How to Install 64-bit BIOS on Sunchip CX-W8

CX-W8_UEFI_Firmware

Sunchip CX-W8 is an Intel Atom Z3735F TV box running Windows, but I’ve been informed that originally Sunchip designed it for WeTek in order to manufacture a Linux based mini PC. Unfortunately, they finally gave up once they discovered Intel had no intention to work on HDMI audio support in Linux for their Atom Z3700 series processor despite it working on Android… Intel Compute Stick will apparently use a separate DSP to handle that part (TBC). Nevertheless, when WeTek saw I had Wintel W8, they decided to share the 64-bit “BIOS” they had worked on for the Linux port. By the way, Wintel W8 and Sunchip CX-W8 allegedly come from two different factories / design houses, so although they look alike, the hardware might be different, and the UEFI firmware / BIOS, I’m about to share may or may not be compatible with Wintel W8, so you may brick it […]

Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC Power Consumption in Android

I’ve already measured power consumption running Antutu and playing a 4K video on Rockchip RK3288 and Amlogic S812 platform, as described in “Power Consumption of Amlogic S812 and Rockchip RK3288 TV Boxes“, and now that I have an Intel Bay Trail-T mini PC running Android 4.4 with Wintel W8, I was interested in comparing its power consumption to the ARM platform. [Update: I forgot to mention measurements have all been done @ ~5V.] The test normally consists in several steps: Boot the device Run the latest Antutu benchmark Connect a USB hard drive Play a 4K video in Kodi from the hard drive Diconnect the hard drive Power off the device But since the current draw was a little to high at times, I got a few issues with my setup. First, I had to boot twice hence the “Power On 1” and “Power On 2” strings on the chart, […]

HPC Performance & Power Usage Comparison – Intel Xeon E3 vs Intel Atom C2720 vs Applied Micro X-Gene 1 vs IBM Power 8

Last year, the CERN published a paper comparing Applied Micro X-Gene (64-bit ARM) vs Intel Xeon (64-bit x86) Performance and Power Usage, and they’ve now added IBM Power 8 and Intel Atom Avoton C2750 processor to the mix in a new presentation entitled “A look beyond x86: OpenPOWER & AArch64“. So four systems based on Intel Xeon E3-1285L, Intel Atom C2750, Applied Micro X-Gene 1, and IBM Power 8 were compared, all running Fedora 21, except the HP Moonshot 1500 ARM plarform running Ubuntu 14.04 and an older kernel. All four systems use gcc 4.9.2, and Racktivity intelligent PDUs were used for power measurement. I’ll just share some of their results, you can read the presentation, or go through the benchmark results to find out more. HEP-SPEC06 is a new High Energy Physics (HEP) benchmark for measuring CPU performance developed by the HEPiX Benchmarking Working Group, and here it’s not […]

Intel Celeron N3000 2-in-1 Laptop, and MSI Motherboards with Celeron N3050/N3150 and Pentium N3700 Processors

Intel introduced the first low power Braswell Celeron and Pentium processors with 4 to 6W TDP, meaning a lower power consumption compared to Bay Trail-M processors, and with better performance. The first devices and motherboards based on these have started to show up with Intel’s Orchid Island 2-in-1 Reference Design based on Celeron N3000, and three MSI motherboards: N3050I ECO, N3150I ECO, and N3700I ECO respectively powered by Celeron N3050 dual core processor, Celeron N3150 quad core processor, and Pentium N3700 quad core processor, all clocked @ 1.6GHz (base frequency) and with 6W TDP. MSI did not release full details about their motherboards but we still now they’ll support H.265/HEVC hardware decoding up to 4K, Blu-ray playback and 8-channel HD Audio via an HDMI 1.4b port. Other connectors and interfaces include two DDR3L-1600MHz SO-DIMM slots (up to 8GB), two SATA III ports, one PCIe slot, Gigabit Ethernet, a COM port, […]

Intel Compute Stick is up for Pre-order for $110 and Up (USA Only)

Intel Compute Stick is finally available for pre-order on US based online merchants such as Amazon and Newegg with prices starting at $109.99 and up excluding shipping and two versions with either Linux or Windows 8.1. Both versions of the device share most of the specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F Quad-Core “Bay Trail” processor @ 1.33 GHz (1.83 GHz burst frequency) and Intel HD Graphcis System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 (Windows) or 1 GB DDR3 (Linux) Storage – 32 GB eMMC (Windows) or 8 GB eMMC (Linux) + micro SD slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4a Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x micro USB port for power Misc – Power button Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port. Dimensions and Weight – N/A The Windows 8.1 model is codenamed BOXSTCK1A32WFCR, comes with 2GB RAM and 32GB […]

Intel Introduces Celeron N3000 / N3050 / N3150 and Pentium N3700 Low Power Braswell Processors

Intel Bay Trail processor are found in low cost tablets, laptops and mini PCs with prices starting as low as $60 for retail products. The company has introduced Braswell some time ago, the successor of Bay Trail, which among other thigns brings 14nm process technology instead of 22nm, for even lower power consumption. CPU World has noticed Intel listed the first four low power Braswell processor using Celeron and Pentium branding and with 6W TDP max. We only know a few details about the new processor Celeron N3000 – Dual core CPU @ 1.04 GHz (Burst: 2.08 GHz) with 1MB L2 cache, 4W TDP Celeron N3050 – Dual core CPU  @ 1.6 GHz (Burst: 2.16 GHz) with 1MB L2 cache, 6W TDP Celeron N3150 – Quad-core CPU @ 1.6 GHz (Burst: 2.08 GHz) with 2MB L2 cache, 6W TDP Pentium N3700 – Quad-core CPU @ 1.6 GHz (Burst: 2.40 GHz) […]

Mr.NUC V3-J1900 is an Intel NUC Clone Based on Celeron J1900 Processor

Intel NUC (Next of Computing) are tiny and relatively low cost computers made by Intel. But in case you wondered if there were any clones available to save a few extra dollars, and/or gain a faster processor, a Chinese company is now selling Mr.NUC V3-J1900 barebone system with an Intel Celeron J1900 quad core processor for $169 + shipping, which adds over $40 since the mini PC only ships by courier. If you happen to live in the US, it’s probably not such as good deal, but in other countries maybe… This mini PC is said to be based on a custom designed motherboard made by Gigabyte (MZBAYAP) for Realan, with the following technical specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J1900 Quad core processor  @ 2.0 GHz (base) / 2.41 GHz (Burst) with Intel Gen 7 HD graphics (10W TDP) System Memory –  DDR3L 1333/1666 MHz SO-DIMM slot Storage – 2.5″ […]

CSQ CSW9 is a $200 Intel Celeron J1900 mini PC with an Internal Hard Drive

CSQ CSW9 is a thin Intel Celeron J1900 “Bay Trail” based mini PC that also comes with a 500GB internal hard drive, 2GB RAM, VGA and HDMI video output, and sells for a little over $200 on Aliexpress. Complete hardware specifications are as follows: SoC – Intel Celeron J1900 Quad core processor  @ 2.0 GHz (base) / 2.41 GHz (Burst) with Intel HD graphics (10W TDP) System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L (Apparently SO-DIMM, so it might be upgradeable?) Storage – 2.5″ 500GB SATA hard drive + micro SD card slot + optional 32GB to 128GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI 1.4a + VGA Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet as option?), 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 Audio – Realtek ALC269 HD audio codec, 1x headphone jack USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 port. Misc – IR receiver, power button, and power LED Power Supply […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design