Rockchip PX3 and PX4 Processors Are Designed for Automotive Infotainment & Dashboards

Rockchip PX2 processor, similar to Rockchip RK3066 but targeting industrial and automotive applications, was launched in 2014. Rockchip now has at least two new member in their PX family with PX3 and PX4 specifically designed for automotive infotainment and car dashboards thanks to dual display support, at least according to one article on Elezine. Rockchip PX3 is definitely confirmed with its own page on Rockchip website, and features a quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.4 GHz with a Mali-400MP4 GPU, and while there’s no info about PX4 yet on the company website, the SoC should come with a quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz with a Mali-T722 GPU, as well as HDMI 2.0 video output, and H.265 video decoding. The article also lists 7 key function of Rockchip solutions: “Quick startup and fast revert track” Navigation system with free updates HD video recording (car DVR) Advanced ADAS algorithm […]

Henes Broon T870 is a Kids’ Electric Car Controlled by an Android Tablet

If you ever wanted to played around with an electric car that’s a bit better than an RC toy, but don’t quite have the cash for a full-size Tesla model, Henes has designed an electric card for you your younger kids that’s controlled by an Android tablet and allows both manual and remote driving. Henes Broon T870 specifications: Tablet – 7″ Android 4.4.2 tablet PC smart system with HD resolution display, micro SD, HDMI and audio output ARM Cortex-M3 based main control system Bluetooth remote control Built-in stereo speakers Functioning hood & doors 4 wheel drive with high density urethane tires Spring suspension & shock absorbers Leather bucket seat and seat belt Foot pedal accelerator Bright Headlight / Aux Light / Turn Signal Light / Tail/Brake/BackUp Lights Motors – Dual 24V driving motors Battery – Rechargeable 24V 7Ah battery pack for a little over 2 hours drive, or up to […]

Renesas R-Car M2 Porter is a Linux Development Board for Your Car

So far, I always assumed development boards specifically designed for automotive applications would only be available to companies in the car or truck business, but as I wrote about FOSDEM 2016 schedule yesterday, I found out that one of the talk with cover FOSS software stacks that are available for automotive, and usable on hobbyist boards such as Raspberry Pi 2 and Minnowboard Max, but also on Renesas R-Car M2 Porter board specifically designed for automotive infotainment applications. Renesas Port board specifications: SoC – Renesas R-Car M2 dual core ARM Cortex-A15 processor @ 1.5­GHz with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU, Renesas 2D graphics processor, and Multimedia Engine SH­4A @ 780 MHz System Memory – Dual channel 2GB DDR3 Storage – On-board 4 MB SPI, and 64 MB SPI, 1x SATA rev 3.1 connector, 1x SD card slot, and 1x micro SD card slot Video Output / Display I/F – HDMI and LVDS […]

FOSDEM 2016 Schedule – Open Source Hardware and Software Event in Europe

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is a 2-day event that usually takes place on the first week-end of February in Brussels, but this year it will be on January 30-31. The event brings thousands of developers, hackers, and other person interested in open source technology who present their projects and share ideas. FOSDEM 2016 schedule is now available, and There will be 557 speakers, 612 events, and 50 tracks this year including 7 main tracks: Distros, Enterprise, Hardware, Communications, Miscellaneous, Office, Systems Administration, and Virtualization. So I’ve had a look at some of the talks, especially out of  “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “IoT” devrooms, and prepared my own virtual schedule although I won’t be able to attend. Saturday 10:30 – 10:55 – MIPS, the other side of the embedded by Alexjan Carraturo For many years MIPS processors have been involved in the embedded market, particularly […]

