Android 4.0 Hardware Graphics Acceleration Coming to More Platforms

The Linaro Android Platform Team has just posted a weekly update to their progress. They are going to release 11.12 very soon with hardware graphics acceleration to 2 of their members development boards: ST Ericsson Nova A9500 Snowball and Samsung Exynos 4212 Origen boards. So if you have any boards or products based on those processors you should be able to get an hardware optimized version very soon. Hardware acceleration is already available on all OMAP4 platform such as Pandaboard, since this was the default Android ICS target. They also introduced support for the ARM DS-5 debugger, an Eclipse plug-in to help developer create high performance performance  and low power native software by integrating a graphical debugger for code generated for the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) and a basic version of the ARM Streamline performance analysis tool. Here’s a list of this week achievements: Key Points for wider discussion […]

Build the bootloaders (U-boot & X-Loader) for Pandaboard

I’ve tried to compile u-boot and x-loader for Pandaboard by following the instructions given at http://omappedia.org/wiki/Get_started_with_ubuntu_on_omap4#Bootloaders. I did this in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with Linaro gcc compiler. Here are the instructions for the build: Create the folders:

Get u-boot and checkout the omap4_dev branch:

You may use a different tag. Simply run “git tag -l | grep L24” to see the list of tags. (I used the latest at the time of this post). Build u-boot for OMAP4

At this point, you should get U-boot (u-boot.bin). get x-loader and checkout the omap4_dev branch:

N.B: Both u-boot and x-loader folders must be at the same directory level. build x-loader for OMAP4:

The x-loader (MLO) should now be ready. Finally, you simply need to copy MLO and u-boot.bin files to the SD card. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting […]

Pogoplug Series 4: Linux Based NAS with Cloud Storage

One month after launching Pogoplug Cloud, Pogoplug announces the Pogoplug Series 4, a new version of Pogoplug that adds more local storage options, including two USB 3.0 ports and a SATA/USM port. The device is based on Marvell 88F6192 chip with ARM V5 CPU clocked at 800Mhz with 128 RAM and runs Linux. Pogoplug Cloud service gives 5GB of free online cloud storage optimized for mobile phones and tablets, and you can greatly expand this by connecting a hard disk or SSD to Pogoplug Series 4. Pogoplug also plans to offer premium account with 50 and 100 GB of cloud storage. Key Pogoplug features include: Storage: Automatically upload photos and videos from your mobile device to Pogoplug Cloud. Sharing: Instantly share anything in your cloud through email, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Create shared folders to collaborate with friends and colleagues. Streaming: Stream HD videos, photos and music from Pogoplug Cloud to your phone. […]

Archos 80/101 G9 Firmware Version 3.2.77 Released

Archos has just released a new firmware for Archos 80 G9 / 101 G9 and A70B. Here’s the changelog: Version 3.2.77 – December 6th, 2011 Google apps: new Honeycomb release 6 integrated. It fixes Video GTalk crash when switching cameras on devices with only one camera. Now Google+ is part of the firmware. Archos media server: allow connected TVs to play video from your tablet via network Network shortcuts: it is now possible to create network shortcuts in file/music/video browsers Accessories: external USB audio cards (DAC) support has been added Media center: a new progress bar slider indicates resume position on videos already played Media center: in regular list view, the title of the TV show episode is appended after the season and episode numbers File manager: support of zip files Music: fix repeat mode Audio: decrease loud volume glitches on notifications while playing music Media database: remove muSD card […]

Solid-Run CuBox: Open Source Platform for Android TV, Media Center and NAS Development

Solid-Run CuBox is a miniature open source development platform based on Marvell Armada 510 SoC (88AP510) and aimed at applications such as multimedia, set-top-box, network attached storage (NAS), thin client, digital signage, automation… CuBox measures 55mm x 55mm x 42mm (so it’s not a Cube) and consuming less than 3 watts. The device runs Android 2.2 or Linux 2.6 on an 800MHz Marvell Armada 510 CPU (ARMv7 architecture) with 1GB of DDR3 memory and a microSD slot. It also includes eSATA, USB, infrared, S/PDIF, HDMI and gigabit Ethernet interfaces. CuBox Developer Platform includes the following key features – Marvell Armada 510 SoC – 800 MHz dual issue ARM PJ4 processor, VFPv3, wmmx SIMD and 512KB L2 cache. 1GByte DDR3 at 800MHz 1080p Video Decode Engine OpenGL ES 2.0 graphic engine HDMI 1080p Output (with CEC function) Gigabit Ethernet, SPDIF (optical audio), eSata 3Gbps, 2xUSB 2.0, micro-SD, micro-USB (console) Standard Infra-red receiver […]

5th Linux BSP Release for Snowball Development Board

Igloo Community – the team developing for ST Ericsson Snowball Nova A9500 development board – has released the fifth version of the Linux BSP for the board and this version nearly fully support all features of the board. It can be downloaded at http://igloocommunity.org/download/linaro/images/20111209/. ChangeLog since last release: Based on Linaro Ubuntu 11.11 desktop filesystem Accelerometer and barometer support for all board revisions GPS support Enhancements to the default kernel config (NFS, /proc/config.gz support) Enhanced display support Add support for new connectivity module versions Main supported features: Based on Linux 3.0.0 and the Linaro Ubuntu desktop file system HDMI/DVI-D display support Graphics acceleration with the Mali 400 GPU Bluetooth support GPS support Ethernet and Wireless connectivity microSD card support Sensors (accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, barometer) Limited USB OTG host functionality Features to be included in future releases: Multimedia acceleration Better USB OTG host support Known issues: USB OTG host mode is […]

Metaio Releases Mobile Augmented Reality SDK

Yesterday Qualcomm released QCAR SDK 1.5 Beta, and today Metaio announces its Mobile SDK 3.0 for augmented reality application development on Android and iOS. The metaio Mobile SDK brings with it patented gravity-awareness and visual tracking technology for 2D and 3D objects, now three times more robust than the previous version. These features combined will ensure AR experiences that are more natural, more intuitive, and more realistic, says the company. Metaio recently announced formal collaborations with ARM, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments to fully take advantage of the GPU hardware provided by those companies and the Mobile SDK is optimized for ARM Mali GPU (both graphics and compute), ST Ericsson Nova and NovaThor mobile processors and TI OMAP processors. The metaio Mobile SDK also includes its own 3D rendering engine – now with advanced shader support – and a plugin to make use of Unity3D (3D game engine). You can watch […]

Demo of Archos 101 G9 Turbo 1.5Ghz Powered by OMAP4460

After Android ICS Preview on Archos G9, Charbax has uploaded another video showing the new Archos 101 G9 Turbo with TI OMAP4460 clocked at 1.5GHz running Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and comparing it to the Archos 101 G9 Classic (OMAP4430 @ 1.2 GHz). The quadrant score is about 38% percent faster for the Turbo version (2176) compared to the Classic version (1576). He then does some side by side web browser benchmark comparison between the Archos 101 G9 Classic and Turbo and the Turbo version appears to be much faster. However, the web browser tests were done with sites hosted on the internet (amazon and cnn sites), so there are a quite of lot of factors than can affect the loading times and these types of benchmark are better performed in the local network. Archos plans to release the Turbo version (at 1.5Ghz) in January 2012 for a recommend retail price […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC