Free Electrons Releases Buildroot Training Materials

Free Electrons develops embedded Linux & Android software, and also provides related training. On-site training sessions are scheduled from time to time, or organized on request, and they usually release their training materials for free, as they did for their Embedded Linux training in 2012, or their Yocto Project / OpenEmbedded course more recently. Thomas Petazzoni, Free Electrons’ Chief Technical Officer, recently informed me that the company also released training materials for Buildroot, which like the Yocto Project is a build system, but it had been around for much longer, and the company is actively participating in its development with over 2,800 patches submitted upstream over the years. Four main resources have been released for the course, under a Creative Commons BY-SA license: training materials for Buildroot – 325 pages Practical labs instructions (PDF) with BeagleBone Black – 32 pages Practical labs data (.tar.xz) – Patchsets for drivers, rootfs, and […]

PCOMnetA5 is a Small Dual Ethernet Board Powered by Freescale Vybrid Processor

F&S Elektronik Systeme has introduced a credit card sized industrial board powered by Freescale Vybrid single core Cortex A5 SoC featuring two Ethernet ports, support for RGB panels with resistive touch, and various I/Os headers for USB, UART, CAN and so on. The board is comprised of a baseboard and the company’s PicoMODA5 module with the following combined specifications: SoC – Freescale Vybrid Cortex-A5 processor @ 500 MHz with 512KB cache, NEON instructions and GPU System Memory – 256 MB RAM Storage – 128 MB Flash + µSD slot Display – 18-bit RGB LCD with 4-wire analog resistive PCAP-Touch via I2C Connectivity –  2x 10/100M Ethernet with IEEE1588, optional WiFi USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports via header, 1x micro USB 2.0 device port Other I/Os 2x CAN RS232/RS485 1x I2C, 1x SPI 7x Digital I/O Supply Voltage –  +5V DC/ ±5% Dimensions – 80x50mm Operating Temperature Range – […]

MYiR Tech Announces Low Cost Rico and Z-turn Boards Powered by TI AM437x and Xilinx Zynq-7010 SoCs

Shenzhen based MYIR Tech has just launched two new single board computers with Rico board featuring Texas Instruments Sitara AM437x ARM Cortex A9 industrial processor, and Z-Turn board based on Xilinx Zynq-7010 ARM Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC. Both boards sell for $99 in single quantity. Rico Board Specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments AM4379 single core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1.0GHz with PowerVR SGX530 GPU, and 4x PRU @ 200 MHz. Other AM437x on request. System Memory – 512MB DDR3 (Options: 256MB or 1GB) Storage – 4GB eMMC, 256 or 512 MB NAND flash (reserved), 16MB QSPI flash, 32KB EEPROM, and micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI and LCD interfaces (LCD connector located on bottom of the board). Connectivity  – 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet USB – 1x mini USB 2.0 device port, 1x USB 2.0 host post Camera – 2x 30-pin camera interface Debugging – 1x debug serial port, […]

Calao Systems Introduces Linux based DIN Rail Home and Building Automation Systems

Calao Systems is an embedded systems company that I came to know thanks to their Snowball development boards based on the now defunct ST Ericsson Nova A9500 processor. The company has now launched new products for building and home automation powered by Atmel AT91SAM9G20 ARM9 processor clocked at 400 MHz housed in a DIN Rail enclosure. Two products are now available HABA-KNX-EXPLORER and HABA-KNX-LITE that share the following specifications: Processor – Atmel ARM926EJ-S @ 400MHz System Memory – 128MB SDRAM Storage – 256MB NAND Flash, 16 Mbit serial flash, 2Kbit EEPROM with MAC address, and Micro SD slot Connectivity Lite – 1x Ethernet 10/100Mbits Explorer – 2x Ethernet 10/100Mbits USB –  2x USB Host FS (12Mbits), 1x USB Device FS (12Mbits) Serial (Explorer only) – 1x RS-232 (isolated), 2x RS-485 (isolated) Automation I/F – 1x KNX/TP1 (isolated) Expansion – 1x RF Expansion Connector Debugging – JTAG and DBGU interfaces Misc […]

Emtrion SBC-SAMA5D36 ARM Cortex A5 Linux Development Board Comes with Dual Ethernet, HDMI Output

A few months ago, I reviewed Atmel Xplained SAMA5D3 development board powered by SAMA5D36 Cortex A5 processor. The kit is supported by the Yocto Project, so I could build and run Poky distribution with a recent Linux kernel (it support mainline), it features Arduino compatible headers, and I found the board to be a nice platform for headless applications, or applications that require an LCD display. However, if you wanted to connect an HDMI display you’d be out of luck, unless you design your own LCD to HDMI add-on board. Emtrion SBC-SAMA5D36 could be an interesting alternative, as it features very similar specifications, but adds an HDMI output port. Emtrion SBC-SAMA5D36 specifications: MPU – Atmel SAMA5D36 single core Cortex-A5 @  536 MHz System Memory – 256 MB RAM Storage – 512 MB NAND Flash, up to 16 MB NOR Flash, and micro SD Card socket Connectivity – 100Base-TX Ethernet,  10/100/1000Base-TX […]

AllWinner A80 Linux SDK Released

After Android 4.4 SDK for AllWinner A31 last week, another AllWinner software development kit has been seen in the wild, this time for the new AllWinner A80 octa-core processor. A80 SDK includes source code for the Linux Kernel and U-boot, as well as buildroot, and various AllWinner tools. I’ve also noticed AllWinner A80 datasheet is available, but with the strict minimum information (45 pages). Let’s get the code, and extract it:

Now we need to configure the build:

sun9i is the codename for AllWinner A80, not sure what w1p1 means. Dragonboard must be the internal Allwinner development board, but I just selected Linux, since the SDK does not come with Android, and finally I opted for optimus, which could stand for OptimusBoard. You may need to install extra dependencies in your build machine, for example (in Ubuntu 14.04):

Now let’s start buildroot which should retrieve the toolchain, […]

$30 CoreWind Tech WiFiG25 SoM Features Atmel SAM9G25 ARM9 Processor and a Wi-Fi Module

After their Aria G25 clone, called CORE9G25, CoreWind Tech has now launched a new SoM, WiFiG25, also powered by Atmel SAM9G25 ARM9 processor, but this time with a WiFi Module based on Realtek RTL8188, and up to 256 MB RAM, 256 MB Flash. Here are the specs of this system-on-module: CPU – Atmel AT91SAM9G25 ARM9 @ 400Mhz System Memory – 128 or 256 MB DDR2 Storage – 256MB NAND Flash, micro SD card slot Connectivity – WiFi Module with internal antenna 2x20Pin 2.54mm expand interface (through holes) with access to 2x USB host ports, 3x UART, 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 6x PWM, 27x GPIOs, and 4x 10-bit ADC Line level – TTL 3.3V Misc – User LED Power supply – 5V Dimensions – Size: 50.80 x 30 mm Weight – 5g Temperature range –  Commercial: 0 to 70 °C, or industrial: -20 to 85 °C The company provide Linux 3.6.9 for the […]

Wandboard Dual Benchmarks, Serial Console Fun, and Distributions List

Since last time I tried Android and Ubuntu on the Wandboard, a few things happened. I’m not talking about Wandboard Quad announcement, but instead I received a Class 10 SD card, which makes the system so much responsive, and a RS232 to USB adapter so that I can access the serial console. So today, I’ll publish some benchmark results on Wandboard Dual since none appear to be available, and play a little with the serial console. A few things also happened on the operating systems side with more distributions now available for the board. Prerequisites I ran benchmark in Android, so I installed the latest Android 4.1.2 image (11th of April 2012) to my new SD card (ADATA 16 GB Class 10), and contrary to my poor experience on a 4GB Class 4 micro SD, everything was very fluid. I’ve also installed Google Play in order to install the applications. […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design