Build Your Own Freescale i.MX6 Quad Laptop

Andrew Huang (“Bunnie”) and others have been working on an open source laptop based on Freescale i.MX6 Quad processor since June, and they’ve recently got the motherboard. Beside featuring a powerful quad core ARM processor, the design files are also provided, so if you have the right skills and resources you can build it yourself. The open source laptop mainboard (Codename: Novena) has the following specifications: SoC – Freescale iMX6 Quad @ 1.2GHz with Vivante GC2000 GPU System Memory – 64-bit DDR3-1066 SO-DIMM, upgradable to 4GB Storage – microSD boot flash, SATA-II connector for hard drive / SSD, SD card reader and serial EEPROM (for storing crash logs and other bits of handy data). FPGA – Spartan-6 CSG324. It has several interfaces to the CPU, including a 2Gbit/s RAM-like bus. Internal ports & sensors: mini PCI-express slot UIM slot for mPCIx mobile data cards Dual-channel LVDS LCD connector (up to […]

SliTaz armhf: 46MB Linux Distribution for Raspberry Pi

SliTaz armhf is a minimal Linux distribution based on SliTaz Linux, that uses the hard-float ABI for the Raspberry Pi. The compressed SD card image is 46M, the rootfs 18.6 MB, and Slitaz uses just about 7 MB RAM after boot. Slitaz armhf rootfs comes pre-loaded with the following packages: busybox 1.20.2 dropbear 2012.55 – Light SSH client and server. nano 2.2.6 – GNU Nano Text Editor. retawq 0.2.6c –  Text mode Web browser. tazpkg 5.0 – SliTaz packages manager (Tiny autonomous zone packages manager). ytree 1.97 – file manager for file and archives. Slitaz armhf comes with tazpkg package manager which allows to install packages just like you would do with apt-get in Raspbian. There are over 3,300 packages available for Slitaz (x86), and for now, over 250 packages are available for Slitaz armhf. Let’s get try it out. First, download slitaz-armhf-mini-2012-12-14.zip, extract it, and copy it to an […]

Linux 3.7 Release

Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.7: Whee. After an extra rc release, 3.7 is now out. After a few more trials at fixing things, in the end we ended up reverting the kswapd changes that caused problems. And with the extra rc, I had decided to risk doing the buffer.c cleanups that would otherwise have just been marked for stable during the next merge window, and had enough time to fix a few problems that people found there too. There’s also a fix for a SCSI driver bug that was exposed by the last-minute workqueue fixes in rc8. Other than that, there’s a few networking fixes, and some trivial fixes for sparc and MIPS. Anyway, it’s been a somewhat drawn out release despite the 3.7 merge window having otherwise appeared pretty straightforward, and none of the rc’s were all that big either. But we’re done, and […]

AllWinner Publishes A31 and A20 Processors Details

Several tablets based on AllWinner A31 quad core processor have been announced this week,  such as Onda V972, but we did not really have full details on the processor. We now know more since AllWinner added product pages for two new (sun6i architecture. [Edit: A20 is actually sun7i…]) processors: AllWinner A31 and AllWinner A20. AllWinner A31 Specifications AllWinner A31 is a quad core Cortex A7 processor with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU (8 shader engines). CPU – ARM Cortex-A7 Quad-Core with 256KB L1-Cache/1MB L2-Cache GPU – POWER VR SGX 544 with Eight logic cores. Open GL ES2.0, Open CL1.x and DX 9_3 compliant. Memory – Dual-Channel LPDDR2/DDR3/DDR3L Controller, Dual-Channel NAND FLASH Controller and 64-bit ECC Video UHD H.264 4K ×2K @30fps video decoding Full HD video decoding BD Directory, BD ISO and BD m2ts video decoding H.264 High Profile 1080P@60fps encoding 3840×1080@30fps 3D decoding Complies with RTSP, HTTP, HLS, RTMP, MMS streaming […]

