AllWinner was very successful with their AllWinner A10 single-core processor in 2012, but in 2013, they’ve been somewhat overtaken by Rockchip with dual and quad-core SoCs. Nevertheless, AllWinner is lucky to have one of the most active and dedicated developer’s communities for Chinese SoCs, and they should be followed closely especially with regards to Linux support. In 2012, due to the Raspberry Pi delays, I bought a Mele A1000 to hack on ARM platforms at home and wrote some instructions to run Linux on the platform. These may be somewhat dated, but should still be relevant. Linaro has some tools to generate images for their ARM platform involving rootfs (root file systems), and hardware packs that are comprised of platform-specific binaries. I did something similar with AllWinner A10 to make it easier to create a bootable Ubuntu image. I also created a script to build nightly images for AllWinner devices, […]
Many people seem to get confused with the actual function of GPUs used in embedded (ARM / MIPS) SoC, and I can often read comments similar to “with lima drivers we should get video decoding in XBMc soon”, and I’ve just received any email reading “My main task is to build a full hd media player based on ffmpeg with hardware decoding acceleration for Linux. Is it possible with mali400mp4?”. So I’ve decided to write a short post about it to make things a bit more clear. Contrary to GPUs in the PC world, embedded GPUs only take care of 3D, and sometimes 2D graphics, and leave video encoding and/or decoding to another block called Video Processing Unit (VPU). There’s at least one exception with Broadcom Videocore IV GPU as found in the processor used in the Raspberry Pi that apparently takes care of 2D & 3D graphics as well […]
With the recent NSA leaks, more and more people have been be aware that there’s virtually no privacy online, especially with regards to their own or foreign governments. So people have looked into using secure emails, or find way to protect themselves against eavesdropping from criminals, advertisers, and politicians. For example, instructions have been posted to convert the Raspberry Pi into a Tor router, called Onion Pi, in order to hide your IP address, and browse the web anonymously from any of your devices. If you’re not the tinkerer type, and/or would just like to get something that works out of the box cheaply, people behind the Pogoplug, have introduced the Safeplug, a Tor enabled router, that sells for just $49, plus $9 shipping to the US. It does not seem to be available for the rest of the world. There’s absolutely no information about the hardware used, but it […]
The Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone Black and Cubieboard are probably the best selling ARM Linux boards in the sub $50 category, but they’ll soon be joined by Olimex A10-OLinuXino-LIME powered by AllWinner A10 ARM Cortex A8 SoC with 512MB RAM that will sell for 30 Euros (About $40) when it becomes available in December. Another version of the board based on AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 SoC, called A20-OLinuXino-LIME will also be sold, adding Gigabit Ethernet, and scheduled for Q1 2014. Pricing has yet to be disclosed for the A20 version. A10-OLinuXino-LIME specifications: SoC – AllWinner A10 ARM Cortex-A8 @ 1GHz with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – microSD card slot, SATA, and optional 4GB NAND Flash Video Output – HDMI 1080p USB – USB-OTG + 2x USB Hosts Connectivity – 10/100Mbit Ethernet Expansions – 200 GPIOs on 0.05″ connectors Misc – Lipo battery management and connector, […]
Ninja Blocks is an company providing open source hardware solutions for home automation. Their first product was called Ninja Blocks Kit which includes a Ninja Block (Beaglebone + Arduino based gateway, but they now also support the Raspberry Pi), sensors, sockets, cables, and a power supply, and works with Ninja Platform, an open source software framework. The goal was to simplify the process of developing automation applications by taking care of all low levels tasks such as electronics, embedded programming, network protocols.., and letting “end users” / developers focus on their application. The company is now working on a new version called the Ninja Sphere, including a “Spheramid” gateway, location waypoints (Bluetooth low energy tags), and smart power sockets. Here are the key features of the gateway: Processor – ARM Cortex A8 (probably Texas Instruments Sitara) Color LED Matrix Connectivity – Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, and Wi-Fi USB Port – […]
ARM Technology Conference (TechCon) 2013 will take place on October 29 – 31, 2013, in Santa Clara, and the detailed schedule for the event has just been made available. In the previous years, the conference was divided into Chip Designs day (1 day), and the other 2 days were reserved for Software & System Design, but this year it does not appear to be the case. Whether you’ll be able to attend the event or not, it’s worth having a look at what will be discussed there in order to have a better understanding of what will be the key ARM developments in the near future in terms of hardware and software. There will be around 90 sessions categorized into 15 tracks: Accelerating Hardware Development – This track explores the resources, tools, and techniques that designers can employ to quickly bring hardware to market. Topics include multicore design, ARM IP, […]
I remember when the Raspberry Pi first got out, many people wanted to connected it to a VGA display, and at the time, a cheap HDMI to VGA adapter would have cost $30, about the same price of the low-cost ARM11 board. Since then things have changed since it’s possible to find HDMI to VGA adapters for less than $10, and even less than $7 on Aliexpress. The one linked and pictured above has an HDMI male connector and a VGA female connector, and the following features listed in buyincoins: Support 1080p and 720p. Built-in chipset. No external power required, power supply from HDMI signal. Don’t support audio output. Can use for connecting devices with VGA port to HDTV. HDMI – standard type A port male. VGA – VGA video port, female. The title seems to imply it’s an HDMI to VGA adapter, but the description tells you it’s for […]
The Raspberry Pi fundation, a nonprofit organization, has brought a low cost ARM Linux platform to the masses, and Arduino already did that with electronics, but Harold Timmis, an engineer, found out it was still not cheap enough as he worked as a volunteer teaching electronics at his library. So he (and others) decided to clone Arduino Leonardo, setup a website called Borderless Electronics, and sell it without profit via Indiegogo for just $9 ($12 including shipping). The board is indeed the same as Arduino Leonardo with different color, logo, and name: Microcontroller – Atmel ATmega32u4 @ 16 MHz SRAM – 2.5 KB onchip (ATmega32u4) Flash Memory – 32 KB onchip (ATmega32u4) of which 4 KB used by bootloader EEPROM – 1 KB onchip (ATmega32u4) Operating Voltage – 5V Input Voltage – (recommended) 7-12V | (limits) 6-20V Digital I/O – 20 pins PWM – 7 channels Analog Input – 12 […]
