CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Ray - 5 Comments

ROOFULL MRX 4K Android TV Box Review

CNXSoft: I’ve got many requests to review TV boxes, but I don’t always have time for them all, so from time to time I get people who help me do reviews, and this review of Roofull MRX TV box powered by Amlogic S905 processor had been done by Ray, who like me has been playing with many other Android TV boxes. ROOFULL MRX Specifications Operation System – Android 5.1 CPU – Amlogic S905 64-bit Quad core Cortex A53 up to @2GHz GPU – Penta Core Mali-450 RAM – 2GB DDRIII ROM – 16GB eMMC flash SD Storage expendable up to 32GB Bluetooth – BT 4.0 Antenna – Built-in antenna for WiFi Media UHD 4K x 2K: Support Full HD 1080P: Support HEVC H.265/H.264: Support Video/Picture Decoding Support: *.mkv,*.wmv,*.mpg, *.mpeg, *.dat, *.avi, *.mov, *.iso, *.mp4, *.rm and *.jpg file formats Audio Format Support: MP3,AAC,WMA,RM,FLAC,Ogg Communication WiFi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) Ethernet: […]

June 30, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

Open Source, Modular and Upgradeable EOMA68 CPU Card, Laptop and Micro Desktop Launched (Crowdfunding)

Rhombus Tech has been working on EOMA68 standard for CPU modules based on PCMCIA at least since 2012, and after previous difficulties, they showcased a laptop prototype taking OEMA68 CPU cards at the beginning of the year, and they’ve now launched a CrowdSupply campaign selling an EOMA68 CPU card based on Allwinner A20 processor, as well as corresponding laptop and micro desktop housings that are both open source, and upgradeable with faster EOMA68 CPU card once/if they become available. Current EOMA68 CPU card specifications: SoC – Allwinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB NAND flash + micro SD slot Video Output – micro HDMI Interface (for 2nd monitor) USB – micro USB OTG port Compliant with EOMA68 standard Two versions of the CPU card are offered with different pre-installed firmware: “Libre Tea Computer Card” […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

June 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Improve YouTube Video Playback on Low Power Intel mini PCs by Disabling VP9 Support in Chrome or Firefox

I’ve been reviewing several Intel Bay Trail, Cherry Trail, and Braswell mini PCs in the last year or so, and I always end up recommending Microsoft Edge browser over Firefox or Chrome for people wanting to watch YouTube videos, as the last two browsers always drop many frames with the video stuttering regularly. However I noticed that while Edge is playing MP4/AVC (H.264) video, the other two browser would normally stream WebM/VP9 videos, and it could be the cause of the problem as H.264 can be hardware accelerated, but VP9 not, and the low power processor might not quite powerful enough to handle 1080p VP9 video decoding smoothly. So I investigated the issues with Vorke V1 mini PC powered by an Intel Celeron J3160 processor (6W TDP) with the three browsers by first checking enabled codecs in YouTube HTML5 page. Microsoft Edge has both VP8 and VP9 disabled When I […]

June 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

FFmpeg 3.1 adds support for OpenMAX encoding on Raspberry Pi, VA-API H.264 & H.265 Encoding, and more

FFmpeg is an open source multimedia framework used by many open source, as well as closed source, projects to handle audio and video containers parsing, hardware or software video decoding / encoding, and more. I also used it a few months ago to test H.265 hardware encoding with an Nvidia GPU using the development branch, but the developers have now released FFmpeg 3.1 “Laplace”, so it’s possible to use a stable release to perform H.265 hardware encoding. Some of the most noticeable features of the new version include: Generic OpenMAX IL H.264 & MPEG4 encoders for Raspberry Pi VA-API accelerated H.264/HEVC/MJPEG encoding VAAPI-accelerated format conversion and scaling Native Android MediaCodec API H.264 decoding CUDA (CUVID) HEVC & H.264 decoders CUDA accelerated format conversion and scaling DXVA2 accelerated HEVC Main10 decoding on Windows Many new muxers/demuxers A variety of new filters The complete list of changes for FFmpeg 3.1 can be […]

June 29, 2016July 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Boardcon MINI6818 CPU Module Features Samsung S5P6818 Octa-core Processor

Update: a defect has been found, so the board is not for sale anymore. Samsung S5P6818 octa-core Cortex A53 processor has already been found in several single board computers and development boards including Graperain G6818 SBC and NanoPi M3 board, but so far I had not seen it implemented into a system-on-module to be used in custom designs, and that’s just was Boardcon did with their MINI6818 CPU module. Boardcon MINI6818 SoM specifications: SoC – Samsung S5P6818 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.4GHz with Mali-400MP 3D GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash 2x 100-pin board-to-board connectors with 1.27 pitch: 5x UART, I2C, SPI 1x USB2.0 Host, 1x USB HSIC Host, 1x USB2.0 OTG, LCD (TFT/LVDS/MIPI) Gigabit Ethernet I2S, CIF (not sure what it is), Audio HDMI GPIOs ADC PWM HSMMC/SD Power – 5V; AXP228 PMIC Dimensions – 70 x 58 mm (8-layer PCB) The […]

June 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Diginnos Docking Station Adds USB Ports and Ethernet to HDMI TV Sticks

Android, Windows, and/or Linux based HDMI TV sticks are great, except they usually come with few USB ports, and lack wired connectivity. A couple of years ago, Measy created a dock adding USB ports and an SD card slot with their Measy U2C Android TV box mostly to allow user to used the built-in camera, but a Japanese company has now released another docking station for TV sticks adding USB ports and Ethernet. Diginnos DG-STKLC docking station specifications: Video output – HDMI Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet port (RJ45) USB – 3x USB 2.0 ports, 1x micro USB port for power Misc – Integrated cables to connect to TV stick micro’s USB power port, USB host port, and HDMI Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions – 128 x 60 x 57 mm Weight – 157grams The docking station has been designed to work with Diginnos own TV sticks, but […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

June 29, 2016June 30, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

ARMADA 8040 Networking Community Board with a Quad Core ARM Cortex A72 SoC Coming Soon for $300 and Up

Developers interested in ARMv8 server or networking boards are starting to have more and more affordable choices. After AMD Opteron A1100 series based LeMaker Cello board, and Softiron Overdrive 1000 server, SolidRun is now working on ARMADA 8040 networking community board powered by Marvell ARMA8040 quad core Cortex A72 network processor. ARMADA 8040 networking board (mrvl8040) preliminary specifications: SoC – ARMADA 8040 (88F8040) quad core Cortex A72 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with MoChi architecture System Memory – 4GB DDR4 DIMM by default Storage – 4x SATA 3.0 port + micro SD slot Connectivity – 1x Gigabit RJ45 port, 1x SFP SGMII @ 2.5Gbps, dual 10Gbps copper with auto switchover to dual SFP+ Expansion – 1x PCIe-x4 3.0 slot, Linaro 96Boards expansion slot exposing GPIO, UART, I2C and SPI, Marvell TDM module header USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 2x micro USB ports Debugging – Console port (UART) over […]

June 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

$25 Ameba Arduino IoT Board Powered by Realtek RTL8195AM MCU Supports WiFi and NFC

Ameba Arduino is another development board for the Internet of Things, but beside WiFi connectivity, it also includes an NFC tag, and can support Ethernet via Arduino compatible headers. The brain of the board is Realtek RTL8195AM ARM Cortex M3 MCU that includes WiFi connectivity, hardware SSL, SRAM, and flash. Ameba Arduino Specifications: MCU – Realtek RTL8195AM ARM Cortex M3 @ up to 166MHz with 512KB SRAM, 1MB ROM, WiFi connectivity, hardware SSL engine Memory – 2MB SDRAM Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 1T1R with PCB antenna and external antenna connector, NFC tag with read/write Function, 10/100M Ethernet via expansion headers USB – 1x micro USB OTG port, 1x micro USB host port Expansion Headers SDIO Device/SD card controller Up to 30x GPIOs 2x SPI interfaces supporting master and slave modes 3x UART interfaces including 2 HS-UART and one log UART 4x I2C Interfaces supporting master and slave mode 2x […]