Posted on

Cubieboard4 (CC-A80) Unboxing and Getting Started Guide

A few samples of Cubieboard4 board may have been available in China in October 2014, but Cubietech only officially launched their Allwinner A80 development board about ten days ago, and you can buy it for $125 + shipping on sites like R0ck.me, Eleduino, Seeed Studio, and many other distributors. The company decided to send a sample for evaluation, and today I’ll start with a post showing some pictures of the kit, and explaining how to get started with assembly and first boot. Cubieboard 4 Pictures I received the board within two days after the company told me they would send a sample, as they used DHL. I also had to pay a bit of import tax and DHL’s handling fee. There should be CC-A80 box with the board and accessories, a white box for the power supply, and a power cord. There’s quite a few items to play with… The […]

Posted on

iConsole Micro Intel Atom TV Stick To Run Android 5.0 based Console OS

Console Inc., previously Mobile Media Ventures, Inc.,  is the company developing Console OS operating system based on Android 4.4 / 5.0 for Intel platforms that includes customizations for a better desktop experience, and you can already try the preview version of Console OS Standard for free on some Intel hardware, with another paid version to become available at the time of the stable release. The company has now announced iConsole Micro a Console OS HDMI TV Stick based on a quad core Intel Atom processor that looks very much like MeegoPad T01, but it’s said to be based on Intel Compute Stick technology. iConsole Micro specifications have not been fully released, but here’s what we know so far: SoC – Unnamed Intel Atom 64-bit quad core processor System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SD slot up to 128GB (160GB in total) Video & […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC
Posted on

Console OS Developer Preview Image Released for Some Intel Haswell and Bay Trail Systems

Console OS is an operating system based on Android that’s designed to run on x86 machines side-by-side with Windows and with desktop-friendly user interface. The project has been funded via a Kickstarter campaign, so backers get the updates earlier, but the developers have now publicly released Console OS DR1 (Developer Release 1) based on Android 4.4.2 so that more people can download it and try it for free after registration. I wanted to try it on Mele PCG03, but it failed, even after copying bootia32.efi to /EFI/BOOT directory (I get stuck into Grub command line), and I found out that “Systems must have 64-bit UEFI firmware. Some systems have 32-bit UEFI firmware, and we are working on adding support for those provided you have one of the processors above”. So it won’t work on cheap Windows 8.1 dongles and mini PC like MeegoPad T01 or Pipo X7, but MINIX NEO […]

Posted on

Intel Introduces Atom x3, x5 and x7 Categories for Its Upcoming Low Power Processors

Intel has been using Core i3, i5, and i7 models for its desktop processor for a few years in order to help consumers chose between entry-level, mid-range, and high-performance processor, although you may also want to look at the launch date as some Core i7 launched in 2010 may be quite slower than Core i3 launched in 2013 or 2014 for example. Intel has now decided to use a similar naming scheme for its next generation Atom processor used in tablets, phablets, and smartphones with Atom x3, Atom x5, and Atom x7 product ranges instead of the often confusing names like Z3735F, Z3580, etc.. The company will still offer slightly more powerful Pentium and Celeron processor for 2-in-1 laptop designs and mini PCs, as well as new Core-M processors for low power and PC-like performance think laptops or tablets. Via Liliputing and UMPCPortal

Posted on

FOSDEM 2015 Schedule – January 31 – February 1 2015

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) takes place every year during the first week-end of February. This year the developer-oriented event expects to bring over 5000 geeks to share ideas and collaborate on open source projects. Contrary to most other events, it’s free to attend, and you don’t even need to register, just show up. FOSDEM 2015 will take place on January 31- February 1 in Brussels. There will be 551 sessions divided into 5 keynotes, 40 lightning talks, 6 certification exams, and with the bulk being developer rooms and main tracks,  divided into 7 main tracks this year: Languages, Performance, Time, Typesetting, Hardware, Security and Miscellaneous. I’m not going to attend, but it’s still interested to see what will be talked about, and I’ve concocted my own little virtual program out of the main tracks and developers’ rooms. There’s a few minutes overlap between some talks […]

Posted on

Crowdfunding Report for 2014 on CNX Software Blog

Following up on my 2013 Crowdfunding Report, I’ve gone through all 55 Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdunding projects featured on CNX Software between December 2013 and November 2014 (inclusive) to see how well they fared. The table below sort projects chronologically as they were published on this very blog. Date Project Crowdfunding Site Funded? Pledged amount / Goal Expected Delivery Actual Delivery Comments 2. Dec. 2013 Micro Python Kickstarter Yes 97,803 GBP / 15,000 GBP 03/2014 04/2014 Available @ https://micropython.org/store/#/store 5. Dec. 2013 Plugaway Kickstarter Yes $162,835 AUD / $50,000 AUD 04/2014 – People upset because of lack of updates. Project might be dead, and backers lost their money 6. Dec. 2013 AIRTAME Indiegogo Yes $1,268,332 / $160,000 05/2014 12/2014 People have started received the beta versions, after a massive 8-month delay 7. Dec. 2013 Crystal Board Kickstarter No $14,574 / $200,000 04/2014 – The project appears to be dead 10. […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs
Posted on

Fernvale Open Source Hardware IoT Board Based on Mediatek MT6260 SoC with GSM Connectivity

Andrew Huang (Bunnie), an hardware engineer, known for hacking the original XBOX, and more recently for Novena open source laptop, has decided it could be interesting to reverse-engineer Mediatek MT6260 processor, as in China, it’s difficult to get documentation, SDK, and tools if you don’t commit to purchase X chips, where X is a rather large number. He and others also checked whether their work could be open sourced legally, and assert their “fair use” rights to reverse-engineer hardware and firmware. And so Fernvale project was born both as a technical challenge and to make a point. MT6260 is a $3 ARM7EJ-S processor clocked at 364 MHz with 8MB built-in RAM, interfaces such as I2C, SPI, PWM, UART, as well as LCD and touchscheen controller, and audio codec, battery charger, USB,  Bluetooth, and GSM support, which make the $6 Atmel MCU used in Arduino board look expensive. The main differences […]

Posted on

CubieTruck Metal Case Unboxing and Disassembly

CubieTruck Metal Case is a kit comprised of CubieTruck (aka CubieBoard 3), a 128GB SSD, a 5,300 mAh battery, a power adapter, and various cables. In case you are not familiar with CubieTruck, it’s a development board by CubieTech, based on Allwinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor with 2GB RAM, 8GB NAND flash, a SATA connector, HDMI & VGA outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, 2 USB host ports, and a mini USB OTG port. CubieTech decided to sent me a kit, as it was featured on CNX Software, and today, I’ll show what’s exactly is inside the kit since the product description is not 100% clear. I’ve been told it’s pre-installed with Lubuntu, so in a separate post next week, I’ll try Linux, report on the SSD performance, and check the battery UPS function, and possibly life on a charge. CubieTruck Metal Case Unboxing I’ve received the kit in a […]

Boardcon Rockchip RK3588S SBC with 8K, WiFI 6, 4G LTE, NVME SSD, HDMI 2.1...