Amlogic S912 launch has been delayed by a few months, and if we are to believe the data from GFXBench (test 1; test 2), the reason could be that they switched the design from a Mali-T7xx GPU to a more powerful Mali-T830 GPU.

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S912 processor is still based on four Cortex A53 core @ up to 2.0 GHz like in S905, but the GPU will be much more powerful.

One person noticed these results and wrote an analysis and comparison (in Korean) against the Mali-860MP2 GPU found in Mediatek MT6755 SoC (Helio P10) SoC.

So while Mali-860MP2 is faster for all listed benchmark the advantage is not that great. His analysis  compared benchmarks (read post for details) concludes that the GPU in S912 could be clocked at around 650 MHz.

Thanks to Adriano for the tip.

Linaro’s 96Boards initiative was announced in February with the introduction of Hikey board, and while progress has been rather slow, there are now two boards available for sale: Lemaker Hikey and Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c. The main advantage of these board is that 96Boards is not only an hardware specification, but also a software specifications that mandate most code to be open source, with recent versions of Linux and U-boot, and in the case of Dragonboard 410c work is being done with Freedreno open source GPU drivers.

Now that I’ve got a board I’ll explain my experience with the purchasing process, take a few pictures, and show how to get started with Android, and install the latest version, before running a few benchmarks.

Ordering DragonBoard 410c Development Board

I normally don’t like purchasing from North American and European distributors, because of the potential documentation involved to comply with silly laws, high shipping fees, which are themselves compounded by import taxes at home and the courier’s handling fees, meaning a $75 board could easily ending costing $150… So I did not intend to buy the board at first, and just went to the Arrow’s Dragonboard 410c page to find out how much shipping would be…

The board ships from the United Stated, but to my surprise shipping was free via Fedex Economy.

So I just went ahead, the checkout process was rather straightforward, and paid by Paypal on Wednesday, November 12, with an estimated delivery date of November 18. Not too bad.

Two days later, I received an email asked me to complete an FCC Purchaser’s Certification form, because while the board had passed the company’s internal EMC tests, it had not passed FCC certification yet, so I could only use it as an evaluation platform. EMC certifications is expected by the end of the month. So I filled it up and simply sent it back by email.

The following Wednesday my order was confirmed, and I received the board yesterday (November 20). So it took about a week between my order and shipping, so I’m pretty satisfied how it all went considering the board is sent for free.

I did not pay any import duties, but Fedex did request for 7% VAT, amounting to about $6.

DragonBoard 410c Pictures

I got the board in a box warning about static electricity.

I’ve seen pictures of the board before with Green and Red PCB, but mine ended up being Cyan, although the overall design did not really change since the first prototypes.

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The main difference with the previous photos is that they added shields on top of the power circuitry, as well as on Qualcomm Snapdragon 410c and memory chips.

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I’ve also take a picture with a few “friends” including Raspberry Pi 2, Orange Pi 2 mini, and Roseapple Pi boards. with DragonBoard 410c being slightly smaller.

Getting Started with DragonBoard 410c Development Board (in Android)

Linaro released the first Reference Software Platform for 96Boards a couple of weeks ago, and while Hikey supported both Android and Debian 8.2, ony the latter was released for DragonBoard 410c, so I was expecting the board to come pre-loaded with Debian Linux distribution, but instead it came with Android 5.1. That’s why I’m going to focus on Android in this first post, before checking out Linux in more details.

Since the board comes pre-loaded with an operating systems it should be easy to start with the platform, right? Sort of, but there are still some mini challenges to overcome.

First, the board takes 6.5 to 18V power supply as per 96Boards specifications, and the power barrel has a 1.7mm diameter instead of the more usual 2.1mm. That means all these 5V power supply I’ve accumulated can’t be used, so I had to find a 12V power supply, as well as some adapters to be able to connect it to the board. Luckily, I have a few 12V/1A power adapter from some TV boxes, and I have a 28 power jack adapters set to handle this case. If you don’t have any of those, you could also check out 96Boards power supply page with some recommendations.

12V/1A Power Adapter, and 2.1 to 1.7mm Adapter (Click to Enlarge)

Once I got this sorted out, I also connected a USB keyboard, and RF dongle for my air mouse, an HDMI cable to my TV, and an Ethernet… wait.. There’s no Ethernet port on 96Boards, so that’s it. As I connected the power, and LED quickly blink once, and then nothing for several (long) seconds, until I saw the Qualcomm boot animation, and later the lock screen.

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These are the few apps pre-installed in the Android image.

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And a look at “About phone” section shows MSM8916 for arm64 is running Android 5.1.1 on top of Linux 3.10.49. So I don’t think that image fully complies with 96Boards software specifications, and hopefully the Android release part of the Reference Software Platform will fix that.

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I could connect to WiFi with issues, and transfer the screenshots via Bluetooth, since Android would not recognize my USB flash drive. Later on I found out micro SD cards work fine.

If you intend to modify the bootloader or kernel, you’ll most probably want to connect a USB to TLL board to the development platform. Unfortunately, while most development boards on the market are perfectly happy with a 3.3V or 5V power debug board, DragonBoard 410c board requires a 1.8V USB to TTL board which needs to inconveniently be connected to pins 1, 11 and 13 on the 40-pin low speed (LS) header.  I could remember that Hardkernel USB-UART board supports both 1.8 and 3.3V, and I got one thanks to the several ODROID board I was given to play with.

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I fired up minicom in my Ubuntu computer, made sure it was set to 115200 8N1, but whatever I did I could not get any debug message on the serial console, even after switching Tx and Rx a few times… I tried to download Snapdragon 410 GPIO Pin Assignment from the Wiki, but the file in question had a “redirect loop”… So I gave up on that part for now.

Installing the latest Android Image

Eventually Linaro is going to update the firmware images and release the source regularly, so you’ll probably want to install the latest the latest build of the Android image, and I followed the instructions on 96Boards github wiki in an Ubuntu computer, which uses fastboot, and there’s also another method using a micro SD card.

Fastboot update

You’ll need fastboot utility to flash the firmware over USB. This command and all other below are typed from your Linux computer (Ubuntu/Debian):

Now download and extract the latest bootloader

Now make sure S6 switch on the board is set to 0-0-0-0 as shown in the right photo, and that there’s no micro SD card inserted in the board.

Now keep pressing S4 button (Volume -), while inserting the power jack into the board, and after a few releas the button. You should be in fastboot mode. Let’s check it:

All good. Now flash all files with a single command

The output will start with:

It should take a few seconds to complete. If you forget to add sudo, the following message will show forever:

Now you’ll want to download the latest Android firmware files in your computer:

Once this is done, unzip and flash the files to the board:

Now unplug the power, and the micro USB cable, and put the power jack back into the board. Android should boot, but in my case it did not, and my power meter was stuck at 1 to 1.5 Watts instead of 2.0 to 3.0 Watts during a normal boot.

SD Card Update

So I fell back to the second update method, using a micro SD card. I’ve used a terminal windows in Ubuntu in the instructions below, but you could also use a Windows computer, and Win32DiskImager utility to perform the same tasks over a graphical user interface.

First download and extract the SD card image:

Now insert your SD card into your computer, and check your device with lsblk:

In my case, the micro SD card is 32GB, so my device is sdb. You need to replace <sd_device> with your own device in the command to dump the data to the SD card.

You can now remove the micro SD card from your computer and insert it into the board.

Set the S6 switch to 0110 (boot from SD-card ,USB Host mode) as shown on the right.

Now power on the board, LED 1 will blink regularly, and after a while NOOBS should show up on your monitor or TV, asking you to choose the operating system to install.

Click install, and complete the process. Once it asks your to remove the SD card. Disconnect the power, remove the micro SD card, set S6 back to 0000, re-connect the power, and be very patient for the first boot. I propose you make some tea and coffee, drink it, go to relieve yourself, and come back later where Android will have hopefully booted.

My Linux kernel is now a little newer, but still dated in August. So they have not released any Android firmware for a few months. This should change for the December Software Reference Platform release.

If you want to go further with Android on the board, I recommend you read the Android User Guide (PDF),  and visit DragonBoard 410C documentation page on 96Boards.org.

DragonBoard 410c Android Benchmarks

I’ve also side-loaded a few benchmarks to find out more about the board performance. But first let’s see what CPU-Z reports.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 400/410 is properly recognized with a quad core Cortex A53 processor clocked between 200 and 1.21 GHz and an Adreno 306 GPU @ up to 400 MHz. The governor is set to interactive, so it may slightly negatively impact the benchmarks below. The system has indeed 1GB RAM, with 4.84GB internal storage available to the user out of the 8GB eMMC flash.

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After installing Antutu 5.7.1, it asked me whether I wanted to update to the 64-bit version for better performance. It’s the first time it happened in all my testing despite reviewing and benchmarking other 64-bit ARM systems before. The board scores 18,211 points in Antutu, quite lower as I expected compared to Amlogic S905 (quad core @ 2.0 Ghz -> ~28,000 points) and Rockchip RK3368 (octa-core @ 1.2 GHz -> ~34,000 points) processors also Cortex A53 cores.

Several smartphones have launched with Snapdragon 410 processors, so in theory it should be easy to find benchmark for comparison, but most of these phones come with a lower resolution 1280×720 display, and run Android 4.4. I still found Elephone Trunk with Snaprdragon 410, Android 5.1, and a 1280×780 scoring 21,500 points, so the score in DragonBoard 410c  appears more or less as expected.

Vellamo 3.x should not run with Firefox at all, and only partially with Webview, so ignore the Browser scores. The board got 1,114 points in the multicore benchmark, or 786 points in the metal benchmark, which compares to respectively 1,572 and 763 with Amlogic S905 benchmark results.

Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c achieved 2,304 points in 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme compared to around 4,200 to 4,300 points in both Rockchip RK3368 and Amlogic S905 devices at the same 1920×1080 resolution.

Conclusion

As you can see from this initial review, 96Boards project is still very much work in progress on the software side, and I had wished some more common decision were made with regards to the specs (e.g. power supply, serial voltage, Ethernet…),  but at least the DragonBoard 410c platform should be interesting over time for people who want recent versions of U-boot, Linux and Android / Debian firmware, and source code, as well as an open source GPU drivers (Freedreno).

The next step should be to run Debian 8.2, but since the firmware is at the alpha stage with some issues like no HDMI audio, I may decide to take my time, and wait for the December release.

There was some confused when MeegoPad T05, T06 and T07 Cherry Trail TV dongles details surfaced with specifications changing from sites to sites.  One forum post on x86pad.com, clarified MeegoPad products line up, including a new MeegoPad T08 Cherry Trail projector with battery. MeegoPad T07 was confirmed to be actively cooled with a small fan, and come with 2GB as seen on GeekBuying and GearBest, but the company also just launched a flexible funding Indiegogo campaign for the 4GB RAM version.

MeegoPad T07 specifications:

• SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz (Turbo frequency: 1.84 GHz) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics (2W SDP)
• System Memory –  4GB LPDDR3-1600
• Storage – 32GB eMMC 5.0 flash + micro SD slot up to 128GB
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4 male connector
• Audio I/O – HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack
• Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port (power only)
• Misc – Power button
• Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port
• Dimensions – 106 x 53 x 13.5 mm
• Weight – 50 grams

MeegoPad T07 is pre-loaded with an activated version of Windows 10. But note that the company do not have a stellar track record when it comes to license as they apparently shipped a MeegoPad T04 with an unlicensed Windows 10 to Lon Seidman, a YouTube reviewer, and then provided a link to some cracking software to fix the issue…

They ask for $109 for the “early supporter” reward, which includes T07 with Windows 10 Home,  an HDMI extension cable, a micro USB to USB cable, a power cable, and a carrying case. The company has also included MeegoPad T05 in the crowdfunding campaign featuring 2GB RAM only, and available barebone for $79, or with Windows 10 Home for $94. Shipping is not included, but is free to North America, and the few European countries I tried, and $10 to the rest of the world. Delivery is scheduled for January 2016.

Fan inside MeegoPad T07

I received my first Amlogic S905 TV box last week with K1 Plus, and although I have not reviewed it yet due to some issues with Google Play, I’ve run some benchmarks on the Amlogic S905 platform, which some people mentioning that results could have been impacted by the small heatsink leading to CPU throttling. The good news is that I know have a new Amlogic SD905 TV Box to play with as GearBest sent me Beelink MINI MX TV box. Today, I’ll take a few photos of the device and the board, before hopefully publishing the full review early next week.

Beelink MINI MX Unboxing

I received the package via DHL, and thanks to its low price I did not have to pay custom duties or VAT.

The package does not show any specific brand, only Mini MX 4K Movies products, as well as the specifications on the back.

Beelink MINI MX and Accessories (Click to Enlarge)

The box ships with a 5V/2A power adapter, a simple IR remote control requiring two AAA batteries, an HDMI cable, and a quick start guide in English.

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The device is quite thinner than some of the other TV boxes I’ve reviewed recently. The front panel has a small circular window for the power LED, while one of the side comes with a micro SD slot, and a USB port. The main ports can be found in the rear panel with an optical S/PDIF port, Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 connector, HDMI 2.0 output, , another USB 2.0 host port, and the power jack.

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Beelink MINI MX Teardown

There aren’t any screws holding the two parts of the case together, so you need some rigi and sharp plastic tool to pop up the parts.

The WiFi antenna is on the board itself, so I had nothing to break this time.., and there’s no heatsink on the processor, but instead heat dissipation is done via a themal pad glued to a metallic plate fastened to the top of the case, which should provide better cooling than the tiny heatsink found in VideoStrong K1 Plus.

