Posted on

Texas Instruments OMAP5432 EVM Benchmarked Against ODROID-U2, BeagleBone Black, GK802… and an Intel Core i7-2600K based PC

Texas instruments and SVTronics announced an OMAP5 evaluation board a couple of months ago. The board features OMAP5432 dual Cortex A15, dual Cortex M4 SoC, 2GB RAM, a 4GB eMMC module, USB 3.0, SATA and more. SVTronics sent a board to Linux.com, where they wrote a short review, followed by an article benchmarking the OMAP5 EVM against AllWinner A10, Freescale i.MX6, Exynos 4412 Prime, and TI Sitara platforms, namely Cubieboard, GK802, ODROID-U2, and BeagleBone Black, all running Linux. Ben Martin, the writer, also benchmarked the board against a Linux PC powered by an Intel Core i7-2600K processor (4 cores, 8 thread, clocked at 3.4GHz, with a turbo frequency up to 3.8GHz). The board used was an early version, clocked at 800MHz, and later in September, all boards will be clocked at 1.5Ghz, so for benchmarks that stress the CPU, you could expect almost double the performance. With that in mind, […]

Posted on

MCU Energy Efficiency Benchmark – Freescale KL02, Microchip PIC24, TI MSP430, and STMicro STM32L

Freescale has recently uploaded a video comparison the energy efficiency of several micro-controllers: Freescale Kinetis KL02, Texas Instruments MSP430, STMicro STM32L, and  Microchip PIC24. Since it’s a Freescale video, we already know the winner, but the test they performed it still interesting, and it shows drastic performance differences between architectures. The used the following exact MCU for testing: Freescale MKL02Z32CAF4R – Cortex M0+ @ 48 MHz STMicro STM32L151RBT6 – Cortex M3 @ 32 MHz Microchip PIC24FJ128GA308 – 16-bit MCU @ 32 MHz Texas Instruments MSP430F5529 – 16-bit MCU @ 25 MHz Freescale did not really select tough competition such as NXP LPC800 Cortex M0+, but instead a Cortex M3 MCU, and older 16-bit MCUs. I don’t know if Microchip has a new generation of ultra low power 16-bit MCUs , but Texas Instruments, for example, launched MSP430 Wolverine MCUs at the end of last year. So this comparison may not be […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
Posted on

Ugoos UM2 Android TV Stick Features Two Full Size USB Ports

Most Android HDMI TV dongles come with only one full size USB port, as well as some micro or mini USB ports. The user then has to use an external USB hub if he or she wants to connect standard USB keyboard and mouse, and ends up with some kind of cable mess. Ugoos UM2 mini PC does not have this issue as it comes with 2 full size USB ports. The rest of the specifications are standard for a quad core HDMI TV Stick: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 Quad core Cortex-A9 +  Mali 400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND Flash (Option for 16G/32G) + micro SD card slot (Up to 32GB) Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth (Version 4.0 TBC) Video Output – HDMI 1.3 Male USB – 2x USB Host ports + 1x micro USB port for power Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimension – […]

Posted on

EPICT EPP-100 Android 4.2 Mini Projector

EPICT EPP-100 is a tiny Android 4.2 device with features similar to many Android mini PCs or set-top boxes, and is based on AllWinner A20 SoC with 512MB RAM and 4GB Flash, but the features that makes it different is a  35-lumens pico-projector capable of outputting an 80″ picture. Here are the specifications of the devices listed on Pandawill: SoC – AllWinner A20 Dual core ARM Cortex-A7 Dual-Core with ARM Mali-400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (Up to 32GB) Projector – Resolution 800 x 480, 35 Lumens, Up to 80″ Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth USB – 1x USB 2.0 Host, 1x micro USB OTG Audio – 3.5 mm jack for headphone Power – Standby Time: Up to one week Dimensions – 68 x 62 x 57mm Weight – 210g (without the stand) The package includes a […]

Posted on

$249 Terasic SoCKit Development Kit Features Altera Cyclone V SX Dual Core A9 + FPGA SoC

