Amazon will release new Fire TV Sticks from time to time, and most are only mildly interesting, but the Amazon Fire TV Stick TV 4K Max brings two new interesting features with 4K AV1 video playback, as well as Wi-Fi 6 connectivity which should prevent buffering for higher bitrate 4K videos. The new device builds upon the MediaTek MT8695 based Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K released in 2018, with a more powerful MediaTek MT8696 processor clocked at 1.8 GHz, more memory (2GB vs 1.5 GB), and the same 8GB of storage for the Android 9 based Amazon Fire 7 OS. Amazon claims the new stick is 40% faster, despite a frequency bump from 1.7 GHz to 1.8 GHz only, and MT8696 relies on Cortex-A73 cores Cortex-A55 cores (See comments), instead of the Cortex-A53 cores found in MediaTek MT8695, so the performance improvement probably refers to the faster GPU. Amazon Fire […]
IBASE launches 3.5-inch SBC with AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processor
We’ve covered plenty of AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 SBCs in the past, but it appears IBASE IB952 might be the first 3.5-inch SBC with a Ryzen V2000 processor for the industrial and IoT markets. The board supports up to 64GB RAM, offers two SATA III ports for storage, dual Gigabit Ethernet networking, four display outputs with DisplayPort, eDP and LVDS interfaces, USB and serial ports, as well as expansion through two M.2 sockets. IBASE IB952 specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 with Radeon Vega graphics System Memory – DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM, up to 64GB with ECC support Storage 2x SATA III ports M.2 M-Key socket for NVMe SSD Flash for AMI BIOS Video Output 1x DisplayPort 1.4 port up to 4Kp60 1x DisplayPort 1.2 port via USB-C port up to 4Kp60 1x 24-bit dual-channel LVDS up to 1080p60 1x eDP (embedded DisplayPort) up to 4Kp60 Four independent display support Audio […]
Amlogic S905W4 TV Box ships with Amlogic W1 WiFi 5 module
As I just posted about MediaTek Filogic 830/630 WiFi 6/6E chip, I was informed that Amlogic may have its own WiFi chip as “W1” module showed up in the SDK’s source code. It turns out there’s at least one TV box with Amlogic W1 802.11b/g/n/ac module/chip?, namely X96 Mini+, that also happens to come with an Amlogic S905W4 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor we’ve never covered on CNX Software. Apart from the new processor and WiFI module, X96 Mini Plus is your typical entry-level 4K TV box with up to 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, HDMI 2.0 video output, composite video output, Ethernet, and a couple of USB ports. X96 Mini Plus specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905W4 quad-core Arm Cortex A53 @ 1.2GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750MHz System Memory – 1 or 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB or 16GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to […]
MINIX NGC-5 Review – Windows 10, Ubuntu 20.04, and external GPU
MINIX has just launched a new mini PC in their NGC range called the NGC-5. Although it uses a somewhat dated Intel eighth-generation Core i5 processor, the integrated Iris Plus Graphics 655 is notable for being one of the more powerful iGPU solutions. MINIX kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu together with using an eGPU. Hardware Overview The NGC-5 physically consists of a 153 x 153 x 43mm (6.02 x 6.02 x 1.57 inches) square plastic case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s older 14 nm++ Core i5-8279U Coffee Lake processor which is a quad-core 8-thread 2.40 GHz processor boosting to 4.10 GHz with Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics 655. The front panel has just a LED power indicator whereas the rear panel includes dual gigabit Ethernet ports, dual USB 3.1 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2, an HDMI 2.0a port, […]
Zidoo M6 Arm mini PC review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown
I’ve just received my first Rockchip RK3566 platform with Zidoo M6 Arm mini PC that supports Ubuntu 18.04, Android 11, and Station OS. I was sent the standard version with 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash that will be suitable for most applications. I’ll start Zidoo M6 review with an unboxing and a teardown to check the hardware design and “hidden” features before reviewing with the device with Android 11 and/or Ubuntu 18.04. Zidoo M6 Unboxing There’s nothing special about the package (and that’s a good thing in order to go more easily through customs), so let’s check out the package content. Beside the box, it’s there’s an HDMI cable, a 5V/2A power adapter with a removable US plug, an IR remote control, and a user manual. The remote control comes with an IR learning function to record some of your TV keys like volume, power, and source selection without […]
iBASE MI989 – 5G-ready Ryzen V2000 Mini-ITX motherboard offers PCIe x16 & M.2 expansion
We’ve written about Ryzen Embedded V2000 mini-ITX motherboards in the past, but here’s another one with iBASE MI989 equipped with four 4K-capable DisplayPort 1.4 video output, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, three M.2 sockets including a 5G-ready M.2 3052 socket, and a PCIe x16 slot for expansion. iBASE MI989 also supports up to 64GB ECC memory, one SATA III port, multiple USB 3.1/2.0 ports, four serial ports, and more, for embedded applications in retail, healthcare, industrial automation, casinos, and smart cities. iBASE MI989 specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen V2000 Series Processors either: AMD Ryzen Embedded V2748, 8C/16T up to 2.9GHz (4.25GHz) with 4MB cache, 7 CU Radeon Vega graphics; 45W TDP AMD Ryzen Embedded V2718, 8C/16T up to 1.7GHz (4.15GHz), with 4MB cache, 7 CU Radeon Vega graphics; 15W TDP System Memory – Up to 64GB dual-channel DDR4-3200 (ECC/non-ECC) via 2x SODIMM sockets Storage – 1x SATA 3.0 (up to 6GB/s) […]
Jetson Nano & Xavier NX carrier board offers 3x M.2 sockets, 10x RS232/RS485 interfaces
Geniatech NVJ100AI/NVJ100AIX is a carrier board fitted with either Jetson Nano or Jetson Xavier NX SoM with good expansion capabilities thanks to three M.2 sockets and ten RS232 and/or RS485 interfaces, plus the usual Gigabit Ethernet, USB ports, HDMI video interface, etc… Geniatech NVJ100AI/NVJ100AIX specifications: SoM Geniatech NVJ100AI – NVIDIA Jetson Nano with CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex A57 MPCore processor @ up to 1.43 GHz GPU – Maxwell GPU, 128 CUDA core up to 512 GFLOPS (FP16) System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash AI Performance – Up to 472 GFLOPS in 10 Watts mode Geniatech NVJ100AIX – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX CPU – Hexa-core NVIDIA Carmel ARMv8.2 64-bit CPU with 6MB L2 + 4MB L3 cache GPU – 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores Dedicated AI accelerators – 2x NVDLA Engines, 7-Way VLIW Vision Processor System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16GB […]
LibreELEC 10.0 minimal Linux OS for media playback released with Kodi 19.1
While most TV boxes and SBCs nowadays ship with or support a version of Android, people who just want the best viewing experience may prefer to switch to a Linux distribution such as LibreELEC or CoreELEC. The good news is that LibreELEC 10.0 has just been released with Kodi 19.1 and Linux 5.10 LTS. LibreELEC 10.0 is said to work well for Allwinner, Rockchip, and “Generic” Intel/AMD devices, while the Raspberry Pi 4 release’s codebase is rather new, and there may still be a few rough edges. Support for the previous generation Raspberry Pi boards has been dropped, and there’s no support for Amlogic platforms as CoreELEC already provides good support. Since LibreELEC 10.0 is based on Kodi 19.1, it benefits from the same features as Kodi 19 “Matrix” release including AV1 video decoding, a new skin, HDR support, and more. LibreELEC 10.1 support a wide range of single board […]