Multi-function Power Banks Can Jump Start Your Car Beside Charging Your Phone

Many people carry a USB power bank with them to make sure their smartphone does not run out of battery, but based on my experience failing to start your car because of a depleted or dead battery will bring ever more anxiety. Interestingly/funnily enough, while this happened to my neighbors last week-end, today I was informed that TM08 multi-function power bank was designed to both charge your phone or laptop, and help start your car. TM08 specifications: Input – 12V/1A Output – 5V-2A via USB and 12V jump starter for car with 200A starting current, and 400A peak current Battery Capacity – 12000mah Charging Time – 3 to 4 hours Life cycle – Over 1,000 cycles Dimensions – 130x70x25 mm Weight – 311 grams Operating Temperature – -20℃-85℃ The kit comes with adapters to charge your phone or other devices, as well as cables to connect to your car’s battery. […]

PowerVR GT7200 Plus and GT7400 Plus GPUs Support OpenCL 2.0, Better Computer Vision Features

Imagination Technologies introduced PowerVR Series7XT GPU family with up to 512 cores at the end of 2014, and at CES 2016, they’ve announced Series7XT Plus family with GT7200 Plus and GT7400 Plus GPUs, with many of the same features of Series7XT family, plus the addition of OpenCL 2.0 API support, and improvements for computer vision with a new Image Processing Data Master, and support for 8-bit and 16-bit integer data paths, instead of just 32-bit in the previous generation, for example leading to up to 4 times more performance for applications, e.g. deep learning, leveraging OpenVX computer vision API. GT7200 Plus GPU features 64 ALU cores in two clusters, and GT7400 Plus 128 ALU cores in a quad-cluster configuration. Beside OpenCL2.0, and improvements for computer vision, they still support OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan, hardware virtualization, advanced security, and more. The company has also made some microarchitectural enhancements to improve performance […]

Renesas R-Car H3 Deca-Core Processor and Driverless Car Roadmap

Renesas has recently unveiled R-Car H3 deca-core processor for automotive applications with four Cortex A57 cores, four Cortex A5 cores, and two Cortex-R7 “dual-lock step” cores for real-time processor, and has part the releases showed the expected roadmap for the implementation of driverless / autonomous cars. Let’s start with the processor (R8A77950) and SiP module (R8J77950) specifications: CPU cores –  quad core  ARM Cortex-A57, quad core ARM Cortex-A53, and dual lock-step ARM Cortex-R7 cores with respectively 48KB/32KB, 32KB/32KB, and 32KB/32KB L1 instructions/operand cache. GPU – IMG PowerVR Series6XT GX6650 External memory – LPDDR4-SDRAM up to 1600 MHz, data bus width: 32 bits x 4 ch (12.8GB/s x 4) Expansion bus – 2 ch PCI Express2.0 (1 lane) Video Out – 3x display output Input / camera – 8x video inputs Video codec module (H.265, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, VC-1, etc.) IP conversion module 2x TS Interfaces Stream and Security Processor Video image […]

iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G20M-Q7 SoM Features Renesas RZ/G1M Cortex A15 SoC

iWave Systems has unveiled a new Qseven 2.0 compliant system-on-module part of their RainboW family with iW-RainboW-G20M-Q7 module powered by Renesas RZ/G1M dual core ARM Cortex A15 SoC, and targeting industrial and automotive applications with over 10 years of support. iW-RainboW-G20M-Q7 module specifications: SoC – Renesas RZ/G1M dual core ARM Cortex A15 @ 1.5GHz with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU @ 520MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3(expandable) Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash (expandable) + 2MB SPI NOR Flash for boot code, and optional Micro SD Slot Connectivity – 1x Gigabit Ethernet  PHY USB – 2 Port USB HUB I/Os via 230-pin Qseven edge connector: Storage – 1x SATA , 1x SDHC USB – 1x USB3.0 host, 2x USB 2.0 hosts, or 1x USB 2.0 device Display – 1x LVDS Connectivity – 1x Gigabit Ethernet Audio – 1x I2S Audio 2x PWM, 2x I2C, SPI, CAN, UART, GPIOs 1x PCIe (multiplexed with SATA) JTAG or […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC