CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Boot Ubuntu (Linux) or Android from an SD Card on Rockchip RK3288 Devices

There’s already a method to boot Android from an SD Card on RK3188 devices, which should work with all Rockchip RK3188 devices. Ian Morrison (Linuxium) has now provided a instructions to boot Linux or Android from a (micro) SD Card in Rockchip RK3288 based devices, leveraging work from linux-rockchip community, and especially naobsd. The Android flashing method is slightly different between RK3188 and RK3288, because most Rockchip RK3288 devices make use of eMMC flash, while older Rockchip RK3188 products feature NAND flash, and it appears Rockchip RK3xxx boot priorities (in the BootROM stored in the SoC itself) are as follows: eMMC, SD card, and NAND flash. All that means is that an updated version of the bootloader is needed which looks for a bootable SD card, and although very unlikely, your device could end up being bricked during this procedure. This is not a problem for Open Hour Chameleon since […]

December 11, 2014October 11, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Mediatek MT8173 Quad Core big.LITTLE ARM Cortex A72/A53 Processor Code Submitted to Linux Mainline

[Update: MT8173 processor has now been announced, and it’s using Cortex A72 and A53 instead of A57/A53, as initially shown in the Linux kernel source code] Mediatek is not exactly known to compliant with open source licences, or be involved with the open source community. But the company is certainly going into the right direction with their cooperation with Google leading to source code release for Android One smartphones, and the recently launched Mediatek Labs for community projects, starting with LinkIt One IoT platform. Mediatek is also regularly submitting code to the Linux ARM Kernel mailing list, and yesterday code was submitted for Mediatek MT8173 SoC, a 64-bit ARMv8 processor with two Cortex 53 and two Cortex 57 cores in big.LITTLE configuration. As far as I know, it could be the first Mediatek SoC with “big” Cortex A57 cores. Code snippet from mt8173.dtsi related to CPU cores:

cpus {
+		#address-cells = &lt;1&gt;;
+		#size-cells = &lt;0&gt;;
+
+		cpu0: cpu@0 {
+			device_type = "cpu";
+			compatible = "arm,cortex-a53";
+			reg = &lt;0x000&gt;;
+			enable-method = "psci";
+		};
+
+		cpu1: cpu@1 {
+			device_type = "cpu";
+			compatible = "arm,cortex-a53";
+			reg = &lt;0x001&gt;;
+			enable-method = "psci";
+		};
+
+		cpu2: cpu@2 {
+			device_type = "cpu";
+			compatible = "arm,cortex-a57";
+			reg = &lt;0x100&gt;;
+			enable-method = "psci";
+		};
+
+		cpu3: cpu@3 {
+			device_type = "cpu";
+			compatible = "arm,cortex-a57";
+			reg = &lt;0x101&gt;;
+			enable-method = "psci";
+		};
+	};

cpus {

+ #address-cells = <1>;

+ #size-cells = <0>;

+ cpu0: cpu@0 {

+ device_type = "cpu";

+ compatible = "arm,cortex-a53";

+ reg = <0x000>;

+ enable-method = "psci";

+ };

+ cpu1: cpu@1 {

+ device_type = "cpu";

+ compatible = "arm,cortex-a53";

+ reg = <0x001>;

+ enable-method = "psci";

+ };

+ cpu2: cpu@2 {

+ device_type = "cpu";

+ compatible = "arm,cortex-a57";

+ reg = <0x100>;

+ enable-method = "psci";

+ };

+ cpu3: cpu@3 {

+ device_type = "cpu";

+ compatible = "arm,cortex-a57";

+ reg = <0x101>;

+ enable-method = "psci";

+ };

A short […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

December 10, 2014December 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

TV01II Android Media Player with Rockchip RK3288 Processor Sells for $53 (Promo)

I’ve been informed that GeekBuying is running a promotion for a Rockchip RK3288 TV Box called TV01II that normally sells for $75.99, but you can follow this link, apply PAYPALSALE coupon, and pay by PayPal to get it for just $53.19 including shipping by registered mail. [Update: The product is now out of stock]. TV01II specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 processor @ 1.8GHz with ARM Mali-T764 quad-core 3D GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.1, and DirectX11 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 4K @ 30fps, AV port Audio I/O – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF, built-in MIC. Video Codecs – MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4,H.263, H.264, H.265,AVS, VC-1,RV, VP6/VP8, Sorenson Spark, MVC 3800 x 2160P 60FPS Audio Codecs – MPEG1, MPEG2 (Layer I/II), MP3, AC3, E-AC3, AAC-M4A, WMA, M4A, […]

