CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 28, 2011February 9, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Android 3.0 SDK Preview and Platform Highlights

Google has just released Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) preview SDK and platform highlights. Android 3.0 Highlights Summary New User Features: New UI designed from the ground up for tablets (larger screens) System Bar, for global status and notifications Action Bar, for application control: access to contextual options, navigation, widgets, or other types of content in the Action Bar, displayed at the top of the screen. Five Customizable Home screens with widgets, app shortcuts, and wallpapers using a dedicated visual layout mode. Recent Apps, for easy visual multitasking Redesigned keyboard to improve typing speed/accuracy on tablets. Improved text selection, copy and paste New connectivity options such as Media/Photo Transfer Protocol, USB / Bluetooth keyboards Updated set of standard apps for larger screens. Browser Improvements: Multi-tabs support, “incognito” mode, better browsing experience at non-mobile sites through an improved zoom and viewport model, overflow scrolling, support for fixed positioning, and more. Camera and Gallery: […]

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

How-to Make WordPress iNove Theme Adsense Friendly

When I initially selected my WordPress theme, I did not really plan on using Adsense, so I just chose one which looked nice to me and fulfilled some other requirements. I finally went with iNove theme. However, after 3 or 4 months, I decided to give a go at Google Adsense and installed Advertising Manager plugin. I created a new Ad unit with a 300×250 resolution to put in the side bar, it was slightly cut on the right but was still looking OK. Later, I wanted to add a leaderboard ad (728×90) on top of the page to hopefully increase the CTR. However, that one was cut even more, although it looked OK in Chrome OS and Firefox, it looked awful in Internet Explorer. So I decided to adjust the size of the main section and the sidebar for iNove theme. Here are the steps to follow to resize […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

January 26, 2011January 26, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

OLPC XO 1.75 Hardware, Firmware and Software

OLPC demo’ed their 3rd generation laptop – OLCP XO 1.75 – based on Marvell Armada 610 at CES 2011. The good thing about this platform is that they opened most of it including the hardware, the software and for the first time the firmware. However, I found out it’s not so easy to find the hardware / software development information and source on the OLPC site, so I’ve decided to make a summary and provide links to the hardware, firmware and software for OLPC XO 1.75. OLPC XO 1.75 Hardware The XO-1.75 is powered by Marvell Armada 610 CPU (88AP610) with an ARM core clocked at 1Ghz. It has 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, 4GiB NAND Flash, a TFT display, an SD Card slot, Wi-Fi, a few USB ports and a camera. I believe the touchscreen is not part of the current hardware, but the block diagram below should be close to […]

January 25, 2011January 25, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android Honeycomb Toshiba Tablet based on NVidia Tegra 2

Toshiba setup a website for its upcoming “The Toshiba Tablet,” running Android 3.0 on an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. It boasts a 10.1″ multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1280×800. It also offers dual cameras (5MP Rear Camera with Auto-focus / 2MP Front Camera), a replaceable battery, a USB, a mini-USB port, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, SD Card, a docking port, HDMI output and a head phone jack. Toshiba Tablet supports up to 720p HD resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The screen also boasts an ambient light sensor in order to provide consistency between indoor and outdoor viewing. The Toshiba tablet won’t be available until Q2 2011 according to Toshiba. While we’re all waiting, here’s “The Toshiba Tablet” teaser video.

January 24, 2011January 24, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Freescale i.MX Overview, SDK and Development Boards

Freescale i.MX Processors Overview Freescale i.MX multimedia applications processors are based on ARM9, ARM11 and ARM™ Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 core technologies “delivering an optimal balance of performance and long battery life for rich multimedia experiences on the go”. There are quite a few families within the Freescale i.MX Series namely: i.MXS Processors:ARM9 Core @ 100-200Mhz (i.MX1 (not recommended for new designs), i.MXL and i.MXS). i.MX21 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 233-266Mhz (i.MX21 and i.MX21S) i.MX23 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 454 Mhz (i.MX233) i.MX25 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 400MHz for industrial and automotive applications (i.MX251, i.MX253, i.MX255, i.MX257 and i.MX258) i.MX27 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 400Mhz for Video over IP, VoIP, Cordless and Mobile phones… (i.MX27 and i.MX27L) i.MX28 Processors: ARM9 Core @ 454 Mhz for industrial and consumer applications (i.MX281, i.MX283, i.MX285, i.MX286 and i.MX287) i.MX31 Processors: ARM11 Core @ 400-532 Mhz for industrial, consumer and automotive applications (i.MX31 and i.MX31L) […]

January 21, 2011January 22, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Installing Android 2.2 on Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

XDA recently released a ROM with Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) for Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Bear in mind that this is still a BETA version with the following known bugs and limitations: Closing certain apps will cause the ROM to crash or reboot Youtube / Adobe Flash status uncertain No camcorder recording No native wifi/usb tethering You’ll need to log into the old market at least once before installing the new one Maybe more. All sort of bad things may happen to your phone, but if xRecovery is correctly setup you should be able to recover. If you still want to go forward, following the “simple” steps below. First download the following files: FreeX10-beta2.zip – Xperia X10 Android 2.2 Firmware FreeX10-beta2-hotfix1.zip – flash led brightness and Rockplayer hack gapps_1901_FreeX10.zip– latest Google Apps (Market, Youtube etc.) Here’s what you’ll need before installing Android 2.2: Rooted 2.1 ROM. Instructions for doing so are […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

January 21, 2011June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Development Platform Available

Qualcomm has just announced the SnapDragon Mobile Development Platform (MDP) distributed by BSquare is now available for purchase. The development platform (SKU: EA-OBQ8655MDPAN) is based on Snapdragon MSM8655 and comes with Android 2.2. It costs 995.00 USD. The development kit contains: MDP device (preloaded with Qualcomm’s Deep Sea 3D UI, Qualcomm’s Power Profiling application (Trepn Profiler), 3D Graphics Adreno Profiler, Tactel’s Navigation application and SouthEnd Interactive’s ilomilo OpenGLES Game) 8GB SD card HDMI A/V USB cable Battery charger Quick Start Guide One hour of support Here are the MDP Technical Specifications: MSM8655 1 GHz central processing unit (CPU) 3.8″ WVGA Display HDMI port Multi-touch capacitive touch screen WVGA 3D/2D capable Adreno™ 205 graphics processing unit (GPU) 12MP Camera/Camcorder 720-pixel HD video decode and encode Stereo 16mm loudspeakers 512 MB of RAM (2x 32b ports) 4GB on-board Flash Keys: On/off key, Rotary wheel, including key press, Up to 6 side keys for […]

January 20, 2011January 20, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

AMD First Embedded Systems APU: AMD Fusion G-Series

Yesterday, AMD announced the first APU (Accelerated Processor Unit) specifically aimed at embedded systems: AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced immediate availability of the new AMD Embedded G-Series processor, the world’s first and only Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) for embedded systems. The AMD Embedded G-Series, based on AMD Fusion technology, delivers a complete, full-featured embedded platform and incorporates the new low-power, x86 CPU based on the “Bobcat” core with a world-class DirectX® 11-capable GPU and parallel processing engine on a single piece of silicon. This new class of accelerated processor combines more compute capabilities on a single die than any processor in the history of computing and represents opportunity for major advancements in embedded systems. No solution with this level of advanced computing is available for the embedded market today. Numerous embedded systems based on the AMD Embedded G-Series are available today or expected to launch in the coming weeks from […]