Posted on

Freescale Announces WaRP (Wearables Reference Platform) Powered by Freescale i.MX 6SoloLite

We’ve seen more and more wearable products recently, be it smartwaches, smart rings, fitness bands, etc.., and we can expect several announcements at CES 2014 for wearables. Freescale has just launched their Wearable Reference Platform (WaRP), comprised of the WaRPboard, a tiny board based on Freescale i.MX 6SoloLite running Android, and a daughter board with KL16 Cortex M0+ MCU and several sensors. The main chips and corresponding features on the board are as follows: Freescale i.MX 6SoloLite Cortex A9 processor @ 1GHz with 2D graphics Vivante GC355 and  GC320 GPUs. KL16 Sub-Family General Purpose Cortex M0+ MCU. Xtrinsic FXOS8700CQ, 6-Axis Sensor with Integrated Linear Accelerometer and Magnetometer. Xtrinsic MMA955xL Intelligent Motion-Sensing Platform. It cane be programmed to provide freefall detection, tilt and 3-D orientation detection, tap and double tap detection, dead reckoning, shock, vibration and sudden motion detection and power management. The company expect WaRP to be used in devices such as […]

Posted on

Lenovo Introduces Nvidia Tegra based All-in-One Android Computers

Lenovo has unveiled two new Android computers just before CES 2014: N308 and ThinkVision 28, respectively powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 with a 19.5″ display and Tegra 4 with a 28″ UHD display. Lenovo N308 Lenovo N308 specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core Cortex A9 processor System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8/16 GB SSD or 320/500 GB HDD, and 6-in-1 card reader Display – 19.5″ display (touch screen ??), 1600×900 resolution Connectivity – Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Webcam – Front camera for 720p video conference USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Audio – Built-in stereo speakers, microphone, and headphone port Battery – Up to 3 hours of usage Lenovo computer cones with a keyboard and mouse, and runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. With a 19.45″ display, it’s not really portable, so the integrated battery is probably there to allow you to move it from one room to […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
Posted on

NVidia Announces Tegra K1 32-bit & 64-bit SoCs with a 192 Core Kepler GPU

Nvidia announced their newest mobile SoC at CES 2014, but instead of calling it Tegra 5, they went for Tegra K1, as it’s the first to feature a 192 cores GPU based on Kepler architecture, the same as used in PC graphics card. There will be several version of the chip one based on four Cortex A15 cores, one featuring a dual core Nvidia Denver CPU based on ARMv8 64-bit architecture, and Tegra K1 VCM for the automotive market. The company showcased the power of their new processor with an Unreal Engine 4 demo and the same face demo showed last year on an Nvidia GPU card, and Tegra K1 easily outperform older generations games console such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, at and the same time consume just about 5 Watts of power, versus 100 Watts for Microsoft and Sony consoles. The GPU in the Tegra K1 also […]

Posted on

How-to Use an Android mini PC to Edit and Print Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and More

Android mini PC have come a long way, and for many use cases such as web browsing and online videos, they nearly match or even surpass the user’s experience you’ve got on a full blown PC. However, unless you’ve installed Linux on your HDMI TV stick or TV box, there were serious limitations using an Android device as a computer where you can install an office suite to create and edit text documents, spreadsheets, and presentation, and print them out. With the availability of apps such as AndrOpen Office, and the addition of printing support in Android 4.4 KitKat, it’s now possible to use Android mini PCs to create content and print documents just like in a normal PC. So if your kids need a cheap PC for their homework, you could just buy a $60 device, adding a USB keyboard and mouse, and connecting the device to an HDMI monitor. […]

Posted on

What to Expect from AllWinner, Rockchip, Mediatek, and Other Silicon Vendors at CES 2014

CES 2014 is coming soon, and it will take place on 7 – 10 January, 2014, and we can expect some interesting SoC news. Samsung suggested they will unveil their 64-bit ARM SoC (Exynos 6?) at CES 2014, Nvidia will hold a press conference to “showcase new NVIDIA Tegra mobile technologies, gaming innovations, and advanced automotive display technologies”, and Qualcomm has been quiet for now. However, several Chinese SoC vendors, namely AllWinner, Rockchip, and Mediatek, have already announced what they will showcase at CES 2014, albeit with few details. AllWinner at CES 2014 Allwinner announced will showcase their OptimusBoard based on their Ultra Octa-Core A80 SoC, as well as 4G tablets powered by Allwinner A31/A31s, and dual-SIM phablets sporting A23 dual-core. Allwinner A80 is an Octacore processor featuring four ARM Cortex A7 cores, and four Cortex A15 cores @ 2.0GHz together with an unnamed GPU offering 2x more performance over previous […]

Posted on

$99 CSR µEnergy Starter Development Kit for Bluetooth Smart

CSR has recently launched CSR µEnergy Starter Development Kit, a low-cost devkit based on their CSR1010, CSR1011 and CSR1012 modules for developers designing Bluetooth Smart, aka Bluetooth Low Energy, applications. Main features of CSR µEnergy Starter DevKit: Fitted with CSR1010, CSR1011, or CSR1012 module USB or CR2032 battery powered (link selectable) USB SPI interface to development PC Headers – 1x Headers for CSR1010/CSR1012 I/O, 2x Headers for CSR1011 I/O Misc – 1x push button, 1x LED Dimensions – 80x68mm PCB area The modules are based on the Bluetooth Smart ICs with the same name, and the following characteristics: CSR1010 – QFN 32 lead, 5 x 5 x 0.6mm, 0.5mm pitch CSR1011 – QFN 56 lead, 8 x 8 x 0.9mm, 0.5mm pitch CSR1012 – QFN 32 lead, 4 x 4 x 0.65mm, 0.4mm pitch All three come with 128KB memory (64KB RAM and 64KB ROM), CSR1010 and CSR1012 has 12 digital […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Posted on

Top 10 Posts of 2013 and Stats on CNXSoft Blog

This is the last day of the year, and just like in 2012, I’ll look back on the main trends of this year,  post a list of the top 10 posts of 2013 on cnx-software.com, and add some fun stats about the site and my visitors. 2013 has been the year of quad core media players and mini PCs, especially those based on Rockchip RK3188, XBMC is now featured in many Android STBs, “big.LITTLE” and “Octa-core” have been the buzz words on the application processor front, Google has entered the HDMI TV sticks market with the ChromeCast, and is competing with Miracast / DLNA TV dongles, we’ve gotten more and more low cost Linux development boards, crowdfunding has almost gone mainstream, and the Internet of things has started to take off thanks to new technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy. I’ve compiled the list using data from Google Analytics, filtered […]

Posted on

Crowdfunding Report 2013 on CNXSoft Blog

Crowdfunding has really took off in 2013, with sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, as they enable start-ups to launch new and innovative products, and some established, even large companies, I’m thinking Canonical with Ubuntu Edge here, have also tapped into that market, actually shifting part of the risks from shareholders, to customers / individual funders. In this post, I’ll go through all the crowdfunding projects, 16 Indiegogo and 25 Kickstarter campaigns, featured on cnx-software.com between the beginning of December 2012 till the end of November 2013, to find out which ones have been a stellar success in terms of funding and on-time delivery, and those that have failed in one way or another, with some being close to looking like scams. There was a wide range of products with dealing home automation, the Internet of things, wireless Arduino compatible boards, Linux development boards, media players and more. Let’s go straight […]

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