CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 15, 2012November 15, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Infineon Unveils Low Cost XMC4500 Relax & Relax Lite Kits For Cortex M4 XMC4500 MCUs

Infineon XMC4500 micro-controller family is based on ARM Cortex-M4 core @ 120 MHz, comes with 128 to 160 KB SRAM, 512 KB to 1 MB “Program Memory” as well as interfaces & peripherals, such as DMA, Ethernet, USB, ADC, DAC, SPI, I2C, I2S, UART and more. They are specifically designed for industrial applications supporting temperatures up to 125°C. The family was announced at Embedded World 2012 in February, and mass production started in May. This week at Electronica 2012, the company announced two low cost development kits for XMC4500 MCU: XMC4500 Relax Lite Kit (10 Euros): XMC4500 Microcontroller (ARM® Cortex™-M4F based) Detachable on-board debugger Power over USB ESD and reverse current protection 2 x user button and 2 x user LED 4 x SPI-Master, 3x I2C, 3 x I2S, 3 x UART, 2 x CAN, 17 x ADC (12 bit), 2 x DAC, 31x PMW mapped on 2 Pin Headers […]

November 14, 2012November 30, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Kontron ULP-COM-sAMX6i – Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual and Quad Computers on Module

Freescale i.MX6 series was first announced in January 2011, and there have been delays due to problem with the silicon, but now the i.MX6 processors are finally in mass production, and lots of different products are using this SoC. The latest product I found is ULP-COM-sAMX6i by Kontron which is a series of computers on module based on ULP-COM (Ultra Low Power) standard featuring Freescale i.MX6 solo, dual and quad processors. Those commercial and industrial grade modules target markets such as transportation, medical and military. Here are the technical specifications of the modules: CPU – Freescale i.MX 6 Single, Dual and Quad Core ARM Cortex-A9 @ 800 MHz (Industrial grade), 1 GHz and 1.2 GHz System Memory – Up to 2 GB DDR3 Storage – Optional onBoard NAND/eMMC up to 64GB Graphics / Video – Dual Display, HD 1080p Decode/Encode and 2D/3D acceleration Video Output Resolution Parallel LCD 18/24 bit […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

November 14, 2012November 14, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Learn How to Write a Driver for Linux 3.x With The Linux Driver Template

A Linux Driver Template (LDT) has been published to help new Linux kernel developers writing hardware device drivers. Constantine Shulyupin posted the Linux Driver Template (LDT) on the Linux mailing list in order to merge it into the mainline Linux kernel. The code can be used as as a starting point for new drivers, and shows how to use several Linux facilities such as module, platform driver, file operations (read/write, mmap, ioctl, blocking and nonblocking mode, polling), kfifo, completion, interrupt, tasklet, work, kthread, timer, simple misc device, multiple char devices, Device Model, configfs, UART, hardware loopback, software loopback and ftracer. This sample has been added to other device drivers samples in eLinux.org. And if you want to learn further there’s always the Linux driver bible: “Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition” which can be downloaded for free as PDF, although it’s for 2.6.10 kernel and many parts may not be up-to […]

November 14, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Samsung Exynos 4412 (Origen 4 Quad Board) Open Source Development Schedule

If you’ve got an Exynos 4412 development board such as Hardkernel ODroid-X or Insignal Origen Quad, or even other devices based on Exynos 4412 such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, you may be interested to know the open source development schedule for the platform as show below (Source: Origenboard.org). Samsung already released the source code for Samsung Galaxy S3 in June, but this should add more recent drivers and support for more peripherals. The stable release should be available on the 21st of December 2012, but in the meantime, you could always pickup features earlier as they are being implemented. The code is available in http://git.insignal.co.kr/ (Git repository) and is maintained by both Insignal and Samsung.

November 14, 2012November 14, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

NXP Launches Cortex M0+ LPC800 MCU and $15 LPC812-LPCXpresso Board

Following ARM Cortex M0+ announcement in March 2012, NXP Semiconductors has just announced the LPC800, tiny 32-bit MCUs based on Cortex M0+ core @ 30 MHz designed to replace 8-bit MCUs, together with LPCXpresso development board for the LPC800. The MCUs come with 1 to 4KB SRAM, 4 to 16 KB Flash, several serial interfaces and are available in SO20, TSSOP20, TSSOP16 and even DIP8 packages. Here are the key features of NXP new ultra low power 32-bit MCU family: ARM Cortex-M0+processor up to 30 MHz, software compatible with Cortex M0, M3 and M4 cores Memories: 4 to 16 kB Flash (with 64 Byte page size) 1 to 4 kB SRAM Serial Peripherals: Up to 3 USART interfaces Up to 2 SPI controllers 1x I2C-bus interface Timers: Multiple-channel multi-rate timer (MRT) State Configurable Timer (SCT) Self Wake-up Timer (WKT) clocked from either the IRC or a low-power clock source Windowed […]

November 14, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android Jelly Bean 4.2 SDK, Source Code and Binary Images Are Now Available

As the Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet became available for purchase yesterday, Google released Android 4.2 SDK for developers and pushed Android 4.2 to AOSP. The Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) SDK platform (API level 17) brings the following key improvements: Performance – Renderscript computation can be run directly in the GPU on the Nexus 10. This is a first since Exynos 5250 is the first ARM processor capable of supporting GPGPU (via Mali-T604 GPU). See the chart of the right showing results between CPU and CPU+GPU computation of some multimedia benchmarks. Lock screen widgets – Users can now place interactive lock screen widgets directly on their device lock screens. This only requires a small update to adapt existing widgets to run on the lock screen. Daydream – An interactive screensaver mode that can be used when the device is charging or docked to a desk dock. Better external […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

November 13, 2012November 13, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments OMAP 5 Cortex A15 Systems-on-Module Galore

Today Texas Instruments published a press release to announce partners 6 company had worked to design and manufactures systems-on-module based on the dual core Cortex A15 OMAP 5 SoC and that those would be on display at Electronica Trade Faire this week (13-16 October) in Munich. Embedded++ EPP-Pico-OMAP5430 This solution is actually a Pico-ITX board based on OMAP5430 with 2 GB LP-DDR2, USB 3.0 SuperSpeed connectivity (1x USB 3.0, 3x USB 2.0), up to 16 GB eMMC storage, a SATA port, a 100Mb Ethernet port , UART, RS-323 & SPI ports, GPIOs, DVI and LVDS outputs, a serial camera input port, a micro SD card socket, Murata WiLink 8.0 connectivity solution (Wi-Fi, GNSS, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth v4.0 and FM technologies) and a built-in battery charger (1-cell Li-Ion). The company provides Linux and Android 4.1 BSP. Check the product page for a few more details. GreenBase GK-5432 GK-5432 is a computer on […]

November 13, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Google Unveils $199 Acer C7 Chromebook Powered by Intel Celeron 847

After the new (ARM based) Samsung Chromebook released last month, Google announced the Acer C7 Chromebook based on an Intel Celeron processor at a cheaper price ($199 vs $249), but at the cost of shorter battery life and the addition of a fan. Beside the Celeron processor @ 1.1 GHz, the new Acer C7 Chromebook comes with 2 GB RAM, a 320 GB hard drive, features a 11,6″ display, weights 1.3 kg and the 37Wh battery can last for over 3.5 hours. Other features include Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth. The Acer Chromebook comes with 3 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI & VGA video outputs, a 2-in-1 card reader, a webcam, built-in stereo speaker and audio jacks for headphones and microphones. Whereas the Exynos 5250 can boot in less than 10 seconds (Thanks partialy to the SSD), the new Acer Chromebook boots up in 18 seconds which is not too bad. Google will […]