Exynos 4412 based Origen 4 Quad Development Board Soon Available for $199 USD

As I wrote a list of the Top 10 ARM Linux development boards, I discovered that Origen 4 Quad development board based on Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 processor is currently in development and will replace the Origen board (Samsung Exynos 4212). This board appears to be similar to Hardkernel ODroid-X board, but pricing won’t be as aggressive as it will sell for $199 (vs $129 for the ODroid-X) in the base configuration. Here are the specifications for the base version (ORIGEN 4 Quad Package-C): CPU Board CPU : Samsung Exynos 4 Quad Cortex-A9 core 1.4 GHz DRAM : 1 GB (POP Type) PMIC : S5M8767A Base Board HDMI support Ethernet (10/100 Mbps), SDcard 2x USB 2.0 Host, 1x USB 2.0 Device Serial, JTAG Connector support (Sub Boards) External I/F MIPI CSI/DSI , Parallel, C2C Sub Boards Sound Board: Realtek : ALC-5631Q-A ORIGEN 4 Quad Package-B is based on […]

Ubuntu 12.04 on ODroid-X Development Board

Yesterday, Hardkernel released the first version of Ubuntu for ODroid-X development board based on Linux 3.6-rc1 and Linaro Ubuntu Desktop 12.07. This is still early work, but here’s the current status: Linux Kernel 3.6-rc1 with gcc 4.7.1 Linaro toolchain SMP driven Quad-Core processing PMIC device driver USB 2.0 High-speed Host driver for Exynos-4412 HSIC interface Ethernet + USB Hub device driver LCD display driver HDMI display driver (Very early version and it may have HDMI 1.4a compatibility issues with some monitors) To do: Audio codec driver eMMC device driver Clock control driver 3D HW-GPU X11 driver (This may need couple of months) Power-off support WiFi module is not working with Ubuntu GUI. Hardkernel Wi-Fi module is not working due to missing driver There are 2 images: one for LCD display kits, one for HDMI output that can be downloaded via: BitTorrent – One file with both images? Very slow for […]

Rikomagic To Sell an AllWinner A10 Android & Ubuntu Netbook

Rikomagic, the company that sells the MK802 mini PC, is planning to sell a netbook based on AllWinner A10 processor that runs both Android and Ubuntu operating systems. This device looks very much like the H6 netbook  with a 10″ 1024×600 display, 1 GB RAM, 4 to 8 GB flash. an SD card slot, 3 USD ports, audio in/out and a front camera. Android currently runs in the internal flash, and Ubuntu can be booted from an SD card. In the video below, Andy Kirby of Rikomagic gives an overview of the netbook and shows a demo of Ubuntu Desktop running from an SD card. The Linux OS seems to run relatively smoothly as he shows pages rendered in Chromium.However, hardware acceleration (both OpenGL and VE) is missing, and Youtube video playback is very slow as it is rendering in software. Open Office is also a bit slow, but it’s […]

AllWinner A10 Initramfs Support and Linaro 12.07 Image

An initramfs is a minimal root filesystem that is loaded at an early stage of the boot process, before the rootfs partition is mounted. This is optional but is now used by many Linux distributions such as Ubuntu in order to speed up boot time among others things. Up to recently, there was no support for this in the AllWinner A10 nightly builds, and there would be lot of error messages due to ureadahead process with Ubuntu, but I’ve changed that by: Using a boot.scr file (U-Boot Script) for each supported device in order to either follow the default init boot method or do an initramfs boot if uInitrd file is present in the FAT partition. Adding a script (a1x-initramfs.sh) to generate and install uInitrd initramfs in the rootfs. The initramfs can’t be generated at build time since the hardware packs are (mostly) distribution agnostic. If you want an initramfs, […]

Gumstix Waysmall Silverlode Linaro Ubuntu Computer based on TI Sitara AM3703

Gumstix has just announced the Waysmall Silverlode computer, a small form factor device running Linaro ARM optimized Ubuntu and designed for developers of commercial and industrial applications such as digital signage players and remote servers. It’s based on Overo EarthSTORM Computer-on-Module (Texas Instruments Sitara AM3703 @ 1 GHz, 512MB Flash and 512MB RAM) and consumes less than 2.5 W. Here are the specs of the device: Processor Texas Instruments Sitara AM3703 processor (ARM Cortex-A8 ) @ 1 GHz 800 MHz is recommended for reliable performance System Memory 512 MB RAM Storage 512 MB NAND flash microSD card slot Video Output HDMI (DVI-D) Audio I/O Stereo Audio In /Out jacks Connectivity 10/100Mb Ethernet USB USB Host, USB OTG and USB Console Connectors 2 x 70-pin AVX connectors 1 x 27-pin Hirose camera connector Battery holder for 6mm rechargeable coin Dimensions 11.0 x 4 .4 x 1.8 cm Power 5V The computer […]

Smallart U-Host mini PC Unboxing and Review

I’ve just received a Smallart Uhost mini PC based on AllWinner A10 from the “The Cubies hacker shop” on Aliexpress. The device features 1GB RAM, 4B flash, includes 802.11 b/g/n built-in, USB ports, HDMI output and a microSD card. It costs $70 including shipping. I received the device in the simple package below. There is a whole bunch of stuffs inside the package. A USB to mini USB cable for power and to connect the device to PC to act as a USB drive, the Smallart U-host mini PC itself, a user manual in English, the power supply 5V/2A with a USB port, an HDMI female to male cable. The USB to mini USB cable has actually 2 large USB connector in order to provide up to 5W power (2  x 500mA x 5V). The mini PC has several connectors including an HDMI male connector, a USB Host port (for […]

Linaro 12.07 Release with Kernel 3.5 and Android 4.0.4

Linaro has released version 12.07 based on Linux Kernel 3.5-rc3 and Android 4.0.4. Some work has been done on Jelly Bean (but the port is for next month), several benchmark tools have been added to LAVA as Linaro wants to provide standard benchmarks for Android, Linaro ALIP image now uses LXDE by default with a smaller image and improved performance, and Open Embedded images are now available (minimal and LAMP stack). Here are the highlights of the release: Android Jellybean baselines for Galaxy and Panda with Linaro extra’s available Android Benchmarking apps were deployed for pandaboard, snowball and origen in LAVA including: vellamo, quadrant, nbench, linpack, glbenchmark, geekbench, caffeinemark, antutu, andebench Improved native Benchmarks variance on Android to 1%, working on Java variance ICS “tests” builds now produced by default and test lists generated Open overlay tarballs working pm-qa’s cpuidle cpufreq cpuhotplug sched_mc suspend integrated into the Android builds Linaro […]

Stella Mira Pocket Console AllWinner A10 mini PC with Built-in Bluetooth and Up to 128 GB Flash

Stella Mira, a new technology startup, has come up with a new Android mini-PC based on AllWinner A10 (how original!) called the Pocket Console (aka MiraPC). What makes it stand apart is that it comes with built-in Bluetooth, has several versions based on the NAND flash size: 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64 GB and even 128 GB, and the company plans to release a 3G version in September. The company also provides a dock, the Stella Mira Pocket Dock, that comes pre-loaded with one of supported Linux distributions, without the requiring the knowledge and time to configure microSD card for Linux. The company will provide 4 Linux distributions: Ubuntu 12.04 (Custom build – Ready) Lubuntu 12.04 (Custom build – Ready) Xubuntu 12.04 (Custom build – Final stage of development) Fedora 17 XFCE (Not officially supported, but backed by a large development community) Beside running Linux, the Pocket Console can also “run […]

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