There seems to be a lot a development going on around dual core A9 + FPGA SoCs from Xilinx or Altera these days, and Terasic has recently announced SoCKit, a development board based on Altera Cyclone V SX SoC with 2GB RAM (1GB for ARM cores, 1GB for FPGA), 110K logic elements, etc… Here are the specifications listed on Terasic website: FPGA Device – Cyclone V SX SoC—5CSXFC6D6F31C8NES: 110K LEs, 41509 ALMs 5140 M10K memory blocks 6 FPGA PLLs and 3 HPS PLLs 2 Hard Memory Controllers 3.125G Transceivers ARM-based hard processor system (HPS) @ 800 MHz, Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore Processor with 512 KB of shared L2 cache, 64 KB of scratch RAM,  Multiport SDRAM controller (DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR1, and LPDDR2), and  8-channel direct memory access (DMA) controller Configuration and Debug: Quad Serial Configuration device – EPCQ256 for FPGA On-Board USB Blaster II (micro USB type B connector) Memory […]

Posted on

How to Buy an Arduino Leonardo (Clone) Kit for Less than $20

Borderless Electronics Indiegogo campaign for their $9 electronics kit with an Arduino Leonardo clone went so well that the owner of the campaign decided to limit the total number of boards to 15,000, and basically stop the campaign early to avoid production delays. For $12 ($9 + shipping), you could get a full kit with: Arduino Leonardo clone A mini breadboard with 10 Jumper wires A plug for a 9V battery A few components: 6 LEDs, 10x 330 Ohm resistors, 10x 1 KOhm resistors, 3x push buttons, 2 NPN transistors, 5 diodes, a light sensor, and a sound buzzer A micro USB to USB cable Although they may start a new one campaign in a few months, the campaign is over, and you can’t get this cheap Arduino kit anymore. But one of my reader (onebir) let me know that for less than $20, you can  get an Arduino Leonardo […]

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

Lantronix Unveils xPico Wi-Fi Module For the Internet of Things

With Texas Instruments SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 and Qualcomm Atheros AR4100P embedded Wi-Fi processors that fully handle Wi-Fi internally, and transfer data to an MCU with an SPI interface, and solutions such as Electric Imp, there are already ways to add Wi-Fi at relatively low cost to appliances. There’s now another solution available on the market with Lantronix xPico Wi-Fi Module. Listed features and specification of xPico Wi-Fi: SoC – ARM Cortex M3 class processor with 1MB on-chip Flash and 128 KB SRAM Storage – SPI Flash storage Wireless LAN Interface IEEE 802.11 b/g and IEEE 802.11n (single stream) WLAN interface (2.4 GHz only) IEEE 802.11 d/h/i/j/k/w/r WPS 2.0 support u.FL connector for external antenna Serial Interface Two Serial CMOS Ports (3.3V, 5V tolerant) 300 to 921.6 Kbps Flow control XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS (SPort 1 only) Lantronix tunneling application (SPort 1 only) Host Interface –  Dual Serial Port, SPI, USB 2.0 (device), […]

Posted on

CheapCast Chromecast Emulator for Android (Beta) is Available for Download

Yesterday, I wrote developers were working on making any media App and any Android device compatible with Chromecast. Sebastian Mauer has taken care of the latter, by publishing CheapCast (Beta) in Google Play. Several people have been trying it successfully, including in iMito MX1 mini PC. I’ve been less lucky. I’ve tried it by running YouTube App in Zopo ZP900S smartphone (Android 4.0.4) with 4 devices: Tronsmart T428 – “Works” but the video won’t start playing. (Bug reported in Github’s issue tracker) [Update: It now works with the latest version in Google Play]. MK908 – Refused to install anything in Google Play today… (Older Android 4.1 firmware) Wandboard Quad – “Works” but the video won’t start playing. CX-01 – CheapCast will crash when playing video I can’t really play YouTube videos over 360p without buffering here, so the reason the video won’t start in T428 or Wandboard Quad might be […]

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