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Board Bringup: You, Me, and I2C – ELCE 2012

David Anders, embedded systems developer at Texas Instruments, explains how to work with I2C in Linux based embedded systems at ELCE 2012. Abstract: Board bring up is one of the most under documented aspects of embedded development. I2C is such a powerful, low-cost, and ubiquitous method of communication, that a basic understanding of it’s usage is essential to the embedded linux developer to quickly bring up and debug embedded designs. This presentation will look at the various software and hardware aspects of working with I2C using simple case studies highlighting the implementation of an EEPROM and a GPIO Expander. Most embedded Linux developers at some point in their career will be handed a piece of hardware that is untested. This presentation intends to provide some information about core tools and methods for bring up of I2C interfaces and assorted I2C based peripheral devices. David Anders has previously presented at Embedded […]

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Supporting 200 Different Expansions Boards: The Broken Promise of Device Tree – ELCE 2012

Koen Kooi, software engineering manager at Circuitco Electronics and lead developer of the Angstrom distribution, explains that device tree does help with the ARM Linux kernel, but brings all the complexity to the bootloader(s), taking the variety of Beaglebone capes as example, at the Embedded Linux Conference in Barcelona, Spain, on November 6, 2012. Abstract: Devicetree is marketed as the one ring to rule them all when it comes to non-discoverable hardware for Linux on ARM. The problem with devicetree is that the complexity gets removed from the kernel and put into the bootloader. Koen first gives an overview of device tree, and provides an example (am33xx.dtsi) to show device tree data structure. Then time for some Beaglebone and capes promotion overview,  before moving to the core of the problem: Pinctrl Resource tracking EVM/bone split uboot/uimage/dtb lockstep pdata only Keycodes and other non-hardware bits You can also download the presentation […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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QuickEmbed UPuter Pi – $69 AllWinner A10 Development Board

I’ve been informed of a new AllWinner A10 development board which is marketed as some sort of Raspberry Pi “clone”, although the hardware is different. The UPuter Pi is a small board designed by QuickEmbed Technology, a Shanghai based company, that features AllWinner A10 processor @ 1.5 GHz, 512 to 1 GB RAM, and 4 to 8 GB Flash. Here are the specs as mentioned on the company website: CPU 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A8 multi-core Mali400 graphic engine Memory 512M/1GB DDR3 Flash 4G/8G DC 5V USB power working temperature -10 to 70C storage temperature -20 to 80C Android 4.0 WIFI/RJ45 network USB/Wireless keyboard/mouse 3G usb card TF card, U-disk, usb harddisk 720P/1080P/2160P I must have gone blind because I don’t see any RJ45 connector (for Ethernet). The board will support Android 4.0 and all the usual Linux distros supported by Allwinner A10 processor. QuickEmbed may have pushed the clone concept a […]

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Olimex Offers Up to 50% Discount on OLinuXino Boards to Open Source Developers

Olimex has been providing low cost MCU devkits for many years, and this year they started offering more powerful embedded Linux development boards called OLinuXino. The first family (iMX233-OLinuXino) is based on Freescale i.MX233 ARM9 processor @ 454 Mhz and comes in three form factor: iMX233-OLINUXINO-MAXI – 2x USB host, Ethernet, TV-out, GPIOs, SD-CARD, Audio-In, Audio-Out, UEXT – 44.95 Euros. iMX233-OLINUXINO-MINI – 3x USB host, TV-out, GPIOs, SD-CARD, Audio-In, Audio-Out, UEXT – 34.95 Euros iMX233-OLINUXINO-MICRO – USB host, TV-out, GPIOs, SD-CARD, ready for breadboaring – 23.95 Euros They are also working on A13-OLinuXino board featuring AllWinner A13 Cortex A8 processor. To promote their new boards (and reward open source developers – cf comment below), the company company has decided to offer discount to open source developers. The way I understand it: you need to buy a board first, publish the source code somewhere and write about it on your own […]

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CIFS/Samba Support, USB Drive and Keyboard/Mouse for Android 4.0

Paul O’Brien, founder of modaco, has created a custom kernel with CIFS/SAMBA support, USB drive and  keyboard / mouse support for Galaxy Nexus smartphone running Android 4.0 (ICS). This is a temporary download until MCR (MoDaCo Custom ROM) is released. This should be flashed via ‘fastboot flash boot boot.mck.img’ to a device with an unlocked bootloader. This is designed for devices running the I9250XXKK1 / ITL41D (android-4.0.1_r1) ROM. DOWNLOAD – MD5: adf6bcc42205027952630dcf720beada Source: http://android.modaco.com/topic/348882-23-nov-modaco-custom-kernel-cifs-usb-drives-keyboard-mouse/

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Board Bringup: LCD and Display Interfaces – ELCE 2011

Presentation “Board Bringup: LCD and Display Interfaces” by David Anders, Texas Instruments, at Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2011. Board bringup is one of the most under documented aspects of embedded development. This presentation looked at the various display technologies such as DisplayPort, DVI, LVDS, and other LCD interfacing methods with emphasis on how to bringup, debug, and validate them on new hardware. Using a case study, aspects such as interfacing timing, extended display identification data(EDID), and backlight controls have been discussed. Most embedded linux developers at some point in their career will be handed a piece of hardware that is untested. LCD bringup is one of the most challenging assignments for an embedded developer. This presentation intends to provide some core tools and methods for bringup of a new display interface. You can also download the presentation slides

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Xero MCU board
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Xero MCU is a compact USB-C board based on STM32F411 microcontroller (Crowdfunding)

Xero MCU is a small STMicro STM32F411 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller board with a USB-C port, twenty through and castellated holes for GPIOs, a Debug connector, Reset and Boot buttons, and a few LEDs. The 100 MHz MCU embeds 512KB flash and 128KB SRAM, and the board is said to be designed for hobbyists, students, and professionals. For reference, the Xero MCU board features the same STM32F411CEU6 microcontroller found in the Black Bill board. However, it’s quite shorter at about half the size, and features castellated edges, making it suitable for soldering on a baseboard. Xero MCU specifications: Microcontroller – STMicro STM32F411CEU6 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 100MHz with 512KB Flash, 128KB SRAM USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – 2x 20-pin through and castelled holes with up to 17x GPIO, I2C, 2x SPI, 2x UART, 4x ADC, 5V, 3.3V, and GND Debugging – 4-pin debug connector […]

W6300-EVB-PICO2 board with Raspberry Pi RP23500 and W6300 QSPI Ethernet controller
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W6300-EVB-Pico2 board combines RP2350 MCU with WIZnet W6300 QSPI Ethernet controller for 80+ Mbps data rate

WIZnet W6300-EVB-Pico2 is a development board that combines a Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCU with the company’s new W6300 QSPI Ethernet controller capable of 80+ Mbps data rates. WIZNet has made several 10/100Mbps Ethernet controllers over the years that connect to microcontrollers via SPI, but the speed is often limited to 15 to 70 Mbps due to a low SPI clock frequency and small buffers. The WIZNet W6300 Ethernet controller can deliver higher speed thanks to a 150MHz system clock, a QSPI interface with four data lines, 64KB SRAM, and 4KB TX/RX buffer for each of the 8 sockets. W6300 QSPI Ethernet controller W6300 features and specifications: Host Interface – High-speed QSPI (MODE 0/3), system bus with 2 address signals & 8-bit data Internal 32KB SRAM for Tx/ Rx buffers (64KB in total) 8x independent sockets with 64KB Memory 10BaseT / 10BaseTe / 100BaseTX Ethernet PHY Integrated Auto negotiation (Full and […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications