Linux Kernel 3.10 Released

Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.10: So I delayed this by a day, considering whether to do another -rc, but decided that there wasn’t enough upside. Sure, it hasn’t been as quiet as I’d like, and we had this long discussion about an inode list locking scalability issue over the last week or two, but in the end that issue turned out to not be new, and while we may end up back-porting the eventual resolution to 3.10, it wasn’t a reason to delay the release. Similarly, while I might wish for fewer pull requests during the late rc’s (and particularly the ones that came in Friday evening -inconvenient for a weekend release), at some point delaying things doesn’t really help things, and just makes the pent up demand for the next merge window worse. In other words, I could really have gone either way, but […]

Imagination Technologies Unveils MIPS “Warrior” 32 and 64 Bit CPU Cores

Last year, MIPS announced Aptiv Cores, but since then, the company has been bought by Imagination Technologies, and they’ve recently announced updates to the family, as well as new MIPS Series5 ‘Warrior’ CPU cores during Imagination Summit in Asia. Before I write about the update to Aptiv cores, let me remind you of the 3 Aptiv families: proAptiv – High performance cores (3.5DMIPS/Mhz) to be used in SoC for smartphone, tablets, …. 1 to 6 cores. Roughly equivalent to ARM Cortex A15. interAptiv – Medium performance core (1.7DMIPS/MHz) for mainstream STB, digital cameras, mid-range smartphones. 1 to 4 cores. Equivalent to ARM Cortex A5 microAptiv – Low power MCU and MPU cores Imagination has added a small-footprint single-core version to the interAptiv family without the extra logic associated with multi-core coherency and L2 cache controller, as well as a floating point version to the microAptiv family for applications such as […]

Microchip Announces New PIC32MX3/4 32-bit MCUs Based on MIPS M4K Core

Microchip Technology has just announced a new family of PIC32MX3/4 MCUs featuring a MIPS M4K core @ 80 MHz, coupled with 16 to 128KB RAM, 64 to 512KB flash, that are designed to be used in connectivity, graphics, digital audio and general-purpose embedded control. Microchip PIC32MX3/4 32-bit micro-controllers have been available for several years, but the company added 7 new MCUs with more memory, higher integration of peripherals, and lower cost. PIC32MX3/4 key features are as follows: MIPS M4K core @ 80 Mhz with 105 DMIPS performance (equivalent to Cortex M3 MCU @ 84MHz), 16 to 128KB RAM, 64 to 512KB flash, and 12KB boot flash. 4 channel GP DMA, 2 channel DMA I/O: 28 channels 10-bit ADCs 5x UARTS, 2x I2C, 2x I2S/SPI, GPIOs 5x PWM 16-bit parallel master port (PMP) Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU)/Temperature Sensor 5x 16-bit timers, watchdog timer, Real-time clock USB OTG (MX4 family only) […]

Ingenic JZ4780 SoC Features a Dual Core MIPS CPU and PowerVR SGX540 GPU

MIPS and Ingenic Semiconductor have just introduced the JZ4780, a low cost dual core MIPS XBurst processor with a PowerVR SGX540 GPU. The companies will demonstrate their solution in a 10″ Android 4.1 Jelly Bean reference tablet during CES 2013, on January 8 – 12, 2013. JZ4780 SoC Highlights: SoC – Dual XBurst core up to 1.5GHz CPU + PowerVR SGX540 GPU supporting 2D Graphics, 3D Graphic, OpenGL ES2.0 and ES1.0, OpenVG1.1 VPU – 1080P Decoder,1080p encoder Memory Interfaces – 8-bit SLC/MLC/TLC NAND Flash, 64 bit ECC |16/32-bit DDR3/DDR2/DDR/Mobile DDR SDRAM Peripherals – AC97/I2S/SPDIF, Audio Codec, LCD-IF, LVDS, HDMI, Camera-IF, Touch ADC,PCM, I2C, SPI,UART, SD/MMC/SDIO, USB Host, USB OTG 2.0, TS-IF, GPIO, OTP Power Consumption – Ingenic’s MIPS-Based XBurst processor is said to consumes approximately 140mW per GHz under full load. Package – BGA390 17 x 17 x 1.1 mm, 0.8mm pitch Process – 40nm CMOS Ingenic will also demonstrate […]

