M5Stack ATOM Display Lite adds HDMI output to ESP32 module

ESP32 HDMI output

M5Stack ATOM Display Lite is a kit based on GOWIN Gowin GW1NR-9C FPGA and LT8618SX RGB to HDMI chip designed to add HDMI output up to 720p to the company’s ESP32-based M5Stack ATOM Lite module. The ATOM Lite sees the ATOM Display Lite kit as an SPI display, but the solution outputs the data to an HDMI monitor or TV with up to 1280×720 resolution and can be used for information display, menu board, and more. ATOM Display Lite specifications: Wireless IoT modules – M5Stack ATOM Lite ESP32-PICO-D4 based module with 240MHz dual-core CPU, 520KB SRAM, 4MB flash, Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth connectivity FPGA – Gowin GW1NR-9C (PDF datasheet) FPGA with 8,640 LUTs used to simulate SPI TFT-LCD data output, HDMI bridge – Lontium Semi LT8618SX RGB to HDMI chip with 24-bit color depth up to 1280×720 output @ 60 fps (optimized frame rate up to 12 ~ 16FPS) Misc- […]

10.1-inch RPI All-in-One PC review with Raspberry Pi 4

10.1-inch Raspberry Pi PC portrait mode

A couple of months ago I received “RPI All-in-One”, a 10.1-inch touchscreen display for Raspberry Pi boards, listed the specifications, checked out the package content, installed a Raspberry Pi 4 inside the display before booting my new all-in-one (AiO) PC successfully. I’ve now had time to spend more time with the PC/display and see how it performs under various conditions. I also tested HDMI and USB-C input features with a laptop and mini PC. Fan or fanless operation? After updating Raspberry Pi OS, I ran sbc-bench.sh script together with rpi-monitor to see how the Raspberry Pi 4 with 1GB RAM would perform under load with the (noisy) fan enabled.

  No throttling was detected, and the temperature never exceeded 56°C in a room with an ambient temperature of 26°C. I then disconnect the fan, but it turns out the fan can also be easily disabled in the OSD menu […]

Tang Nano 9K FPGA board can emulate PicoRV32 RISC-V soft-core with all peripherals

Tango Nano 9K

Tang Nano 9K FPGA is the third board from Sipeed based on GOWIN FPGA following the original Tang Nano board with 1K LUT and Tang Nano 4K launched last year with GW1NSR-LV4C (aka GW1NSR-4C) FPGA offering 4068 logical units and 64 Mbit PSRAM, plus an Arm Cortex-M3 hard processor. As its name implies, the new board comes with 9K LUTs, as well as 64 Mbit PSRAM, 32 Mbit Flash, a micro SD card, and video I/O (HDMI, RGB LCD connector) that makes it suitable to run Verilog HDL code emulating a PicoRV32 RISC-V soft-core with all peripherals. Tang Nano 9K FPGA board specifications: FPGA – GOWIN LittleBee GW1NR-9/GW1NR-LV9 8,640 logical units (LUTs) 6,480 flip-flop 17,280 bits shadow SRAM (SSRAM) 486 Kbit block SRAM (BSRAM) 64 Mbit PSRAM 608 Kbit user flash 2x PLL Up to 276x user I/O Storage – 32 Mbit SPI flash. MicroSD card socket Display I/F HDMI […]

Beelink Expand F USB-C dock takes M.2 SSD and 2.5-inch SATA drive

Beelink Expand F USB-C Dock

Beelink has previously introduced USB docks with the Expand X smartphone dock and Expand M with an SSD. The company’s latest Beelink Expand F USB-C dock looks really like a mini PC from the outside with the usual USB, HDMI, Ethernet, and audio ports, and it can also be fitted with an M.2 2280 SATA SSD and/or a 2.5-inch SATA drive. It can be useful to add PC-like connectivity to a smartphone or add additional storage to a laptop without cluttering your desk with multiple USB drives, and/or potentially saving some USB ports on the host machine. Beelink Expand F specifications: Storage Options No storage, i.e. bring your own SATA drive(s) via M.2 socket up to 440 MB/s and/or 2.5-inch SATA bay 512GB SATA III M.2 SSD 512GB SATA III M.2 SSD plus 1TB SATA HDD Video Output – 2x HDMI ports up to 4K resolution Audio – 3.5mm audio […]

