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Firefox OS Ported to MIPS Based Tablet (Ingenic JZ4780)

Imagination has announced that an experimental version of Firefox OS has been ported to a reference tablet powered by Ingenic JZ4780, a MIPS based processor, that’s also used in MIPS Creator CI20 development board, and that the company organized a raffle to send 15 of these tablets for people to try or develop on. The tablet is said to cost less than $100, runs either Firefox OS or Android 4.4 KitKat, and comes with the following specifications: SoC – Ingenic JZ4780 dual core MIPS32 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Imagination PowerVR SGX540 GPU. 32kI + 32kD per core, 512K shared L2. System Memory – N/A Storage – N/A Display – 9.7” screen; 1024 x 768 resolution Video Output – mini HDMI port Audio – Headphone jack, stereo speakers, microphone Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x Micro USB port Camera –  Front and rear cameras Misc – […]

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XBAND is a Tiny $10 Bluetooth Low Energy Sensor Module (Crowdfunding)

ZX Tek‘s XBAND is a board about half the size of a micro SD that comes with a Bluetooth LE radio and a 6-axis MPU6500 motion sensor that can be integrated into wearables and IoT applications such as a remote controlled robot with a camera., a wireless smart light-bulb, and iBeacon device and so on. There seems to be two versions of the module XBAND 061-N51822 and XBAND 1018-CY8C4247 with the following specifications: SoC (one or the other) Nordic Semiconductor nRF51822 ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 16 MHz with 256KB Flash, 16KB RAM, and Bluetooth Low Energy support Cypress PSoC4 BLE core ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 48 MHz with 128KB flash, 16KB RAM, and Bleutooth Low Energy support Bluetooth – 4.0/4.1 with high gain ceramic chip antenna Sensors – On-board 6-axis MPU6500 motion sensor + an extra configurable sensor (not idea what that is…). Connectors – Board-to-board connectors with […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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How to Install Ubuntu 14.04 on Acer Aspire E5 Laptop

I’ve been owning an Acer Aspire One D255E netbook with a 10″ display, an Intel Atom N455 processor and 1GB RAM that served me well during my travels, but as I’ve become older and less patient, I felt I needed to upgrade it. I planned to spend around 10,000 Baht (~$300), wanted a 14″ display, one of the low power CPU such as Intel Bay Trail-M or AMD Mullins / Beema processors, at least 500GB storage, 4GB RAM, and the ability to install Ubuntu. Finally, after going through several products at my local shop, I had to chose between Acer Aspire E5-411-P3CL with a 7.5W TDP Intel Atom N3540 and Acer Aspire E5-421G-45L0 with a 15W TDP AMD A4-6210 processor that both sell for 11,900 Baht ($365). Despite my preference for processor with lower TDP, I still went with the AMD system, since the performance is a little better, the […]

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Xilinx Zynq-Z7015 FPGA + ARM based System-on-Modules Include High Speed Transceivers

There’s a fair amount of low cost boards powered by Xilinx Zynq Z-7010 and Z-7020 with dual core Cortex A9 processor and Artix-7 FPGA, but those who wanted to have PCIe ports or high speed transceivers had to go with the higher-end Xilinx Z-7030/7040/7050 with Kintex-7 FPGA fabric for a much higher cost. But Xilinx introduced Zynq Z-7015 late last year, a low cost Artix-7 FPGA + Cortex A9 SoC that also adds four 6.25Gbps SerDes ports and one PCIe Gen2 x4 integrated block. At least two modules based on the new SoC are currently available with DAVE Embedded Systems’ BORA Xpress  and Trenz Electronic TE0715 Series. DAVE Zynq XC7Z015/XC7Z030 BORA Xpress BORA Xpress specifications: SoC Xilinx ZYNQ XC7Z015 dual ARM Cortex-A9 @ up to 866MHz with Artix-7 FPGA with 74K logic cells, 46K LUTs, 92K Flip flops, 380 KB RAM. 32 KB I-cache, 32 KB D-cache, 512 KB L2 […]

