CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 1, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Intel Introduces 6 Apollo Lake Processors: Celeron N3350, N3450, J3355, J3455, and Pentium N4200 & J4205

Intel has been talking about Apollo Lake processor family, successor of Braswell family, and even showcased some Apollo Lake NUCs, but AFAIK, so far the company did not actually disclose any part numbers for the new processors. That has changed since Intel has now listed 6 “Formerly Apollo Lake” Celeron and Pentium processors on their website. There are three processor for mobile (read laptop) devices (Nxxx parts), and three for desktop (Jxxx parts): For tablets, notebooks, 2-in-1 hybrids: Celeron N3350 dual core processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.4 GHz (Burst frequency) and 12 EU Intel HD graphics 500 @ 200 MHz / 650 MHz (Burst freq.); 6W TDP Celeron N3450 quad core processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.2 GHz (Burst frequency) and 12 EU Intel HD graphics 500 @ 200 MHz / 700 MHz (Burst freq.); 6W TDP Pentium N4200 quad core processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.5 GHz (Burst […]

August 31, 2016September 1, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

VR SKY CX-V3 Allwinner H8vr All-in-one Android Virtual Reality Headset Review – Part 1: Specs and Unboxing

I’ve heard about standalone Android virtual reality headset for a while, but so far I had never tried one, except using my phone with a cardboard kit, which was not such a good experience. So when GearBest asked me whether I want to try one of the Allwinner H8vr virtual reality kits, I thought it was a good idea, and today, I received VR SKY CX-V3 model. Today, I’ll just list the specs, check out the device and accessories, and report my first impressions, before posting a review about my experience in a few weeks. VR SKY CX-V3 Virtual Reality Headset Specifications While I would have preferred a 2K or greater display, CX-V3 includes a 1080p display, but that’s probably good enough for a first experience: SoC – Allwinner H8 octa core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with PowerVR SGX544 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

August 31, 2016September 1, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Review of Vernee Apollo Lite Smartphone with Mediatek Helio X20 SoC – Part1: Unboxing, First Boot and Benchmarks

Vernee Apollo Lite is the little brother of Vernee Apollo, both based on Mediatek Helio X20 deca-core Cortex A72/A53 SoC, but with the Lite version having lower hardware specs otherwise, and being one of the few ARM Cortex A72 smartphones selling for less than $200 (at least in China). Tomtop, a Chinese online store, sent me a sample for review, and today, I’ll start by going through the tech specs, then check out the phone design and its accessories, and finally run a few benchmark, before posting a more detailed review in one or two weeks, where I’ll have more experience and feel about the phone. Vernee Apollo Lite Specifications I had posted some specs about the phone when it was first released, but they were incomplete at the time, and Vernee now released the full specs for their Apollo Lite: SoC – Meaitek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core processor with […]

August 31, 2016August 31, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Yi Technology Releases an Open API SDK for Yi and Yi 2 4K Action Cameras

Yi Technology, the maker of Yi actions cameras, often wrongly reported as Xiaomi Yi cameras as they are sold in Xiaomi stores, has now released an Open API to allow software and hardware engineers to develop products – such as drones, robots, or 360 deg. video recording setups – using their cameras. YiOpenAPI supports three types of APIs available in Java or Swift languages: Camera control (start/stop recording, capture picture, turn on/off viewfinder, etc…) Camera settings (date/time, video resolution, photo size, video standard, etc…) Camera state (record started/completed, video finder started etc…) There are also some app samples, one of which being YI360Demo available in both binary and source code, and used to control multiple Yi cameras in order to shoot 360 deg. / VR videos. You can find YiOpenAPI on github, get support on YiOpenAPI Facebook group, and sign-up for news updates on YiOpen.com. Via GeekBuying Blog

August 31, 2016August 31, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

96Boards Compliant Mediatek X20 Development Board is Now up for Sale for $199

Mediatek Labs and Linaro introduced X20 development board based on 96Boards CE specs, and featuring Mediatek Helio X20 deca-core Cortex A72/A53 processor a couple of months ago. At the time, if you wanted to purchase the board, you’d have to fill a form explaining the details about your project, and the company, Alpha Star, would then decided whether would sell it to you. The good news here is that you don’t need to do any of that anymore, and you can buy the board directly on Seeed Studio for $199, or on Taobao for 1399 RMB. Mediatek X20 development board specifications have not changed much since the first announcement, but the CPU and GPU frequencies have been lowered somewhat, and we have some more details: SoC – Mediatek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core processor with two ARM Cortex A72 cores @ 2.1~2.3 GHz, four Cortex A53 @ 1.85 GHz, four Cortex […]

August 30, 2016December 5, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

$79 HiSilicon Poplar is the First 96Boards TV Platform Compliant Board

At the end of last month I wrote about 96Boards TV Platform specifications, and noticed Hisilicon had one such boards, but details were sparse. Linaro has now officially unveiled HiSilicon Poplar board, the first 96Boards TV Platform board, sold for $79 + shipping on Aliexpress. Poplar board specifications: SoC – HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2.0 GHz per core with ARM Mali-T720 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1/1.0, OpenVG 1.1, OpenCL 1.2/1.1 Full Profile, RenderScript, and Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3 Memory – 1 or 2 GB DDR3 (Specs are conflicting depending where you look) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a with HDCP 2.2 up to 4K @ 60Hz Video Decoding – H.265/HEVC Main/Main10 and VP9 up to 4K @ 60 fps Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

August 30, 2016June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Qintaix Q912 Android mini PC Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

Qintaix Q912 was one of the first Amlogic S912 TV boxes featured on CNX Software, and now the company, Qintex Tech, has sent me a sample of their device for review. I’ll start by posting photos of the device, and looking inside to find more about the hardware and thermal design today, before reporting my experience in the second part of the review in a few weeks. Qintaix Q912 Unboxing I first thought they had sent me a chocolate box instead, but that’s refreshing to see a different retail package device. The bottom of the package shows the specifications in details, and I got the version with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash. The box comes with a 5V/2.5A power supply, HDMI and AV cables, an IR remote control with IR learning function require two AAA batteries. and a “Quick Install Guide”. The TV box is a little larger than the […]

August 30, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

C.H.I.P Board and Allwinner A13/R8 SoCs To Get VPU Support in Linux Mainline

Allwinner has mixed relationships with open source communities such as Kodi, especially due to issues with its closed-source CedarX VPU drivers, and some GPL violations. However to address the former, linux-sunxi community has been working on open source Cedrus library for the video processor unit on Allwinner processors, that’s been successfully tested on boards such as Orange Pi One. Free Electrons has gone further, as they’ve made sure Cedrus now works with Linux mainline kernel, currently Linux 4.8, and tested it on Allwinner R8 based Pocket CHIP. The work has been done by Florent Revest, a 19 years old intern at the company, who delivered a new sunxi-cedrus driver, a Video4Linux (V4L2) memory-to-memory decoder kernel driver, and corresponding VA-API backend, with the implementations currently available on Github here and there respectively. Currently only MPEG2 and MPEG4 are working, but adding other codecs such as H.264, and video encoding is possible […]