December 10, 2014November 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Android 4.4 and Ubuntu 14.10 Tested on Ugoos UM3 mini PC (Rockchip RK3288)

A few days ago I posted pictures of Ugoos UM3, a cute mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor, with 2GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, a few USB ports, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac connectivity. There are so many Rockchip RK3288 based TV boxes and sticks on the market, that it has become difficult to differentiate, so Ugoos has decided to support not only Android 4.4 like all their competitors, but also Ubuntu 14.10, and they’ve provided an alpha release of dual boot Android / Ubuntu images for Ugoos UT3 and UM3 models. Yesterday, I flashed the latest Android/Ubuntu firmware for UM3, and tested the image, so today I can report my findings. First of all, I’d like to point out that I received an earlier sample with various flaws that I reported to Ugoos, and they’ve already committed to fixes: 5V/2A power adapter is not powerful […]

December 10, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Linux 3.18 Released

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 3.18 last Sunday: It’s been a quiet week, and the patch from rc7 is tiny, so 3.18 is out. I’d love to say that we’ve figured out the problem that plagues 3.17 for a couple of people, but we haven’t. At the same time, there’s absolutely no point in having everybody else twiddling their thumbs when a couple of people are actively trying to bisect an older issue, so holding up the release just didn’t make sense. Especially since that would just have then held things up entirely over the holiday break. So the merge window for 3.19 is open, and DaveJ will hopefully get his bisection done (or at least narrow things down sufficiently that we have that “Ahaa” moment) over the next week. But in solidarity with Dave (and to make my life easier too 😉 let’s try to avoid introducing any _new_ […]

December 10, 2014February 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 87 Comments

Hardkernel ODROID-C1 is a $35 Development Board Powered by Amlogic S805 Quad Core Processor

Amlogic S805 is a quad core Cortex A5 processor which has found it way into low cost devices such as MK808B Plus TV Stick which can be purchased for as low as $30, or full-sized TV box such as MXQ S85 or MINIX NEO X6. All this low cost devices are nice, but the full source code is not available in your want to adapt them to your need. Luckily, Amlogic releases both an Android SDK, and a buildroot for Linux with GPU and Video Processing Unit (VPU) support, so Hardkernel decided to go ahead, designed a board, and has just launched ODROID-C1 quad core development board for just $35, or the exact price of a Raspberry Pi Model B+, but with much greater specs. ODROID-C1 specifications: SoC- Amlogic S805 quad core Cortex-A5 processor with a Mali-450MP2 GPU (2x fragment cores + 2x vertex shader cores) System Memory – 1GB […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

December 9, 2014December 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

How To Upgrade Firmware on Ugoos UM3 mini PC

Ugoos released two new dual boot Android / Ubuntu images for Ugoos UT3 and UM3, which reduces the size of the system by 300MB, includes LibreOffice, replaces Firefox by Chromium + PepperFlash plugin, and fixes various bugs: ut3_dualboot_v0.2.rar – For UT3 full sized TV box UM3_dualboot_v0.2.rar – For UM3 mini TV box The firmware update procedure for Rockchip RK3288 is well-known, and Ugoos even includes a word file with flashing instructions in Microsoft Windows with the firmware images. However, it still took me about one hour to find out how to do with Ugoos UM3, so I thought I’d write a post in case others encounter the same issue. I flash the firmware in Ubuntu, so instead of using Android Tool, I flashed it with upgrade_tool command line utility I got from Orion R28 SDK, but you can also download Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2.tar.gz directly. First let’s enter recovery mode. The procedure is […]

December 9, 2014December 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Kairos T-Band is a Smart Watchband for Your “Dumb” Watch (Crowdfunding)

Kairos introduced a high-end mechanical smartwatch with a semi-transparent OLED display a few months ago. They’ve now launched an Indiegogo campaign to sell several models for $500 to $1,000+, but they’ve also introduced T-Band, a smart watchband with an integrated display that you can fit to your existing (mechanical) watch, in order to receive notifications, answer phone calls, get directions, and even start your car. There are three models of smartband all running Kairos OS on an ARM Cortex M4 MCU @ 168 MHz with Bluetooth Classic / Low Energy: T-Band ND (No Display) Alerts user of notifications via a vibrator and LED indicator, and tracks fitness / sleep, as well as health data. Sensors – 9-axis gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, optical sensor, and GSR (Galvanic Skin Sensor) which detects skin temperature and sweat. Audio – Digital MEMS MIC for text to speech capabilities (requires 3rd party app) Battery – 200 mAh […]