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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 […]

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Amlogic S905, S905X, and S912 Processors Appear to be Limited to 1.5 GHz, not 2 GHz as Advertised

When I compared the performance Amlogic S905 and Rockchip RK3368 processors  last year, I noticed Amlogic S905 single thread performance not being much faster than the one of Rockchip RK3368, despite the former allegedly clocked at 2.0 GHz against the latter 1.2 GHz. But early this month one member (koschi) on ODROID forums started a thread entitled “No performance difference between 1.5, 1.75 & 2GHz” about ODROID-C2 board. The first post link to Ant-computing website about choosing a processor for a build farm, and one of the tables comparing various ARM and x86 processors with the claim that Amlogic S905 was listed to 1.536 GHz, because “the device claims to run at 2.016 GHz but the kernel silently ignores frequencies above 1.536 GHz!” So koschi did his own tests with 7z and sysbench, using cpufreq-set -u $FREQ to set a fixed frequency between test, and could confirm the issue:

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ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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KowanTV Click Linux IPTV Box Review

CNXSoft: Ray reviews Amlogic S812 powered Linux based KowanTV Click TV box with allegedly access to over a thousand free IPTV channels. While the hardware is pretty standard, you pay a (hefty) premium to access their IPTV servers, and it reminds me of Jynxbox Live which I reviewed a few years ago. I received one these rare Linux stream boxes. It’s called TVone Entertainment hub, advertised as: KowanTV Click To Play Entertainment Hub European American TV Channels Live Broadcast Video on demand IPTV BOX 1000+ Free Channels, and provided by GeekBuying for this review. KowanTV Click Specifications System Operating System Embedded Media OS( linux ) CPU Amlogic S812( ARM cortex-A9 ) GPU Mali-450 Octo-core RAM 2GB RAM ROM 8GB Flash Memory Communication Wifi Connectivity IEEE 802.11 b/g/n  2.4GHz/5GHz Ethernet 10/100M Bluetooth Yes Media Video Supported Video (up to 4K) – MPEG1/2/4,  H.264,  H.265,AVC, VC-1 , RM/RMVB , Xvid , DviX3/4/5/6, […]

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M12N Amlogic S912 Octa-core TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 Firmware

Shenzhen Shiningworth MXQ Plus M12N is one of the first TV box powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core processor also bringing a faster GPU, VP9 and HDR support compared to the earlier Amlogic S905 processor. I’ve already shown the device, its accesories, and its internal degisn in the first part of MXQ Plus M12N review, so today I’ll spend time reporting my finding testing features and performance with Android 6.0 firmware. Setup Wizard and First Impressions Since there are only two USB ports, I connected my USB hard drive to one, and used a USB hub to connect input devices including two RF dongles for an air mouse, and a gamepad, as well as a USB keyboard to take screenshots. I also added Ethernet and  HDMI cable, and finally connected the power supply to boot it up. But as you can see from the picture the very first boot was not […]

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Coowell V4 Android mini PC with Camera Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

Coowell V4 is one of the rare Android mini PCs with a built-in camera. It is powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor combined with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash. GearBest asked me whether I wanted to review it, and since I was curious about the camera, I took the offer up. Today, in the first part of the review I’ll start by checking out the device and its accessories, and tear it down to find more about the hardware design, before specifically testing the camera in the second part of the review in a similar way to what I did for HD23 review. Coowell V4 Unboxing The device comes in a black retail package with SMART MEDIA HUB text. The only icon that may cause troubles at custom might be the Android logo and text lacking TM. There’s also sticker on the side indicate Model: V4. SO there may be […]

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Nvidia Provides More Details About Parker Automotive SoC with ARMv8 Cores, Pascal GPU

Nvidia demonstrated DRIVE PX2 platform for self-driving cars at CES 2016, but did not give many details about the SoC used in the board. Today, the company has finally provided more information about Parker hexa-core SoC combining two Denver 2 cores, and four Cortex A57 cores combining with a 256-core Pascal GPU. Nvidia Parker SoC specifications: CPU – 2x Denver 2 ARMv8 cores, and 4x ARM Cortex A57 cores with 2MB + 2 MB L2 cache, coherent HMP architecture (meaning all 6 cores can work at the same time) GPUs – Nvidia Pascal Geforce GPU with 256 CUDA cores supporting DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Nvidia CUDA 8.0, OpenGL ES 3.1, AEP, and Vulkan + 2D graphics engine Memory – 128-bit LPDDR4 with ECC Display – Triple display pipeline, each at up to 4K 60fps. VPU – 4K60 H.265 and VP9 hardware video decoder and encoder Others: Gigabit Ethernet MAC Dual-CAN […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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Learn the Basics of Humanoid Robots with InMoov Finger Starter Kit

In a not so distant future, most humans will live off their government provided basic income, relaxing and drinking their robot brewed, drone delivered beer or soda, opened and served by their humanoid robot maid. Well, maybe… In the meantime, it might be interesting to learn how to make humanoid robots such as InMoov, but since it’s quite complicated, it might be better to start small… with a single finger. That’s exactly what InMoov Finger Starter Kit offers you to do in order to understand the basics principles of the complete robot. The kit includes: 1x 3D printed base support in ABS 3D printed finger parts in ABS 1 meter braided 200 LB tendon 1x 5cm filament for peg/pin use to assemble finger joints 1x wheel horn adapter (Servo Pulley) 4x screws to fix the servo to the base support. You’ll also need to provide your own Arduino Uno (or […]

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Using M12N Android Amlogic S912 TV Box as a Game Console (Video)

When Amlogic announced S912 processor, they mentioned it would target not only 4K OTT and IP set-top boxes, but also gaming consoles thanks to a faster and better Mali-T820MP3 GPU compared to the Mali-450MP GPU found in their previous S905 and S805 processor, and we’ve already seen that S912 is indeed faster in 3D benchmarks. So I decided to play several games to show the performance, the pre-loaded retro gaming app, and for people who have never used a TV box to play games show what it looks like, and how to play using M12N TV box, in conjunction with MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse and Tronsmart Mars G01 wireless gamepad. I played four games downloaded from the Play Store or Amazon Underground: Candy Crush Saga with air mouse Beach Buggy Racing and Riptide GP2 with the gamepad Dead Trigger with the air mouse in menus, and the gamepad […]

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