CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 8, 2016November 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Nintendo NES Classic is Powered by Allwinner R16 SoC, Likely Hackable

Nintendo NES Classic Edition is a small replica of Nintendo NES, both adapted to modern times with an HDMI output, and keeping with nostalgia thanks to connectors for original game controllers, and pre-loaded with 30 classic games. If you planned to add your own games however, the lack of USB ports, micro SD card slot, or any other storage or network interface could make it impossible. But based on a recent photo tweeted by Peter Brown, senior review editor at GameSpot, there may be light out of the tunnel, as while the main storage device (4Gbit NAND flash) is soldered to the board, the main board is powered by Allwinner R16 quad core Cortex A7 processor with a Mali-400MP2, and it’s quite likely UART / serial console and/or FEL interfaces are exposed on the board, making it possible to hack the device and potentially load your own games. The other […]

November 8, 2016November 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Sunvell T95P Android TV Box in a Plug Can Be Yours for $48

If you really liked Xiaomi Mi Box mini concept of an Android TV box in a plug, you may have been greatly disappointed once you found out about the Chinese only user interface, and the complete lack of USB ports or any other external interfaces apart from the HDMI port. There’s now a new device with a similar concept thanks to Sunvell T95P Android TV box in a plug, but with a multilingual firmware, one USB port, and a choice of UK, EU, and US prongs. Sunvell T95P Android plug specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with a penta-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 (AP8189? module) USB – 1x USB 2.0 […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

November 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Rikomagic MK22 Review – Part 2: Android Firmware, Video & Audio in Kodi, Benchmarks…

Rikomagic MK22 is one of the many Android TV boxes powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core processor with typical hardware specifications such as 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, Gigabit Ethernet and dual band WiFi. I’ve already taken the box apart to check out the hardware in the first part of the review, so I’ll focus on the firmware, but I’ll keep it short focusing on typical problem areas, as I’ve already reviewed a bunch of other Amlogic S912 TV boxes such as Qintaix Q912 or Beelink GT1. First Boot, Firmware Update, and First Impressions After having connected all usual cables and accessories include a 1TB USB hard drive, and RF dongles for my air mouse and wireless gamepad, I booted the device, and after around 45 seconds (typically), I got to the main launcher. Since I received the device about a month ago, I decided to go to the UPDATE&BACKUP app to […]

November 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Portwell Nano-6062 Nano-ITX Apollo Lake Board is Powered by Intel Atom E3900 Series Processors

We’ve seen a series of announcements of Intel Apollo Lake based boards and modules in the last couple of weeks, with community boards such as UP Squared to ASRock IMB-157 mini-ITX board, and industrial system-on-modules and carrier boards such as the ones offered by Congatec, Seco, and Adlinktech. One more embedded systems company has now unveiled their Apollo Lake solutions with Portwell Nano-6062 Nano-ITX motherboard powered by Intel Atom E3900 “Apollo Lake” SoCs. Portwell Nano-6062 Nano-ITX board support either of the new new Apollo Lake SoCs: SoC Intel Atom x5-E3930 dual core processor @ 1.3 / 1.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache 1MB, 12 EU Intel Gen 9 HD Graphics (6.5W TDP) Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad core processor @ 1.6 / 1.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, 12 EU Intel Gen 9 HD Graphics (9W TDP) Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad core processor @ 1.6 / 2.0 GHz with 2MB L2 […]

November 6, 2016November 19, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Amlogic USB Burning Tool Still Sucks in 2016

[Update November 2016: If you don’t like USB Burning Tool or don’t have the necessary USB cable, you can flash Amlogic IMG firmware to a micro SD card instead] In the first few years when Android TV Boxes/mini PCs started to hit the markets, in the 2012-2014 period, online firmware update was inexistent for the vast majority of the boxes, and if you wanted to update your firmware you had to use some windows tools like USB Burning Tool for Amlogic, AndroidTool for Rockchip, or PhoenixUSBPro / PhonixSuite for Allwinner platforms. All those tools have poor design, for example the window is not resizable, so it’s impossible to your an old netbook (1024×600 resolution), and then you have to install drivers which is easy, for after detection of the box may be hit and miss, and you have to follow a procedure with the right power sequence with a USB […]

November 6, 2016November 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 284 Comments

Giveaway Week – Zidoo X9 Android TV Box and HDMI Recorder

For the last day of giveaway week 2016, I’ll send Zidoo X9 Android TV box and HDMI recorder powered by Mstar MSO9180D1R quad core Cortex A9 processor to one lucky winner. The product was launched at the end of 2014 with Android 4.4, and at the time of my review, I found the HDMI PVR function to work pretty well, the device also come with very good WiFi and internal storage, but Kodi needed some work. The company has provided firmware updates for a little over a year for the device with the latest firmware release on December 2015. It’s also possible to stream video from HDMI input to the network. I’ll send the package with all items shown in the picture above. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

November 5, 2016November 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 56 Comments

Orange Pi PC 2 Development Board based on Allwinner H5 SoC Launched for $20

Shenzhen Xunlong had already launched Orange Pi Zero, the cheapest ARM Linux board with networking you can find today, earlier this week, and I’ve just been informed the company has now listed the more powerful Orange Pi PC 2 board powered by Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 processor on Aliexpress for $19.98 plus shipping.Orange Pi PC 2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 processor with an ARM Mali-450MP4 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot up to 64GB, 8Mbit SPI NOR flash Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with CEC support, AV port Audio I/O – HDMI, AV port, on-board microphone Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port Camera – MIPI CSI Interface Expansions – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header Debugging – 3-pin UART header for serial console Misc – IR receiver; Power […]

November 5, 2016November 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 254 Comments

Giveaway Week – K1 Plus T2 S2 Android TV Box and DTV Receiver

Videostrong K1 Plus T2 S2 is one of the most popular devices this year on CNX Software, as it’s probably the cheapest 4K Android TV box that includes both DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S2/T2 tuner, and beside just supporting Android, the community has also released an OpenELEC image with tuner support, and tools such as a Windows channel editor. When I first reviewed K1 Plus T2 S2 in February of this year, I found the Android part still needed some work, but the DTV app to watch live TV through my aerial antenna or satellite dish worked reasonably well despite some bugs here and there. Since then the company must have fixed some of the issues through various firmware updated, but some people are running Vitmos OpenELEC image instead since it may be more familiar, and other interfaces like Enigma may also be supported. All accessories shown above will be included in […]