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The back of the board has nothing much, expect the recovery/firmware update button on the top right of the picture, and a 4-pin header for the serial console, on the right side.

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Since they own Beelink brand, it’s no surprise to reading the board was made by Netxeon, with the board name reading S95_V2.0_20150909. Two Samsung K4B4G1646D-BCMA DDR3 chips bring 1GB RAM to the device, while FORESEE NCEFAT28-08G NAND? flash takes care of the 8GB internal storage. Ampak AP6212 wireless module adds Bluetooth 4.0 and 2.4GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n to the device, and Pulse H5007NL magnetics and Reatek RTL8211F Ethernet transceiver confirm Gigabit Ethernet support.  Beside the 4-pin serial console header, there are also 6 solder points to connect a JTAG debugger.

I’d like to thank GearBest for sending a review sample. If you are interested, you could purchase Beelink MINI MX from their website for just $40.79 including shipping with BEELL coupon. Alternative shopping options include GeekBuying ($44.99), eBay, Amazon US ($55), and a few others.

Google formally launched Brillo operating system a few weeks ago. The new operating system is a stripped down version of Android that targets Internet of Things (IoT) applications, and more recently the company pushed the source code to their servers.

So I’ve given it a try by checking out the code, building Brillo emulator for Intel/AMD, and running it in Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit.

It took a few hours here with some errors the first time, so I tried again and I finally got the code a few hours later. Once this is done, set the build environment and configuration:

You could also run the “Brillo emulator” on ARM, and edison-eng must be the build for Intel Edison board.
Now you can start the build:

It has to complete 21491 different tasks, so depending on your computer performance it may take a few dozen of minutes to several hours.

and it failed again after switching to Java 1.7.x requesting OpenJDK, so I switched to OpenJDK 7.0 as shown in the error message:

After this configuration changes, running make clean && make -j8 did the trick and the build went much further, but still failed with:

So the rootfs is kept small at 95MB, and only 74MB RAM is used.

Some web servers, Weave daemon, a firewall, sensor monitor, adb daemon, etc.. but no ART runtime as found in the full Android. It actually looks more like a light weight Linux distribution, than something based on Android, as the root file system still remains Android like with system, vendor, data… directories.

Last year, Imagination Technologies launched their first community development board with MIPS Creator CI20 powered by Ingenic JZ4780 dual core MIPS processor running both Android and Linux, and now supported by various projects. The company has been teasing about its MIPS Creatort Ci40 for a few weeks, and was already announced as the MIPS platform of choice for Google Brillo operating system, but the board has now officially been launched via a Kickstarter campaign where you can get the board for $53, as well as some add-on boards.

But instead of using a processor from one of their partner, Imagination just designed their own MIPS interAptiv SoC for the board.

Creator Ci40 board specifications:

• SoC – Imagination Technologies Creator cXT200 with 2x MIPS interAptiv core @ 550MHz, 512KB L2 cache, and an Ensigma C4500 RPU (for 802.11ac/ BT 4.1 LE)
• System Memory – 256 MB DDR3
• Storage – 512 MB NAND flash, micro SD card slot
• Connectivity – Ethernet, 802.11ac 2×2 WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, 802.15.4 radio for 6LoWPAN
• USB – 1x micro USB OTG port
• Audio – 1 x 3.5mm input/output jack, 1 x S/PDIF input/output connector
• Expansion Headers:
  • 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header
  • 2x mikroBus headers
  • Other undocumented headers
  • I/Os include: 32x GPIO, 4x PWM, 1x SPI, 2x UART, 2x I2C, and 5x ADC.
• Debugging – JTAG/EJTAG, 1x micro USB port for serial console (TBC)
• Security – TPM chip
• Misc – 9x indicator LEDs
• Power Supply – 9V via power barrel, or 5V via micro USB port
• Dimensions – 100 mm x 106 mm

cXT200 Block Diagram

The board will support Linux (buildroot), Brillo OS, Debian, and OpenWRT. Optimized GNU tools and library will also be provided for the MIPS platform, and the board will have access to the cloud via the company’s FlowCloud IoT framework. Some code sample for the latter  have already been provided on github.

Creator Ci40 Open Source Software Stack (Click to Enlarge)

In Internet of Things projects you also need “things”, and not only a gateway, so the company is also offering Creator Ci40 IoT kit with Ci40 board, as well as two MikroElektronika’s 6LoWPAN Clicker boards  powered by 2 AAA batteries acting as nodes (i.e. things), and three Click boards fitting in mikroBus sockets.

Credtor Ci40 IoT Kit (Click to Enlarge)

The Clicker boards are powered by a MIPS based Pic32MX micro-controller, and run Contiki real-time operating system. As reported in my post about HummingBoard Gate board, there are over 150 Click (add-on) boards to both Ci40 and clickers board functionality can be augmented by any of these standard add-on boards by MikroElectronika.

While Creator Ci40 board itself is 35 GBP (~$53), you could consider getting the IoT kit instead for 70 GBP ($106). Shipping is not included, and they charge a flat fee to any destination ranging from 5 GBP for th board only to 12 GBP for the various kits. Delivery is scheduled for April 2016. You can also find more details on Imagination’s Creator Ci40 product page.

I’ve recently written a review of DragonBoard 410c with Android, one of the first board part of Linaro’s 96Boards initiative that’s supposed to get Android and Debian distributions with recent Linux kernel & U-Boot, together with full source code. Inforce Computing has now launched Inforce 6309 micro Single Board Computer (SBC) with the same footprint, albeit different connectors’ placements, and software compatible with DragonBoard 410c development board powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor. The board targets applications such as industrial automation, “sophisticated” IoE devices, medical devices, augmented reality computing, and robotics and drones.

Inforce 6309 micro single board computer specifications:

• SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (APQ8016) quad-core ARM CortexA53 @ 1.2 GHz with Adreno 306 GPU and Hexagon QDSP6 @ 700 MHz
• System Memory – 1GB LPDDR3 @ 533MHz, Single-channel 32-bit (4.2GBps)
• Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (eMCP package with RAM) + micro SD slot
• Video Output / Display IF – micro HDMI up to 1080p30; LVDS and touch screen up to 1920×1200 (24-bit) or 2048×1536
• Audio – HDMI, combo jack for headphone and microphone, PMM8916 audio codec
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (USB 2.0 to GbE bridge), 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, and GPS/GLONASS
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port
• Camera – Dual MIPI-CSI2 (4/2 lanes) for dual camera support up to 13MP
• Serial – Optional RS-485 port via interface card
• Expansion – 26-pin header with I2C, SPI, I2S, UART and GPIOs
• Power Supply – 12V/1.5A DC input; optional PoE
• Dimensions – 85×54 mm
• Temperature Range – Operating & Storage: -30ºC to +85ºC

Block Diagram (Click to Enlarge)

The board size and specifications are similar to DragonBoard 410c, but the board gains Gigabit Ethernet (limited to the USB 2.0 bandwidth), and replaced LS and HS connectors by MIPI-CSI, LVDS and a 26-pin I/O header. The company provides Android Lollipop, Linaro Ubuntu, and ROS operating systems for the board, as well as Qualcomm SDKs (Vuforia, Alljoyn, FastCV, MARE…), and Dronecode open-source UAV. As usual with Inforce Computing, public documentation is limited to the product brief and a short explanation about the SDK, and all other downloads (datasheets, application notes, software released, and reference manuals) are only available to customers.

A development kit based Inforce 6309 micro SBC will soon be available for pre-order for $120 via the product page. Price for the SBC will start at $99 for small quantities.

If you wish your Raspberry Pi 2 could be a little more responsive, including WiFi connectivity and keep the time even when network is not available, and a few extra goodies then Pi 2 Design‘s CSB502SSD add-ons board (Raspberry Pi HAT) could be worth a look.

CSB502SSD technical specifications:

• Storage – mSATA socket for up to 1TB on-board storage via PL2571 USB to SATA bridge controller
• USB – 2x extra USB 2.0 ports
• Connectivity – GWF-3M08 WiFi 802.11 b/g/n module (Ralink RT5370) with IPEX connector and up to 150 Mbps connection.
• Real Time Clock – DS1339 with 16mm coin cell battery backup and programmable alarm.
• Sensors – 1-Wire DS18B20 temperature sensor to monitor the health of SSD drive. 64-bit ID to identify the shield
• Power Supply – 8V-24V DC input (Up to 27.5W) for peripherals and Raspberry Pi 2.
• Dimensions – Full size Raspberry Pi 2 I/O Shield

Since the SSD data transfer will take place over USB 2.0, you may not not get much higher throughput compared to a USB 2.0 flash drive or a good class 10 SD card, however as I found out in Voyo V2 review, random write performance for USB flash drive are dismissal, and a SSD connected via USB was about 120 times faster for random writes. So any applications that requires good random writes, for example frequent databases writes, should gain in performance.

The add-on board / shield has now launched on Kickstarter, where you can pledge $49 to get it together with the micro USB to USB cable, a power supply, Wifi antenna and mounting posts, but without an SSD. Shipping is not included and amounts to $10 to the US, and $28 to the rest of the world (but the price should go down to $18 soon, so you may want to wait).

Xiaomi launched their first MiPad tablet last year with an Nvidia Tegra K1 processor and running Android, and the company recently introduced an update with MiPad 2, with similar features to the original one, but replacing the ARM processor by an Intel Atom x5-Z8500 quad core “Cherry Trail” processor supporting both Android and Windows.

Gizmo China made a comparison table between the two model’s specifications which I reproduced and edited below.

So beside the processor difference, the new MiPad is lighter, and thinner, replaces the micro USB port by a new USB type-C reversible port, loses the micro SD slot, and comes with a smaller battery. I understand that MiPad 2 does not dual boot, but instead supports either Android (MIUI 7) or Windows 10.

MiPad 2 will launch in China for 999 RMB ($156) for the 16GB version (November 27) and 1,299 RMB ($203) for the 64GB version, available by the end of December.

The Raspberry Pi board had some serious competition price-wise with products such as Orange Pi PC, NanoPi, or even C.H.I.P, but the Raspberry Pi foundation has lowered the price barrier even further with the Raspberry Pi Zero board, based on the same processor as the original Raspberry Pi (model 1) boards but clocked at a higher speed, and in a much smaller form factor, and launching at an unbeatable price: $5.

Raspberry Pi Zero specifications:

• Processor – Broadcomm BCM2835 ARM11 processor @ 1GHz with VideoCore IV GPU
• System – 512MB RAM
• Storage – microSD slot
• Video Output – mini HDMI port and composite video (via 2 unpopulated  pins)
• USB – 2x micro USB OTG ports for data and power
• Expansion – 40-pin through-holes
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port
• Power Consumption – 0.5-0.7W (100-140mA at 5.09V) according to Raspi.TV
• Dimensions – 65mm x 30mm x 5mm

The board is obviously software compatible with Raspberry Pi Model B/B+ and A+, and it’s a pretty exciting development.

The board is available in limited supplies in the UK via sites like Element14 or Pimoroni, and in the US via Microcenter and Adafruit. The board is also available for free with the December issue of The MagPi in UK stores.

If you find $5 is just too cheap, or Raspberry Pi Zero is out of stock, or you simply don’t happen to live in the US or UK, you can also fall back to Allwinner R8 based C.H.I.P board that’s available for pre-order on Cyber Monday for $8 + shipping.

Espressif teased about their ESP32 WiSoC with WiFi and Bluetooth LE a few weeks ago in a letter addressed to developers, but did not release that much information. The company has now released some documents in the forums (registration required) concerning ESP32 module  including PCB processing requirement, schematics and PCB layout, and bill of materials.

ESP31 / ESP32 Module Pinout

The very first modules will actually be based on ESP31 processor, which only slightly differs from ESP32 with some swapped pins. The BoM is pretty small with several capacitors and resistors, one inductance, a 26 MHz crystal, ESP31, and a Gigadevice flash.

The schematics have been designed with Orcad 16.6, so if you don’t have the program, you can read the schematics with Orcad 16.6 Lite, which is free to download. I’ve also printed the schematics to a PDF file.  I’m not sure how to open the .pcb file which should be the module’s PCB layout.

Qualcomm applications processors used to be found mostly in consumer devices like smartphones and tablets, but recently the company has expended their use to the embedded space, and for example, we’ve seen Snapdragon 410 64-bit ARM processor used in DragonBoard 410c board, Intrinsyc Open-Q 410 SoM, Inforce 6309 SBC, and today I’m going to have a look at Graperain G8916 system-on-module that’s also integrated into a 4G/LTE mobile development platform.

G6916 CPU module specifications:

• SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) quad core Cortex A53 processor @up to 1.4GHz with Adreno 306 GPU
• System Memory – 1GB DDR3 (2GB optional)
• Storage – 8GB eMMC 4.5 flash (16 and 32GB optional) + micro SD support up to 128GB via I/Os
• Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, FM, NFC/RFID, GPS/GLONASS with 4x on-module antenna connectors.
• Cellular Connectivity
  • TD-LTE – B38/B39/B40/B41; FDD-LTE – B1/B2/B5/B/B26
  • TD-SCDMA -B34/B39
  • GSM – 850/900/1800/1900
  • CDMA – 1x/EVDO BC0
• Audio – Unnamed Audio codec with signals for two microphones, headset and speakers
• Other I/O via half through holes around the module:
  • 4x I2C, 1x PWM, 2x ADC
  • 2x SIM card
  • 1x SD card
  • 1x USB OTG, 2x USB host
  • 20x GPIO
  • Camera – MIPI-CSI up to 12MP rear camera, and 5MP front-facing camera.
  • LCD interface up to 1920×1800
• Power Supply – N/A
• Dimensions – 56.5 x 40.5 mm

Snapdragon 410 SoM Block Diagram (Best Resolution I could get from them).

The hardware specifications should be for reference only, as the company has very poor documentation about their module, and exact details, e.g. LTE frequency bands, differ from document to documents. There’s absolutely zero information about software support, so I had to ask again, and they support Android 4.4, and no other operating systems for now.

The company also has a mobile development platform (M9) using the module.

No details technical could be provided in time for this article however.

G8916 module sample price is $115, and less in quantities. More details, but not that many, might be found on Graperain G8916 SoM page.

Videostrong KI Plus is one of the first Amlogic S905 TV boxes to be launched on the market, and it also happens to be one of cheapest model selling for around $45 on various sites, and it’s even available for $39.99 on GearBest for Black Friday / Cyber Monday. I’ve posted the specifications and pictures of the device previously, and after updating the firmware, I’ve finally completed the review.

First Boot, Settings and First Impressions

As usual, I’ve connected a whole bunch of cables and peripherals to the device to make the power supply can handle it, including a USB hard drive, a USB webcam, a USB keyboard, a USB hub with two RF dongles for Tronsmart Mars G01 gamepad and MeLE F10 Deluxe air mouse, as well as a HDMI, optical audio and Ethernet cables, and a speaker connected to the 3.5mm AV jack and powered by one of the USB port of the device. Turn on the power, and the device will boot automatically (no need to press the power button), with a typical boot taking around 48 seconds.

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The launcher is quite basic, which can be advantage for a TV interface, with the time, a list of customizable shortcuts which including IPFox and Private Live TV by default, and 5 icons on the bottom for Kodi 15.2, Explorer file manager, the list of apps, settings, and a web browser. There are also some icon on the bottom right for networking and storage. IPFox asks you to scan a QR code to buy something, and Private Live TV will download an IPTV plugin and work out of the box with various TV channels including Sky Sports F1…

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I quickly tried one of the streams and it worked OK.

The settings’ user interface is basically the same as found as on Android 5.1 Amlogic S812 TV boxes such as WeTek Core, minus some features like automatic frame rate switching.

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The most interesting settings include:

• Network – WiFi, Ethernet, and VPN configuration
• Display
  • Screen resolution: Auto, 480p-60Hz, 576p-50Hz, 720p 50/60Hz, 1080i 50/60Hz, 1080p 24/50/60Hz, 4K2K 24/25/30/50/60Hz or SMPTE
  • Screen position
  • Screen rotation (middle port, force land, original)
• Sound – System sound (On/Off), and Digital sounds (Auto detection, PCM, HDMI or SPDIF)
• Preferences – HDMI CEC (But not working: “This remote device does not support CEC”), and Play back settings with “HDMI self-adaption” On/Off. I don’t really understand what that means…

I had no problem to connect to my WiFi router, and setting video to 4k2k 60Hz also worked perfectly via Onkyo TX-NR636 AV receiver or LG UHD TV. However, the box did not always keep my video output settings, often falling back to 1080p50. I only tested the AV port by connecting it to my speakers, and it worked fine with both HDMI audio and stereo audio outputted at the same time.

You can get to Lollipop Android settings by selecting More Settings. Bluetooth is not built-in into the device, and is completely missing from the settings, so even if you decided to connect a Bluetooth USB dongle it would not work. All other usual settings appear to be here including Printing, Language & input, accessibility and so on. A single 4.66GB partition is used for both app and data with around 4.21GB free space.

The “About Mediabox” section reports KI Plus model running Android 5.1.1 on top of Linux kernel 3.14.29. There’s also a link to the Update&Backup app in this section, but OTA firmware update is not enabled. The sample was sent to my by a manufacturer (Videostrong), and they probably rely on their customers to handle this. This firmware is not rooted by default.

The IR remote control work pretty well, and I could use it reliably as far as 10 meters. The IR learning function is also doing its job and I could program with TV’s remote control Volume, power, and TV input keys. I have no used the remote that much since I prefer using MeLE F10 Deluxe remote control in Android that’s much more user friendly that IR remotes. Since the status and notification bars are missing, I had to use the Home key on the IR remote during testing…

Google Play Store did not work well at all the first time, with most application being incompatible with this device. That’s why I delayed the review, and after installing a new firmware, everything works pretty well. Applications that require telephony, Bluetooth, and GPS can’t be installed, but that’s fine, as well as the ones which can’t be installed where I live (country limitations). Finally I installed Amazon Underground to load and play Riptide GP2 3D racing game.

Power handling has been implemented correctly as I could cleanly power off the device with either the power button on the unit and the remote control. The remote control can also be used to power on the device. There’s no standby mode, so the device will fully boot each time you turn it on.

For those interested in power consumption, I’ve done some measurements both without USB devices, and one USB hard drive in two modes:

• Power off – 1.3 Watt
• Idle – 3.2 ~ 3.4 Watts
• Power off + HDD – 1.3 Watt
• Idle + HDD – 6.1 ~ 7.4 Watts

There’s still some residual power used in power off mode, but at least the USB ports are turned off.

Temperature is under control most of the time, except possibly when playing games. I measured 42°C and 53°C on the top and bottom of the enclosure after running Antutu 5.7, but after playing Riptide GP2 for about 15 minutes the temperature went up to 50°C and 62°C, and I noticed a lower frame rate in the game.

After updating the firmware, the first impressions were quite good, as despite its low cost, the system was responsive, and stable, which everything from networking to video output working fine, except for video output changing randomly? after a power on.

Video Playback on KI Plus

I usually playing videos from a network share over Ethernet and using whatever Kodi version is pre-installed on the device. So far none of manufacturers have used Kodi from Google Play, and Videostrong is no exception. So I have some Kodi 15.2 app in the device with various add-ons.

For some reasons, the resolution is shown as 1280×720 @ 60Hz in the System information when the video output is set to 4k2k-60Hz, and despite the framebuffer being set to 1920×1080 as we’ve seen with some of the screenshots above.

But when I went ahead with testing videos samples found on linaro website, I realized something was clearly wrong:

• H.264 codec / MP4 container (Big Buck Bunny) – 480p/720p/1080p – Letterboxed
• MPEG2 codec / MPG container –  1080p – Letterboxed
• MPEG4 codec, AVI container 1080p – Letterboxed
• VC1 codec (WMV) – 1080p – Letterboxed
• Real Media (RMVB), 720p / 5Mbps – OK
• WebM / VP8 – OK
• H.265 codec / MPEG TS container (1080p) – Letterboxed
• WebM / VP9 (no audio in video) – OK

So while all videos could play, most of them would be letterboxed.

