CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 17, 2013April 18, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Tronsmart T428 Android 4.2.2 mini PC Powered by Rockchip RK3188

There have been many new HDMI TV dongle based on the latest Rockchip RK3188 lately, and I listed some of them in comments in CloudnetGo CR9’s post. The only issue is that you can’t buy most of them, just pre-order. Now it seems at least one of them, Tronsmart T428 is available now, and costs $99 on Geekbuying. This mini PC comes with 2GB RAM, 8 GB Flash, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and for the first time, AFAIK, a mini PC can be used as Miracast display. Here are Tronsmart T428 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex-A9 up to 1.8GHz + quad core Mali-400 MP4 @ 533MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 @ 1333MHz (Hynix) Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD slot (Up to32GB) Connectivity: Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n/ac (via Broadcom AP6330) Bluetooth – BT4.0 (via Broadcom AP6330) USB – 1x USB 2.0 host + 1x micro […]

April 17, 2013April 17, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Asus Cube Google TV Unboxing and Demo Video

The Asus Qube, featuring Google TV 3.0 supporting, was first unveiled at CES 2013. Since then the device has lost its “Q”, has been renamed to Asus Cube, and is now available for pre-order in the US for $139.99 in Newegg, a bit earlier than initially planned (Q3 2012), but slightly more expensive than the $130 we were told to expect in January. The device will start to ship on 24th of April. First, just a quick reminder of the specs. Asus Cube is based on Marvell Armada 1500 Google TV platform, features HDMI out (for TV), HDMI in (for satellite or cable receiver), 2x USB ports, a IR blaster port and provides both Ethernet and Wi-Fi 802.11n connectivity. The Cube is a cube (duh!) measuring about 12.44 cm on each side. Newegg has uploaded a 21 minutes video discussing about the device with an Asus representative, describing the accessories […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

April 16, 2013March 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Texas Instruments Announces Tiva Cortex M4 MCUs and $12.99 LaunchPad Evaluation Kit

Texas Instruments has just announced the Tiva ARM MCU platform, and specifically the Tiva C Series TM4C123x ARM Cortex-M4 MCUs, which are the first Cortex-M MCUs to be built on 65 nanometer flash process technology. The Tiva C Series TM4C123x MCUs, formerly known as Stellaris LM4F MCUs, are available now and target home, building and industrial automation. Key features and benefits of Tiva C Series MCUs: MCU Core – ARM Cortex-M4 floating-point core, operating at up to 80 MHz. Mixed-signal applications with high-performance analog integration – 2×12-bit ADC and 3 comparators.12-bit ADC accuracy is achievable at the full 1 MSPS rating without any hardware averaging. On-chip connectivity options – USB (host, device and On-The-Go), UARTs, I2C, SSI/SPI, CAN, etc.. Non-volatile storage of user interface or configuration parameters to reduce system cost – Thanks to integrated EEPROM. Low power – Standby currents as low as 1.6 uA. Large choice of MCU […]

April 16, 2013April 16, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Actions Semi Announces ATM7023A Dual Core SoC for Tablets

Thanks to Actions Semiconductor ATM7029, you can now purchase quad core Android tablets for less than $100. They were at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair on 12-15 April, 2013, mainly to talk about ATM7029 capabilities such as up 6 simultaneous video playback, Android 4.2.2 support with Miracast, 1.3 GHz CPU clock (to be pushed to 1.5GHz later on), and so on. They also announced ATM7023A, a dual core Cortex processor targeting low costs tablets with the following characteristics: Dual core Cortex A9 family up to 1.2 GHz. 100% compatible with ARMv7 instructions Android 4.2.2 + Linux 3.4 OS. Seamless upgrade 3D GPU Advanced PMU, LPD GEN II architecture integrated, standby power over 1000 hours with a 8000 mAh battery. Display Interface – RGB, LVDS, MIPI support. Resolution up to 2048×1536 Video Decoding – 1080p60 Video Encoding – H.264 1080p30 Six videos playing simultaneously Quick Boot technology – Boots within 10 […]

April 15, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Android Set-top Boxes With Digital Satellite TV Receiver (DVB-S2)

There are now plenty of Android set-top boxes or HDMI TV sticks, but if you want to watch digital satellite or terrestrial TV, the options are limited. If you already have a satellite receiver at home, you could buy an Android set-top box with an HDMI input such as Huawei MediaQ M310, or use a DVB-S2 USB adapter, but you may need to acquire both the kernel source and DVB driver to compile it for your device. So for now, the last option is currently reserved for ODM/OEM as mentioned on Geniatech store. But today, I’m going to write about an Android set-top boxes that comes with a satellite receiver (DVB-S2). They are all based on AMLogic AML8726-M1/M3, and models include: Geniatech ATV1100B Hybrid DVB Box – Multiple standards STV-502 – DVB-S2 Monolithelec MINGLE – DVB-S2 Geniatech ATV1100B Key Features: SoC – AmLogic AML8726-M1 ARM Cortex A9 @ 800MHz System […]

April 14, 2013April 14, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Rockchip Unveils RK3168 Dual Core Processor, Showcases $10 Miracast Adapter

Rockchip is currently at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair showing off their RK3188 quad core processor, and corresponding products such as tablets, gamepads, HDMI TV dongles, etc… Business seems good as they already received orders for 800k pieces in about a month, and they expect to sell 10 to 15 millions over the course of the year. The company had also a few RK3066 devices on display, but more interestingly they announced RK3168, which also a dual core Cortex A9 processor, but with lower power consumption thanks to 28nm HKMG process, instead of the 40nm process used for Rockchip RK3066. They have a tablet prototype without battery connected to a power supply to show the power consumption, and the tablet under test consumes 280mA @ 3.8V (About 1 Watt) when decoding 1080p videos with the display brightness set to about 50%. Chen Feng, Vice President at Rockchip, explains that with […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

April 13, 2013July 24, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Allwinner Showcases A20, A31 and A31s Devices: Tablets, Phablets, Mini PCs, Projectors, Laptops, Development Boards…

Charbax is now at the China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong, meeting and interviewing lots of Chinese companies. One of the companies I’ve been following is AllWinner because of their low-cost ARM Cortex processors, found in many Android devices, which somewhat support Linux. In the video below, we first learn they have shipped 1 million A31 in the last 4 months, A31s and A20 processors have been available since the end of March for phablets, and A20 price is supposed to be very close to A10. So products based on AllWinner A10 could be upgraded to AllWinner A20 for just a few dollars more as both SoC are (nearly) pin to pin compatible. By the way, if you’re interested in the Cubieboard, you may want to see this. We then go through lots of devices based on AllWinner SoC, albeit too fast to get many details, but the list may […]

April 12, 2013April 13, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

MINIX To Launch Four New NEO Set-Top Boxes: X5+, X5 Mini, X3 & X7

MINIX is a company relatively well know for its Neo G4 mini PC and Neo X5 Android set-top box based on Rockchip RK3066. They’ve now announced 4 new devices for HKTDC Electronic Fair in Hong Kong: Neo X5+ – RK3066 Set-top box based on Neo X5, but with 2GB RAM instead of 1GB RAM. Neo X5 Mini – Low cost version of the Neo X5 with 8GB NAND Flash instead of 16GB, and missing Bluetooth support. Neo X3 – Android 4.1/4.2 Set-top box powered by AMLogic AML8726-M3 with 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. No word about Ethernet support. Neo X7 – Android Media Player based on Rockchip RK3188 with 2GB RAM, 16 GB RAM, HDMI, Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth support. The full specifications are not available yet, but the design of the box is nice, although it might not be to the taste of everybody, and I […]

Boardcon Rockchip RK3588S SBC with 8K, WiFI 6, 4G LTE, NVME SSD, HDMI 2.1...