Wind River Introduces Free Cloud-based Operating Systems for IoT Applications

After Google Brillo operating system was officially launched last week, another company has announced free operating systems for IoT. What’s peculiar is that the company is Wind River a vendor of commercial operating systems whose typical business model is to sell licenses for their operating systems and fees for their development services. Nevertheless, the company has now introduced Wind River Rocket real-time operating system, and Wind River Pulsar Linux operating system.  Both OSes will interface with the company’s Helix Cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) products, which is probably how the company intends to monetize their work, on top of customization services. Wind River Helix App Cloud is currently made of three products: Helix App Cloud cloud-based development environment for building IoT applications Helix Lab Cloud cloud-based virtual hardware lab for simulating and testing IoT devices and complex systems. Helix Device Cloud cloud-based platform for managing deployed IoT devices and their data. Some […]

Brillo Android based OS for IoT Projects Supports ARM, Intel and MIPS Platforms

You’d think there are already enough lightweight operating systems that could provide a good enough platform for IoT and embedded projects, but Google decided to make their own Brillo operating system for IoT, based on Android, most probably to leverage the existing Android tools, and make it easier for app developers to move to the Internet of Things space. Brillo ‘s hardware requirements are pretty low as the operating system can run on devices with  32MB of RAM, and 128MB of storage. Google will provide a complete ecosystem with an embedded OS, core services, and a developer kit with tools to build, test, and debug. Just like in Android, three architectures will be be officially supports, starting with the following hardware platforms: ARM – TechNexion Pico-i.MX6UL system-on-module based on Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite and Broadcom BCM4339 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0 wireless module, combined with PICO-DWARF baseboard. MIPS – Upcoming MIPS Creator […]

Compulab fit-Uptime is a 12V mini UPS for Intel NUCs, fit-PCs, and More

Power failures can cause loss of data, or if you are unlucky even brick your devices, and for business users there may be a maintenance cost. UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) prevent those issues by providing power when the mains fail, and while they are relatively inexpensive, they are quite bulky. That’s probably Compulab designed fit-Uptime a mini UPS taking 12 to 19V input and outputting 12V to keep mini PCs such as the company’s fit-PCs or Intel NUCs for a couple of hours. fit-Uptime specifications: Capacity – 18 watt hour Input: DC 12V to 19V Output on battery – DC 12V / 5A Output when powered – 12V to 19V (same as input) / 5A Battery – Lithium polymer built-in non-replaceable (good for up to three hours) Dimensions – 6.8 cm (l) x 8 cm (w) x 3.2 cm (h); Power jack: 5.5mm x 2.5mm barrel Weight – 240g The […]

Arduino 101 Board Features Intel Curie Module, Bluetooth LE, and Sensors

I’ve recently learned that the battle between the two Arduino teams, namely Arduino SRL (arduino.org) in Italy, and Arduino LLC (arduino.cc) in the US, had taken another turn with Arduino LLC now branding their boards as Arduino in the US, and Genuino in the rest of the world. This may certainly bring confusion to new comers, especially as they have to deal with different version of the Arduino IDE. With that backdrop, Arduino LLC has now introduced Arduino 101 (aka Genuino 101) board powered by Intel Curie module with Quark SE x86 SoC with Bluetooth LE and a 6-axis combo sensor. Arduino 101 specifications: SoC – Intel Curie compute module including an Intel Quark SE x86 32-bit microcontroller @ 32 MHz and an a DSP sensor hub @ 32Mhz with 384 KB flash, 80 KB SRAM (24KB available for sketches), , Bluetooth LE, and 6-axis combo sensor with accelerometer and […]

Rockchip RK6321 Dual Core Cortex A5 SoC Targets Wearables with WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS

Rockchip and Intel started to work on a platform called XMM6321 last year. It featured a dual Core Cortex A5 processor, 3G connectivity, WiFi, and GPS, which was aimed at entry level 3G smartphones and tablets. Fast forward to 2015, Rockchip showcased their RK6321 processor at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, with very similar specifications compared to XMM6321, but instead it targets wearables such as smartwatches, or children and elderly tracker. So I’ m not quite sure whether Intel XMM6321 and Rockchip RK6321 are the same processor with a different name, or Rochchip tweaked RK6321 specifically for wearables. Key features of Rockchip RK6321 processor: CPU – Two Cortex A5 cores up to 1GHz with 32KB L1 D-cache, 32KB L1 I-cache, and 512KB L2 cache GPU – Supports OpenGL ES 2.0 Memory and Storage I/F – 16-bit LP-DDR2 SDRAM, 8-bit  eMMC, 16-bit NAND Display I/F – MIPI DSI up to FWVGA […]

Acer Unveils “Revo Build” Modular Mini PC with Stackable Blocks

Acer Revo Build is a mini PC that looks similar to Intel NUC, and powered by Intel Celeron N3050, Celeron N3150, or Pentium N3700 Braswell processor with 32GB eMMC and 8GB RAM, that looks like that: Nice colors… but at first glance it’s just another mini PC with more a recent recent processor and more RAM than usual, until you notice a connector on the top corner of the device no the picture above. That connector is used to stack other blocks such as: 500GB to 1TB hard drive Graphics Block with AMD processor Audio Block with speakers and microphone Wireless charging block Projector block So eventually, your mini PC could look more like a mini tower… Acer Revo Build (M1-601) will ship with Windows 10, and features three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort video output, a headset jack and an SD card slot. The mini PC itself measures […]

The First Intel Core M Skylake-Y Low Power Processors: Core M3 6Y30, M5 6Y54, M5 6Y57 and M5 6Y75

Last year, Intel unveiled Core M Broadwell-Y processors with 4.5W TDP aimed at laptops and tablets, and offering a middle ground between the performance achieved by Atom/Celeron/Pentium processor and the more powerful Core i3/i5/i7 processors. CPU World has now released details about the new Skylake-Y Core M processor that still feature 2 cores and 4 threads, as well as a TDP of 4.5W. There are now four models: Model Cores / Threads Frequency / Turbo L3 cache Graphics GPU Frequency TDP Core m3 6Y30 2 / 4 900 MHz / 2.2 GHz 4 MB HD 515 300 / 850 MHz 4.5 Watt Core m5 6Y54 1.1 / 2.7 GHz 300 / 900 MHz Core m5 6Y57 1.1 / 2.8 GHz 300 / 900 MHz Core m5 6Y75 1.2 / 3.1 GHz 300 / 1000 MHz The processors have the same number of cores and thread, the same amount of L3 […]

MinnowBoard Turbot SBC Gets an Intel Atom E3826 Dual Core Processor, FCC & CE Certification

MinnowBoard MAX launched las year as a low cost board based on Intel Bay Trail-I single or dual core processor, and was mostly targeting developers of embedded systems and hobbyists, but could not be used by OEMs as it lacked FCC & CE certifications. ADI Engineering designed a MinnowBoard compatible board named MinnowBoard Turbot with a faster Intel Atom E3826 dual core processor, FCC & CE certifications, and various other hardware modifications bringing improved HDMI, a better voltage regulator, and populating several connectors. MinnowBoard Turbot specifications: SoC – Intel Atom E3826 dual-core processor @ 1.46 GHz (7W TDP) System Memory – 2GB DDR3L 1333 MT/s (Soldered) – Options: 1GB, or 4GB DDR3L Storage – 1x Micro SD card slot, 1x SATA2 3Gb/sec, 8 MB SPI Flash for firmware (Tianocore UEFI, Coreboot / SeaBIOS) Video & Audio Output – micro HDMI connector Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet RJ-45 connector USB – 1x […]

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