Toradex is showcasing the popular TAQ balancing robot featuring a Colibri iMX7 SoM based on NXP’s new heterogeneous multicore i.MX7 processor with Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A7 and additional ARM Cortex-M4 core for low-power, real-time or connected-standby IoT. Amid Toradex’s broad product portfolio is the new high performance Apalis TK1 SoM based on NVIDIA’s Tegra K1 featuring a Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A15 processor with 192 CUDA cores for high-end computer vision and 4k video applications for example. Other demos include an impressive Qt Linux fast boot demo featuring an automotive cluster on Apalis i.MX6.
Allwinner is showing off some of their latest technologies at their CES 2017 showroom. Allwinner claims to have a leading market share of the all-in-one VR market. They are entering the Amazon Alexa and Google Home compatible Smart Speakers market. Allwinner Double OS is being pushed for the affordable 2-in-1 market changing the UI from Tablet mode to Productivity mode. Allwinner partners with Qualcomm for their affordable LTE enabled Tablet range. A64 is being pushed for the Laptop market. The Allwinner R16 with Tina OS powered sweeping robot is sold on the Xiaomi ecosystem. The end of this video also mentions the roadmap where Allwinner will have over 16 new chipsets in 2017 and they are working to introduce a 16nm solution the end of the year.
Marvell AndromedaBox Networking Edge development board, following the http://96boards.org size but with larger ports than the initial 96boards spec, it that can be configured to be used in many applications such as mobile NAS (network-attached storage), IoT gateways, home cloud server etc. The board features the 64bit dual-core ARM Cortex-A53 Marvell Armada 3700 processor, PCI-E 2.0 support, a USB 3.0 port, a SATA 3.0 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, WiFi 802.11ac built in, 8GB of eMMC memory, and Bluetooth 4.2.
On display here is the SECO UDOO x86, a computer along the lines of Raspberry Pi that combines a processor (a 2.56GHz 14nm quad-core Intel 64-bit part), RAM (up to 8GB), and storage (8GB eMMC upgradable to 32GB). The board features WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 (integrated Intel Curie microcontroller), and a fanless design. It can drive up to 3 4K displays via the 1xHDMI and 2XMini DisplayPorts. It is intended for use as a Windows/Linux/Android x86 computer, or as a development board for universities and students. The basic version starts at US$89.
Makeblock present the new educational and entertainment robot Gemini on CES 2016, this wheel-balancing robotic have 2 mode, the standard model can dance, play music, race, voice-control.The battle mode with a LED light turret at the top turn Gemini became a fighting robot.
inForce Computing, a Qualcomm partner, is focussed on utilising Snapdragon SoCs to power a multitude of applications – IoT, portable healthcare devices, robotics, and so on. At TechCrunch Disrupt, Keith Fleer, technical marketing manager at inForce, displays a robotics platform using a Snapdragon 615 SoC with peripherals such as a camera and gesture sensor, on a board with PWM output for servo motors. There is also a board using the Snapdragon 805 chipset (with a 2.7GHz quad-core CPU) that could be used to build video conferencing devices.
The HardKernal ODroid-C2 is a board that outputs native 4K resolution over HDMI 2.0. It uses 4x ARM Cortex-A53 cores at 1.5GHz (Mali-450 GPU) coupled with 2GB DDR3 RAM. Upto 128GB eMMC HS400 and 200GB UHS-1 microSD cards are supported simultaneously. A Gigabit Ethernet port as well as 4USB Host and 1 USB OTG ports are present. The demo setup consists of a 4K TV playing 4K videos while using Ubuntu OS with MATE desktop environment. The board costs US$41.95 without the recommended eMMC memory.
NXP here is displaying their development system for Apple HomeKit. It consists of an RGB LED lightbulb being controlled through the setup using Bluetooth LE, with Siri integration. It uses an ARM Cortex-M4 CPU. Also on display is a Point-of-Sale kit (SLN POS RDR). Lastly we see NXP’s modular IoT gateway that supports Zigbee, WiFi, Ethernet, and NFC.
Arizona-based Technologic Systems makes boards for embedded applications using ARM CPUs and Linux support packages. Their field applications engineer displays a range of boards with Marvell, NXP, FreeScale Semiconductor, and Cavium processors. Their BAT12 system on display is meant to provide power backup for a few hours in case of loss. They also display their range of LCD monitors with full computers built onto the back of them.
Cavium, a fabless semiconductor company based in California, has on display here their Octeon TX 81XX board. It has a quad-core ARMv8 processor for embedded applications, going up to 24 cores. The demo setup consists of an IoT gateway, using temperature and humidity sensors. It can use Bluetooth, WiFi, or cellular data.
After my initial video showing off the Moto Z and its awesome Moto Mods, here is an Interview with Stephen McDonnell, Director of the Moto Mods Developer Program and with Christian Flowers, Engineer on the Moto Mods platform, talking about the plans that Motorola has to promote their awesome Moto Mods ecosystem, promoting ideas and innovative development through Indiegogo at https://enterprise.indiegogo.com/motomods/ and through Hackathons in New York, in the Silicon Valley and elsewhere to come read more at http://modthefuture.com/
Lenovo Motorola Moto Z is an amazing new Smartphone, with Greybus (watch the video that I filmed with Greg Kroah-Hartman on their Greybus development for Google’s discontinued Project Ara) based data and hot-swappable power pogopin docking technology on an ultra-thin Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Smartphone design, with options to dock a TI DLP Pico Projector MotoMod, a Hasselblad True Zoom Photo/Video Camera, JBL SoundBoost Speaker and the Incipio offGRID Power Pack, all MotoMods that customizes and expands the functionalities of a Smartphone. An absolutely fascinating potential evolution for the Smartphone market, Motorola is developing a potentially amazing ecosystem for future-proof MotoMods that can turn your Smartphone into a Project, into a point-and-shoot quality Camera, into an amazingly loud Speaker and that can expand its battery life easily. All these MotoMods are magnetically locked onto the back of the Moto Z. Now Motorola is also releasing the Moto Mods Development Kit to enable third parties to develop new MotoMods for the Moto Z, for example I hope someone makes an ultra-thin E Ink Mobius (flexible, plastic and non-glass) display for the back-size of the smartphone, a Kent Displays CH-LCD based notes taking back case and a LapDock Laptop Dock to use the Moto Z to power the Ultra-thin Laptop dock and desktop dock. The functionalities of Moto Z can also expand through the TurboPower fast charging USB Type C which I have used with USB Type C to SD card adapter, for example to upload videos from my SD card to YouTube. The possibilities with the Moto Z ecosystem are very, very interesting. But for these to get the attention of the consumers worldwide, I think that Lenovo/Motorola needs to lower the price of the bundles to around $599 for the phone including the Projector MotoMod, $699 including Projector and E Ink MotoMod, $349 or $399 for the Moto Z by itself (instead of the current $699). $699 should also be a bundle to include an ultra-thin and ultra-light small bezel 13.3″ Laptop Dock and Desktop Dock MotoMod and with the appropriate Remix OS like Android implementation through Android Nougat to support full Android Powered Productivity on the external display.
Kiss & Tell, an ARM Powered Shoe. Kiss & Tell was a concept that turned into a reality all done on ARM Technology. The idea, a shoe that can change the patterns on the straps based on the touch of a finger from an app on your mobile. For example, if you were invited to have tea with the Queen, the Union Jack could be displayed in seconds; if it was Valentine’s Day, hearts could be flashing. The sole, upper, and interchangeable heels were designed in Tinkercad on an ARM Powered Chromebook, printed using an ARM Powered 3D printer, and then spray painted with custom car paint. The circuitry and the LED designs were both done on Raspberry Pi 3. The shoe is powered by an ARM Cortex-M0+ that sits on an Arduino MKR1000 board that is hidden in the shoe’s upper. You can contact Sandra Larrabee of ARM Marketing to learn more about ARM or Kiss & Tell here: sandra.larrabee@arm.com
Renesas Electronics Corporation is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo. It has manufacturing, design and sales operations in around 20 countries. It is the world’s largest auto semiconductor maker, one of the world’s largest makers of semiconductor systems for mobile phones, the world’s largest maker of microcontrollers, and the second largest maker of application processors. It also makes LCD drivers, RF ICs, mixed-signal integrated circuits and system on a chip semiconductors.
Hexiwear platform enables IoT edge node and wearable development. Completely open-source and developed by MikroElektronika in partnership with NXP. The Hexiwear hardware includes the low power, high performance Kinetis K6x Microcontroller based on ARM Cortex-M4 core, the Kinetis KW40Z multimode radio SoC, supporting BLE in Hexiwear. The Hardware features included 6 on-board sensors such as Optical Heart Rate Monitor, Accelerometer and Magnetometer, Gyroscope, Temperature, Humidity, light and Pressure sensors. Hexiwear also includes Color OLED Display, Rechargeable battery and External flash memory. Hexiwear is supported with its own application for Android and iOS, so users can connect the device to the cloud straight out of the box, without any additional software development required. Hexiwear uses FreeRTOS, the Kinetis software development kit (SDK) and the Kinetis Design Studio IDE. It’s available for $49 at http://www.hexiwear.com/shop/
Pine64 is one of the most successful 64bit ARM development boards yet, raising $1.7 Million on Kickstarter, shipping to 36,781 backers, it’s released as a $15 development board, featuring the 64bit Allwinner A64 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 with ARM Mali400 MP2 GPU. Allwinner announces their partnership with Microsoft to get Windows 10 Azure IoT to run on this development board. It can also run several Linux, Android and more.
Geniatech shows their dragonboard development board following the 96board credit card size, to be sold at $59 it uses the 64bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 1GB RAM, 8GB Nand Flash, 2x USB 2.0 host, HDMI out, compared with the other 96boards, it comes with Ethernet port and uses a regular 6.5V-18V DC-in power. For Smart Drone development, Geniatech shows their Dronecast development board, for drone video streaming using DVB-T standards, it support 720p live video streaming and controls for the Drone at up to 2 Kilometer distance.
Geniatech also shows their 23″ FHD All-in-one on Amlogic S812 Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9, HDMI-in and tuner TV inside.
TechNexion is a Taiwanese company under European Management with own manufacturing facilities in Taipei, Taiwan. Florian Wohlrab, Marketing manager at TechNexion shows us around their booth at COMPUTEX 2016. The first thing to see is their tiny Modules which pack an ARM based NXP i.MX6/7 CPU (UltraLite/Solo/DualLite/Dual/Quad) with RAM, Memory and WiFi on just 36mm x 40mm. They are also the only one running a NXP i.MX7 live demo at their booth. The NXP i.MX7D is with 2x Cortex-A7 and a Cortex-M4 this a tiny, ultralow power, that can be used for vending machines, industrial applications or generic headless systems. TechNexion is also committed to the open source EDM standard for ARM Modules. Their boards are fit for Digital Signage, rugged industrial Applications and many more. Technexion can scale up to the NXP i.MX6 QUAD Plus, which will be available shortly. They also have some cool ARM bassed systems like their BoxPC the TEK Series. This Box PC’s have MiniPCIe slots with SIM-Card holder inside and also M.2 Slots for memory upgrade. Technexion also supports USB Type-C and for automation a VGA connector as well a HDMI to fit it for Digital Signage as well. Inside is a modular system which allows you to switch e.g. Power input between 12V/24V/10~30V/PoE (Power over Ethernet). TechNexion HMI series ranges from 7” to 10” and 15” again with NXP processors. All the Software is freely available on their website with no need to register.
At the ARM booth at Computex 2016, Shenzhen based Red Bear presents their $20 BLE Nano development board, the world’s smallest Bluetooth Low Energy development board using a Nordic Semiconductor nRF51822 16Mhz ARM Cortex-M0 SoC with 32KB RAM, 256KB Flash that supports BLE Central and BLE Peripheral roles, supports voltage from 1.8V to 3.3V and that work’s with their free Android or iOS app. ARM IoT Business Unit Marketing Engineer Neil Tan also shows his project to make a Strength Enhancing Exoskeleton developed with ARM mbed on an STM32F401 ARM Cortex-M4 based development board. Filmed in 4K using Sony AX53
Allwinner unveils Tina OS, their open-source OS based on Linux with their full range SoCs with open source support from Allwinner. Allwinner R8 is their entry level Single-core ARM Cortex-A8 SoC; Allwinner R16 is their quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 at 1Ghz with WiFi; Allwinner R40 is their new enhanced Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 for the IoT and open source market, with better performance and enhancements including HDMI support; Allwinner R58 is their 28nm Octa-core ARM Cortex-A7 at up to 2.0Ghz with ISP and a higher performance GPU. Allwinner open source partners making and selling development boards includes the $9 CHIP deveplopment board based on Allwinner R8 with 512MB RAM, 4GB Nand Flash, with WiFi and Bluetooth4.0. CHIP got 2 million dollars funding from their kickstarter campaign and they have shipped to all their backers last December/January. Banana Pi is made by Foxconn, they make open-source development boards powered by Allwinner SoCs, having already shipped over 600 thousand, used in different applications like drones, robotics, education, servers, toys, smart home, IoT and more. BananaPi’s product line includes:
BananaPi BPI-M1 and M1+ powered by Allwinner A20 dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 with Mali-400 GPU;
BananaPi BPI-M2 is powered by A31s Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 with PowerVR SGX544 GPU;
BananaPi BPI-M2+ is powered by H3 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 with Mali-400 GPU;
BananaPi BPI-M3 is powered by A83T Octa-core ARM Cortex-A7 with PowerVR SGX544 GPU.