So with this bug in mind, and my contacts telling me either Amlogic had not spent much resources on Kodi this time, or that many patchsets were still submitted to Kodi to fix Amlogic S905 support, I decided to give up on Kodi on this device, and instead do all my testing with Video Player app in Android. That means you’ll either need to wait for Kodi 16, or go with the daily builds.

Later, I still decided to give Kodi a try with the “reliability” test, playing a 2-hour 1080p movie… and I worked just fine, with a some 3800 skipped frame reported by Kodi’s log overlay maybe because the mismatch between video output and video frame rate. So I was confused, until I saw the video output bug kicked in to force video out to 1080p50, and the System info reported 1920×1080 @ 50Hz…

So that means Kodi 15.2 pre-loaded in the box works at 1080p resolution, but has a bug at 4K. VideoStrong should provide a 4K TV to their developers…

I did not re-test the videos at 1080p in Kodi 15.2, as I’m expecting 2 to 3 more Amlogic S905 TV boxes, and I’ll ahve plenty of opportunities to test Kodi on Amlogic S905, so instead I’ll report results in Video Player, using Ethernet, unless otherwise stated.

Linaro samples, plus Elecard H.265, and a low res VP9 video:

• H.264 codec / MP4 container (Big Buck Bunny) – 1080p – OK
• MPEG2 codec / MPG container –  1080p – OK
• MPEG4 codec, AVI container 1080p – OK
• VC1 codec (WMV) – 1080p – OK
• Real Media (RMVB), 720p / 5Mbps – OK
• WebM / VP8 – OK
• H.265 codec / MPEG TS container (1080p) – OK
• WebM / VP9 (no audio in video) – OK

I started to see some issues, when I switched to some higher bitrate videos :

• ED_HD.avi – Blackscreen
• big_buck_bunny_1080p_surround.avi (1080p H.264 – 12 Mbps) – Video OK, but no audio
• h264_1080p_hp_4.1_40mbps_birds.mkv (40 Mbps) – OK
• hddvd_demo_17.5Mbps_1080p_VC1.mkv (17.5Mbps) – Could be smoother, and no audio
• Jellyfish-120-Mbps.mkv (120 Mbps video without audio) – Not very smooth (played from USB hard drive, as Fast Ethernet could not handle this file).

The audio issues are probably due of the lack of DTS and Dolby licenses, and I could confirm it in the audio test below.

So if you don’t have AV receiver you are out of luck to get any audio, unless you use Kodi, which may not work that well right now, or some other app that also decoded DTS and Dolby by software.

One of the main selling point of Amlogic S905 SoC is support for 4K video including 10-bit HEVC, and it’s doing a pretty good job, as long as you play from a USB hard drive:

• HD.Club-4K-Chimei-inn-60mbps.mp4 – OK from USB HDD, but buffering a lot from network.
  
• sintel-2010-4k.mkv – OK, but no audio.
• Beauty_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265) –  OK
• Bosphorus_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265) – OK
• Jockey_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_TS.ts (H.265) – OK from USB HDD, but buffering often from network
• MHD_2013_2160p_ShowReel_R_9000f_24fps_RMN_QP23_10b.mkv (10-bit HEVC) – OK
• phfx_4KHD_VP9TestFootage.webm (VP9) – 3 to 4 fps
• BT.2020.20140602.ts (Rec.2020 compliant video) – OK from USB HDD (first time ever!), but buffering from network, or even stopping in some instances.
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_30fps.mp4 – OK
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_60fps.mp4 – Audio/video synchronization issues, and the video could be a little smoother
• Fifa_WorldCup2014_Uruguay-Colombia_4K-x265.mp4 (4K, H.265, 60 fps) – Excellent video decoding, but no audio…
• Samsung_UHD_Dubai_10-bit_HEVC_51.4Mbps.ts (10-bit HEVC / MPEG-4 AAC) – Perfect from HHD, but buffering a lot from SAMBA share.
• Astra-11479_V_22000-Canal+ UHD Demo 42.6 Mbps bitrate.ts (10-bit H.265 from DVB-S2 stream) – Most of the time OK, but it will freeze and the same exact point every time for several seconds. (tested on USB drive only)

You can watch a demo with most of these files via the post entitled “H.264 & H.265 4K Video Playback on Amlogic S905 Android TV Box“. While VP9 and H.264 @ 60 fps are not supported by current revision of S905 processor, I understand a new revision of the silicon should support VP9.

Video Player reports “can’t play this video” when I try to play Blu-ray ISO files such as Sintel-Bluray.iso and amay.iso, so I think it’s just not supported by the app. 1080i MPEG2 video samples (GridHD.mpg & Pastel1080i25HD.mpg) played OK, but Hi10p had the same artifacts issues as on Kodi on Amlogic S812, and lacked the subtitles.

I’ve played some stereoscopic 3D videos to see if the system could decode them (my TV does not support 3D):

• bbb_sunflower_1080p_60fps_stereo_abl.mp4 (1080p Over/Under) – OK
• bbb_sunflower_2160p_60fps_stereo_abl.mp4 (2160p Over/Under) – Audio only (Would require a dual 4K decoder)
• Turbo_Film-DreamWorks_trailer_VO_3D.mp4 (1080p SBS) – OK

Lack of DTS/Dolby support was the main issue when I played several H.264, DViX/XVid, VOB, MKV, and MP4 movies, as many did not play audio at all, and Video Player app can not handle FLV videos, nor IFO files (although VOB is OK).

I installed Antutu Video Tester 3.0 manually, and the score (906 point) is pretty good, although not quite as high as on Amlogic S812 devices (1,000+ points).

Click to Enlarge

If you are using premium video streaming applications such as Netflix, it might be important to check whether the level of DRM support, or whether any DRM is actually installed. This could easily be checked thanks to DRM Info app.

And sadly, even the basic Widewine security Level 3 is not installed. As a reminder, Widewine Level 1 is required for HD and UHD video playback.

Visit “Where to get video, audio and images samples” post and comments section for links to video samples.

Network Performance (Wi-Fi and Ethernet)

A 278MB file is transferred between a SAMBA share and the internal storage three times using ES File Explorer in order to test WiFi and Fast Ethernet performance. But during the first test,  I only did it twice because the transfer rate was stable but stuck at 130 KB/s during the whole transfer, and it took over 30 minutes for each transfer. Clearly the worst result ever, and at the time my phone could transfer the same file at over 2MB/s. But I tried again, before publishing the results, and the results are much better @ 3.45 MB/s , but I can’t explain what happened…

Throughput in MB/s (Click to Enlarge)

Amlogic S905 SoC can support Gigabit Ethernet, but K1 Plus is only fitted with Fast Ethernet components, and file transfer performance is under average at about 6MB/s (48 Mbps).

