CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 30, 2012November 30, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Kimdecent T21 mini PC Unboxing and Review

Androidpc.es has written a review for the low cost ($49) Kimdecent T21 dual core mini PC in Spanish, and I’ll provide a summary of the review in English below. Kimdecent T21 Unboxing Kimdecent T21 is an Android 4.1 HDMI TV Stick powered by Nufront NS115 dual core Cortex A9 processor. Check out my earlier post about Kimdecent T21 for specifications. The package comes with T21 mini PC, a power adapter with USB to micro USB cable, and a user manual in English. You can also watch T21 Unboxing Video on YouTube. Kimdecent T21 User Interface & System Overview The user interface is a standard Android screen, albeit with power and volume buttons in the Status Bar. I don’t really find this interface very suitable for the TV, but you can always install your own launcher such as Android TV Launcher (apk), or other launcher apps available on Google Play. Beside […]

November 30, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 12.11 Release with Linux Kernel 3.7 and Android 4.2

Linaro release 12.11 has just been announced, and includes Linux Kernel 3.7-rc2 and Android 4.2. The tracking version (stable release) uses Kernel 3.4.19. This release upgrade Android to version 4.2, adds support for Origen 4 Quad board, and you can now use perf profiling utility in Linaro Android. Initial GRUB support for ARM is now available, the Ubuntu Precise server image is back online and lots of updates have been done on the kernel, mainly for Android, device tree and big.LITTLE. Here are the highlights of the release: Android Platform Enablement Android upgraded from 4.1.2 to 4.2 to all the platforms Android builds are available for Origen 4412 board setup Improvements to click-through license infrastructure MP3 playback enabled for ARM Versatile Express and Samsung Origen (4210 and 4412) Fixed riff USB issue on newer laptops Testing/LAVA Re-enabled Android CTS testing Integrated the new Methanol browser test Upstreaming Perf patch was […]

November 29, 2012November 29, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

SoC Power Measurement with ARM Energy Probes and Linux EAP Tools

Andy Green, TI Landing Team lead at Linaro, gave an interesting presentation entitled “How to measure SoC power” at Linaro Connect Europe 2012. This talk was specifically aimed at software engineers, so that they know how to properly measure power consumption, and take actions to optimize the software to decrease it. In the first part of the presentation, he gives an overview of electronics basics with definition of voltage, load, current and power, units used for power measurements (Clue: you need to use Watts), and how voltage, current and power can be measured with voltmeters and ammeters. When you want to measure power in a rail, you would usually insert a shun resistor, use a multimeter and derive the power from the resistance and the measured voltage (P=V2/R). He also gives details about regulator efficiency, choosing measurement sampling… There are 4 common measurements strategies: DC IN – Easiest way, gives the complete […]

November 29, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Wise Tivi Announces Three Android 4.2 Media Players based on Rockchip RK3066 Starting at $59.99

Wise Tivi is a new company that recently launched 3 Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) products based on what appears to be Rockchip RK3066 processor: Wise Tivi Camera ($89.99) – A set-top box with a front camera that can be conveniently placed on top of the TV. Wise Tivi Portable ($79.99) – The mini PC / PC-on-an-HDMI-stick version. Wise Tivi Box ($59.99) – A standard Android set-top box with IR remote control. According to the company website, all 3 devices share the following specifications: SoC – Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 1.6Ghz with Quad-core ARM Mali-400 MP (Rockchip RK3066) System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4 GB Nand Flash (up to 16GB) and microSD card slot Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Video Output – HDMI 1.3 (up to 1920×1080 resolution), USB – 1 x micro USB OTG, 1x SB 2.0 HOST and 1x micro USB for power. Video – […]

November 28, 2012May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Xibo for Android on Mele A1000 Set-top Box & WM8850-MID Tablet

Earlier this month, Xibo developers announced the beta version Xibo for Android was available for testing. Contrary to the Linux & Windows clients and servers which are open source, Xibo for Android is developed by Spring Signage and will available commercially. This sponsorship will help finance the development of Xibo open source software: the 2 clients (.net in Windows, Python in Linux), the server and API. The current beta version supports the most important features of the Windows client, but lacks support for Adobe Flash, Microsoft PowerPoint, Datasets, Microblog, Stats, Counter Media, Socket Listener, Lift/Serial Interface Support, Offline Update via USB Drive, Full Compositing (overlapping regions) and Video Transparency. If you want to test the Xibo client for android, you can register for the private BETA and download an APK (Xibo_Android_Clientv1.0.12.apk) to install on your Android devices. Being part of the BETA program will also guarantee you a price of […]

November 28, 2012December 9, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

2012 Embedded Market Study – Software Development & Processors

I’ve just come across an Embedded System Study by UBM published in April 2012. The company surveyed over 1,700 professionals working on embedded systems who are mainly based in the US (56%), but also in Europe (21%) and Asia (12%). The report is 87 long, but I found some of the slides are particularly interesting in regards to programming languages, operating systems and software life cycle, as well as processor/micro-controller choices. Unsurprisingly C (65%), C++ (20%) and assembler (5%) are still the main languages used for embedded software development. In this report, we also learn that the average team is composed of 14.5 members including 5.6 software engineers, 5.6 hardware engineers and 3.3 firmware engineers. 2012 was the first year they included QA Engineers and system integrators both with 2.6 members on average working on projects lasting from less than 6 months to over 25 months. UBM survey also provides a […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

November 27, 2012November 29, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Antutu Benchmark 3.0 Release

As I mentioned in the list of Android benchmarks, Antutu was going to release version 3.0 of the benchmarking tool on the 26th of November. This is now done, and if you go over Google Play, you can download Antutu Benchmark 3.0. They have improved a couple of things over 2.xx version mainly on the graphics side: New OpenGL ES 2.0 3D benchmark for 3D game performance test. Fully new 2D benchmark for 2D game performance test. Add compare page to compare scores with hot devices. Auto stop the benchmark if detected the app has been modified. Redesigned and adjustment app UI. Enhance SDCard path detection. Fixed some web page auto pop up bug. Fixed sometimes get stuck in splash screen. Fixed submit score page appear twice after benchmark. Update Italian and Ukraine translate. I have tried the new version on my WM8850-MID Tablet, and the first thing I’ve noticed […]

November 27, 2012November 27, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Le Labo Citoyen Gasser – Raspberry Pi Based High Precision Pollution Monitoring System

“Le Labo Citoyen” is a recently founded French non-profit organization aimed at “promoting and experimenting with innovating and free technologies for the citizens and the environment”. Their first project is to gather pollution data (NO2, O3, and SO2 levels) in Paris using 2 (soon to be) open source components: Gasser – Self-contained mobile sensor currently powered by the Raspberry Pi ThingStream – Open source IoT datastore which should be similar to iDigi Cloud, except you can just store data in your own server or on “Le Labo Citoyen” servers. Gasser has four main parts: Sensor(s) – Alphasense B4-series sensors (black and red component in the top left of the main box) with accuracy of up to <10 ppb (parts-per-billion). Cost: ~110 Euros. They currently only use the NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) sensor. ADC & Computer – Raspberry Pi (Cost: ~30 Euros) & Delta-Sigma ADC (Cost: ~30 Euros). Communication Medium – Huawei […]

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