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MiQi Dual Boot Android & Ubuntu Development Board Crowdfunding Campaign Has Launched

MiQi is a development board using a form factor similar to Raspberry Pi boards, but based on a more powerful Rockchip RK3288 Cortex A17 processor combined with 1 or 2 GB. I had the change to test an early sample pre-loaded with a dual boot image with Android 5.1 and Lubuntu 14.04, and found it to be one the fastest sub $100 development board in Linux, behind Hardkernel ODROID-XU4, as well as better CPU & GPU performance compared to recent Android TV boxes based on Amlogic S905, Rockchip RK3368, and so on. MQMaker has now launched a flexible funding crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds for mass production. Let’s remind us of MiQi hardware specifications first: SoC – Rockchip 3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-T764 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 1 or 2G DDR3 depending on model Storage – 8 or 32 […]

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Boardcon’s Rockchip RK3288 Single Board Computer Runs Android 4.4/5.1, Supports 3G, GPS, 5 Display Interfaces and More

Rockchip RK3288 is back in the news this month, and after the announced of MiQi low cost board a few days ago, an high-end Rockchip RK3288 SBC has come to market with Boardcon EM3288 comprise of MINI3288 CPU module, and a features-packed baseboard with multiple ports and connectivity options, including SATA and a 3G modem. EM3288 board specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 processor up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-T764 GPU System Memory – 2G DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash, SATA, and micro SD slot Video I/O HDMI 2.0 up to 3840×2160@60p (provided your TV/monitor support YUV444) VGA 1x 26-pin MIPI connector, 1x 40-pin LVDS (multiplexed with VGA), 1x 40-pin TTL LCD connector Audio Output / Input – HDMI, Line IN and OUT 3.5mm jacks, and built-in MIC Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet Optional 8021.11b/g/n and Bluetooth4.0 via Ampak AP6212 module Optional 3G via ZTE MF210 […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Android and Linux Benchmarks on MiQi Development Board

MiQi is an upcoming low cost development board powered by Rockchip RK3288 SoC that will sell for $35 with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage, and $69 for the version with a  2GB / 32GB combination. Since Rockchip RK3288 was launched in 2014, most available benchmarks were made on Android 4.4, and since MiQi is the first low cost board based on the processor, other RK3288 based board such as FireFly have not been that popular. So I’ve decided to run updated benchmarks in MiQi both in Android 5.1 and Linux (Lubuntu 14.04), which was easy since a dual boot image is pre-installed. But since I received an early sample without heatsink, I found a spare heatsink added some thermal paste and placed it on top of the processor and partially on RAM and eMMC flash. MiQi Board Android 5.1 Benchmarks I ran Antutu both using 1080p60 and 2160p30 video output, […]

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SmartEverything is a Feature-Packed IoT Board with SigFox, Bluetooth LE, NFC and GPS Connectivity, Plenty of Sensors

Atmel MCU Madness is an informal competition on Twitter where people vote for their favorite development boards. We are now at the quarter finals, and beside the usual suspects such as Raspberry Pi and ESP8266 boards, I also noticed one board that I had never heard of: AXEL Elettronica’s SmartEverything based on Atmel SAM D21 Cortex M0+ and featuring SigFox, BLE, NFC, and GPS connectivity, as well as various sensors such as humidity and temperature, 9-axis motion sensor, and so on. SmartEverything board specifications: MCU – Atmel SAM D21 ARM Cortex-M0+ MCU @ 48 MHz with 256KB Flash, 32KB SRAM Connectivity SIGFOX via Telit LE51-868 S SIGFOX 868 MHz Wireless Module with 12 months of network access included Bluetooth 4.0 LE via  TDK SESUB-PAN-T2541 module based on Texas Instruments CC2541 NFC via NXP NT3H1101FHK NFC with separate antenna (included) GPS/GNSS via Telit Jupiter SE868-A GPS/GNSS module with integrated antenna. Supports […]

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Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.5 on Sunday: So this is later on a Sunday than my usual schedule, because I just couldn’t make up my mind whether I should do another rc8 or not, and kept just waffling about it. In the end, I obviously decided not to,but it could have gone either way. We did have one nasty regression that got fixed yesterday, and the networking pull early in the week was larger than I would have wished for. But the block  layer should be all good now, and David went through all his networking commits an extra time just to make me feel comfy about it, so in the end I didn’t see any point to making the release cycle any longer than usual. And on the whole, everything here is pretty small. The diffstat looks a bit larger for an xfs fix, because that fix has […]

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ODROID-C2 Amlogic S905 Development Board is in the Works

Hardkernel ODROID-C1 and later ODROID-C1+ boards, both based on Amlogic S805 SoC, have been a popular alternatives to Raspberry Pi 2 board this year. But now that Amlogic S905 quad core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 processor has been available for a few months, people have been wondering whether the Korean company would launch an Amlogic S905 board, and it looks like ODROID-C2 might not be too far off based on firmware files on odroid.in website. The firmware includes a device tree file, which combined with other files give some clues about ODROID-C2 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with penta-core (3+2) Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM (in doc), 2GB RAM (in Device tree) Storage – 1x micro SD card Video Output – 1x HDMI out USB – 1x USB hub, 1x USB OTG I don’t have much more information […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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Hardkernel ODROID-XU4 Development Board Now Supports Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Android 6.0 source code was released in October, but so far few development boards are supporting it properly. There’s Android 6.0 for Raspberry Pi 2, but without GPU hardware acceleration is not really usable, and Intrinsyc Open-Q 820 board that will start shipping in a few days with Android 6.0 on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, is pricey and with limited availability. So there are only two options that I’m aware of LeMaker Hikey with Android 6.0 as part of the Reference Platform Release 2015.12, and Hardkernel ODROID-XU4 with an unofficial port for Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow by voodik odroid community member, which should also work for ODROID-XU3 and XU3 Lite boards. Despite being an alpha version, the current image looks pretty good, as most required features seem implemented: Android 6.0.1 Lollipop Cyanogenmod 13.0 with Linux kernel 3.10.9 OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0 (GPU acceleration) OpenCL 1.1 EP (GPU acceleration) Multi-user feature is enabled […]

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HummingBoard Edge SBC Gets an mSATA/M.2 Connector, an eMMC Flash, and More I/Os

SolidRun launched its HummingBoard family last year with a board with a form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi, but instead of using a Broadcom processor, the boards were based on Freescale i.MX6 single, dual or quad core processors. The company has recently introduce a higher end board with Hummingboard Edge that adds an M.2 connector, eMMC flash, 7 to 36V DC power input, more camera interfaces, a DSI interface, and more GPIOs. The following comparison table shows the differences between the new Hummingboard Edge, and the older HummingBoard Pro and Base boards. HummingBoard-Edge HummingBoard-Pro HummingBoard-Base uSOM model i.MX6 based Solo to Quad Core uSOM Memory Up to 4GB DDR3 Storage uSD, eMMC, M.2/mSATA uSD, mSATA uSD Connectivity 1x RJ45*, 4x USB 2.0, mPCIE with SIM card holder 1x RJ-45*, 2x USB 2.0 Hosts, 2x USB 2.0 header, mPCIE half-size 1x RJ-45*, 2x USB 2.0 Hosts Media HDMI-out, LVDS, analog […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC