Posted on

Year 2022 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics

It’s the last day of the year and the time to look at some of the highlights of 2022, some traffic statistics from CNX Software website, and speculate on what 2023 may bring us. The semiconductors shortage continued in 2022, but things are looking brighter in 2023 with the full reopening of the world mixed with forecasts of difficult economic times that should keep the demand/supply equation in check. On the Arm processor front the biggest news of the year, at least in this corner of the Internet, was the launch of the Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor together with interesting single board computers that we’ll discuss below. Announced last year, the Amlogic A311D2 octa-core Cortex-A73/A53 was finally made available in a few SBC’s, and we finally got some news about the Amlogic S928X Cortex-A76/A55 SoC showcased in 8K TV boxes, but we have yet to see it in action. […]

Posted on

Khadas VIM1S review – Ubuntu 22.04 tested on an Amlogic S905Y4 SBC

In this review of Khadas VIM1S SBC, we’ll install Ubuntu 22.04, and report our experience testing the performance such as memory speed and eMMC flash performance, and 3D graphics capabilities. Installing Ubuntu 22.04 on Khadas VIM1S Just like Khadas VIM4 and Edge2, the Khadas VIM1S SBC ships with the OOWOW firmware that allows easy installation of operating systems by downloading the images, and flashing them directly to the eMMC flash.  You need just to connect a monitor and a USB keyboard and have an Internet connection through either LAN or Wi-Fi. Let’s start by installing Ubuntu 22.04 on Khadas VIM1S together. If no OS is installed, OOWOW will boot automatically, but if there’s already another OS installed, you can press and hold the Function button, press the Reset button, and release the Function button. After a few seconds, the OOWOW Wizard as shown in the picture below should show up. […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
Posted on

Linux 6.1 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.1, likely to be an LTS kernel, last Sunday: So here we are, a week late, but last week was nice and slow, and I’m much happier about the state of 6.1 than I was a couple of weeks ago when things didn’t seem to be slowing down. Of course, that means that now we have the merge window from hell, just before the holidays, with me having some pre-holiday travel coming up too. So while delaying things for a week was the right thing to do, it does make the timing for the 6.2 merge window awkward. That said, I’m happy to report that people seem to have taken that to heart, and I already have two dozen pull requests pending for tomorrow in my inbox. And hopefully I’ll get another batch overnight, so that I can try to really get as […]

Posted on

Cool Pi 4 Model B – A much faster alternative to Raspberry Pi 4 SBC

Cool Pi 4 Model B is a powerful alternative to Raspberry Pi 4 SBC with mostly the same form factor and interfaces but equipped with a Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor that will run circles around the Broadcom BCM2711 SoC found in the Raspberry Pi board. We’ve already reviewed Rockchip RK3588/RK3588S single board computers and mini PC such as Rock 5B, Khadas Edge2 Pro, and Mekotronics R58, and we were impressed by the performance, but if you prefer to have such a board in Raspberry Pi 4 form factor, then the Cool Pi 4 Model B might be for you. Cool Pi 4 Model B specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores, an Arm Mali-G610 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2,  OpenCL 2.2, and Vulkan 1.1 support, 8Kp60 video decoder for H.265/AVS2/VP9/H.264/AV1 codecs, 8Kp30 video encoder, and a 6 […]

Posted on

Orange Pi OS – An Android-based desktop OS with Windows 11’s look and feel

The manufacturer of Orange Pi boards, Shenzhen Xunlong Software, has formally announced the release of Orange Pi OS based on Android with a Windows 11-styled desktop that we are told can also be switched to macOS look and feel, and offering features typically found in desktop operating systems such as multi-window support. I understand the current release of the operating system works on Orange Pi 800 keyboard PC and the Orange Pi 5 SBC should also be supported once soon. We’re told Orange Pi OS is based on Android 12, but that may be an error since I’m not aware of an Android 12 SDK for the Rockchip RK3399 processor. The company plans to release an Arch Linux Arm version named Orange Pi OS (Arch) as well as an Open Harmony variant called Orange Pi OS (OH) next year. Orange Pi OS highlights: Design similar to Windows 11 with a […]

Posted on

MediaTek Kompanio 520 and Kompanio 528 processors targets entry-level Chromebooks

MediaTek Kompanio 520 and Kompanio 528 octa-core Arm processors are designed for entry-level Chromebooks with all-day battery life and a display up to 2520 x 1080 resolutions. As time passes “entry-level” gets a new meaning as the new SoCs are equipped with two Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, six Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.0 GHz, and an Arm Mali-G52 GPU. That’s almost Rockchip RK3588 territory although not quite… MediaTek Kompanio 528 and 520 specifications: Octa-core CPU 2x Arm Cortex-A76 cores up to 2.2GHz (Kompanio 520 is limited to 2.0 GHz) 6x Arm Cortex-A55 cores up to 2GHz GPU – Arm Mali G52 MC2 2EE AI accelerator – Dual-core AI processing unit (APU) Memory –  LPDDR4x up to 3733Mbps Storage – eMMC 5.1 flash with hardware command queue Display 2520 x 1080 @ 60Hz 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz (Ext) Video Encoding – 1920 x 1080 @ 60fps H.264 or […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
Posted on

Giveaway Week – Mekotronics R58 mini PC

Let’s end Giveaway Week 2022 with a bang, and more exactly a rather powerful Rockchip RK3588 mini PC: Mekotronics R58 (mini). The device comes with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash storage, two 8K capable HDMI 2.0 output ports, one DisplayPort output,  one HDMI input, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFI 6 connectivity,  as well as a few USB 3.0/2.0 ports, plus support for a SATA drive. I reviewed the Rockchip RK3588 mini PC with Android 12 last July, and I was impressed by the CPU and GPU performance, 4K video playback capabilities, except for AV1 which was not stable at the time, and support for HDMI audio passthrough. Android 12 was quite stable at that early stage as well. Some downsides included the lack of a useful HDMI input app and USB 3.0 performance that could be improved. I always test samples before adding them to the giveaway, and I initially thought […]

Posted on

NanoPi R6S Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Teardown, OpenWrt 22.03, and iperf3

NanoPi R6S is a Rockchip RK3588S powered device that can not only work as a router with two 2.5GbE ports, but also as a mini PC with HDMI and USB ports, and an Edge AI computer thanks to the 6 TOPS NPU found in the processor. FriendlyElec has just sent me two samples of the NanoPi R6S for review. Today, I’ll start with an unboxing, a teardown, and install OpenWrt 22.03 to run some iperf3 benchmarks. I’ll try other features with either Debian or Ubuntu Desktop in a few weeks. NanoPi R6S unboxing The router/mini PC ships with 6 rubber feet (3M), and nothing else. The front panel comes with four LEDs for the system and Ethernet ports, a USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port, as well as an IR receiver “window” (under the USB 3.0 port). The rear panel includes a USB Type-C port that supports 5V […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC