laptop News - Page 29 of 33 - CNX Software

August 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

2015 Open Source Hardware Summit Program Published

The Open Source Hardware Summit takes places once a year in different location each year. It was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2013, in Rome, Italy last year, and this year the event will be hosted in Philadelphia in the US, and the organizers just released the program. It will be a one day event (September 19, 2015) with four “tracks” with a total of 23 sessions, and a keynote: Science and Education Open Hardware, Open Minds: The Rise of Open Hardware in Academia and K-12 Education by Ben Leduc-Mills. The Rise and Fall of an Open Source Hardware Company by Nancy Ouyang. Open Hardware in Community/Citizen Science by Peter Marchetto. DropBot: an Open-Source Platform for Lab Automation by Ryan Fobel, Christian Fobel, Michael Dryden and Aaron Wheeler. Making Open Hardware the New Standard in Science by Joshua Pearce. Open Source Robotics Foundation and the Robotics Fast […]

June 5, 2015June 5, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Allwinner R58 Octa-core Processor Targets 2-in-1 Android Laptops

Allwinner R-series processor family, such as Allwinner R8, is supposed to target “IoT applications”, but IoT must have recently taken a whole new meaning as the latest Allwinner R58 octa-core processor targets 2-in-1 laptops running Android. Allwinner website however lists R58 as an high-end IoT platform for virtual reality and robotics. Allwinner R58 specifications: CPU – Octa-Core Cortex-A7 CPU up to 2.0 GHz GPU – PowerVR SGX544 GPU @ 600 MHz with support for OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1, OpenCL 1.1, DX 9_3 Memory 32-bit DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR3/LPDDR2 SLC/MLC/TLC/EF NAND with 64-bit ECC eMMC V4.5 Video 1080p@60fps video playback multi-format video playback, including H.264, MPEG1/2, MPEG4 SP/ASP GMC, H.263 including Sorenson Spark, WMV9/VC-1, JPEG/MJPEG, etc H.264 1080p@60fps or 720p@120fps video capture Display LVDS up to 1366×768@60fps or RGB LCD up to 2048×1536@60fps 4-lane MIPI DSI up to 1920×1200@60fps HDMI up to 1080p@60fps, HDCP V1.2 supported Dual display supported with LCD up to 720p@60fps and […]

April 9, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

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, […]

March 23, 2015March 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

How to Install Ubuntu 14.04 on Acer Aspire E5 Laptop

I’ve been owning an Acer Aspire One D255E netbook with a 10″ display, an Intel Atom N455 processor and 1GB RAM that served me well during my travels, but as I’ve become older and less patient, I felt I needed to upgrade it. I planned to spend around 10,000 Baht (~$300), wanted a 14″ display, one of the low power CPU such as Intel Bay Trail-M or AMD Mullins / Beema processors, at least 500GB storage, 4GB RAM, and the ability to install Ubuntu. Finally, after going through several products at my local shop, I had to chose between Acer Aspire E5-411-P3CL with a 7.5W TDP Intel Atom N3540 and Acer Aspire E5-421G-45L0 with a 15W TDP AMD A4-6210 processor that both sell for 11,900 Baht ($365). Despite my preference for processor with lower TDP, I still went with the AMD system, since the performance is a little better, the […]

March 22, 2015March 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Acer Shamelessly Sells Aspire E5 Laptops with a Crippled UEFI Setup Utility

Yesterday, I bought an Acer Aspire E5-421G-45L0 laptop powered by AMD A4-6210 “Beema” processor and after some effort I managed to install Ubuntu 14.04 and make it mostly work, but more on that later. I also planned to copy a 64-bit OS VirtualBox virtual machine from another PC to this PC, but I quickly realized I could only select 32-bit operating systems, so my 64-bit image could not boot. Virtualization extension are required for 64-bit support in VirtualBox, and I had not checked whether AMD A4-6210 supported these before purchase. Amazingly, I could not find that information on AMD’s very own website, but CPU Boss reports A4-6210 does indeed support AMD-V virtualization. All good, so I must be just a question of enabling it in the “BIOS”. So I rebooted the laptop, and pressed F2 to enter InsydeH20 Setup Utility. There are few options with only Information, Main, Security, Boot, […]

March 17, 2015March 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Neptune Suite Includes a Smartphone, Tablet, and HDMI Stick Powered by a Smartwatch (Crowdfunding)

The makers of Neptune Pine smartwatch have unsurprisingly decided to make another smartwatch which they called Neptune Hub. Why Hub? Because although this smartwatch can be used standalone, its quadcore processor can also control a smartphone, a tablet, and an HDMI stick, probably over Miracast. So they’ve taken the opposite view to other companies in the market which are using the smartphone as the brain of your smartwatch to some extends. Neptune Hub specifications: SoC – Quad-core processor @ 1.8GHz (probably Qualcomm) System Memory – N/A Storage – 64GB eMMC Display – 2.4″ capacitive touchscreen (36mm width) Cellular Connectivity – GSM/3G/LTE with nano SIM card slot Connectivity – 802.11 Wi-Fi, 60Hz WiGig 802.11ad, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS / A-GPS Audio – Microphone and speaker Sensors – Accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, digital compass, heart rate sensor, vibration motor Battery – 1,000 mAh Water resistant The watch will run Android 5.0 Lollipop, and […]

March 3, 2015March 3, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Intel Provides Details for Atom x3, x5 and x7 Processors

Intel had already announced their plan to change Intel Atom branding to use x3/x5/x7 nomenclature in order to make it easier for consumers to navigate their product offerings, but the company has now provided much more details during their press conference at Mobile World Congress 2015. Intel Atom x3 (previously known as SoFIA) will be entry and ultra-low cost processor up with 3G or LTE connectivity found in products up to around $150, while Atom x5 and x7 (previously known as Cherry Trail) will be found in tablets between about $200 to $400, with the top performing devices going with Intel Core M processors. Intel Atom x3 are very interesting because they mix Intel 64-bit cores with ARM GPUs (to keep the cost down), and parts with RK suffix are made by Rockchip. Three x3 processors are currently available: Intel Atom x3-C3130 – Dual-core processor up to 1.0 GHz with […]

October 28, 2014October 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

BungBungame Photon2 Tablet Features AMD A10 Micro–6700T Mullins Processor

AMD A10 Micro–6700T is the most powerful AMD Mullins low power processor (4.5W TDP) that competes with quad core Intel Bay Trail-T processors, and even outperforms them in terms of performance, especially GPU performance with Radeon R6 graphics, but possibly not in terms of power consumption. BungBungame Photon2 may be the first tablet to feature this AMD processor, so let’s have a look. BungBungame Photon2 technical specifications: SoC – AMD A10 Micro-6700T quad core APU @ 1.2 to 2.2 GHz. with Integrated AMD Radeon R6 Graphics System Memory – 4GB DDR3L-1333 Storage – 64GB SSD + micro SD card slot up to 128GB Display – 10.1″ touchscreen display, 1920×1200, 16:10 aspect ratio Video Output – Micro HDMI 1.4a Connectivity – 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/MIMO Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, NFC Camera – 2MP rear and front webcams USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 Battery – 31Wh battery good for 6 to 8 hours usage. […]