MIPS Releases Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) Source Code

At the end of last month, MIPS announced the $125 Karbonn Mobiles Android Jelly Bean Tablet powered by Ingzenic MIPS-Based JZ4770 SoC.  Today, they released Android 4.1.1 source code for MIPS Before downloading the Android source code, make sure you have a properly setup Linux workstation. Here are the instructions to checkout MIPS Android 4.1.1:

You can read the release notes for more details about the current status of the MIPS Android Jelly Bean port. Myriad Dalvik turbo, an alternative Dalvik implement that is much faster than the default Dalvik engine (at least on MIPS), is not yet available for Android 4.1, but should be soon. All MIPS Android source code can also be viewed online at http://www.github.com/mips. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time […]

TP-Link WR703N – $23 Hackable openWRT Wi-Fi 802.11N Router

TP-Link WR703N is a tiny 802.11N 150 Mbps Wi-Fi router smaller than a credit card (5.7 x 5.7 cm) and 1.8 cm thick based on Atheros AR7240 processor with 4 MB flash and 32 MB RAM. It costs just above $20 US and can be hacked with openWRT. It features one USB host connector that allows you to connect USB devices (USB flash drive, printer…) to it. TL-WR703N Specifications: Atheros AR7240 CPU @ 400Mhz (MIPS24k core) Atheros AR9331 Chipset (integrated wireless) 10/100 Mbit Ethernet port 802.11 b/g/n 150Mbps 3G support via external USB dongle 4 MB flash memory 32 MB RAM USB 2.0 port micro-USB port for power Dimension – 5.7 x 5.7 x 1.8 cm All you need is a USB to TLL board to access the serial console, open the box to access the serial pins (TP_IN and TP_OUT) and follow the instructions on openWRT website to convert […]

ELLCC Multi-Target Cross Compiler Based on Clang and LLVM Compiler Infrastructure

ELLCC is a project aiming at creating a multi-target cross compilation environment for embedded systems. which makes use of Clang and the LLVM compiler infrastructure. QEMU is used for cross-platform testing. The project goals are to implement the following key features: A functional C/C++ compiler based on Clang (ecc) Multi-target support: ARM, i386, Microblaze, Mips, Nios2, PowerPC, PowerPC64, Sparc and X86_64 Multi-OS support: Linux, Standalone, … A complete test environment that allows automatic unit and integration testing of the run-time environment and complete executables. Support of a wide variety of target processors from armv4 to armv7, several mips cores, i386, and more. The project is still being developed, and ELLCC is in a pre-release state. ELLCC is composed of the following components: ecc – The ELLCC C/C++ compiler,  a single executable with gcc compatible options. binutils – The GNU binutils package. libecc – The C standard library based on the musl standard […]

Ramos Miumiu W1 Android 4.0 Tablet Based on Actions ATM7019 MIPS SoC

Ramos Miumiu W1 is a tablet running Android 4.0 (ICS) and powered by Actions Semiconductor’s ATM7019 SoC that integrate a MIPS32 74Kf core running at 1 GHz. Actions Semiconductor is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Zhuhai (like AllWinner). Here are the specs of the devices: SoC – Actions Semiconductor ATM7019 MIPS32 74Kf Core @ 1GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB or 8GB Flash depending on model + microSD slot Display – 7″ WSVGA (1024×600) capacitive touch screen. Connectivity – Wifi 802.11b/g/n USB – micro USB 2.0 Video Output – HDMI The processor can support 1080p HD video playback and the tablet can record 640×480 video via the front camera. Actions Semiconductor does not provide information about ATM7019 SoC on their website, but I found a 2011 presentation hosted on MIPS website that explains some details about MIPS32 74Kf based processors by Actions SemiConductor […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC