Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Google Releases Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Unveils New Nexus 7 Tablet

Google Releases Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Unveils New Nexus 7 Tablet

Yesterday was a big day for Google with several important announcements, including the Chromecast HDMI TV dongle, an updated version of Nexus 7 tablet, and the release of Android 4.3, still codenamed Jelly Bean. In this post, I’ll start with the hardware, and move to explain what’s new with Android 4.3, and where you can download source and images for your device. New Nexus 7 The new Nexus 7 tablet will run Android 4.3 on the following hardware: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor @ 1.5GHz with Adreno 320 GPU @ 400MHz System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB to 32GB of storage Display – 7″ IPS display (1920 x 1200) Connectivity – Dual band 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi (2.4G/5G), Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC Camera – 5MP rear camera and 1.2MP front camera Video Output –  HDMI output (via SlimPort) Audio – Stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone USB – […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments on Google Unveils $35 Chromecast HDMI TV Stick

Google Unveils $35 Chromecast HDMI TV Stick

For over a year now, we’ve seen many Android HDMI TV Sticks (which I often call mini PCs), a few Linux ones, but Google has just announced its own stick based on a strip down version of Chrome OS. It’s not as versatile as others as it only streams video and music, but it make sharing media easy, and is controlled via your Android or iOS mobile device, or your Windows PC or Mac via Chrome web browser. The connection is just the same as other HDMI dongles. Connect it to the HDMI port of your TV, power it via USB, and setup Wi-Fi. When I first saw the demonstration, I was disappointed as it just seemed like you could do the same thing with a DLNA dongle, but it’s actually quite different. First, Chromekey only works with online services such as YouTube, Netflix, Google Play Movie & TV and […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on $359 Red Pitaya Board Combines an Oscilloscope, a Spectrum Analyser, a Waveform Generator and More

$359 Red Pitaya Board Combines an Oscilloscope, a Spectrum Analyser, a Waveform Generator and More

If you need to setup an electronics lab, the cost of equipment such as an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, can quickly add up and become expensive. There are already some attempts at low cost measurement devices such as the $35 ExpEyes Junior or pocket size digital storage oscilloscopes (~$200), but those are far from the performance achieved with regular measurement devices. Red Pitaya measurement board brings the performance level and flexibility a bit higher, and stays relatively low cost at $359, with a Linux-based solution based on Xilinx Zynq dual Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC. Hardware Specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq Z7010 dual core Cortex A9 CPU + FPGA System Memory – 1GB DDR2 RAM Storage – microSD card slot (For system and FPGA images, and data) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet USB – 2x micro USB ports (1 for power, 1 for console), and 1x USB 2.0 Host port Signals: 2x […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on Samsung Unveils a New Exynos 5 Octa (5420) With Greater CPU and GPU Processing Power

Samsung Unveils a New Exynos 5 Octa (5420) With Greater CPU and GPU Processing Power

Samsung announced the first Octo-core ARM processor, and the first using big.LITTLE technolocy at CES 2013 in January, and today the company has announced a new Exynos 5 Octa (Exynos 5420) with a six-core ARM Mali-T628 MP6 GPU  (interestingly ditching PowerVR SGX544MP3 in the process), as well as 4 ARM Cortex-A15 cores at 1.8GHz, and 4 Cortex-A7 cores at 1.3GHz. Samsung claims Mali-T628 MP6 boosts 3D graphic processing capabilities by over two times compared to the PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU used in Exynos 5410. The ARM GPU also supports General-Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) to accelerate complex and computationally intensive algorithms or operations, with API such as OpenCL 1.1. This product also supports OpenGL ES 3.0 to enable the processing powered requires by high-end, complex games. Even it’s still using 4x Cortex-A15, 4x Cortex-A7 big.LITTLE processing configuration, the company claims CPU processing capability has been improved by about 20 percent […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Ubuntu Edge Smartphone PC Hits Indiegogo

Ubuntu Edge Smartphone PC Hits Indiegogo

Canonical has announced Ubuntu for Phones and Ubuntu for Tablets at the beginning of the year, with the goal of bringing Ubuntu operating system to mobile devices, and transform high-end devices into the new PC when they are connected to an HDMI display. It turns out mobile phone manufacturers may not be ready to take the risk launching a completely new high-end platform to the market, so Canonical decided to leverage the power of crowdfunding but launching an Indiegogo campaign for Ubuntu Edge, a smartphone with hardware specs like no others, capable of running both Android and Ubuntu, and fully replacing your PC when docked. Ubuntu Edge Preliminary/Targeted Specifications: SoC – “Fastest Multicore Processor Available” System Memory – At least 4 GB RAM Storage – 128 GB flash Display – 4.5″ display with the best balance of resolution (720p), dynamic range and color accuracy, covered with sapphire crystal glass (Unscratchable, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on Mediatek Smartphone and Tablet SoC Product Line (Mess) Explained

Mediatek Smartphone and Tablet SoC Product Line (Mess) Explained

This week-end, I have been tipped about a $91 Mediatek MT8317 based 7″ Phablet, but I really did not know what to think about it as Mediatek seems to have so many SoCs, and really felt lazy trying to dig information about this. Yet, in the back of my head, I had decided to eventually make a post trying to clarifying Mediatek SoCs. This morning, I felt relieved not to have to spend hours investigating, as AndroidPC.es found an analyst paper doing just that, at least for recent and upcoming Mediatek processors. Mediatek Smartphone SoCs Roadmap MT6589 is certainly the most common SoC for cheap quad core smartphones, and starting this month, it will be available in MT6589M and MT6589T versions, the former with a weak video processing unit (VPU) and ISP, and GPU frequency, and the latter with higher GPU and CPU frequencies. Contrary to the table below, MT6589 […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on Fedora 19 ARM Remix R1 Release With Support for AllWinner A10, A10s, A13 and A20 SoCs

Fedora 19 ARM Remix R1 Release With Support for AllWinner A10, A10s, A13 and A20 SoCs

After releasing a stable version of Fedora 18 for AllWinner A10 and A13 in February, Hans de Goede, working at Red Hat and a Fedora contributor, has recently announced “Fedora 19 ARM remix for Allwinner SOCs” on linux-sunxi community mailing list. This released based on Fedora 19 for ARM together with linux-sunxi kernel and u-boot, adds support for A10s and A20 based devices, and 38 boards and devices are now supported. To give it a try, download the 665MB image:

then write it to an SD card (8GB or greater):

Where you have to replace [device] with your actual SD card device, e.g. sdc.Since u-boot is board/product specific, you’ll also have to update u-boot for your hardware. Remove the SD card, re-insert it, and run:<

to display a graphical menu (if dialog is installed on your Linux PC), or a list supported boards and products:

Select […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on The Little Black Box XBMC STB Gets Users’ Feedback, Becomes Available on Amazon

The Little Black Box XBMC STB Gets Users’ Feedback, Becomes Available on Amazon

The Little Black Black Box (TLBB) is an set-top box running XBMC powered by AMLogic AML8726-M3 with 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash that comes with a dual sided RF remote control. The device became available for pre-order in April, and the first customers have started to receive the media player, one of them (flipfoelyfe) has uploaded a video, and posted some pictures. After initial issues setting up Wi-Fi (A bug seems to prevent the use of long passwords), his tweets about the device are rather positive, and he uploaded a short video demo showing Sports-a-Holic plugin playing a live NBA match, and a ESPN Boxing program. Whereas you had to pre-order and be patient for the first batch, LTBB is now available on Amazon for $129.99. Considering it also includes a dual sided RF remote control with a QWERTY keyboard, this single core set-top box is about the same price, or […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications