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MXQ Pro (G9CX) Android 6.0 TV Box Review – Part 1: Specs, Unboxing and Teardown

Most people probably don’t know Shenzhen Shiningworth Technology, but if you’ve ever bought a low cost Android TV box, it may have been made by them. Companies such as Eny Technology, Acemax, Shenzhen Tomato and other are relying on Shenzhen Shiningworth for some of their products, including the popular MXQ series (although other companies are also using MXQ “brand”), and in the past I often found their MAC address in products I reviewed. But this time, the company decided to send their latest product for review directly with MXQ Pro G9CX. I’ll write a two part review starting with specs and pictures, before testing the firmware and providing the second part of the review in a few weeks. G9CX Specifications Let’s start with the technical specifications: SoC –  Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with  penta-core Mali-450MP GPU up to 750MHz+ System Memory – 1GB DDR3 […]

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ArduCAM has designed a Tiny Coin-Sized Raspberry Pi Compatible Module

Now you can design your own custom hardware and leverage Raspberry Pi software, by integrating Raspberry Pi Compute module (and soon Raspberry Pi 3 Compute module) into your custom designed baseboard. But if you’d like something more compact, and even more compact than a Raspberry Pi Zero or RPi Compute module, ArduCAM has been developing a 24x24mm Raspberry Pi compatible system-on-module powered by Broadcom BCM2835 processor. ArduCAM has also designed a small adapter board “UC-343 Rev. A” for the module with the following specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 Processor @ 700 MHz (or 1GHz?) with Videocore IV GPU System Memory – 256MB/512MB LPDDR2 Storage – micro SD card slot USB – 2x micro USB ports including one for power only Camera – 1x MIPI CSI connector supporting 5MP or 8MP Pi cameras (dual camera support) Expansion – AV output header 16-pin and 8-pin headers (unpopulated) with GPIOs, 2x I2C, […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Intel Atom C3000 “Denverton” Processor Targets Low Power Servers

[Update: Some pictures have been removed due to some NDA issues] Intel Atom “Avoton” server processors are the equivalent of Bay Trail processor for mini PCs, laptops and tablets, and with the upcoming release of Apollo Lake processors, Intel has a matching family codenamed “Denverton” that will be used in servers and NAS. Information about the new processors is scarce, but Anandtech spotted an early motherboard prototype last month at Computex. MA10-ST0 motherboard main specifications: SoC – Intel Atom C3000 “Denverton” processor with 4 to 16 cores @ 1.8 GHz; QKP2 code; 14nm process System Memory – 4x RDIMM/UDIMM slots for DDR4 @ 2400 MHz Storage – 4x SATA 3.0 breakout ports supporting up to 16 drives (8x shared with PCIe slot); 32GB eMMC flash Video Output – VGA Connectivity – 2x 10GbE SFP+ ports; 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports (via Intel I210); 1x extra RJ45 port (for management?) USB […]

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Intel Apollo Lake NUC6CAYS & NUC6CAYH NUC mini PCs Specifications Released

Intel Apollo Lake is the next generation of low power processor family that should replace Braswell Celeron processors, and Fanlesstech got hold of the specifications for two upcoming “Arches Canyon” NUC6CAYS and NUC6CAYH NUCs (Next Unit of Computing) mini PCs based on the processors, as well as the 2016-2018 roadmap for the complete (consumer grade) Intel NUC family. The only differences between the two models are that NUC6CAYH is a barebone model without memory or storage, nor operating system. So I’ll just list NUC6CAYS specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron Jxxx quad core processor @ x GHz to y GHz (burst) with Intel HD graphics up to z MHz (10W TDP) System Memory – 2GB DDR3L-xxxx SO-DIMM (dual channel), upgradeable up to 8GB DDR3L-1866 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, 2.5″ SATA3 bay for 9.5mm hard drives, SDXC slot with UHS-I support Video Output – HDMI 2.0 (4K @ 60 Hz), VGA […]

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Nintendo NES Classic Edition is a $60 Nintendo NES mini Replica with HDMI Output, 30 Games

Retro gaming appears to gaining momentum in 2016, with projects like Dreamcade Replay, or even PocketCHIP, and well as more powerful Windows 10 portable consoles like GPD Win (real) and PGS Portable (maybe not so real) capable of handling old sort of game emulators, and Windows games released 3 to 4 years ago. But Nintendo has decided to join the fray, and released NES Classic Edition game console, a smaller version of Nintendo NES, compatible with recent TVs thanks to its HDMI output, and loaded with 30 classic games. The full technical details about the device are not known, but the console with ship with an HDMI cable, and well as a game controller. Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, PAC-MAN, and Kirby’s Adventure are among the 30 NES games pre-installed. (Full list in the press release).Sadly, there’s no cartridge support, nor SD card slot or […]

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Mini M8S II TV Box (Amlogic S905X) Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

Amlogic S905X powered TV boxes have now hit the market, and compared to existing Amlogic S905 devices add VP9, and provided your TV can handle it, HDR (High Dynamic Range) support. GearBest sent me one of the cheapest S905X TV Box with Mini M8S II, and in the first part of the review, I’ll take some picture of the device, and tear it down, while the second part will be posted later, and focus on testing the firmware. MINI M8S II Unboxing The package was slightly damaged, but nothing to bad. The top reads “Mini TV Box” with some icons describing the main feaures like 4K & H.265/HEVC support, WiFi, and so on. I’ve recently realized that logos and trademarks may cause problems with customs in some countries, and the package does have several potentially problematic trademarks like HBO and Netflix, as well as logos for Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo…. In […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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sModule SBC-x6818 Development Kit based on Samsung S5P6818 Processor Includes a 7″ Touchscreen

For some reasons, Samsung S5P4418 and S5P6818 quad and eight Cortex A53 core processors – likely made by Nexell – have been quite popular with embedded systems companies based in China. So after Graperain, Boardcon, and FriendlyARM, there’s at least one another company offering solutions with either processor, as sModule, a subsidiary of CoreWind, has now launched systems-on-module, single board computers, and development kits with the 64-bit ARM SoCs. In this post, I’ll cover one of their development kit including their CORE6818 CPU module, a baseboard, and an optional 7″ capacitive touch display.. sModule SBC-x6818 development kit specifications: CORE6818 CPU module SoC – Samsung S5P6818 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.4 to 1.6 GHz with Mali-400MP 3D GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 (2GB optional) Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash (4 & 16GB optional) Ethernet – Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet transceiver 180-pin “interface” to baseboard Power Supply – 3.7 […]

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SiFive Introduces Freedom U500 and E500 Open Source RISC-V SoCs

Open source used to be a software thing, with the hardware design being kept secret for fear of being copied, but companies such as Texas Instruments realized that from a silicon vendor perspective it would make perfect sense to release open source hardware designs with full schematics, Gerber files and SoM, to allow smaller companies and hobbyists, as well as the education market, normally not having the options to go through standard sales channels and the FAE (Field Application Engineer) support, to experiment with the platform and potentially come up with commercial products. That’s exactly what they did with the Beagleboard community, but there’s still an element that’s closed source, albeit documented: the processor itself. But this could change soon, as SiFive, a startup founded by the creators of the free and open RISC-V architecture, has announced two open source SoCs with Freedom U500 processor and Freedom E300 micro-controller. Freedom […]

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