CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 29, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

TP-Link TPmini “Android-on-TV” Box Features 2MP Webcam

Since the beginning of the year, we’ve started to see more and more Android media player with a camera that can be apposed on top of your TV such as the Archos TV Connect. Let’s call them “Android-on-TV” boxes / media players. Several Chinese manufacturers are also selling this type of device, but none of them have brand recognition in the West. TP-Link, however, is relatively well known for its cheap routers, and the company has introduced the TPmini powered by a dual core processor with 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, and a 2.0MP camera. Here are the specs of the device: SoC – Dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor @ 1.6 GHz + Quad core ARM Mali 400 GPU (They did not say, but it looks like Rockchip RK3066 to me) System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + microSD slot (Up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI […]

April 29, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linux 3.9 Release

Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.9: So the last week was much quieter than the preceding ones, which makes me suspect that one reason -rc7 was bigger than I liked was that people were gaming the system and had timed some of their pull requests for just before the release, explaining why -rc7 was big enough that I didn’t actually want to do a final release last week. Please don’t do that. Anyway. Whatever the reason, this week has been very quiet, which makes me much more comfortable doing the final 3.9 release, so I guess the last -rc8 ended up working. Because not only aren’t there very many commits here, even the ones that made it really are tiny and not pretty obscure and not very interesting. Also, this obviously means that the merge window is open. I won’t be merging anything today, but if […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

April 29, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

CoAction Hero – Low Cost ARM Cortex-M3 Board Running Open Source CoActionOS RTOS

CoAction Hero is a tiny board based on an ARM Cortex-M3 micro-controller (NXP LPC1759), that makes use of CoActionOS ecosystem that includes the hardware, but also an open source RTOS allowing multiple app to run concurrently, and a graphical interface to communicate with the board. First, let’s have a look at the hardware specs: Micro-controller – NXP LPC1759 ARM Cortex-M3 processor @ 120MHz with 64kB RAM and 512kB Flash ROM. Storage – 1MB serial flash chip (pre-loaded with CoActionOS) Expansion port micro USB connector. 40 I/O pins are available on both sides of the board, and the board can be inserted in a breadboard. You can currently connect 2 modules to the board: Bluetooth and LCD device boards. CoActionOS RTOS will come pre-loaded on the board, and if you don’t want to, you don’t even need to know it’s there, and it’s use will be transparent. But let’s have a […]

April 28, 2013April 29, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments

AMLogic To Unveil 4 Core Cortex A9 AML8726-M8 SoC with 8 Core Mali GPU

Last Thursday, Geniatech announced an upcoming Android Set-Top Box called ATV1800 featuring a quad core AMLogic processor, more memory, and running Android 4.2, and that will support XBMC. They also expect the device to be available in May for 20 to 24 USD more than the dual core version. There are not enough details about the device itself, so I won’t cover it now, but I had never heard about quad core processor from AMLogic. I’ve finally been told it was AML8726-M8 without much details, except it should be available in Q3 2013, which does not seem match May target for Geniatech’s STB. Luckily, a Google search helped a lot, so we already know some of the key features for this new SoC: Quad Core Cortex A9 @ 2.0 GHz (20,000 DMIPS) Eight Core “Next-Gen” Mali GPU with 3,000 MPixel/s fill rate, 110MT/s, and 45GFLOPS. The GPU is said to […]

April 28, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Collaborative Comparison Table for HDMI TV Dongles

With so many HDMI TV dongles available on the market, wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a database to compare them all? The only issue is that it’s a lot of work to setup and maintain, so it’s unlikely one person is ready to spend his/her time entering such a lot of data. To work around this issue, and use the power of the crowd, Ian Morrison posted a link on Google+ mini PCs community to a “USB-dongle computers comparison table” powered by socialcompare.com where anybody can add or edit entries with the detailed specifications for each device I’ve given it a try and added GK802 / Hi802 mini PC. You’ll need to sign-in to Social compare, or simply use Facebook for login. You can then click on “+” icon, then enter the name of the device, and click on “Create an Item”, and a new column should […]

April 27, 2013April 28, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Tronsmart MK908 Quad Core HDMI TV Stick Review

Yesterday, I published some pictures of MK908, and this morning I updated it to the latest firmware, so it’s time to review this mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 SoC. First Boot, Settings, and First Impressions First of all, the firmware update has not changed the Home Screen, and we still get a standard Android Home Screen with an animated wallpaper. Screenshot and volume buttons are shown in the status bar, but there’s no soft power button, and no full screen button. Hopefully the power button can be added in next firmware update, and as we’ll see later the lack of full screen button is not really an issue. As usual, I’ve gone to the settings menu to configure Wi-Fi, and I had no problem to connect. The device also supports Bluetooth (built-in), and you can setup to device with VPN, as a hotspot, and add […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

April 27, 2013November 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Yocto Project 1.4 “Dylan” Release

The Yocto Project Release 1.4 has just been announced. This release codenamed “Dylan” and based on Poky 9.0.0 is the sixth release of the project. The Yocto Project is a framework that creates embedded Linux distributions, and has been getting more and more traction with silicon vendors such as Intel, Freescale and Texas Instruments. Yocto Project 1.4 bring the following new features and updates: Major performance improvements – The overall build time has been reduced by more than 10%. Kernel build time is reduced by about 25%. With rm_work enabled, 40% less storage will be used for the tmp directory. Smart, a replacement for zypper Support for read-only rootfs Wayland support, an X replacement. Systemd support, a replacement for the system V init daemon. Usability improvements to HOB, bitbake, yocto-bsp and other tools, including UI improvements, new features and bug fixes. Documentation improvement/update and a new kernel development manual and […]

April 27, 2013May 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

How to Flash Firmware to Rockchip RK3188 HDMI TV Sticks

Yesterday, I’ve received MK908 mini PC featuring Rockchip RK3188, and a new firmware is available, so before further testing I’ll flash the firmware to the device basically using the instructions from Geekbuying. This method use standard Rockchip tools, so it should work for any RK3188 devices. But first a little rant. Those instructions only work on Windows operating systems, so if you’re using Linux or Mac, you’re out of luck until you find a Windows PC, or launch Windows in a virtual machine. This method should just be used in case the device can’t boot, or you have serious issue with the device firmware, but it is also used for firmware upgrade for Rockchip mini PCs. This is just wrong. Typical users should not be asked to install software and drivers, press the recovery button, just to upgrade their firmware. The best very way would be OTA updates, but maybe this […]

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