The cheapest Jasper Lake mini PC so far: JK01 for $140 and up

Cheap Jasper Lake Mini PC

Intel Jasper Lake N-Series Celeron and Pentium processors were formally introduced at the beginning of the year as the successors of the Gemini Lake (Refresh) processors, and we’ve seen several mini PCs and motherboards so far from lesser-known Chinese manufacturers to more established brands like ASUS, GIGABYTE, and ECS. The previous generation Gemini Lake mini PCs would usually sell around $150 to $200, but now with the JK01 barebone computer, we’ve got an inexpensive Intel Celeron N5095 Jasper Lake mini PC selling for about $141 including shipping. CYX JK01 mini PC specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N5095 quad-core Jasper Lake  processor @ 2.0GHz /  2.9GHz (Turbo) with 4MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD Graphics; 15W TDP System Memory – 2x SO-DIMM slots for up to 16GB DDR4 memory Storage – M.2 2280 socket for NVMe or SATA SSD, 2.5-inch SATA drive bay, MicroSD card socket Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0 […]

Android 12 for TV released for ADT-3 Developer Kit

Android 12 for TV

While Android 12 images and related AOSP source code were released in October, it took a bit longer for Android 12 for TV. But the latest version of Android for larger screens has apparently been released yesterday on the developer website with Android 12 for TV now available, albeit only for the ADT-3 Developer Kit based on the Amlogic S905Y2 processor. Google says they’ve improved the user experience and compatibility on TV devices with media playback improvements, a refined user interface, enhanced privacy and security, as well as better support for HDMI and TV tuners. Highlights of the Android 12 for TV release include: User Interface Background blurs using RenderEffect and in WindowManager 4K UI support (CNXSoft: up to now most devices were using a 1920×1080 user interface (framebuffer), and play 4K video on another hardware video buffer) Accessibility settings for font sizes Media improvements Automatic refresh rate switching to […]

Android 12 source code pushed to AOSP

Android 12 source code AOSP

Google has now pushed Android 12 source code to AOSP (Android Open Source Project), after introducing Android 12 new features and the developer preview in February, and the first Android 12 Beta in May. The latest version of the mobile operating system should become available on recent Google Pixel phones in the next few weeks, followed by phones from Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi. You can download the code with the following command :

Eventually, there should be an Android 12 tag in the manifest similar to android-12.0.0.0_r1. But that still means developers can start retrieving the source code to adapt the operating system to their needs, for example, to implement support for single board computers or TV boxes that do not use Android TV OS. The release notes for the source code list of the changes made to Android 12 OS including: Support for Android […]

MSI Cubi N JSL mini PC comes with Celeron N4500 or Pentium N6000 Jasper Lake processor

MSI Cubi N JSL

MSI has announced a new variant of its Cubi N family of mini PCs with the MSI Cubi N JSL mini PC powered by a Jasper Lake processor either an Intel Celeron N4500 or a Pentium Silver N6000. The 0.45L computer also comes with up to 16GB dual-channel DDR4 memory, NVMe and SATA storage, HDMI and VGA outputs, and four USB 3.2 ports. MSI Cube N JSL specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor @ 1.1GHz / 2.8GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP Intel Pentium N6000 Silver quad-core processor @ 1.1 GHz / 3.1GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP System Memory – 2x DDR4 2933MHz SO-DIMMs, Up to 16 GB Storage 2x M.2 SSD combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3x2) 1x 2.5-inch HDD/SSD Video Output – 1x HDMI 1.4 up to 4Kp30 (TBC), 1x VGA Audio Realtek ALC233 audio codec 1x Mic-in/Headphone-out […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC