friendlyarm News - Page 9 of 16 - CNX Software

June 27, 2019June 27, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

NanoPi M4 RK3399 SBC Price Drops to $50 and Up

The launch of Raspberry Pi 4 SBC has generated lots of interest, especially with the extra performance and low $35 price tag that has made most alternatives suddenly less interesting. However, Raspberry Pi 4 benchmarks show it’s not quite the fastest board around, and for example, Rockchip RK3399 platforms are still quite faster, sometimes as much as twice as fast. They do cost much more though, often more than twice, and so far one of the cheapest RK3399 boards was NanoPi M4 going for $65. FriendlyELEC has now decided, certainly in response to Raspberry Pi 4 offering, to lower the price to $50 for the 2GB RAM version which compares to $45 with Raspberry Pi 4 2GB, as well as $75 for the 4GB RAM version (was $95). NanoPi M4 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up […]

June 13, 2019June 13, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

New Release (1.3.5) for H3Droid Android OS Optimized for Allwinner H3 & H2+ Processors

H3Droid project provides Android images for Allwinner H3 & H2+ boards and TV boxes in order to improve on the firmware released by manufacturers. Last time we wrote about was in 2017, but the project released H3droid 1.3.5 recently with several improvements.. The good news is that more boards are supported with a bit fix that for example enables H3Droid to work on Orange Pi Zero (256MB RAM) and Libre Computer Tritium H2+ SBC’s, but the bad news is that it’s still based on Android 4.4 Kitkat, so some apps are not working anymore including Kodi, and the default YouTube app had to be removed since it does work not anymore. Workarounds do exist though, as you can install SPMC fork of Kodi, and play YouTube videos in a web browser, or install it manually after updating Google Play Services. Here’s the full changelog provided by the developers: Added: fex/uboot […]

May 30, 2019May 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

FriendlyELEC SOM-RK3399 Development Kit Targets AI & Machine Vision Applications

FriendlyELEC is better known for their low-cost tiny single board computers, but the company has also introduced systems-on-module in the past such as Smart6818 module powered by Samsung S5P6818 octa-core processor. The company has now launched another system-on-module with SOM-RK3399, which as its name implied features Rockchip RK3399 processor, as well as a corresponding carrier board mostly designed for artificial intelligence and computer vision applications. SOM-RK3399 System-on-Module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5GHz, Mali-T864 GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC, and VPU capable of handling 4K VP9 and 4K 10bits H265/H264 60fps decoding, Dual VOP, etc System Memory – Dual-Channel 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash Networking 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo module (AP6356S), dual antenna interface Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet transceiver USB – 2x USB-C […]

February 20, 2019February 20, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

NanoPi R1 is an Allwinner H3 Gateway with Dual Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth

A couple of years ago, Shenzhen Xunlong Software launched Orange Pi R1 board powered by Allwinner H2+ processor with two Fast Ethernet ports, and some I/Os which could be useful for intelligent controllers and simple IoT gateways. FriendlyElec has now launched a similar, but improved product with their NanoPi R1 featuring Allwinner H3 processor coupled with 512MB or 1GB memory, two Ethernet ports, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, packaged in a neat metal case. NanoPi R1 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 processor @ up to 1.2GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 512MB or 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – MicroSD Slot, optional 8GB eMMC flash Connectivity 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x Fast Ethernet 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 with SMA antenna interface Bluetooth 4.0 dual mode (Classic / LE) USB – 2x USB Type-A host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port Debugging – 3-pin 2.54mm pitch header for serial console Serial […]

February 19, 2019February 19, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

Design your own NAS with $25 4x SATA HAT for NanoPi M4 Board

NanoPi M4 is one of the many Rockchip RK3399 boards available on the market today. The SBC follows Raspberry Pi form factor, comes with 2 to 4 GB RAM, four USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Etherent, HDMI 2.0, etc.. and exposes the 2-lane PCIe interface from the Rockchip processor not through a typical PCIe slot or mini PCIe slot, but instead through a 2.54mm pitch header. I feel like an odd choice at first glance, but it now makes complete sense, as the company has launched a 4x SATA HAT for NanoPi M4 board that leverages the header with PCIe 2x signals. 4x SATA HAT for NanoPi M4 key features and specifications: PCIe to SATA Chipset – Marvell 88SE9215 four-port 6Gbps SATA I/O controller USB – 2x 4-pin USB 2.0 host connectors Expansion – NanoPi M4 40-pin header exposed Misc Power key, unpopulated power key jumper Power LED, 4x SATA LEDs […]

January 7, 2019January 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

A Look at a Small NanoPi NEO4 Build Farm

FriendlyElec NanoPi NEO4 is currently the cheapest and smallest SBC powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor which packs two Cortex A72 “fast” 64-bit cores, and four Cortex-A53 “efficiency” cores, so it should be an obvious candidate if you plan on building an Arm build farm costs to its low cost, small form factor, and relatively good performance. As part of his work on HAProxy load balancer, Willy Tarreau often has to run time-consuming builds for Arm targets, and to speed up the builds he’s put together several Arm based build farms powered by low cost development boards / SBCs. Up to now he had a build farm powered by five MIQI boards featuring Rockchip RK3288 processor with four Cortex-A17 “fast” 32-bit processor, and controlled with a ClearFog Pro networking board. He’s now decided to build another similar build farm but with NanoPi NEO4 boards instead. Willy goes through the hardware […]

December 9, 2018December 8, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Buildroot For NanoPi NEO4 RK3399 SBC

NanoPi NEO4 is the smallest and cheapest RK3399 board so far, featuring the hexa-core processor into a $45 60×45 mm single board computer. FriendlyELEC usually provides decent documentation and software support for their boards, but Flatmax was not satisfied with the build system provided by Rockchip / FriendlyELEC. So he took the matter into his own hands, worked on and released a buildroot external tree for building NanoPi NEO4 SD card images. Flatmax mentioned this is the first completely contained build system for the NanoPi NEO4. The build process is explained on Github, and basically goes like this: Clone buildroot

git clone git://git.busybox.net/buildroot buildroot.neo4

1	git clone git://git.busybox.net/buildroot buildroot.neo4

Install dependencies

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential gcc g++ autoconf automake libtool bison flex gettext
sudo apt-get install -y patch texinfo wget git gawk curl lzma bc quilt

1 2	sudo apt-get install -y build-essential gcc g++ autoconf automake libtool bison flex gettext sudo apt-get install -y patch texinfo wget git gawk curl lzma bc quilt

Clone NEO4 buildroot external tree

git clone git@github.com:flatmax/NanoPi.Neo4.buildroot.external.git NanoPi.Neo4

1	git clone git@github.com:flatmax/NanoPi.Neo4.buildroot.external.git NanoPi.Neo4

Build the system

. NanoPi.Neo4/setup.sh yourPath/buildroot.neo4
mkdir yourPath/buildroot.dl
make

. NanoPi.Neo4/setup.sh yourPath/buildroot.neo4

mkdir yourPath/buildroot.dl

make

Flash it to the micro SD card

sudo ./output/images/sd-fuse-rk3399/fusing.sh /dev/sdX buildroot

1	sudo ./output/images/sd-fuse-rk3399/fusing.sh /dev/sdX buildroot

Just replace /dev/sdX with your actual SD card device. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software […]

November 14, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Giveaway Week Winners – November 2018

We just had a week of fun on CNX Software with our yearly “Giveaway Week” activity where 7 prizes – from development boards to Raspberry Pi add-on boards or solar chargers – were randomly given away to people who entered by leaving a comment. The winners are in, with Asia starting strong, but Europe quickly taking the lead, and the US ending up the giveaway with a great (again) finish. Here’s the full list of winners: Videostrong VS-RD-RK3399 development board – Việt trần, VIETNAM CHOETECH Solar Charger – Erki, ESTONIA ESP32-LyraTD-MSC audio mic HDK – Ron, The Netherlands ROC-RK3328-CC development board – Dainis, LATVIA (a second time winner having previously won during Giveaway Week 2016) ThaiEasyElec 3G GPS Raspberry Pi Hat – zmlopez, SPAIN ANAVI Infrared and RGB strip pHAT – Joe, USA NanoPC-T4 development board – Jeffrey, USA I’ve just send all 7 packages earlier this afternoon. Hopefully, the […]