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January 31, 2013March 21, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

ARM MCU Development in Linux with Energy Micro’s Simplicity Studio, Eclipse, and CodeSourcery Toolchain

Quite a few months ago, I received an Energy Micro EFM32 Tiny Gecko Starter Kit, but I haven’t done much with it. But recently I saw a tweet from EnergyMicro about Simplicity Studio supports for Ubuntu, and I know it can be problematic to find proper tools for ARM MCU development in Linux, so I decided to give it a try. The first part is about Simplicity Studio, and energyAwareTools which are specific to Energy Micro, but the second part deals with setting up Eclipse and CodeSourcery ARM toolchain for MCU development which should be reusable for other MCUs from vendors such as Texas Instruments, NXP and STMicro. I’ve used a PC running Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit with the instructions below. Installing Simplicity Studio and energyAwareTools in Ubuntu Simplicity Studio is part of the 4 steps of the getting started guide with EFM32 MCUs. It has been available for Linux for […]

January 30, 2013January 30, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

XBMC 12.0 Frodo Stable Release

XBMC developers have just announced the release of XBMC 12.0 (Frodo) which is available for desktop platforms (OSX, Linux / Ubuntu, Windows), Apple TV, iOS, Android (HW support limited), and even as a specific build for the Raspberry Pi. Other key features for this release include: HD audio support, including DTS-MA and Dolby True-HD, via XBMC AudioEngine Live TV and PVR support h.264 10bit (aka Hi10P) video software decoding for anime 64bit support in OSX to match the 64bit support in Linux Improved image support, allowing the database to accommodate numerous additional image types and more interesting and complex skins Improved AirPlay support across all platforms, including AirPlay audio in XBMC for Windows to match the other platforms Improved controller support in Windows and Linux Advanced Filtering in the library Video library tags to complement movie sets Advanced UPnP sharing Default video languages now match the language being used by XBMC Translations […]

January 27, 2013January 27, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Marvell SMILE Plug DevKit is Now Available for $199

The SMILE Plug is a development kit, designed jointly by Marvell and Standford University, that brings Wi-Fi connectivity to a classroom, and allows up to 60 pupils / students to interact with their teacher via their phones’ or tablets’ web browser. Other possible applications include cloud computing, wireless AP, industrial control, medical instrumentation, office automation, as well as mesh and grid computing. The SMILE Plug is now available with the following updated specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMv7 compliant Marvell ARMADA 370 CPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 1 GB NAND Flash + microSD slot Connectivity WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n via Marvell Avastar 88W8764 4×4 WiFi for up to 60 nodes 2x Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB 3.0 External backup battery for hours of reserve power* (optional accessory) Power on button and restart Power Supply – 12V/2amp external power supply JTAG and UART port for programming and debugging […]

January 25, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

WonderMedia PRIZM WM8980 Dual Cortex A9 SoC

WonderMedia Technologies, a subsidiary of Via Technologies, has recently announced the WonderMedia PRIZM WM8950, a dual core Cortex A9 processor running up to 1.2 Ghz with a Mali-400MP2 GPU. This new SoC supports Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Linux, and WinCE 7, and targets applications for mobile, digital home and business applications in devices such as tablets, smart TVs, networked projectors, digital signage players, and thin clients. It also features integration of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast standard into the WonderMedia SmartStream for support of DMR (Digital Media Renderer) and wireless display functionalities over standard compliant and legacy WiFi direct and WiFi devices in both embedded and Android environments. WM8980 supports HDMI, LVDS, and DVO video interfaces, features a CMOS sensor input for webcams, SD / SDIO / MMC / e-MMC interfaces, USB 2.0 Host/device, audio interfaces (I2S, S/PDIF, PCM), SPI, I2C, UARTs and GPIO. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can be supported with […]

January 24, 2013January 24, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Always Innovating MeCam is a $49 Voice-Controlled Nanocopter Camera

Earlier today, I’ve posted a list of some interesting sessions for the upcoming ELC 2013, and one of the talk entitled “Lessons Learned in Designing a Self-video Self-hovering Nano Copter” by Gregoire Gentil, Always Innovating CEO, caught my attention. In this presentation, he will talk about the technical challenges the company encountered when they designed MeCam, a self video nano copter to point-and-shoot yourself, that should sell for just $49 retail. The MeCam launches from the palm of a hand and hovers instantly. It streams video to an Android or iOS phone or tablet that can be easily shared on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. There’s no remote control for the MeCam as it’s either controlled by voice commands, or it can be setup to follow you around thanks to the follow-me feature. It can also do panorama shots automatically. The products is still in […]

January 24, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

$199 Gizmo Explorer Kit Powered by AMD G-Series APU is Now Officially Available

Back in November, I came across the Gizmo Explorer Kit, an embedded development platform based on AMD G-Series G-T40E dual core APU that includes the development board itself (Gizmo Board), two expansion I/O boards, Sage SmartProbe JTAG development tool, some accessories such as cables and power supply, and a DVD with the documentation and SDK. Today, Sage Electronic, Texas Multicore Technologies, and Viosoft officially launched GizmoSphere community that aims at “fostering innovation and development for x86-based embedded Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), and driving and enabling technology projects of interest to independent developers with a focus on stimulating and encouraging innovation for existing and new applications that leverage APUs”. To help with this initiative, they also produce the Gizmo Board, and corresponding Gizmo Explorer Kit, a development board that boots with coreboot, and can run a variety of operating systems such as Android, Linux, Windows, and other RTOS. You can refer to […]

January 24, 2013January 25, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Embedded Linux Conference 2013 Schedule

The Embedded Linux Conference (ELC 2013) will take place on February 20 – 22, 2013 at Park 55 Hotel in San Francisco, California. ELC consists of 3 days of presentations, tutorials and sessions. There will be over 50 sessions during those 3 days. I’ll highlight a few sessions that I find particularly interesting, and that did not get presented at ELCE 2012 (AFAICR). February 20 11:00 – Anatomy of the arm-soc git tree by Olof Johansson, Google We are now two years into the new maintainer model for ARM platforms, and we have settled down into a workflow that maintainers have adjusted well to. Still, when new platforms arrive, or when maintainer ship changes hands, there’s sometimes a bit of ramp-up in getting used to how we organize our git tree and how we prefer to see code submitted to fit that model. This presentation will give an overview of […]

January 23, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

VIA ARMOS-800 Embedded System Features a Freescale i.MX537 based Pico-ITX Board

VIA Technologies has recently announced the VIA ARMOS-800, an fanless system designed around VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board powered by Freescale i.MX537 processor. The VIA ARMOS-800 provides a ruggedized low-power system for industrial and in-vehicle applications such as a digital signage. Here are VIA ARMOS-800 specifications: Processor – 800MHz Freescale Cortex-A8 single core i.MX537 System Memory – 1GB DDR3-800 SDRAM using 128M x16 memory devices Storage – 4GB onboard eMMC Flash memory + ob-board micro SD connector Graphics – Supports two integrated graphics processing units: an OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics accelerator and an OpenVGTM 1.1 2D graphics accelerator Video Output – VGA and HDMI Audio I/O – Line-In, Line-out, Mic-in connectors Connectivity: Ethernet – 10/100 PHY transceiver (SMSC LAN8720A) Wi-Fi – Optional VIA 802.11n Wireless module VNT 9271 USB – 3x USB connectors + 1x on-board USB 2.0 pin header COM – 1x D-Sub 9-pin female connector CAN – […]