Testing Category - Page 108 of 169 - CNX Software

May 27, 2016May 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

802.11ax WiFi Aims to Deliver Higher Throughput (Up to 10 Gbps), Better Handle High Density Scenarios

802.11ax WiFi, also known as High-Efficiency Wireless (HEW), aims to improve the average throughput per user by a factor of at least 4 times in dense user environments, with a total bandwidth of 10 Gbps over 2.4 and 5.0 GHz . The new standard is still work in progress and is expected to be published in 2019. 802.11ax WiFi key features include: Backwards compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Increase 4x the average throughput per user in high-density scenarios, such as train stations, airports and stadiums. Data rates and channel widths similar to 802.11ac, with the exception of new Modulation and Coding Sets (MCS 10 and 11) with 1024-QAM. Specified for downlink and uplink multi-user operation by means of MU-MIMO and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology. Larger OFDM FFT sizes (4x larger), narrower subcarrier spacing (4x closer), and longer symbol time (4x) for improved robustness and performance in multipath fading environments […]

May 24, 2016May 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Star Cloud PCG02U Ubuntu 14.04 TV Stick Review

Star Cloud PCG02U is the first Ubuntu product from MeLE. After taking a few pictures of the TV stick and the board, I’ve tested the performance and functionality of the device. First Boot and Setup You can either connected the stick directly into an HDMI port, or using the provided female to female adapter via an HDMI cable. I’ve opted to insert the device directly into the AUX port of my Onkyo A/V receiver itself connected to my TV. Since there’s only one USB host port, USB keyboard and mouse are not convenient since it would add a USB hub, so I went with Logitech MK270r wireless mouse & keyboard combo instead. You can either used Ethernet or WiFi for Internet connectivity, and I opted for the latter for most of the review, but WiFi is also working fine. The final step is to connect the power supply into the […]

May 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Popcorn Hour A500 4K Linux Media Player Specifications, Unboxing, and Teardown

CloudMedia introduced Popcorn Hour A500 Pro last summer on Kickstarter, and as the company is about the ship rewards to backers, they has now recently introduced a lower cost version, called Popcorn Hour A500, based on the same processor but overall lower specs to bring the price down to $269. The company has sent me a review sample, so I’ll start by listing the hardware specifications, and post pictures of the device and its internals, before testing media playback capabilities later on. Popcorn Hour A500 Specifications The “non-PRO” version has less RAM, dropped the XLR connectors, and uses a cheaper audio DAC: SoC – Sigma Designs SMP8758 dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz with ARM Mali-400 GPU and VXP image processing engine System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 512 MB SLC NAND Flash for firmware, 1x SD card reader, internal SATA bay for 2.5″ and 3.5″ […]

May 21, 2016May 21, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Getting Started with Beaglebone Green Wireless Development Board

SeeedStudio introduced BeagleBone Green Wireless based on BeagleBone Green, but replacing the Ethernet port by a Wilink8 WiFi and Bluetooth module, and providing 4 USB ports in total. I’ve also ready taken some picture of the board, and Grove Base Cape to addition the company’s add-on boards via I2C, UART, analog, or digital interfaces. So today, I’ll report about my experience getting started with the board. First Boot of BeagleBone Green Wireless Since the board comes with a Debian image installed on the internal 4GB eMMC flash, checking out the board should be really easy. The Wiki may help, but for a first try to check the board is indeed working, you can simply connect it to a 5V power supply, or the USB port of your computer to port it up. I’m using a development machine running Ubuntu 14.04 with both Ethernet connected to my router, and a WiFi […]

May 15, 2016April 8, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Getting Started with Wio Link Starter Kit, Visual Programming Android App, and IFTTT

Wio Link is a board based on ESP8266 WiSoC that is supposed to be easy to set up thanks to Grove modules – no breadboard and mesh or wires – and, as I first understood it, to program thanks to a drag-and-drop mobile app that does not require any actual programming. More advanced users can also use a RESTful API in Python, JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, Objective-C or Java. I’ve been sent a $49 Wio Link Starter Kit including the board, a USB cable, and six Grove modules to evaluate the kit. I’ll start by having a look a the kit, before experimenting with the Wio Link Android app. Wio Link Starter Kit Unboxing The kit is sent in a red plastic case. Wio Link board is lodged in the top cover, and other accessories are placed in bags in the main part of the case. Let’s check the board first. […]

May 14, 2016May 16, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Star Cloud PCG02U Ubuntu TV Stick Unboxing and Teardown

Star Cloud PCG02U is one of the rare device selling pre-loaded with Ubuntu 14.04, and MeLE, who owns Start Cloud brand, sent me one sample for review. While many Android & Windows devices can be “hacked” to run Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Star Cloud PCG02U is the first device that I’ve ever received that’s actually shipped with Ubuntu 14.04. So it will be very interesting to find out how it performs, but today, I’ll check the device and its accessories, as well as the hardware design. Star Cloud PCG02 Unboxing The TV stick ships in a Ubuntu orange retail packaging with Star Cloud branding, and mention of Ubuntu and Intel. I had already published the specifications in my first post, a confirmation on the package is always good. The TV stick ships with a 5V/2A power adapter and multi-country plug adapters, a female to female HDMI adapter, a Quick […]

May 10, 2016May 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

How to Run Ubuntu 16.04 Aarch64 (64-bit ARM) Cloud Images on Your Intel/AMD Linux Computer with QEMU

With the recent launch of several low cost Cortex A53 development boards, 64-bit ARM hardware is now pretty common and inexpensive, but if you want to run 64-bit ARM code on your x86 Linux computer, Riku Voipio, a software engineer working for Linaro, wrote some instructions to run Ubuntu 16.04 Aarch64 Cloud image in QEMU. Ubuntu cloud images are “the official Ubuntu images and are pre-installed disk images that have been customized by Ubuntu engineering to run on public clouds that provide Ubuntu Certified Images, Openstack, LXD, and more. ” So the instructions are also useful if you want to easily try such packages on 64-bit ARM platform. I’ve tried those instructions myself on my Ubuntu 14.04 machine with and AMD FX8350 processor, and they worked pretty well, and the only things I had to find out by myself was to install a recent version of qemu. First, we’ll need […]

May 6, 2016May 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments

Debian on DragonBoard 410c Development Board

I purchased Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c development board last year, and first tested it and run some benchmark on the 96Boards compliant hardware with Android. I found that it was still work-in-progress, and decided to wait before trying Debian on the board. I’ve now done so, and will report by experience installing Debian Linux, playing with the board, and running Phoronix benchmarks to compare it to other ARM Linux boards. Installing Debian on DragonBoard 410c The first challenge is to navigate through the documentation that is not always clear or up-to-date. I eventually ended up on DragonBoard 410c Wiki on Github. You then have to decided which image you want. While there are two official operating systems with Android and Debian, you can three “entities” releasiong their own images. For Debian specifically, you have the Linaro image, and Reference Platform Build (RPB) image. I could not find any changelog or known […]