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Google Summer of Code 2015 is Now Open for Student Applications

Google has now announced that students applications for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) are now open. Students can get paid up to $5,500 to work on various open source projects selected for the event. Fewer companies have been accepted this year, and even big names like the Linux Foundation and Mozilla got their application rejected. There are still over 137 open source projects to work on including: MinnowBoard  project – Potential software projects for the Intel Atom embedded board include making low speed I/O buses more accessible via intermediate open source libraries (e.g. SMBus/PMBus/Wiring libraries), and improving the open source firmware. lowRISC SoC project – Potential projects: Schematic Viewer for Netlists (SVG/JavaScript), open source FPGA compilation flow using Yosys, accessing the OpenCores ecosystem, etc… BeagleBoard.org – Lots of project ideas relying on the BeagleBone Black board, dealing with Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces, ARM processor support in […]

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Giveaway Week Winners Announced (March 2015)

The latest Giveaway week has come to an end, and I’m just coming back from the post office, having sent a few Android based TV boxes, a Linux development board, and one wireless audio streamer to the lucky winners. I’ve already announced winners daily in the comment section of each contest, but here’s the list again with the device, winners’ nickname and their country of residence: Nagrace HPH NT-V6 – Rizwan, Canada Vidon Box – bazsi, Romania RipplTV – driv3l, USA Freescale SABRE Lite – biasio95, Italy Vidon.me AV200 – cityF, Portugal HD18T – Sean, Canada SoundMate WM201 – Orel, France So people from Canada got lucky, but still no winner from Asia or Oceania. The parcel have been send via registered Small Packet Airmail, all the winners should receive them in a few weeks, and certainly I hope they’ll have fun enjoy with their devices. If you haven’t won […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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March 2015 Discounts – GearBest, GeekBuying, DX and WeTek Play

A few companies have started or planned discounts for April’s fool, Father’s day, and maybe even March Madness, the basketball tournament currently taking place in the US. GearBest launched their “March Markdowns” event occurring between March 16-31, and offering 81 discounted items, a spin the wheel game where players can win a One Plus One smartphone, two ZTE Blade S6 smartphones, as well as some other smaller items and discount points. They have deals for smartphones, watches, RC cars and quadcopters, mini PCs, and other accessories. Some interesting deals for Android media players include: MXQ S85 for $50.85. (Amlogic S805) MK808 Plus for $32.99. (Amlogic S805) Rikomagic MK12 for $89.99. (Amlogic S812) Ugoos UT3S (2GB RAM / 16GB flash) for $119.99. (Rockchip RK3288) You can also try to use GBCCN coupon to get 10% discount. This is however not cumulative. For example, Ugoos UT3S will sell for $116.80 with the […]

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Neptune Suite Includes a Smartphone, Tablet, and HDMI Stick Powered by a Smartwatch (Crowdfunding)

The makers of Neptune Pine smartwatch have unsurprisingly decided to make another smartwatch which they called Neptune Hub. Why Hub? Because although this smartwatch can be used standalone, its quadcore processor can also control a smartphone, a tablet, and an HDMI stick, probably over Miracast. So they’ve taken the opposite view to other companies in the market which are using the smartphone as the brain of your smartwatch to some extends. Neptune Hub specifications: SoC – Quad-core processor @ 1.8GHz (probably Qualcomm) System Memory – N/A Storage – 64GB eMMC Display – 2.4″ capacitive touchscreen (36mm width) Cellular Connectivity – GSM/3G/LTE with nano SIM card slot Connectivity – 802.11 Wi-Fi, 60Hz WiGig 802.11ad, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS / A-GPS Audio – Microphone and speaker Sensors – Accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, digital compass, heart rate sensor, vibration motor Battery – 1,000 mAh Water resistant The watch will run Android 5.0 Lollipop, and […]

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