Rockchip Introduces RK3368 Octa Core Cortex A53 SoC for Tablets and 4K TV Box

Rockchip is also at CES 2015, and they’ve announced and are showcasing a new octa-core processor called RK3368 with eight 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 cores that will go into tablets and 4K UHD media players in the coming year. Most news outlet and blogs at CES only cover big brand, so all I got are a few tweets from Rockchip twitter account. The eight cores will be clocked up to 1.5 GHz, and the SoC includes an unnamed GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, OpneCL 1.2 and DirectX 9.3. 4Kx2K H.265 and H.264 video decoding will be handled by the chip too, as will out HDMI 2.0 for up to 2160p @ 60 Hz video output. RK3368 tablets and media players will run Android 5.0 Lollipop. RK3368 is probably the official name for MayBach processor. I’m now fully relying on Charbax to get more details about Rockchip new processor… […]

How to Install Ubuntu ARM64 on Nexus 9 Tablet

HTC Nexus 9 is one of the first 64-bit ARM platform with powerful ARMv8 cores (e.g. not Cortex A53) that both commercially available, and relatively affordable at $399 to $599, at least significantly cheaper than the server boards such as Applied Micro X-C1. The tablet comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop, but for those of you who wish to have an ARM64 platform running Ubuntu or other 64-bit Linux operating systems, Ubuntu installation instructions provided by Ryan Houdek, Dolphin emulator developer, might come handy, especially it won’t affect your Android installation provided you have already unlocked your bootloader. The instructions are fairly long so I won’t reproduce them all here, so I recommend you check the detailed instructions on XDA, but the short summary below may give an idea of the amount of work needed: Install dependencies such as Aarch64 toolchain:

Build a initramfs with buildroot. You’ll need to enable […]

Infocus CS1 A83 (C2107) Android Tablet Review

I’ve already shown some pictures, listed specs and reported Antutu benchmark results for Infocus CS1 A83 Android tablet powered by Allwinner A83T octa core processor. I’ve been using this tablet as my main mobile device for about a week, and for about 3 to 5 hours a day, and I’m now ready to write a full review reporting my experience with this Full HD tablet. General Impressions I mainly use a tablet to browse the web, check emails, play some casual games like Candy Crush Saga, watch some YouTube videos, and Skype calls, and I could not really fault the tablet for any of these applications. Having said that, my reference device is only ThL W200 smartphone powered by Mediatek MT6589T processor with a 5″ display @ 1280×720, and for all the tasks listed Infocus tablet is much better because it’s more responsive, the 1920×1200 is crisp, and the cameras […]

Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra Could Feature a 12.9″ Display, a 64-Bit ARM Processor, 6 GB RAM, and More

That’s only a leak, but if true, the upcoming Sony Xperia Tablet Ultra would be a real beast with a 12.9″ IPS TRILIMINOS touchscreen display with 3840 x 2400 resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 64-bit Octa core processor @ 2.86 GHz coupled with 6GB LPDDR4 RAM, and 64GB internal storage. Sony’s tablet ould also come with an HDMI 1.4 input port allowing 4K recording up to 30 fps, which looks like an odd feature for a tablet. The battery capacity would be rather large as well as 12,100 mAh, yet thickness only 8.6 mm, which might be possible due to the massive screen. It would most probably run Android 5.0 Lollipop. Via Mike Cane and Padnews. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. […]

Mediatek MT8173 Quad Core big.LITTLE ARM Cortex A72/A53 Processor Code Submitted to Linux Mainline

[Update: MT8173 processor has now been announced, and it’s using Cortex A72 and A53 instead of A57/A53, as initially shown in the Linux kernel source code] Mediatek is not exactly known to compliant with open source licences, or be involved with the open source community. But the company is certainly going into the right direction with their cooperation with Google leading to source code release for Android One smartphones, and the recently launched Mediatek Labs for community projects, starting with LinkIt One IoT platform. Mediatek is also regularly submitting code to the Linux ARM Kernel mailing list, and yesterday code was submitted for Mediatek MT8173 SoC, a 64-bit ARMv8 processor with two Cortex 53 and two Cortex 57 cores in big.LITTLE configuration. As far as I know, it could be the first Mediatek SoC with “big” Cortex A57 cores. Code snippet from mt8173.dtsi related to CPU cores:

A short […]

Allwinner A83T Tablet Unboxing, First Boot, and Benchmarks

Allwinner & HonHai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, sent me an Infocus tablet based on Allwinner A83T processor with eight Cortex A7 cores up to 2GHz, and a PowerVR SGX544 GPU. Today, I’ll list the specifications of this tablet, show unboxing pictures, first boot video, and run Antutu benchmark. Infocus New Tab CS1 A83 / C2107 Specifications The invoice calls the tablet “New Tab CS1 A83”, but Android reports the model as C2107, so I’m not fully sure what will be the actual name. It might well be New Tab CS1 A83, as I could find an Infocus an earlier Infocus New Tab CS1 tablet powered by Allwinner A31. Anyway, here are the specifications I could derive from the device, and running Antutu/CPU-Z on the device: SoC – Allwinner A83T octa-core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 2.0 GHz with PowerVR SGX544MP GPU supporting OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1, OpenCL 1.1, DX 9.3. System […]

Intrinsyc Introduces Snapdragon 810 Powered Mobile and Tablet MDPs, DragonBoard Development Kit

Intrinsyc has recently announced availability for three development platforms based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 ARM Cortex A53/A57 processor, namely a smartphone Mobile Development Platform (MDP), a tablet MDP, and a DragonBoard development kit integration Open-Q 8094 system-on-module, making these one of the first ARM64 development platforms available to individual developers, or at least small software development companies (approved by Qualcomm). All three platforms will run Android 5.0 Lollipop. Intrinsyc Snapdragon 810 MDP Smartphone Intrinsyc MDP/S specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (8994)  64-bit octa-core processor with 4x Cortex A57 cores, 4x Cortex A53 cores, Adreno 430 GPU, and Hexagon V56 DSP System Memory – 3 GB LP-DDR4 Storage – 32 GB eMMC 5.0  micro SD slot (under battery door) Display – 6.17” QHD (2560×1600) 490ppi, 10-finger multi-touch capacitive touchscreen Video Output – micro HDMI type D Audio Headset jack with ANC support 8 microphones (2 analog/ 6 digital) with support […]

International Deals for Black Friday 2014

Every year, right after Thanksgiving comes Black Friday which “officially” opens the shopping season for Christmas, and the next Monday is called Cyber Monday, a much more recent day on the calendar, as it offers Online deals. Both are mostly US centric, but Chinese e-retailers have decided to jump on the Black Friday / Cyber Monday bandwagon, so just like for Black Friday 2013, I’ve decided to list a few offer available online for international buyers. Please make check to check my little shopping guide to avoid pitfalls, such as “fake” discounts, where the original price is inflated to misguide prospective buyers. DealExtreme DealExtreme’s Black Friday promotion campaign has not officially started, but they’ve already announced their program: From November 28th to December 1st, DX Black Friday Shopping Carnival will be grandly open! This year, DX will bring you with the most beloved brands at affordable prices with amazing discounts […]

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