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AllWinner A20 Linux Source Code, EVB Schematics and Product Brief

Hardware based on AllWinner A20 such as Cloudsto Media PC PRO DRIVEDOCK, should start to be available soon, and resources for developers have been slowly released (or leaked) to the community. AllWinner A20 Source Code The source code for AllWinner A20 and A31 has been released to sunxi-linux a while back, and they have started to clean up the code before hardware becomes available. The code apparently hasn’t made it to sunxi-linux github account just yet, but Linux for A20  has been imported into github at https://github.com/amery/linux-allwinner/tree/import/lichee-3.3/a20-dev. AllWinner A20 is known as sun7i in the code. AllWinner A20 Evaluation Board Schematics and Product Brief Olimex received A20 EVB schematics and product brief from AllWinner earlier this week, and as usual, they promptly uploaded those documents to their github account. The 3-page product brief does not bring anything new, and the data sheet does not seem to be available right now. […]

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Ainol NOVO 7 Crystal II Quad Core 7″ Tablet is Available for $99

Earlier this year, several blogs and news website reported about Cherry Mobile, a 7″ Android tablet powered by Actions Semiconductor ATM7029 quad core Cortex A9 processor, that sells for just $99 in the Philippines. This morning I’ve found a quad core tablet with similar specifications that also sells for $99 on Asiapads (after using AINOLCII coupon) . The Ainol NOVO 7 Crystal II comes with a 7″ touchscreen, is powered by ATM7029 SoC with 1GB RAM and, 8GB NAND Flash. Tablet Specifications: SoC – Actions Semi ATM7029 Quad Core Cortex A9 @ 1.5 GHz + Vivante GC1000 (Plus) GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage –  8GB NAND Flash + micro SD slot Display –  7-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD (Resolution: 1024*600) Connectivity – WiFi: 802.11b/g/n Camera – 0.3 MP front camera Video Output – mini HDMI Audio I/O – 3.5 mm headphone jack USB – 1x micro USB OTG port […]

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How-to Autostart a PC Automatically When Connecting it to the Mains Power

I’ve decided it would be good if I could just hide the computer under the table, as I never use the DVD writer, and I can access USB ports for removable storage or debug board via a USB hub on my table. The only problem is that I would have to go under the table to press the power button each time I want to power on the computer. Feasible, but not very convenient. Every morning, I connect a power strip to the mains supply for my computer, monitor, and related equipment, so it would be good if the computer could just start when I connect it. I found out there’s an option in the BIOS of my main board to do just that. Most other people seem to use that feature to be able to automatically restart their computer after a power failure so that they can access it […]

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Veidoo HD2 Android Set-top Box Features a 5MP Camera

There seem to be more and more Android set-top boxes that can be fitted on top of the TV, but if you are mainly interested in video conference they may not always have very good cameras: MK818 comes with a 0.3MP camera and Archos TV Connect has a 1MP webcam according to Arctablet, which is good enough for 720p video conferencing. On the contrary, Veidoo HD2, an Android 4.0 set-top box powered by AllWinner A10, comes with a 5MP camera which should allow you, in theory, to do video conference in 1080p if your internet connection permits it. Here are the specifications of the device: SoC – Allwinner A10 Cortex A8 @ 1GHz + Mali-400 GPU Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8GB + micro SD slot (Up to 32GB) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n + 3G support via external 3G dongle Camera – 5.0MP auto focus Video Output – HDMI […]

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Google Announces Blink, a Fork of WebKit Rendering Engine for Chromium

WebKit rendering engine has been used by Chromium since the start of the project, but Chromium uses a different multi-process architecture than other WebKit-based browsers, and this has made maintenance increasingly complex, and Google intends to investigate other performance improvement strategies. Those 2 reasons explain why the company has announced it would fork WebKit and start working on its own open source rendering engine called Blink. Google tells web developers that in the short term, Blink will bring little change to them, as most of the work will focus on architectural improvements as well as code cleanup with about 7,000 files, corresponding to 4.5 millions line of code, to be deleted. One of the main changes will be “out-of-process iframes“, where the rendering engine will start a sandbox process for each individual parts of the page in order to render it faster. This has been planned for a while, but […]

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Quad Cores SoC Comparison: Rockchip RK3188 vs Exynos 4412 vs Tegra 3

padhz.com compared three of the fastest Quad Core Cortex A9 processors: Rockchip RK3188, Samsung Exynos 4412, and Nvidia Tegra 3. In their detailed report (in Chinese) they compare the performance, power consumption, video play back and more. As expected, it turns out RK3188 is the best, followed by Exynos 4412, and then Tegra 3, which correspond to the inverse of their release dates. Keep reading to find the details. The Contestants Nvidia Samsung Rockchip Model Tegra 3 Exynos 4412 RK3188 CPU Cortex A9 Quad Core Cortex A9 Quad Core Cortex A9 Quad Core Process 40nm 32nm 28nm Frequency 1.3 GHz 1.4 GHz 1.6 / 1.8 GHz GPU Geforce ULP ARM Mali-400MP4 ARM Mali-400MP4 GPU Frequency 416MHz 440MHz 533 / 600 MHz GPU GFLOPS 10 17.6 24 Level 2 Cache 1MB 1MB 512KB Memory Bus 32-bit 64-bit 32-bit HW Video Decode 1080p 1080p 1080p Release date November 2011 April 2012 January […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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CX-803 II Android mini PC Features 2GB RAM, an External Antenna

Several mini PCs have been claimed to come with 2GB RAM (e.g. S21H,  MK812), but it turned out the sellers simply made a mistake, or possibly lied to sell a few more sticks. To date, the only HDMI TV dongle which you can buy and expect it to really come with 2GB RAM is the PQ Labs iStick A200, but we’ve now got another option with the CX-803 II (aka CX-803B or FX5) powered by Rockchip RK3066 with 2GB RAM, 8GB flash and a short external antenna. If the picture below looks similar, it’s because it’s an upgrade of CX-803 / AVS-TV603 with more RAM, more flash and built-in Bluetooth. Here are CX-803 II specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3066 @ 1.6 GHz + Mali-400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8GB NAND flash + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI 1.4 Connectivity: […]

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$25 Expansion Board for the Raspberry Pi

There are already several expansion boards for the Raspberry Pi such as the Gertboard or RaspiComm, but none of them originated from China. Onebir spotted a new expansion board from a Chinese supplier on Aliexpress that’s available for $25 including shipping. There’s no description on the seller website, the seller provided us some details in Chinese. With Google translate help, the key features of the board(s) can be summarized as follows: 3.3V / 5V SPI interface 3.3V / 5V I2C interface Opto-isolator for GPIOs supporting 8-channel 50V/600mA to control motors, drive LEDs, etc… Power LED (The pictures are crap, but I can’t see any LEDs on the boards) External power fuse to protect the expansion board and the Raspberry Pi. The features in Chinese are shown below in case something was lost in translation: 1.全尺寸完美兼容树莓派， 2.将3.3V的SPI接口转换为通用的5V SPI接口（并且可以通过P13跳线切换回3.3V） 3.将3.3V的I2C接口转换为通用的5V I2C接口（并且可以通过P13跳线切换回3.3V） 4.GPIO放弃光耦隔离方式，采用芯片驱动，支持8路50V、600mA的高电压大电流驱动，意味着可以直接连接舵机，驱动LED等等（要做小车，机器人，智能家居，远程控制的必备哟） 芯片采用插座方式， 不小心烧坏以后方便更换 5.增加LED电源灯 6.外接电源使用保险丝，更好的保护你的扩展板和树莓派 I’m not even sure this “expansion […]

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