install 64-bit BIOS on Sunchip CX-W8
Sunchip CX-W8 is an Intel Atom Z3735F TV box running Windows, but I’ve been informed that originally Sunchip designed it for WeTek in order to manufacture a Linux based mini PC. Unfortunately, they finally gave up once they discovered Intel had no intention to work on HDMI audio support in Linux for their Atom Z3700 series processor despite it working on Android… Intel Compute Stick will apparently use a separate DSP to handle that part (TBC). Nevertheless, when WeTek saw I had Wintel W8, they decided to share the 64-bit “BIOS” they had worked on for the Linux port. By the way, Wintel W8 and Sunchip CX-W8 allegedly come from two different factories / design houses, so although they look alike, the hardware might be different, and the UEFI firmware / BIOS, I’m about to share may or may not be compatible with Wintel W8, so you may brick it […]
Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC Power Consumption in Android
I’ve already measured power consumption running Antutu and playing a 4K video on Rockchip RK3288 and Amlogic S812 platform, as described in “Power Consumption of Amlogic S812 and Rockchip RK3288 TV Boxes“, and now that I have an Intel Bay Trail-T mini PC running Android 4.4 with Wintel W8, I was interested in comparing its power consumption to the ARM platform. [Update: I forgot to mention measurements have all been done @ ~5V.] The test normally consists in several steps: Boot the device Run the latest Antutu benchmark Connect a USB hard drive Play a 4K video in Kodi from the hard drive Diconnect the hard drive Power off the device But since the current draw was a little to high at times, I got a few issues with my setup. First, I had to boot twice hence the “Power On 1” and “Power On 2” strings on the chart, […]
Wintel W8 Review – Dual Boot Android & Windows TV Box
Wintel W8 (aka Kingnovel K8) is an Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC inspired from Sunchip Wintel CX-W8 (the hardware is a little different), but instead of just running Windows 8.1, the device can dual boot Android 4.4 and Windows 8.1 with Bing. I’ve already taken pictures or torn down Wintel W8, so today, I’ll focus on the software part of the review, first checking dual boot functionality and Windows 8.1 briefly since it should be very similar to MeLE PCG03, before spending more time on Android as it’s my first Android Intel platform. Dual boot in Wintel W8 When you boot the device, you can select Android or Windows icon, with a 10 second timeout that will boot your latest choice. There’s no menu within Windows to start Android, and vice versa, so to dual boot you need to reboot first, and select the operating systems right after UEFI. The […]
Wintel W8 Dual boot Android 4.4 + Windows 8.1 mini PC Unboxing
Last year, we were promised dual boot mini PC based on Intel that would run Windows 8.1 or Android 4.4, but finally companies decided against shipping a dual boot firmware, and simply loaded Windows 8.1 on their machines. Kingnovel sent me their K8 mini PC, better known as Wintel W8, based on Intel Atom Z3735F, and that can dual boot Windows 8.1 with Bing or Android 4.4. Today, I’ll go through the specs first, take some pictures of the device, and tear it down to have a closer look at the hardware, and in a separate post I’ll quickly check out Windows 8.1, before spending a bit more time on Android 4.4 to see how well or bad Android runs on Intel platforms. Kingnovel K8 / Wintel W8 specifications Hardware-wise the box has mostly the same boring specifications as almost any other Intel Atom Z3735F products on the market: SoC […]
Pipo X8 is a Windows 8.1 Mini PC with a 7″ Touchscreen
When it first launched, Pipo X7 was a $90 mini PC running Windows 8.1 with Bing tablet version, but Microsoft did not approve since that version is reserved for products with a 7″ screen or smaller, and now Pipo X7 sells for around $120 because it includes a $25 license for Windows 8.1 with Bing NTE (for mini PC). So in their cost saving efforts, Pipo decided to add a cheap 7″ 1024×600 touch screen display to their new Pipo X8 mini PC also powered by Intel Atom Z3736F or Z3735F Pipo X8 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Bay Trail Z3736F up to 2.16 GHz or Atom Z3735F up to 1.83Mhz with Intel HD graphics. System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 32GB or 64GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB Display – 7″ 1024×600 touch screen with 5-points. Video & Audio Output – HDMI up to 1080p […]
HPC Performance & Power Usage Comparison – Intel Xeon E3 vs Intel Atom C2720 vs Applied Micro X-Gene 1 vs IBM Power 8
Last year, the CERN published a paper comparing Applied Micro X-Gene (64-bit ARM) vs Intel Xeon (64-bit x86) Performance and Power Usage, and they’ve now added IBM Power 8 and Intel Atom Avoton C2750 processor to the mix in a new presentation entitled “A look beyond x86: OpenPOWER & AArch64“. So four systems based on Intel Xeon E3-1285L, Intel Atom C2750, Applied Micro X-Gene 1, and IBM Power 8 were compared, all running Fedora 21, except the HP Moonshot 1500 ARM plarform running Ubuntu 14.04 and an older kernel. All four systems use gcc 4.9.2, and Racktivity intelligent PDUs were used for power measurement. I’ll just share some of their results, you can read the presentation, or go through the benchmark results to find out more. HEP-SPEC06 is a new High Energy Physics (HEP) benchmark for measuring CPU performance developed by the HEPiX Benchmarking Working Group, and here it’s not […]