Samsung Exynos Category - Page 16 of 36 - CNX Software

December 27, 2015May 2, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Hardkernel ODROID-XU4 Development Board Now Supports Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Android 6.0 source code was released in October, but so far few development boards are supporting it properly. There’s Android 6.0 for Raspberry Pi 2, but without GPU hardware acceleration is not really usable, and Intrinsyc Open-Q 820 board that will start shipping in a few days with Android 6.0 on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, is pricey and with limited availability. So there are only two options that I’m aware of LeMaker Hikey with Android 6.0 as part of the Reference Platform Release 2015.12, and Hardkernel ODROID-XU4 with an unofficial port for Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow by voodik odroid community member, which should also work for ODROID-XU3 and XU3 Lite boards. Despite being an alpha version, the current image looks pretty good, as most required features seem implemented: Android 6.0.1 Lollipop Cyanogenmod 13.0 with Linux kernel 3.10.9 OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0 (GPU acceleration) OpenCL 1.1 EP (GPU acceleration) Multi-user feature is enabled […]

November 12, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa-core Processor to Feature Custom ARMv8 Cores and Mali-T880 GPU

Samsung Exynos 7420 processor is at the top of benchmark charts for smartphones, but the company is still pushing for more performance and power efficiency with their upcoming Exynos 8890 processor that promises 30% improvements in performance, and 10% in power efficiency. While Exynos 7 Octa was made with ARM’s own Cortex A53 and A57 cores, Samsung did not go with Cortex A72 in 8890, but instead decided to design their own ARMv8 cores and coupled for of these with four low power ARM Cortex A53 cores, and a Mali-T880 GPU. Samsung also included a LTE Rel.12 Cat.12/13 modem that enables speeds up to 600Mbps DL (Cat.12) and 150Mbps UL (Cat.13), and the processor will be manufactured using 14nm FinFET process technology. Excluding the custom cores, and the manufacturing process, this configuration is similar to the recently unveiled Huawei Kirin 950 processor using four Cortex A72 cores and TSMC 16nm […]

November 4, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linux 4.3 Release – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.3 last week-end: So it *felt* like the last week of the rc series was busy, to the point where I got a bit worried about the release. But doing the actual numbers shows that that really was just my subjective feeling, probably due to the kernel summit and travel back home from Korea. It wasn’t actually a particularly busy week, it’s just that the pull requests were more noticeable in the last couple of days. We had a network update and a late fix for a x86 vm86 mode bug introduced by the vm86 cleanups, but other than that it’s just a collection of various small one-liners all over. Ok, the vm86 mode thing was a one-liner too, it was just slightly more nerve-wracking because it looked scarier than it was before people (Andy) figured out what was going on. The changes from rc7 […]

October 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Top 10 Antutu Scores of 2015 for Smartphones So Far

I’m mainly focusing on Android mini PCs, and not so much on mobile devices. But this year, silicon vendors launched 64-bit ARM processor for TV boxes based on the low power Cortex A53 cores, lowering costs instead of improving performance of their 32-bit ARM processors, as media player don’t usually need very fast processor simply because video decoding is normally handled by the video engine. Two exceptions being Amazon Fire TV 2015 which gets over 51,000 points mostly thanks to MediaTek MT8173‘s two Cortex A72 cores, and Nvidia Shield Android TV box getting over 68,000 points, but sadly these two devices are not (easily) available worldwide yet. But on the mobile space, the race to faster and faster performance is still on, and according to a recent post on Antutu website (in Chinese), the fastest smartphones now reach over 75,000 points in the popular benchmark. I had to look up the […]

September 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Linux Kernel Mainline Status of Mobile SoCs Presentation at Linaro Connect SF015

Linaro Connect San Francisco 2015 is taking place this week, and several 96Boards have been presented including LeMaker Hikey and Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c, both of which will finally be available by the end of the year. But there are also many technical presentation and discussions that are uploaded to LinaroOnAir Youtube account, and they’ve greatly improved video and audio quality compared to the past, with presentation slides also available on Slideshare. I’ve just watched one of the session entitled “Kernel Mainline Status of Mobile Chipsets” by Tim Bird, Sony Mobile. Also the talk focus on mobile SoC, it’s also relevant to other consumer electronics products, and some embedded systems. The presentation states the extend of the issues, shares comparisons between the vendor device tree and mainline, and explains how developers can participate, with the talk ending with a discussion within the group of attendees. Here’s a summary of some of […]

September 2, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Linux 4.2 Release – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.2 last Sunday: So judging by how little happened this week, it wouldn’t have been a mistake to release 4.2 last week after all, but hey, there’s certainly a few fixes here, and it’s not like delaying 4.2 for a week should have caused any problems either. So here it is, and the merge window for 4.3 is now open. I already have a few pending early pull requests, but as usual I’ll start processing them tomorrow and give the release some time to actually sit. The shortlog from rc8 is tiny, and appended. The patch is pretty tiny too. Go get it, Linus Some notable changes made to Linux 4.2 include: File systems New features for F2FS including per file encryption CIFS support SMB 3.1.1 (experimental) Cryptography – Jitter Entropy Random Number Generator, Chacha20 stream cipher and Poly1305 authentication (RFC7539),New RSA implementation. See lwn.net […]

September 1, 2015September 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Study Shows Octa Core Processors Bring Little Over Quad Core Processors in Mobile Devices

Silicon vendor are now launching 8-core and even 12-core processors for mobile devices, and I can see some advantages in terms of power consumption in processors leveraging big.LITTLE processing with low power ‘LITTLE’ cores running light tasks such as audio or video playback, while performance ‘big’ cores running much demanding tasks. However, some processors, such as RK3368, feature the same eight cores, and in real-use don’t bring that extra bit of performance or lower power consumption, except in very specific cases. So the only “advantage” of this type of processor is a marketing one, with keyword like “Octa-core”, “64-bit”, etc… Last year, I found out, that more powerful cores may be more important than many cores, when I tested Allwinner A80 processor with PVRMonitor to check CPU usage per core in real-time, and in Antutu, while Browsing the web or playing games, only a few cores were used most of […]

August 1, 2015August 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Cloudshell for XU4 is a $39 NAS Kit for ODROID-XU4 Board

Hardkernel launched ODROID-XU4 development board a couple of weeks ago. The board is a low cost ($74) update to ODROID-XU3 development board, with an Exynos 5422 octa core processor (4x A15, 4x A7), 2GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0, making it a pretty good target for a NAS. It’s easy to connect all requires parts such as hard drive and power supply together, but it would normally be a mess on your desk. So the company create a NAS kit for the board with an enclosure, cables, fans, and even an LCD display with they call Cloudshell for XU4 for sell for $39, so you can get a high relatively high performance NAS for around $113 + shipping, which will vary depending on your distributor, as well as an HDD or SSD drive. Cloudshell kit content: Enclosure with top and bottom covers, rear, front and side panels. Available in […]