Kontron Unveils KTT30/mITX Nvidia Tegra 3 Mini-ITX Board

Kontron has today unveiled the KTT30/mITX, its first embedded ARM based Mini-ITX board (and the first ARM mini-ITX board I’ve ever heard of). The motherboard is powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor @ 900 MHz with up to 2 GB DDR3L memory, and consumes less than 7W. Storage is available via 2 SD Card slots, one bootable eMMC, and one SATA 2.0 port. The company expects this ARM Mini-ITX motherboard to be used in applications such as thin clients, Panel PCs, digital signage and Mini-Box PCs. The solution is also suitable for industrial (rail road, instrumentation…) and medical fields as it will be available for at least seven years. By using the Mini-ITX form factor, Kontron KTT30/mITX board can be easily integrated in existing embedded solutions using (x86) mini-ITX boards. Here are the key features of Kontron KTT30/mITX motherboard: SoC – Nvidia Tegra 3 ARM Cortex-A9 Quad Core […]

Rikomagic MK802 II Mini PC Will Be Available in September

Rikomagic announced that they are working on two new versions of the MK802 Android mini PC. The first version (MK802 II) will be based on basically the same hardware (AllWinner A10 SoC), but with a different casing, an HDMI male connector, and 3 USB connectors (2 microUSB and 1 standard USB). They will apparently add some holes to the casing for better ventilation in order to decrease excessive heat. The company also mentioned they are working on a version with a dual core processor without giving further details. If we want to play guessing games, it could be next generation AllWinner dual core Cortex A9 processor (codenamed sun6i), or a low cost dual core Cortex A5 processor such as TCC8925. Source: Rikomagic Forums 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 […]

Google Launches TI OMAP4460 Powered Nexus Q Media Player

Beside their first tablet and Android 4.1, Google also announced Google Nexus Q media player running Android 4.0 (ICS), and powered by Texas Instruments OMAP4460 processing with 1 GB RAM and 16 GB Flash. Here are the specifications of the device: CPU – Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 dual core Cortex A9 @ GHz + PowerVR SGX540 GPU System Memory – 1GB LPDDR RAM Storage – 16GB NAND flash memory Micro HDMI (Type D) TOSLink Optical audio (S/PDIF) 10/100BASE-T Ethernet (RJ45) Wireless Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n Bluetooth NFC Micro AB USB (for service and support) Banana jack speaker outputs Amplifier – 25W class D (12.5 watt per channel) Power Supply – Integrated 35W switching power supply Dimension – 116mm (diameter) Weight – 923 grams The device also features a rotating top dome volume control, a capacitive touch sensor for mute, 32 RGB perimeter LEDs and 1 RGB LED for mute indicator, and […]

Google Nexus 7 Android 4.1 Tablet Features Nvidia Tegra 3 Processor

Google announced their very first tablet at Google I/O called Google Nexus 7 (but manufactured by Asus). The device runs the latest Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS, is powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core Cortex A9 processor and comes with 1 GB RAM, and 8 to 16 GB NAND flash depending on the model. Here are the specifications of the Google Nexus 7: CPU – Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.2 GHz Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8 or 16 GB Flash Display – 7” 1280×800 HD IPS display (216 ppi) Connectivity WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth Camera – 1.2MP front-facing camera Sensors – Accelerometer, Magnetometer and Gyroscope Misc – Microphone, speaker, NFC and GPS Battery – 4325 mAh (Up to 8 hours of active use) Weight – 340 grams Size – 198.5 x 120 x 10.45mm The device only has a power, vol-/+ buttons, an headphone […]

Baanto ShadowSense Technology Enables Virtual Graffiti Drawings on Multitouch Displays

Baanto ShadowSense is a new 2D and 3D tracking technology using sensors that allow the system to determine the relative angle and as well as other characteristics of the shadow cast by an object. The system is provided as a frame with several sensors (4 typically) that you can connect via USB to your computer. It is an USB HID device, does not need drivers and support Windows XP/7, Linux and Android. This proprietary technology has the following key features: Traceability of multiple points or objects simultaneously (up to 5 points) Up to 10,000 fps. 16 MPixel resolution of shadow position. Simple algorithm that can be implement in 8-bit MCU. Low power draw. Less than $10 US per sensor. A typical configuration uses 4 sensors and plenty of small LED emitters as shown the illustration. Up to 1mm resolution of object position. No optical lenses are required The resolution is […]

List of 39 Low Cost Linux Friendly Boards and Products

Dmitry (omgfire), one of my awesome readers, compiled a great tabular list of Linux friendly boards and products that sells for less than $300 US (usually less than $200). This list includes technical details such as the processor, GPU, memory, NAND flash, connectivity, ports, supported Linux distributions… as well as availability and pricing information. There are currently 39 Linux devices in total. The vast majority are ARM based boards, but he also included 2 x86 products by VIA, but those are relatively pricey ($265 and up). Here’s a summary list with SoCs used, links to blog posts and product pages (if available), as well as price information. Raspberry Pi Model B – Broadcom BCM2835 (ARM11) – Blog post (That’s my first post about the R-Pi last year, and the board is much different now) –  Product page – Price: $35 + shipping Rikomagic MK802 – Allwiner A10 (Cortex A8) –  […]

Sony NSZ-GS7, The 1st Google TV 2.0 Device is Now Available in the US and UK

Google announced that the 1st Google TV 2.0 device is now available for pre-order in the US and in UK for $199.99. Sony NSZ-GS7 is a set-top box based on Marvell GTV reference design, which comes with a dual-sided “magic” Bluetooth remote (NSG-MR5U). The device was first seen at CES 2012. Here are the key specifications of this media player: SoC – Marvell Armada 1500 dual core ARM processor @ 1.2 GHz with Vivante GC1000 GPU Storage – 8GB Nand Flash Connectivity: Built-in Wifi 802.11 b/g/n 100Mbit Ethernet Built-in Bluetooth Video Output – HDMI Audio Output – Optical out. HDMI supports Dolby and LPCM audio output Video codecs – H264-AVC, MPEG4-SP/-AAC/-HE, MPEG-1/2, MPEG4, H.263, WMV, Vorbis, Xvid… Video containers – 3gp/3g2/3gp9, AVI, FLV, MKV, MOV, MPEG TS/PS, mp4/m4a, MVC, ogg, wmv/asf… Picture formats –  bmp,  gif, jpeg, mpo and png Audio formats –  AAC,  AC3, LPCM/WAV, MDI, MP3 and WMA […]

Oval Elephant Android / Linaro mini PC HDMI Stick

Since Rikomagic MK802 and Zero Device Z802 mini PCs have gone viral and started the Android mini PC craze, this type of device has been popping a bit everywhere… The latest interesting device I found is Oval Elephant Mini PC based on AllWinner A10 processor with 1 GB RAM and selling for 71.49 USD. They have appears to have a whooping 11 in stocks now to be shipped on the 3rd of July, but they are also taking pre-orders and if there is enough demand (over 1,000 pieces), the price would go down to 68 USD. The device pictured above is just a prototype, and they have decided to replace the HDMI mini male output by a proper HDMI output (probably male). As I said before I prefer this form factor, especially since you can just connect mini BlueTooth dongles (no sure that one works with Android / Linux though) to […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design