Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Freescale i.MX6 in Tablet PC by First International Computer (FIC)

Freescale i.MX6 in Tablet PC by First International Computer (FIC)

Back in January 2011, Freescale announced the availability of its new i.MX 6 Processor series based on Cortex A9 with sample delivery at the end of 2011. Freescale has now revealed that First International Computer (FIC) – 大眾電腦 – a Taiwanese company –  has adopted Freescale Semiconductor’s i.MX 6 series microprocessors for use in tablet PCs at the 2011 Freescale Technology Forum China on August 30. FIC will use Freescale’s i.MX 6 MPUs in its new line of tablet PCs with a price target sub-200 USD in order to differentiate itself from major competitors. The Freescale i.MX 6 is based on the ARM Cortex-A9 architecture running at up to 1.2 GHz and come in single core (i.MX6 Solo), dual core (i.MX6 Dual) and quad Core I.MX6 Quad). Currently there are no further information on the FIC tablet specifications.  

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on NFC (Near Field Communication) Infographic

NFC (Near Field Communication) Infographic

NFC rumors has designed a massive NFC Infographic to show (some of) the many different usages of NFC and the impacts NFC may have such as: NFC Services in hotels, taxis, ticket offices… NFC gadgets: routers, wireless speakers, headphones… NFC Marketing: tags, business cards, smart posters… 1/5 of smartphones will be NFC-enabled by 2014 NFC may have a positive environmental impact as it decreases the number of paper receipts. NFC Business Case: Exponential growth expected in the next few years NFC in tablets NFC and social network NFC would allow unbanked consumers in developing countries to use electronic payment more easily. etc.. See the infographic below. Click for a larger image.

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Android NDK revision 6b

Android NDK revision 6b

Google has just released Android Native Development Kit Revision 6b, the Android SDK that allows developers to reuse C/C++ code. It is a bug fix version without new feature compared to Revision 6. Here’s the Changelog of the most important bug fixes: Fixed the build when APP_ABI=”armeabi x86″ is used for multi-architecture builds. Fixed the location of prebuilt STLport binaries in the NDK release package. A bug in the packaging script placed them in the wrong location. Fixed atexit() usage in shared libraries with the x86standalone toolchain. Fixed make-standalone-toolchain.sh –arch=x86. It used to fail to copy the proper GNU libstdc++ binaries to the right location. Fixed the standalone toolchain linker warnings about missing the definition and size for the __dso_handle symbol (ARM only). Fixed the inclusion order of $(SYSROOT)/usr/include for x86 builds. See the bug for more information. Fixed the definitions of ptrdiff_t and size_t in x86-specific systems when they […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Wyse Announced Two Linux Thin clients: Z50S and Z50D

Wyse Announced Two Linux Thin clients: Z50S and Z50D

Wyse Technology announced that its fastest thin clients ever, the Z90D7  and Z90DW are now shipping at VMworld 2011.  You can have a look at AMD Embedded G-Series mini-PC, motherboard and thin client for details about the devices. In addition, Wyse also introduced two new Linux-based members of its Z class family – the Wyse Z50S and Wyse Z50D.  Both thin clients run Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise. The press release also indicated that “the Z50 thin clients are built on the same exact advanced single and dual core processor hardware platform as the Wyse Z90 thin clients, the upcoming Linux-based Wyse Z50 promises more of the same industry leading power and capability on an enterprise-class Linux operating system”. Wyse did not provide further details but based on the statement above, we can probably safely assume that Z50S will use the single core AMD G-T52R and the Z50D will be […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Android Open Conference 2011 Schedule

Android Open Conference 2011 Schedule

O’reilly’s Android Open Conference 2011 will take place on 9-11 October 2011 in San Francisco. This is the first time this conference takes place. According to the organizers this conference will “cover the entire Android ecosystem. Whether you’re a developer, IT pro, business decision-maker, or marketer, you’ll find the latest and best information for maximizing the power of the Android platform”. There will be keynotes, practical workshops, and expert-led sessions dealing with: Building Android apps: best practices Android internals—under the hood Development tools New frameworks Alternative languages Gaming and game development Enterprise solutions and considerations Performance and security Analytics and revenue models Multiple Android markets Promotion and consumer needs and much more Please find below the schedule for the workshops (Sunday 9th October 2011) and conferences (10-11 October 2011) related to application development and platform development during the 3-day conference. Schedule on the 9th of October 2011 for Application Development […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Linaro 11.08 Release with Linux Kernel 3.0.3

Linaro 11.08 Release with Linux Kernel 3.0.3

Linaro has just released version 11.08 based on Linux Kernel 3.0.3 with support or TI Beagleboard, BeagleBoard-xM & Pandaboard,  ST Ericsson Snowball, Freescale i.MX53 development board and Samsung Origen board. Here are the highlights of the release: Android The Linaro 11.08 toolchain release of GCC 4.6 has compiled the Origen, BeagleBoard, BeagleBoard-xM, PandaBoard and Snowball builds, and are running Android 2.3.5 with a 3.0 Linux kernel. Together with the mainline kernel focused builds for BeagleBoard and PandaBoard and a preliminary i.MX53 build, the Android Platform Team ships 6 builds this month. A first! Android Platform code aliasing violations have been fixed allowing the use of strict-aliasing for better optimizations with gcc 4.6 based toolchains. The Android toolchain 11.08 has been released and has received numerous updates, including updated binutils and current gmp/mpfr/mpc. Benchmarks are available here. libjpeg-turbo 1.1.1 and ffmpeg with support for H.264 and WebM build are available on […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on X10 AirPad: 200 USD Android 2.3 Tablet powered by Rockchip RK2918

X10 AirPad: 200 USD Android 2.3 Tablet powered by Rockchip RK2918

X10 has started to sell its own android tablet for 199.99 USD. The X10 AirPad is powered by Rockchip RK2918, a 1.2GHz, Cortex-A8-based processor, 512 MB RAM and 4GB of flash storage, and runs Android 2.3 (gingerbread). It features a seven-inch, 800 x 480 pixel capacitive display, a 2 MP camera and an HMDI output supporting 1080p. Its specifications are similar to Arnova 7 G2 also powered by RK 2918 @ 1 Ghz, the second version of Arnova 7 that runs Android 2.3 and features a 7″ capacitive display and is said to be sold in Hong Kong for around 215 USD. Here are the X10 AirPad 7″ Android Tablet Specifications: CPU: 1.2 Ghz Rockchip 2918 Cortex A8 processor + 600 Mhz DSP Display: 7″ 800×480 resolution TFT LCD screen Touch-screen: Capacitive multi-touch, 5 point touch OS: Android 2.3, with Flash 10.1 Camera: 2 Megapixel camera with video recording and […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Free Linux Tutorials by the Linux Foundation

Free Linux Tutorials by the Linux Foundation

Yet another software development tutorial resource this week… The Linux Foundation regularly offers paid tutorials about Linux either online or onsite, but they also have free Linux training videos on their website. There are now 7 free tutorials namely: How to Work with the Linux Community by LWN.net editor and kernel developer Jon Corbet (28:43) . Introduction to Embedded Linux by author Jerry Cooperstein (26:28). Linux Administration 101: Introduction to Vim by author Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier (Length unknown, video not working at the time). Introduction to Git by kernel developer James Bottomley (29:57). Introduction to Btrfs by kernel developer Chris Mason (26:48). Linux Virtualization Using KVM by kernel developer Christoph Hellwig (23:58). Six Tips For Getting Started With Open Source Compliance by Philip Koltun (16:22). I’ve been looking for the presentation slides of these tutorials, but they do not seem to be publicly available. They may also add more free Linux tutorials in the […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products