CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 1, 2014January 28, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

The Internet of Insects Is Coming to You Powered by Fuel Cells

We’ve had the Internet for a few decades, and recently terms such as the Internet of Things, previously as (connected) embedded systems, and the Internet of Everything have started to become a common features of tech speak. But following research from Osaka University and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), we may soon start to talk about the Internet of Insects. Japanese researchers have developed a fuel cell that can be mounted on an insect, and generate powered from sugar (trehalose) found in the insect’s body fluid (blood lymph). The fuel cell consists of electrodes, a tank of body fluid and a pipe to be inserted into the insect. Then some chemical “magic” occurs. There’s already a prototype, which has been unveiled at IEEE MEMS 2014, an academic conference that tool place on January 26-30, 2014, in San Francisco. The prototype has been 3D printed, measures about approximately 20 […]

February 1, 2014February 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

DENX MCV Systems-on-Module Feature Altera Cyclone V SX FPGA + ARM SoC

DENX Computer has announced a new systems-on-module (SoM) powered by Altera Cyclone V dual ARM Cortex A9 + FPGA SoCs. DENX MCV SoMs also feature 1GB DDR3, 256 NAND Flash, and various memory interfaces and peripherals including PCI Express Gen2 and high-speed serial 3.125Gb transceivers. DENX MCV SoM specifications: SoC – Altera Cyclone V SoC with FPGA and two ARM Cortex A9 core @ 800 MHz. Four SoC are available: A2 – 5CSXFC2C6U23C7N – 25KLE, 36 DSP blocks, 6 transceivers 3.125Gbit/s A4 – 5CSXFC4C6U23C7N – 40KLE, 58 DSP blocks, 6 transceivers 3.125Gbit/s A5 – 5CSXFC5C6U23C7N – 85KLE, 87 DSP blocks, 6 transceivers 3.125Gbit/s A6 : 5CSXFC6C6U23C7N – 110KLE, 112 DSP blocks, 6 transceivers 3.125Gbit/s System memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 256 MB NAND Flash, 256 Mbit Configuration Device HPS (Hard processor system) peripherals Clock distribution Default configuration: Gigabit Ethernet UART, SPI, I²C CAN USB Additional optional interfaces: One […]

January 31, 2014October 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ARM Unveils Server Base System Architecture Specification (SBSA) to Standardize ARM based Servers

64-bit ARM based servers should hit the market later this year or earlier in 2015 with SoCs such as Applied Micro X-Gene or AMD Opteron A1100. ARM still has the lead in terms of efficiency with a lower dollar per watt ratio, but Intel is closing in with their new Avoton server-on-chips. However, there’s one aspect where Intel is clearly in the lead: standardization and compatibility. ARM is very flexible, and allow SoC designers to create more or less what they want, but it comes at the cost that most ARM based systems are not capable of running mainline Linux, and instead use vendor trees. With many applications, that may not be critical, but when it comes to data-centers, companies want to be able to run the latest Linux version with the latest security patches as soon as possible, and want to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO), so […]

January 31, 2014February 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 14.01 Release with Linux Kernel 3.13 and Android 4.4.2

The first release of the year, Linaro 14.01, is now out with Linux Kernel 3.13 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.28 (LSK), Android 4.4.2, and Ubuntu Linaro 14.01. The most important part of this release is support for Arndale Octa, which makes big.LITTLE processing code available to a low cost platform. Android 4.4.x is now on par with Android 4.3 in terms of support. Linaro has also decided to provide quarterly stable released with GCC, and Linaro GCC 4.7-2014.01 is the first quarterly stable release with the next one planned with Linaro 14.04. Here are the highlights of this release: Linaro Stable Kernel (LSK) 3.10.28-2014.01 with latest version of GTS patch set for big.LITTLE, and Android support Linux Linaro 3.13-2014.01: gator version 5.17 updated linaro-android-3.13-merge topic by John Stultz, the “Revert “PM / Sleep: Require CAP_BLOCK_SUSPEND to use wake_lock/wake_unlock” patch included uprobes v4 updated big-LITTLE-pmu topic from ARM Landing Team (LT) updated […]

January 30, 2014January 30, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Framaroot is an Android App to Root Mediatek, Qualcomm, Exynos, etc.. Based Devices

Most of the time, when you want to root an Android devices, you may think you have to start your computer, and in many cases, it has to be a PC running Windows, which can be a real pain. Google does not allow apps that provide root access in Google Play, and all you can install are apps that can check whether your device is rooted such as Root Checker. For some reasons, today I needed to root my smartphone (ThL W200, Mediatek MT6589T), and I looked for a method working with Linux, and I did not find any, but I came across Framaroot, an Android app, that allows you to do that within your Android device without external hardware required. Framaroot is very easy to use and support different exploit in order to provide root access to many devices based on Mediatek (Boromir or Faramir exploits), Qualcomm (Gandalf exploit), […]

January 30, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Dell Wyse Cloud Connect Android mini PC is Now Available for $129

Dell unveiled Project Ophelia about a year ago, and has now officially launched the product under the name Wyse Cloud Connect for $129. The device runs Android, but is mostly different from all the Chinese HDMI sticks thanks to its enterprise-oriented firmware that supports Wyse Cloud Client Manager software-as-a-service (SaaS), PocketCloud software, as well as Citrix Receiver, VMware Horizon View client, and Microsoft RDP protocol for remote desktops. Wyse Cloud Connect specifications: SoC – Multi-core ARM CortexA9 System-on-Chip (SoC). Last year’s prototype was said to use Rockchip RK3066, but it may have changed since then. System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (up to 64 GB) Video Output – HDMI with MHL, DisplayPort Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 USB – 1x USB mini for peripherals (keyboard/mouse), 1x Micro USB host port / external power input Power – Micro […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

January 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

GPS/GSM Yon Bike Lamp Let You Track Your Bicycle

Everything is getting smart these days. We’ve got smart phones, smart watches, smart homes, etc…, and now we’ve got smart bicycles thanks to products such as Yon Bike Lamp by Nastek Tecnologia, a Brazilian company, that can track and report your bicycle location for riding statistics and/or in case of theft. There are not that many technical details, but we do know the bicycle taillight features Telit GL865-QUAD GSM/GPRS module supporting 4 GSM bands: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz, compliant with eCall European directive, and that’s control using Python scripts. The chip most probably helps with location tracking thanks to m2mLOCATE service which accesses a database of over 40 million cell-IDs. The light gets its location via GPS, and connects to the outside via GSM/GPRS and SMS. You can either login to a website or via an Android or iOS app in order to access the light […]

January 29, 2014February 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Acer AerialCast Miracast Adapter Powered by Realtek RTD1185PA + RTL8192DV

Details about Acer AerialCast, a Miracast dongle have recently showed up on the FCC website. The device is an upcoming Miracast adapter features RTD1185PA media SoC and RTL8192DV Wi-Fi module, which specifications very similar to what is found in AX-01 Miracast/DLNA adapter. The specifications have not been listed, but can be derived from FCC documents and pictures: SoC – Realtech RTD1185PA MIPS24Kc processor @ 500MHz System Memory – 128 MB DDR3 SDRAM – (Etrontech EM6GC16EWXA) Storage – 128 MB NAND Flash – ESMT F59L1G81A Video Codecs – H.264, VC1, RM/RMVB, AVS Decoder USB – 1x micro USB for power WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n via Realtek RTL8192DV module Video Output – HDMI Misc – 1x LED Power Supply – 5V/1A. The device sent to the FCC came with a 5V/1A power adapter, a micro USB cable, an HDMI cable, and a technical documentation. The device will be sold under the name […]