ActDuino S500 Development Board Features Actions Semi S500 Quad Core Processor

Actions Technology is a subsidiary of Actions Semiconductor SoC vendor, that makes solutions based on Actions Semi SoCs, and recently joined Linaro. The company is said to focus on “focuses on solutions for smart handheld and smart home devices. Its main products are tablet, over-the-Top (“OTT”) set-top boxes and Bluetooth enabled boombox solutions, along with total product and technology solutions based on the Android platform”. We already know it will soon release a 96Boards compliant board, but in the meantime, the company has officially launched Actduino S500 development board powered by a new S500 quad core Cortex A9 processor. I actually found out about this board on ARMDevices.net last October, and sent an email asking for information to the company, but I have not received an email yet after 6 months… At the time, the processor was called ATM7059, but now it’s S500, and it’s unclear if they just renamed […]

Allwinner V3 SoC Targets 1080p60 Action Cameras, Supports Linux or Camdroid OS

I’ve previously written about Allwinner V10 and V15 SoC for video applications such as cameras, digital video recorder, and so on. So far, I’ve not found devices based on these, but Allwinner already announced another V-series processor with Allwinner V3 designed for Action camera recording up to 1080p resolution at 70 frames per second. Key specifications are listed below: CPU – ARM Cortex-A7 @1.2GHz Memory 16-bit DDR3/LPDDR3/DDR3L SDRAM controller, up to 1333Mbps 16-bit DDR2 up to 800Mbps, 16-bit LPDDR2 up to 1066Mbps up to 2GB RAM Video / Picture Up to 1080p@60fps or 2-channel 1080p@30fps H.264 video encoding 8M JPEG encoding H.264 1080p@60fps decoding, MJPEG 1080@30fps decoding Integrated ISP up to 8M pixels (HawkView ISP) 2 channel outputs for display and encoding respectively Supports various input and output formats Supports AE/AF/AWB Saturation adjustment, 2D/3D noise reduction,  defect pixel correction, and distortion correction Audio Codec Integrated 92dB audio codec 2x ADC […]

Cubieboard 4 Ubuntu Review – Setup, Usability, and Performance

Cubieboard4 is a development board powered by Allwinner A80 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC. I’ve already shown how to get started with the board using the pre-installed Android 4.4 image, and run some benchmarks in Android, so now it’s time to check out the Ubuntu Linaro 14.04 image provided by CubieTech. I’ll show how to install and setup Ubuntu 14.04 on the board using a micro SD card, run desktop applications like Chromium, Libre Office, and son on on the board, and complete the review with some Linux benchmarks. Setting up Ubuntu on Cubieboard4 Firmware images for Cubiebord4 can be downloaded @ http://dl.cubieboard.org/model/cc-a80/Image/. Currently Android 4.4, Debian server, Ubuntu Linaro server, and Ubuntu Linaro desktop with LXDE desktop environment. That’s the latter I’ll use for the experiment, and two images are available: linaro-desktop-cb4-card-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Bootable image from micro SD card linaro-desktop-cb4-emmc-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Installation image to eMMC to […]

Baseball Nano-ITX i.MX6 Board Targets Secure Industrial M2M and IoT Products

Calao Systems has introduced a new Freescale i.MX6 single board computer with Baseball embedded platform, targetting network-connected industrial M2M and Internet of Things (IoT) applications requiring a high-level of security achieved with an FIPS 140-2 trusted platform module, and Crypto Authentication chip. The board is comprised of a Nano-ITX based board and a Freescale.iMX6 (Solo, Dual or Quad) SMARC 1.1 module with the following combined specifications: SoC – Freescale iMX6 Solo, Dual or Quad Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1GHz with Vivante GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L, Storage On Module: 8 GB e-MMC, 8 MB SPI Flash, 1x EEPROM with unique S/N and MAC address On Baseboard: 1x Micro-SD socket, 1x Industrial Grade eMMC NANDrive (optional), 1x Industrial Grade SATA Nandrive (optional), Video Output – HDMI Audio Output – HDMI and optical S/PDIF Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x SIM card slot USB – 3x USB 2.0 […]

Radxa Rock 2 Square Beta is Now Available for $99 (In Limited Quantities)

Radxa Rock 2 Square is the low cost version of Radxa Rock 2 Full development board. Both board are based on Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor, but the former has not quite as many features as the full version. The good news is that about 90 samples of Rock2 Square Beta can now be purchased for $129, with the price dropping to $99 with ROCK2^2BETA coupon (to be used after login to Paypal). The price include a Radxa RK3288 system-on-module with 2GB RAM and 16 GB eMMC, but a 4GB/32GB version is also planned for later. Rock2 Square board specifications: Processor/Memory/Storage –  Via Rock2 SoM including Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor, 2 to 4 GB RAM, and 16 to 32 GB eMMC. External Storage – SATA and micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0, LVDS connector Audio I/O – HDMI, headphone jack, built-in microphone, and […]

A5-V11 Mini Router Runs OpenWRT (Linux) For Just $8

In case you you still think OpenWRT capable NEXX WT1520 router is still too expensive at $15, what about an $8 OpenWRT router? That’s what LY mini wireless router costs including shipping, and it’s better known as A5-V11, the name of its PCB. It’s not exactly a 3G/4G router as the casing implied, but it does support external USB 3G/4G dongles like most other routers with USB on the market. A5-V11 specifications: SoC – Mediatek/Ralink) RT5350F MIPS processor @ 360MHz System Memory – 32MB RAM (W9825G6EH-75). Some people reported theirs only have 16MB RAM, so YMMV. Storage – 4MB NAND flash (Pm25LQ032) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n up to 150 Mbps; 1x 10/100M Ethernet USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port for power Misc – Power LED, factory reset pinhole Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions –  6.1 x 2.3 x 1.4 cm Contrary to […]

$15 NEXX WT1520 Wi-Fi Router Supports OpenWRT

TP-Link WR703N is a popular low cost router well supported by OpenWRT that costs about $23 shipped. But there’s now a new cheaper router that’s been mentioned in comments on CNX Software a few times, with a different processor, but otherwise similar specs plus an extra Ethernet port. NEXX WT1520 is powered by Mediatek RT5350F, sells for $15 including shipping from sites like Banggood, Aliexpress and eBay, and can run OpenWRT, although it’s not officially supported yet. NEXX WT1520(F/H) specifications: SoC – Mediatek (previously Ralink) RT5350F MIPS processor @ 360MHz System Memory – 32MB RAM Storage – 4MB NAND flash Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n up to 150 Mbps with built-in PIFA antenna 2x 10/100M Ethernet (LAN and WAN) USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port for power Misc – Status LED, reset pinhole, power button Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions –  63 x 43 […]

Gigabyte MP30-AR0 is an ARM Server Motherboard Powered by Applied Micro X-Gene 1 SoC

So far, it’s been pretty hard to buy ARM server motherboards for individuals, as most, if not all, products were reserved to corporate entities, but with Gigabyte MP30-AR0 server motherboard featuring the first generation Applied Micro X-Gene 64-bit ARM processor this might be about to change. [Update: As mentioned in comments I was probably wrong here, since the motherboard is listed on the Gigabyte’s B2B website, and not its B2C website]. MP30-AR0 specifications: Processor – AppliedMicro X-Gene 1 processor with 8 ARMv8 cores up to 2.4GHz (TDP 45W) System Memory – 8 x DIMM slots, Single, dual rank UDIMM modules @ 1333/1600 NHz supported (up to 16GB) Storage – 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports + 1x SD card slot Connectivity – 2x 10GbE SFP+ LAN ports (integrated), 2x GbE LAN ports (Marvell 88E1512), 1x 10/100/1000 management LAN Graphics – Video Integrated in Aspeed AST2400. 2D Video Graphic Adapter with PCIe […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC