Dealextreme is selling a board (Model SAA-250) featuring Telechips TCC8925 Cortex A5 processor with 1GB RAM, and 4GB Flash. They sell it as a “Android 4.0 DIY Intelligent TV Box / Advertising / Development Motherboard”, but it’s basically an Android set-top box board without casing, power supply, nor remote control, and you should not expect to do that much development (except Android app development) on it since no source code is available. Here are the board specifications: SoC – Telechips TCC8925 up to 833 MHz ARM Cortex A5 + 1080P VPU + Mali-400 GPU. (Dealextreme says it’s a dual core Cortex A5 up to 1.2 GHz, but if it’s TCC8925, that’s just plain wrong) System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 4GB flash + SD card slot Video Output – micro? HDMI 1.3 up to 1080p + CVBS AV output Video formats – RM/RMVB, MPEG, MKV, AVI, FLV, VP8 up […]
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 […]
$159 CuBox Pro: Open Source Development Platform Based on Marvell ARMADA SoC
Back in 2011, SolidRun unveiled the CuBox, 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… SolidRun has now announced an upgraded version called CuBox Pro based on the same platform but with 2 GB RAM, and a redesigned casing. Here are the specifications of this development platform: Marvell Armada 510 SoC – 800 MHz dual issue ARM PJ4 processor, VFPv3, wmmx SIMD and 512KB L2 cache. 2GByte 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 for 38KHz based IR controllers. No JTAG required. Unbrickable for Developers (i.e. you can’t brick the device to the point you have to physically remove the flash, burn it […]
Archos TV Connect Android 4.1 Set-top Box Powered by TI OMAP4470
Archos has just announced the Archos TV connect compromised of a touch remote and an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean set-top box and that be placed on to top of your TV. The Android 4.1 media player is powered by a multi-core 1.5GHz processor with 1 GB RAM and 8GB flash. The touch remote allows you to control your TV just like a tablet with tap, swipe, zoom in, zoom out, select or type. Archos did not divulge the complete specifications of their new device, but we have to following info for now: SoC – 1.5 GHz Smart MultiCore processor (Arctablet reports it’s powered by TI OMAP 4470) System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 8 GB Flash memory + micro SDHC Slot up to 32 GB Connectivity: Ethernet Wi-Fi USB – Micro USB port + USB host port Video Output – mini HDMI Camera – HD front camera Misc […]
Smallart U-Host AllWinner A10 mini PC is Available for $20
Last July, I reviewed Smallart U-Host (U1A), an Android TV stick based on AllWinner A10 with 1GB RAM and 4GB RAM. At the time, I had a positive opinion of the device as the Android firmware was stable, and mostly did it was supposed, and it was feasible to run Linux distributions on the device. At that time, it was sold for $70, but this morning, Clint, one of my reader, informed me he spotted an AllWinner A10 device selling for $20.50 on Dealextreme. This device and the user interface resembles very much to Smallart U-Host, but the model name reported on Dealextreme is U2. According to Smallart U2 page, this device is based on Rockchip RK3066, so it’s just another naming mistake on DealExtreme. The rest of the specs are identical to Smallart U-Host: SoC – Allwinner A10 (Cortex A8) @ 1.5GHZ System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage […]
Canonical Announces Ubuntu for Phones
Canonical has just announced the Ubuntu for Phones platform that will allows users to have similar experience on desktops (Ubuntu Desktop), TVs (Ubuntu TV) and smartphones, avoiding the need to learn 2 different platform for the desktop and mobile devices. The user interface replaces the “Lock screen” with the “Welcome screen” (As shown in the middle of the picture above), which shows notifications and user data as you turn on your device. The user interface mostly eliminate buttons, and you can access features by swiping the edge of the phone. A swipe on the left edge will show the dash bar, giving access to most used apps and dash search, a swipe on the right edge will cycle through your opened apps, a swipe at the top will give access to notifications and allow changing settings right from there, and a swipe at a button will allow you to customize […]
Top 10 Posts of 2012 on CNXSoft Blog
This is the last day of the year, so it’s probably a good time to look back and see what interested people on this blog. This has been a banner year for low cost ARM devices and boards starting with the Raspberry Pi, then MK802 and the new mini PCs / HDMI TV dongles / PCs-on-a-stick (whatever you want to call them) that came after, always cheaper and faster. Those low cost devices have in turn made people really interested in ARM Linux, and lots of development on those little devices and boards started. The top 10 posts of 2012, according to page views, reflect just those trends: 74 USD AllWinner A10 Android 4.0 Mini PC (May 2012) – MK802 started the whole “low cost mini PCs” craze, and drove the most traffic to this blog this year. People got excited about the price, form factor, and the possibility to […]
Tronsmart Prometheus: $99 Spaceship-like Android Media Player Based on AML8726-M6
Most media players just look like a boring black or white box, but Tronsmart Prometheus proves it does not have to be that way, as this model comes in the shape of a spaceship. This box running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean is based on AMLogic AML8726-M6 dual core Cortex A9 processor with 1GB RAM and 4GB Flash. Here are the specs of this spaceship media player: SoC – AMLogic AML8726-M6 Dual Core up to 1.5GHz with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + SD card slot Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n 10/100 Ethernet (RJ45) USB – 3x USB 2.0 Host ports. N.B: The specs mentions 3x USB outside, and 2x USB inside. But after a closer inspection of the casing and PCBA pictures, I can only shows 3 ports. Video output – HDMI and composite Video Codecs – MPEG-2, H.264,MPEG-4,VC-1… at 1080P Audio Codecs – […]