MINI X Android 2.3 Network Media Player Based on AllWinner A10

Here’s another tiny device based on AllWinner A10 processor. The MINI X is an Android 2.3.4 set-top box with 512MB RAM and 4GB NAND Flash that costs 77.50 USD including worldwide shipping. Here are the device specifications: CPU – AllWinner A10 (Cortex A8) with Mali-400 GPU Memory – 512MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash, microSD slot Video Output – HDMI 1.3 USB  – 2x USB 2.0 host Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Video Formats –  MKV, TS, TP, M2TS, RM/RMVB, BD-ISO, AVI, MPG, VOB, DAT, ASF, TRP, FLV etc Video Codecs – MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, Divx, Xvid, RM8/9/10, VP6 Subtitle – SRT, SUB, IDX, SSA, SMI Audio Formats – MP3, ACC, OGG, WMA, WAV, M4A, APE Image format – JPG, BMP,GIF, TIF, PNG IR Remote Control Dimension: 72 x 61 x 13mm Weight: 51g This device is half-way between the MK802 HDMI stick and the Mele A1000 STB. […]

Willow Garage Launches The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF)

Willow Garage announces the formation of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF), an independent, non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community whose goal is to support the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research, education, and product development. The OSRF Board of Directors is composed of the following members: Wolfram Burgard. Dr. Burgard, a professor at the University of Freiburg,  heading the Laboratory for Autonomous Intelligent Systems. His major research interests lie in mobile robotics, state estimation and control, as well as artificial intelligence. Ryan Gariepy, co-founder and CTO of Clearpath Robotics. Clearpath Robotics is a company specializing in the design and manufacture of unmanned vehicle solutions for industrial R&D. Brian Gerkey,  Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage who has worked on the open source Robot Operating System (ROS) since 2008. Dr. Gerkey will be CEO of the OSRF. Helen […]

NTT Docomo Showcases Smartphone Prototype with See-through Touch Panel

NTT Docomo and Fujitsus have jointly developed a smartphone prototype with a 2.4″ see-through OLED display (QVGA) that has touch sensors both on its front and back sides and NTT Docomo is currently exhibiting the device and showcasing the corresponding new innovative user interface at Wireless Japan 2012, until June 1, 2012, in Tokyo. The backside touch panel can be operated by using the forefinger and there are several ways to take advantage of a see-through display in the UI including: Operate the notification bar from the back side of the panel with a finger Hold an icon with a finger of one hand from the back side of the panel and stroke the front side of the panel with a forefinger of the other hand to move the home screen on which the icon is placed Play Rubik’s Cube by spinning the cube when the back side is not […]

Dell Announces Copper ARM Servers Based on Marvell ARMADA XP SoC

It looks like 2012 will be the year of ARM servers. After previous announcements of ARM servers based on Calxeda and Applied Micro SoC, Dell has just announced its own “Copper” ARM servers powered by Marvell ARMADA XP SoC (MV78460) that allegedly runs Ubuntu Server with a LAMP stack. Dell “Copper” ARM server is composed of 12 sleds with 4 SoC each slotted into a 3U C5000 Chassis. Here are the specs: Form factor 3U chassis 48 independent servers Architecture 1S 1.6GHz, quadcore Marvell Armada XP system on a chip (SoC) 4 discrete server nodes per sled 12 sleds per 3U chassis Memory 1 DIMM slot DDR3 UDIMM VLP, 1333MHz up to 8GB per node Drive bays 1 x 2.5″ SATA per node Hard disk drives 2.5″ SATA (7.2K rpm) Networking 1GB Marvell Ethernet uplink per node (QSGMII) connected to Marvell Integrated L2 Switch (98DX4122) Dell believes that ARM based […]

TI TMS320C6748 DSP Low Cost Development Kit for Fingerprint Recognition and Face Detection

Texas Instruments recently introduced the TMS320C6748 DSP development kit (LCDK) for real-time analytics applications such as fingerprint recognition and face detection, as well as other digital signal processing applications, such as audio and communications. The C6748 DSP development kit comes pre-loaded with TI C6748 SYS/BIOS Software Development Kit (SDK) which includes: SYS/BIOS real-time kernel C6748 StarterWare software package (lightweight, operating-system-independent software libraries and utilities) Sample apps for fingerprint recognition and face detection Code Generation Tools DSP core performance benchmarks that show the real-time processing power of TI’s C674x DSPs. The C6748 DSP development kit also includes Code Composer Studio IDE v5.1. Several standard interfaces for connectivity and storage are available in the board to allow audio, video and other signals. Expansion headers also allow developers to add display and user interface technology, such as camera boards and LCD screens. The board schematics and design files are supposedly available for download, […]

YOOE F4 – Freescale i.MX6 Quad Core Cortex A9 Android 4.0 Tablet

Freescale i.MX6 processors will finally be available in some devices very soon, as YOOE is currently finalizing the development of YOOE F4 (Model: RT-E597A), a 9.7″ tablet powered by Freescale i.MX6 Quad with 1 GB of RAM and running Android 4.0.4. Samples will be available in June and mass-production is expected to start in July. The company will sell this tablet for 220 to 250 USD retail. Charbax is currently in Shenzhen and a shot a video showing the tablet at the company offices, and performance seems to be very good. YOOE is the company that manufactures one of the first low cost Allwinner A13 Tablets. 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. www.cnx-software.com

$3.45 Microchip PIC32 Development Platform Microstick II

MIPS and Microchip organize a promotion on a MIPS PIC32 MCU development Kit. The Microstick II delivers a development hardware platform for Microchips MIPS-based 32-bit microcontrollers. It’s USB-powered and includes an on-board debugger/programmer, a DUT socket for easy device swapping, a user LED and reset button. Key features: Integrated USB programmer / debugger – No external debugger required USB Powered – Ease of use, No external power required MPLAB support. DUT Socket – Flexible, Easy device replacement 0.025” Pin headers – Enables plug-in to Breadboard with room for jumper wires Easy access to all device signals for probing Small size – Smaller than a stick of gum at 20 x76mm – Easily Portable On board User LED and Reset Switch Free demo code Microstick II supports all 3.3V PIC24FJ, PIC24H, dsPIC33, and PIC32 SPDIP packaged devices which are included in the kit. Microkit II normally costs 34.95 USD, but is […]

Ubuntu, Tizen, XMBC… Demos at Q2.12 Linaro Connect in Hong Kong

Linaro has announced several demos would take place at Linaro Connect on June 1st, 2012 in Hong Kong: Big.LITTLE in-kernel Switcher (Linaro) SIProp – Combat Scouter – How much your Combat Power? (SIProp) Android Toolchain Improvements (Linaro) Origen Running Awesome Code (Linaro) Snowball with MM enablement (Linaro) Tizen on Snowball (Linaro) Google+ Hangouts on an ARM Board (Linaro) Low-Cost Logic Analyzer (Linaro) XBMC on Snowball – ST Ericsson Snowball (Linaro) (Ubuntu) Unity 3D on Snowball (Linaro) Ubuntu TV on Snowball (Linaro) PCM (Phase Change Memory) : Linaro kernel meets with the PCM technology (Micron) ARM DS-5 & Linaro (ARM) Most of the demos will be organized by Linaro, but three others companies will also shown the “show”, namely SIProp, Micron and ARM. It’s always interested to see what happens at Linaro because it gives a view into the future to what may comes to the new products and developers can see what new features are available for […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC