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Nufront 2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 for Desktop, Laptop and Netbook – NuSmart 2816

Nufront (新岸线) is a high tech company based in Beijing, dedicated to wireless broadband communication and broadcast, IC design, video search and digital imaging technologies. Nufront showed off their “low-power high performance” mini-PC based on their new NuSmart 2816 chipset at ARM Techcon 2010. NuSmart 2816 is based on a dual-core Cortex-A9 @ 2GHz with Mali-400 GPU. They plan to sell the chip for around 30 USD and expect ARM-based mini-PC to sell for around 200 USD retail. You can download NuSmart 2816 Product Brief for further details. As you can see from the diagram below, NS2816 can support all features (Ethernet, Wifi, GPS, USB, I2S Audio, SATA II, MMC/SD support, VGA, HDMI or LCD video output) that are now expected in modern desktops or laptops. Video playback currently uses around 2 Watts (chip samples) and they target 1.5 Watt for video playback in the final release of their chipset […]

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Installing Google MarketPlace on Archos Gen8 Devices

Update: Please now use the files and instructions at http://code.google.com/p/archos-apps-installer/ instead of the instructions below. Currently the Archos Gen8 devices (Archos 28, 34, 43, 70 and 101) are only shipped with AppLibs that contains “only” 10,000 applications. I believe it’s because Google requires tablets to be mobile devices (with GSM or 3G capabilities) to fully access Google MarketPlace. But do not despair, since the guys at Archosfans found a way to install Google MarketPlace on the new Archos android tablets and you’ll be able to use an APK file to install the marketplace. Here are the steps: Simply download gApps4Archos.apk here, here or here. (Firmware version before 2.0.54) Copy gApps4Archos.apk file to your Archos disk. Install it by selecting this file using the device file manager Run the installed package and follow the installation steps Bear in mind, that this has been tested on Android 2.1 and it may or […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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ARM Based Embedded Server – Marvell ARMADA XP

A few years ago, nobody would have considered using an embedded system to run a server. But now, with the advance of technology, more and more servers are running embedded systems from the lower end such as home-based NAS (Network Access Storage) to higher-end for data-centers, cloud computing, web 2.0… This is the higher-end that Marvell targets with its Quad Core ARM ARMADA XP MV78460 running at 1.6GHz with “16,600 DMIPS performance at less than 10 watts”. Please checkout Marvell ARMADA XP Product Brief for further details. The main selling point of such solution is the power consumption compared to traditional Intel x86 based servers. According to Marvell, 50% of the cost of running a data-center is the electricity bill to run the server and especially to cool the room with air-conditioners. So let’s do a little exercise. Let’s take the estimated power consumption of Google data-center in Oregon that […]

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Linaro: Embedded Linux for ARM

Linaro is a Not For Profit (NFP) engineering organisation that works on Linux based open source software and tools. The organisation focuses on the ARM platform, mainly ARM v7A architecture, for example ARM Cortex-A8 or dual-core Cortex-A9 processors and is sponsored by ARM, Freescale, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Texas Instruments. The purpose of Linaro is to reduce the number of different Linux kernel for the ARM platform. They plan on releasing tools and Linux kernel every 6 months. And after about 6 months of existence, with around  80 engineering staff, they managed to release their first public version:  Linaro-10.11 on the 10th of November for TI OMAP4 Panda Board, IGEPv2, Freescale iMX51 and ST-E U8500 platforms. This release is based on Linux 2.6.35 kernel, GCC 4.4 toolchain and uBoot 2010.09. They released Linux 10.11 source code and tools, the hardware packs and the build instructions. Linaro also planned several technical […]

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Resources for Qualcomm Snapdragon: MSM7x30, MSM8x55, MSM8x60 and QSD8x50

The Snapdragon processors are the latest generation of Qualcomm mobile chips used in smartphones (e.g. Google Nexus One) and tablets (e.g. Dell Streak). There are currently 3 generations of Snapdragon chipsets: First-Generation: QSD8x50 chipsets consisting of QSD8250™ and QSD8650™ based on ARM11 core running at 1GHz, a 595 MHz DSP, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics with Adreno 200 GPU, integrated Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS capabilities, a 12-megapixel camera and 720p video encode / decode. Second-Generation: MSM8x55 chipsets consisting of MSM8255™ and MSM8655™ based on ARM11 core running at 1 GHz as well as MSM7x30 chipsets consisting of MSM7230™ and MSM7630™ running at 800 MHz. All second generation chipsets use Adreno 205 GPU. Third-Generation: MSM8x60 chipsets platform consisting of  MSM8260™ and MSM8660™, dual-core CPU running up to 1.2 GHz with Adreno 220 GPU.  The QSD8672 running at 1.5GHz will also be part of the third generation and samples will be shipped by the […]

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USB Hotplug Parameters and A Simple Linux USB Hotplug Script

USB Hotplug allows your system to detect a USB device has been inserted or removed and perform certain actions upon the USB device detection. The article below is largely inspired by http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net/?selected=hotplug which does not seem to work anymore. USB hotplugging involves: MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE support in the USB Device Driver API, so that a driver’s probe() routine is called only when it’s very likely to want to bind to a particular interface. USB always uses this. Support for invoking the hotplug helper (/sbin/hotplug by default) when devices are added or removed. This functionality is enabled only by CONFIG_HOTPLUG. That hotplug helper usually contacts a policy agent which handles the USB-level configuration or activation tasks appropriate to this device and the current system configuration. Boot-time configuration (“cold-plugging”) can be managed by the /etc/rc.d/init.d/hotplug startup script, if the “usbmodules” command line utility is available. (There is also a “diet hotplug” tool for use […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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3D capable Android 2.2 Smartphones

Lately all the rage was for 3D high definition televisions, but now 3D is also coming to mobile handsets. Softbank will release 2 smartphones –  “Galapagos 003SH” and “Galapagos 005SH” – in Japan between the end of 2010 and spring 2011. The smartphones will run Android 2.2 on a platform based on Qualcomm MSM8255 @ 1Ghz, feature a 3.8″ display and the capability to record HD videos (720p maximum). The main differences between the 2 handsets are that Galapagos 005SH will have a slide-out keyboard and a built-in 8 Megapixel camera whereas 003SH won’t have the keyboard but the camera will be 9.6 Megapixel. Both handsets will be manufactured by Sharp which also owns the 3D technology. The 3D images and videos will be viewable with the naked eyes, i.e. you won’t have to wear glasses.  This will be used for picture, videos and 3D games.  The smartphones will be […]

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Default root password for sigma designs smp86xx boards

I have seen some people google for the default root password for sigma designs boards and they ended up in this blog without any answer. So I’ll provide some kind of answer. In the serial port console, once you get to the username/password prompt, the root password is… there is none, just press “Enter”. This is the default behavior in Sigma Designs SDK, it’s quite possible the root password has been changed for the device you are trying to access. In case telnet or ssh is enabled, you may try one of the default users in /etc/password, that may not have been disabled by the development team e.g. ftp, man, nobody,default, etc… and try to login without password, by just pressing “Enter” at the password prompt. Once you are logged-in as a normal user, type “su” to become super user, press “Enter” if you are being asked for a password.

Khadas VIM4 SBC