Embedded Linux Conference 2015 will take place in San Jose, California, on March 23 – 25, 2015, and will focus on Drones, Things and Automobiles. The schedule has been published, and whether you’ll attend or not, it’s always interested to have a look at what will be talked about to have a peak into the future of Embedded Linux, or simply keep abreast with the progress in the field. So as usual, I’ve gone through the schedule, and made my own virtual program with talks that I find interesting. Monday 23rd 9:00 – 9:30 – Driving standards and Open Source to Grow the Internet of Things by Mark Skarpness, Director of Systems Engineering at Intel Billions of devices are beginning to come online, and many of these devices, large and small, are running open source software. To fuel this innovation, it’s more important than ever for these devices to use […]
Data Modul eDM-pITX-BT pico-ITX Boards Powered by Intel Bay Trail Processors
Data Modul has introduced industrial pico-ITX boards based on low power Intel Atom or Celeron Bay Trail processors, that include a Gigabit Ethernet port, LVDS, HDMI or DisplayPort video output, a SATA interface and up to 4 GB RAM. eDN-pITX-BT boards specifications: SoC: Intel Atom E3815 single core processor @ 1.46GHz with HD graphics – 5W TDP Intel Celeron J1900 quad core processor @ 2.0 GHz (up to 2.42GHz) with HD graphics – 10W TDP System Memory – 2GB or 4GB on-board DDR3L (1600 MT/s) Storage – SATA 2.0 (3GB/s), mSATA via mini-PCIe Video Output / Display I/F – DisplayPort up to 2560 x 1600, optional HDMI (TBC), dual-channel 24-bit LVDS up to 1920 x 1200, backlight control. Dual independent display support. Audio – Realtek ALC888S HDA audio codec – S/PDIF, front speaker, and microphone via headers. Connectivity – 1x Gigabit Ethernet USB – 3x USB 2.0; 1x USB 3.0 […]
Calao Systems Introduces Linux based DIN Rail Home and Building Automation Systems
Calao Systems is an embedded systems company that I came to know thanks to their Snowball development boards based on the now defunct ST Ericsson Nova A9500 processor. The company has now launched new products for building and home automation powered by Atmel AT91SAM9G20 ARM9 processor clocked at 400 MHz housed in a DIN Rail enclosure. Two products are now available HABA-KNX-EXPLORER and HABA-KNX-LITE that share the following specifications: Processor – Atmel ARM926EJ-S @ 400MHz System Memory – 128MB SDRAM Storage – 256MB NAND Flash, 16 Mbit serial flash, 2Kbit EEPROM with MAC address, and Micro SD slot Connectivity Lite – 1x Ethernet 10/100Mbits Explorer – 2x Ethernet 10/100Mbits USB – 2x USB Host FS (12Mbits), 1x USB Device FS (12Mbits) Serial (Explorer only) – 1x RS-232 (isolated), 2x RS-485 (isolated) Automation I/F – 1x KNX/TP1 (isolated) Expansion – 1x RF Expansion Connector Debugging – JTAG and DBGU interfaces Misc […]
Zidoo X9 Android Media Player and Recorder Sells for $100 (Promo)
Zidoo X9 is an Android TV box powered by Mstar MSO9810 quad core processor, with an HDMI input port that allows video recording up to 1080p, and that’s the only device that could properly display pictures and play videos at 4K resolution (Up to 30Hz) in a recent test. You can buy on GearBest for $120 with coupon, but GeekBuying has launched a promotion where the first 100 orders can get the device for just $99.99. Here are the specifications as a reminder: SoC – Mstar MSO9180D1R quad core Cortex A9 processor up to 1.5GHz with octa-core ARM Mali-450MP6 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot Video Output / Input – HDMI output up to 4K, HDMI input with PVR and Time Shifting support, and AV port (Composite + stereo audio) Audio I/O – HDMI Out and In, AV, and optical S/PDIF […]
Onkyo TX-NR636 AV Receiver Setup and Audio Pass-through with OpenELEC / Kodi
Following up on my LG 42U820T 4K TV review, I’ll know checkout the second item purchased for my reviews thanks to the help of my readers, with Onkyo TX-NR636 7.2 channel AV receiver combined with Pioneer S-11 speaker set. As this is my first AV receiver, I still have a lot to learn, I can’t really comment on audio quality (except it sounds much better than my TV speakers, and is more powerful), so I won’t do a full review, but I’ll show some details about the receiver, explain how to it setup with speakers, show how to setup OpenELEC / Kodi for HDMI audio pass-through, and test it with various Dolby and DTS video files. Onkyo TX-NR636 Specifications But before all that, I’ll list some of the specifications of this cool AV receiver. Amplified Rated Output Power: 95 watts minimum continuous power per channel, 8 ohm loads, 2 channels driven […]
Winbook TW700 Windows 8.1 Tablet with micro HDMI, Full Size USB Port Sells for $60
MeegoPad T01, Pipo X7, MeLE PCG03, MINIX NEO Z64, etc.. you could name a pretty long list of Intel Bay Trail-T Z3735 mini PCs running Windows 8.1… They all cost above $100, but the ones that include a valid Windows 8.1 license usually cost closer to $150. That’s because contrary to the Windows 8.1 with Bing on small tablets that comes free and with a one-year subscription to office 365, Windows 8.1 with Bing on mini PCs adds about $30 to the price, and it does not even include a one-year subscription. So using a tablet as a mini PC should be cheaper, even with the extra touchscreen display and battery. And as I checked out Liliputing’s list of cheap Windows tablets, Winbook TW700 stood out as it sells for just $60 on Micro-center (US only) or $70 on Amazon US, and features a mini HDMI port, a full-sized USB […]
Gateworks GW5520 Single Board Computer Features Dual Gigabit Ethernet Ports, Two mini PCIe Slots
If you need industrial grade ARM Linux boards with lots of Ethernet ports and several mini PCIe slots, you may want to check out Gateworks Ventana boards. The company has now released a smaller member of Ventana family with GW5520 SBC powered by Freescale i.MX6 dual, with two Gigabit Ethernet port, two mini PCIe slots, and support for PoE. Gateworks Ventana GW5520 SBC specifications: SoC- Freescale i.MX6 Dual Cortex A9 processor @ 800MHz with Vivante Vivante GC2000 / GC355 / GC320 GPUs. Option: i.MX6 Quad System Memory – 512 MB DDR3-800 SDRAM (Up to 2GB RAM as option) Storage – 256 MB Flash (Up to 2GB as option), serial configuration EEPROM Video and Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports. USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Expansion 2x Mini-PCIe sockets Optional mini-PCIe socket to supports a mSATA disk drive (i.MX6 Quad only) I/Os Serial – […]
Latest Ubuntu 14.10 Image for Tronsmart Draco AW80 Supports Hardware Video Decoding
Tronsmart Draco AW80 is one of the most powerful ARM mini PC on the market thanks to Allwinner A80 octa core processor, and the company also released an early Linux (Ubuntu) image at the end of last year. However, this firmware could not support hardware video decoding nor 2D/3D graphics acceleration. Since then progress has been made, and Tronsmart has just released an image with hardware video decoding. There’s still some work to be done as 4K and H.265 are not supported, and support for Kodi also needs to be implemented. At least for now you should be able to play 1080p video with VLC without issues, and the company also claims online video will play without lags. If you’d like to give it a try, download and extract Draco_AW80_Ubuntu_20150204.zip. Then follow Allwinner A80 firmware upgrade instructions with PhoenixSuit (Windows) or LiveSuit (Linux) firmware tool to complete the process. You […]