Throughput in MB/s

It looks better while using iperf with “-t 60 -c 192.168.0.104 -d” to test dual duplex transfer for 60 seconds, with a very good Fast Ethernet performance.

Throughput in Mbps

iperf output:

Miscellaneous Tests

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is not support by KI Plus.

Storage

FAT32 (micro SD card), NTFS, & exFAT (USB hard drive) partitions could all be mounted, but the same bug as on Amlogic S812’s Android 5.1 firmware meant the free space was wrongly reported as 10MB, making the NTFS and exFAT partition basically read-only.

I had to skip USB storage benchmarks, but I could still check out the internal storage with A1 SD bench app, which reported 22.71MB/s read speed and 8.67 MB/s write speed.

Read and Write Speeds in MB/s (Click to Enlarge)

Clearly not the best performance, but it was to be expected for a $40 products, and I have not found it to affect the performance of the device much.

Gaming

I have never seen Candy Crush Saga on device expect when using SoC with Mali-400 GPU, and it played without issue on K1 Plus ising an air mouse. Beach Buggy Racing felt a little sluggish, and once I boosted the graphics settings to “high resolution” it started to become choppy, and at time the game seems to be slow to respond to gamepad inputs. Riptide GP2 was about the same story, but it started pretty well, then set the graphics setting to high resolution, and the game was quite not as smooth, and the game even exited/crashed once. Furthermote, I noticed the frame rate to get worse, the more I played, so the GPU must be throttling when the SoC gets hot, leading to performance degradations. So Amlogic S905 does not seem the best platform for gaming, and better stick with the more powerful Amlogic S812 or Rockchip RK3288 SoCs.

K1 Plus Benchmarks

Before running any benchmarks, let’s see what CPU-Z detects…

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The app does not know Amlogic S905 processor, but it probably detects an ARM Cortex A53 quad core processor clocked between 100 MHz and 2.02 GHz, coupled with an ARM Mali-450MP GPU. The model is called KI Plus (p20x), the board p20x, the UI resolution is set to 1920×1080, there’s 807MB total RAM in the system, and 4.66GB internal storage. It’s running an aarch64 Linux kernel version 3.14.29 as reported previously.

I had already run Antutu 5.7.3 to compare Amlogic S905 and Rockchip RK3368 performance, but following the firmware update, I ran it again, and it yielded a marginally higher score of 29,167 points.

Please also find Vellamo 3.0 and 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme results below for reference.

Click to Enlarge

Conclusion

It’s quite amazing that you can now get an Android TV box with 4K video playback and HDMI 2.0 support for about $40. However, there’s still work to be done, as while their a good based with a reasonably good user interface, and surprisingly smooth video playback at 2160p resolution using Video Player app, the pre-installed Kodi 15.2 version was unusable at 4K resolution with most videos letterboxed, DTS and Dolby licenses are missing, there’s no DRM installed at all, and various other bugs need to be fixed.

PROS

• Recent Android 5.1 OS firmware that is both responsive and stable
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 2160p 60Hz; 24/25/30/50/60 Hz refresh rates supported; AV port (tested with speakers)
• Impressive 4K H.265 (10-bit) and H.264 video playback in Video Player app
• Dolby 5.1, DTS and TrueHD audio pass-through is working.
• Proper power handling
• IR remote support IR learning function, and has a good range (>10 meters)
• 4x USB ports
• Very good value for money (once issues can be resolved)

CONS

• Pre-installed Kodi 15.2 version does not work well for 2160p video output is selected (1080p output looks better); automatic frame rate switching is not working either.
• HDMI – Dolby Digital 7.1+, DTS HD and Atmos pass-through not working; CEC not working; Video output resolution set in settings is not always used at next power on.
• Missing DTS and Dolby support for PCM output
• No DRM installed, even Widewine Level 3 required for SD playback on relevant apps.
• WiFi performance may be erratic (TBC), very good sometimes, and near stall speed at others.
• 3D games such as Beach Buggy Racing and Riptide GP2 are not playing very smoothly, and performance may degrade with play time (and higher heat).
• No option to show status and notification bars, no Download icon in app list.
• Lacks Bluetooth support
• USB hard drive partitions (NTFS / exFAT) reported as having 10MB free only, basically rendering the partitions read-only.

There are also IPTV apps that depending on your point of view can be PROS or CONS, and OTA firmware update is missing, but this may be due to Videostrong being a manufacturer, and not a brand, so they rely on their customer to handle firmware updates with their own servers and branding.

Videostrong was kind enough to send this first Amlogic S905 box sample for review, and if you are a distributor or resellers, you could contact the company via their Alibaba product page. Individual can purchase K1 Plus (aka Ki Plus) on retail sites starting at $39.99 including shipping on GearBest, GeekBuying, eBay, Amazon US, Aliexpress and others.

We’ve previously seen there’s not that much difference in benchmarks between Intel Atom Z3735F and the newer Atom x5-Z8300 processor, except when it comes to 3D graphics performance where the latter can be up to twice as fast. The same benchmarks have been run in Windows 10 on an Atom x5-Z8500 based device, namely Kangaroo Mobile Desktop computer, and the difference seemed large enough that I decided to make a comparison against the Atom x5-Z8300 processor used in Tronsmart Ara X5.

The three benchmarks – PCMark 8, Passmark 8, and 3DMark – were run in Windows 10 64-bit Home in both devices. A Ratio greater than one indicates Kangaroo (x5-Z8500) is the faster device.

[Update: Benchmarking mobile or small form factor devices is a complex tasks, as performance may depend on the thermal dissipation of the device, version of the hardware, and obviously software status (e.g. Windows 10 is continuously updated), and I know have two comparison tables:

1. The first table below compares  Ara X5 results in August 2015 to Kangaroo results in November 2015
2. The second and new table compares Ara X5 results in November 2015 (likely different internal storage, updated Windows, and room temperature) using updated results posted by Linuxium to Kangaroo results (Nov 2015).]

1st Table –  Original Post

So Intel Atom x5-Z8500 is faster in all benchmarks. Passmark 8 also includes Disk Mark, but I have not included it in the table above, as it’s more related to the storage performance itself than the processor. Nevertheless, it should be noted that I/O performance may also impact the performance of some tests above, and Disk Mark results were 200 and 606 points for Ara X5 and Kangaroo respectively, so x5-Z8300 performance might be slightly unreported in some of the benchmarks that may use the internal storage.

The most confusing test is photo editing, as the Atom x5-Z8500 devices performs the task three times faster than Ara X5 with Atom x5-Z8300, and I can’t find a rational reason for it.

Memory Specs – x5-Z8500 (left) vs x5-Z8300 (right)

At first I thought that memory bandwidth may be at play here, but Passmark’s “Memory Mark” shows only marginal higher performance for x5-Z8500. Other factors that could have impacted the benchmark include thermal design, as well as Windows 10 updates, as Ara X5 was tested about three months ago (and I don’t own it anymore).

Nevertheless, overall Atom x5-Z8500 in Kangaroo mini PC should deliver noticeable performance improvement over x5-Z8300 in Ara X5, and if you already own an Intel Atom Z3735F based device, you would most certainly notice a performance boost by going to a computer or stick with an Atom x5-Z8500 processor, something that was not obvious with Atom x5-Z8300.

Price-wise Tronsmart Ara X5 now costs $120 with free shipping worldwide, and Kangaroo mobile desktop computer goes for $99 with shipping to the US only. The Kangaroo device does lack Ethernet however. Intel lists x5-Z8300 for $20 and x5-Z8500 for $25, with actual market prices likely to be even lower, so price/performance of x5-Z8500 appears to be much better than x5-Z8300.

2nd Table – With updated results for Ara X5

3DMark results for Ara X5 have stayed about the same between August and November, and most of Passmark results have stayed the same except the overall score explained by the jump of Disk Mark from 200 to 757. PCMark 8 however had nearly a 30% jump in the score with the “Photo Editing” score becoming “normal” (I can could only explain by some software optimization unless it’s highly reliant on I/O performance), and most other PCMark8 tests getting a small boost.

The overall conclusion remains that same: Atom x5-Z8500 shoud have a better price/performance as long as active or passive cooling is done properly.

The UP Board is a Raspberry Pi like board with an Intel Atom processor that’s currently on Kickstarter with a few hours left, and it has just reached its 100,000 Euros stretch goal meaning that beside the 16GB storage / 1 GB version, a version with 32Gb storage and 2GB is now offered. The company also showed their progress with the implementation Debian based Ubilinux  on the Intel Atom x5-Z8300 board.

That means the specifications have now been updated:

• SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz (Burst frequency: 1.84 GHz) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 500 MHz
• System Memory –  1 GB or 2 GB DDR3L-1600
• Storage – 16 or 32 GB eMMC
• Video Output / Display – HDMI, DSI connector
• Audio I/O – HDMI
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet
• USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 2.0 pin header, 1x micro USB 3.0 port (under the board)
• Camera – CSI connector for 4MP camera
• Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header with GPIOs, I2C, SPI, UART. etc…
• Misc – Power button, RTC
• Power Supply – 5V via power barrel
• Dimensions – 85.60 x 56.50 mm
• Temperature Range – Operating: 0 to 60 C
• Certifications – FCC, CE, RoHS

The first 500 backers will get their 16GB/1GB board updated to 32GB/2GB configuration, but new backers can get the UP Board with 2GB RAM, 32 GB storage for 109 Euros plus shipping, while the first version still stays at 89 Euros.

In their latest update, Emutex Labs also showed their progress booting UbiLinux on the board.

[embedded content]

There’s still some work to be done including support for GPIOs and I think audio, but the company also plans to port Ubuntu and Snappy to the board, and hopefully their work can be leveraged for other Intel Atom Cherry Trail based platforms.

MediaTek LinkIt is a collection of development platforms designed for the prototyping of wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and last year they started with LinkIt ONE board based on Mediatek MT2501 “Aster” micro-controller and featuring WiFi, Bluetooth, GPSD and GSM/GPRS connectivity. Mediatek Labs has now launched two new LinkIt board, namely LinkIt Smart 7688 and LinkIt Smart 7688 DUO, both powered by Mediatek MT7688 MIPS processor and running OpenWRT, with the latter also adding an Atmel ATmega32U4 for Arduino compatibility.

LinkIt Smart 7688 (Left) and Smart 7688 DUO (Right) Boards are Breadboard-Friendly Too

LinkIt Smart 7688 Board

LinkIt Smart 7688 Board (Click to Enlarge)

LinkIt Smart 7688 is then the simpler of the two with the following specifications:

• Processor – Mediatek MT7688AN MIPS24KEc processor @ 580 MHz with WiFi
• System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM.
• Storage – 32MB flash + micro SD slot
• Connectivity – 1T1R Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with chip antenna and I-PEX conector
• USB – 1x micro USB host port, 1x micro USB port for power
• Expansion – 2x 18-pin headers with GPIOs, I2C, I2S, SPI, UART, PWM and Ethernet Port.
• Misc – MPU reset and WiFi reset buttons, MPU EJTAG solder pads
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port, or 3.3V via header
• Dimensions – 55.7 x 26 mm

Bottom of Smart 7688 Board (Click to Enlarge)

CL245A on the back of the board is a switch IC to “bypass MT7688AN bootstrap behavior”.

LinkIt Smart 7688 DUO

LinkIt Smart 7688 Duo (Click to Enlarge)

The DUO board is pretty similar, and adds Atmel MCU and reset button, 4 more I/O pins, and is slightly longer:

• Processor – Mediatek MT7688AN MIPS processor @ 580 MHz with 64 KB I-cache, 32 KB D-cache
• System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM.
• Storage – 32MB flash + micro SD slot
• MCU – Atmel ATmega32U4 AVR @ 8 MHz
• Connectivity – 1T1R Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with chip antenna and I-PEX conector
• USB – 1x micro USB host port, 1x micro USB port for power
• Expansion – 2x 20-pin headers with GPIOs, I2C, I2S, SPI, UART, PWM and Ethernet Port.
• Misc – MPU reset, MCU reset, and WiFi reset buttons, MPU EJTAG solder pads
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port, or 3.3V via header
• Dimensions – 60.8 x 26 mm

Bottom of Duo Board (Click to Enlarge)

The I/Os pin are however connected quite differently on 7688 and 7688 DUO, as the latter has most IOs connected to the AVR MCU, with only 3 GPIOs directly connected to the MIPS processor.

LinkIt Smart 7688 DUO Pinout Chart (Click to Enlarge)

LinkIt Smart 7688 Pinout Chart (Click to Enlarge)

Documentation for both board is pretty extensive with Getting Started Guides, a developer’s guide, tutorials, and information about the HDK (Hardware Developer Kit) , which is simply call “board”, including schematics and PCB layout (PDF only). The company also released the bootloader and firmware binary files, as well as an OpenWRT SDK. The boards support both Linux and OS X for development with C/C++, while Python, and Node.js are also supported on Windows. Arduino IDE is also available for the DUO version, and by default MT7688 MPU and Atmel MCU communicate over UART with applications code on the former, and I/Os and sensors managed by the latter. You can access all these resources on LinkIt Smart 7688 page on MediaTek Labs, with some code also found on Mediatek Labs’ Github account, and Seeed Studio’s Wiki.

LinkIt Smart 7688 boards are distributed by Seeed Studio, and you can purchase Mediatek LinkIt Smart 7688 for $12.90 and LinkIt Smart 7688 DUO for $15.90.