HI802 HDMI TV Dongle (Freescale i.MX6) is Now Available

After many delays allegedly due to Freescale i.MX6 CPU delivery issues, Hiapad HI-802 mini PC appears to be now available for purchase on Aliexpress for $99 including shipping. This HDMI dongle features Freescale i.MX6 Quad, 1GB RAM and 8GB Flash. The specs on Aliexpress are similar to the original announcement, except the internal NAND flash size is 8GB instead of 16GB: SoC – Freescale i.MX6 Quad Core Cortex A9 @ 1.2GHz with  Vivante GC2000 System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8GB Nand Flash + microSD card socket Connectivity 802.11b/g/n Build-in Bluetooth 2.1 No 3G support. Video Output – HDMI (Up to 1080p60) Video Container Formats – 3GP,MPEG4,AVI,RMVB,MKV,FLV etc. support 1080P HD Resolution Audio Formats – MP3/WAV/AMR/AAC; USB – Micro USB 2.0 OTG + USB 2.0 Host Power Supply – 5V/1.5A Dimensions – 102 x 38 x 10 mm Weight – 45 g This Android 4.0 (ICS) mini PC […]

Direct Insight TRITON-TX6Q System-on-Module Powered by Freescale i.MX6Q

Direct Insight, a British company, has recently announced the TRITON-TX6Q, a SODIMM system-on-module based on Freescale’s iMX6Q quad core Cortex-A9 processor running at 1 GHz with 1 to 2GB RAM and 128 MB flash. This module targets embedded applications including medical devices, digital signage, and industrial multimedia products. Here are the TRITON-TX6Q specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX6Q 4x ARM Cortex-A9 up to  1GHz + Vivante GC2000, GC355 and GC320 graphics co-processors System Memory – 1GB or 2GB 64-bit DDR3 @ 1066MHz Storage – 128MB NAND Flash, 2 SD card receptacles on baseboard Display Connection – LCD controller 24-bit parallel up to 1080p, dual LVDS (optional). Resistive & capactive touch screen support. Connectivity – Ethernet 10/100 BaseT with PHY on module. USB – USB Host + USB OTG Peripherals and Interfaces: Up to 5x UART (RS232) with pin sharing 2x I2C, 1x 1-wire and 2x SPI interfaces SSP (synchronous serial /digital audio): […]

AllWinner A10s Processor Overview

Between the AllWinner A10 and AllWinner A13 processors, there’s now an alternative. AllWinner A10s is based on AllWinner A13 architecture (sun5i), but adds HDMI and Ethernet MAC which makes it suitable for mini PCs and set-top boxes. The first time I heard about this processor was in August with IP878 mini PC, and in October, one reader (Alex) informed me AllWinner had posted more details about his new processor. Here are the key features of this (relatively) new SoC: CPU/GPU – ARM Cortex-A8 Core with 32KB D-Cache/ 32KB I-Cache / 256KB L2 Cache, and Mali-400 VPU HD Video Decoding 1080p@30fps of VP8/6, H.264/H.263, WMV9/VC-1, WMV7/8, MPEG-4/2/1, Xvid codecs HD Video Encoding 1080p@30fps with H.264 codec Video Out – HDMI 1.4 (1080p), Memory Up to 1GB DDR2/DDR3 up to 533MHz (16/32 bits Data Bus) MLC/TLC/SLC/EF-NAND ECC 64-bit Peripherals: USB2.0 OTG, USB2.0 HOST (OHCI/EHCI) SD Card V.3.0, eMMC V.4.2 SPI, TWI and […]

Kontron Unveils ULP-COM-sA3874i Module Powered by TI Sitara AM3874

Kontron introduced ULP-COM-sA3874i, another family of computer-on-module based on ULP-COM standards, based on Texas Instruments Sitara AM3874 Cortex A8 processors that aims to drive down system costs for ultra-low power SFF (small form factor) solutions in military, industrial automation/HMI, digital signage and medical markets. Here are the technical specifications of this module family: CPU – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3874 Cortex A8 @ 800 MHz Main Memory – On-board 1 or 2 GB DDR3 depending on model. Flash – Onboard Up to 32GB NAND FLASH build option Graphics – Single Channel 18bit,24bit (18bit compatible) LVDS, and HDMI with dual independent displays support. Ethernet – 10/100/1000 MBit Ethernet USB – 2x USB 2.0, USB OTG SATA – 1x SATA Interface Interfaces – GPIO, I²C, 4x I²S, 2x CAN, 2x SPI, 4x UART Camera input – 10bit parallel interface PCI Express / PCI support – 1x PCI Express x1 Lanes Power Supply – […]

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