CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

October 20, 2011October 20, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Leveraging Android’s Linux Heritage at Android Open 2011

The first Android Open Conference took place about 10 days ago. Karim Yaghmour of OperSys published the presentation slides he used during his Android presentations. See Leveraging Android’s Linux Heritage presentation slides below which explain how to use existing Linux application in Android. Those 15 slides cover the following: Goal Rationale Stack Comparison Roadblocks Where do I start? Coexistence Approaches Unresolved / Uncharted Demo You can also check out the Embedded Android Workshop presentation.

October 20, 2011October 20, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Embedded Android Workshop at Android Open 2011

The first Android Open Conference took place about 10 days ago. Karim Yaghmour of OperSys published the presentation slides he used during his Android presentations. See Embedded Android Workshop presentation slides below. Those 159 slides cover the following: Android Basics Android History Android Ecosystem Legal Framework for Android Platform and Hardware requirements Development Tools Concepts and Internals: Android Concepts Framework Intro Native Development Overall Architecture System startup Linux Kernel Hardware Support Native User-Space Dalvik JNI System Server Calling on Services Activity Manager Binder Stock AOSP Apps Android Open Source Projects Tools and location Content Building Build system Adding new applications Images Using adb System Server Services run by System Server Observing the System Server Calling on system services Inside a few system services Creating your own system service Hardware Abstraction Layer Android Framework Location and components Android Customization Custom Toolchains and Dev Kits Rationale SDK generation NDK generation Creating a […]

October 20, 2011October 21, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

ARM Unveils Cortex-A7 and big.LITTLE processing

ARM unveiled the Cortex A7, a new core with higher performance than the Cortex A8 (1.5x) and with 5 times less power consumption. It will be used in conjunction with Cortex-A15 Core and allows big.LITTLE processing where the Cortex A7 (companion core) takes care of the low performance, low power tasks (social network, email, SMS, phone calls) and the Cortex A15 kicks in for high performance tasks such as video processing and gaming. Here’s an excerpt of the Cortex A7 / big.LITTLE processing press release: ARM today announced the ARM® Cortex™-A7 MPCore™ processor – the most energy-efficient application class processor ARM has ever developed, and big.LITTLE processing – a flexible approach that redefines the traditional power and performance relationship. The Cortex-A7 processor builds on the low-power leadership established by the Cortex-A8 processor that is at the heart of many of today’s most popular smartphones. A single Cortex-A7 processor delivers 5x […]

October 19, 2011March 27, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android 4.0 SDK and Platform Highlights

Google has just released Android 4.0 (ICS) preview SDK and platform highlights. Android 4.0 Highlights Summary New User Features: Refined, evolved UI – Common action more visible, new typeface, improved multitaksing and notifications. Home screen folders and favorites tray – New home screen folders offer a new way for users to group their apps and shortcuts logically. Resizable widgets – Interactive widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink them to save space New lock screen actions – The lock screens now let users do more without unlocking such as accessing the camera app. Quick responses for incoming calls – Respond by pre-written SMS if you are busy during a call Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs Improved text input and spell-checking – The softkeyboard now comes with a spell-checker and can automatically correct typos. Powerful voice input engine – Talk to […]

October 19, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Delete Old Revisions to Reduce Time to First Byte for WordPress Blogs

I’ve already implemented several steps to improve this blog performance: Install W3 Total Cache plugin. Register to CloudFlare CDN to reduce the load on the server. Those two work pretty well, but there was still a problem with the Time to First Byte according to http://www.webpagetest.org. It got an F mark for First Byte Time. Sometimes I would get TTFB (Time To First Byte) of 20 seconds and more. TTFB is synonym of slow back-end processing either because of poorly optimized software or insufficient hardware specs or both. Part of the problem is probably due to my hosting provider (I use a shared hosting) and I sometimes get very high server load in CPanel (e.g. 50 (4 cpus)) whether my blog is running or not. But I found a blog post explaining how to try to reduce the TTFB for WordPress blog by installing Better Delete Revision plugin in order […]

October 19, 2011October 19, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Galaxy Nexus Promotion Video

After Google / Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 Presentation this morning, here’s the Galaxy Nexus Promotion Video.

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

October 19, 2011October 19, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Online Petition Requesting to Allow Linux Installation on Windows 8 Devices

Back in September, some concerns emerged about UEFI secure boot requirement for Windows 8 and its possible consequences on Linux and other open source operating systems: it may be impossible to install such systems on computers or devices shipped with Windows 8, either by replacing Windows 8 or in a dual boot installation as the bootloader (UEFI) would prevent such installation for security reasons. Microsoft has already replied to those concerns and stated that: At the end of the day, the customer is in control of their PC. … We work with our OEM ecosystem to provide customers with this flexibility. The security that UEFI has to offer with secure boot means that most customers will have their systems protected against boot loader attacks. For the enthusiast who wants to run older operating systems, the option is there to allow you to make that decision. So there should be an […]

October 19, 2011October 19, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Google and Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android 4.0 Smartphone

Samsung and Google jointly announced the very first Android 4.0 (ICS) smartphone in Hong Kong. They did not get too original to name the device. Remember the Nexus S and Galaxy S series? Well, the smartphone is named Galaxy Nexus. The phone features a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP4460 processor, a 4.65″ super AMOLED plus display (1280×720), LTE/HSPA+ network support, 1080p video recoding, NFC, barometer and more. It will be sold in the US, Europe and Asia (including Japan and China) in November. After Samsung showcased the smartphone, Google presented the new Android 4.0 (ICS). 3 Design principles: Beautiful: Enchant me Easy: Simplify my life Powerful and Smart Here are the main points I gatherer of Android 4 presentation: The new UI uses the Roboto font. They removed the physical buttons on the smartphone. Everything is now done with gestures. It looks like Honeycomb for smartphone with stacks and widgets. Widgets […]