Category: Exclusive videos

TechNexion Android Things dev kits, modules, embedded systems at the Embedded World 2018


TechNexion shows off its Android Things development kits, modules, embedded systems and more new products at the Embedded World 2018. The TechNexion product lineup has grown once again in size. The company is showcasing Android Things development kits based on PICO-PI-IMX7 Low-cost system on modules that are modular, scalable and versatile. The Android Things development boards are based on the NXP i.MX7 applications processor. TechNexion is also launching several wireless communication modules, including PIXI-41Z and the PIXI-9377 low-cost, certified, 1×1 802.11 AC/BT4.1 module that deliver high transmission rates, low latency and improved range.

TechNexion is a provider of embedded systems and system-on-modules, in 2017, TechNexion was chosen by Google as a partner to develop the reference design for its Android Things development kit. That kit based on the PICO-PI-IMX7 board has been the go-to development kit distributed at developer shows and used for demoing the potential of Android Things.

The New TechNexion PIXI series is a communication module that delivers all IoT multi-mode communication needs in one ultra-compact and secure module series. It is specifically designed to enable better transmission rates, lower latency, better range and higher resistance to interference when two or more communication protocols – for example, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Thread – are needed to run concurrently on one system-on-chip. Multiple communication protocols in one chip means users can collect more data from disparate communication protocols, while also having the flexibility to use the right protocol to suit the type of data and distance from your hub.

Panel PCs – TechNexion has three human-machine-interface (HMI) panel computing series: TC, TEP and TWP. The TEP Series is available with either ARM or x86 architecture and has an IP65 anodized aluminum enclosure and a flux mounted projective capacitive touch, high brightness LCD display – ranging from 5 to 15.6 inches. The TWP Series is a fully waterproof, IP69K, panel PC designed to withstand extreme temperatures, high vibration, and cleaning with a jet spray. It is also available with either ARM or x86 architecture – ranging from 10 to 15.6 inches. The TEP-1560-IMX6 is their 15” panel computer based on i.MX6 and the TWP-1560-IMX6 is their NEW model that is waterproof, stainless steel, panel computer.

Fanless Box PCs – The TEK Series fanless computing systems are enclosed in a compact, fully ruggedized enclosure, and are perfect for controlling versatile end-equipment.

System-on-Modules – TechNexion continues to expand its SoM options through its two series, EDM and PICO. These series have an exhaustive range of options around size, processor capability and connector type enabling the creation of almost any kind of embedded device. They are designed to be scalable and come with fully open source software – Linux and Android – and schematics.

WandPi-8M community board – TechNexion were also showing the latest version of their community development board. It is based on NXP’s i.MX8M Quad application processor with ARM Cortex-A53 + M4 architecture to deliver 4K UltraHD with HDR video quality with pro audio fidelity. The WandPi-8M is available for pre-order and is expected to ship in Spring of this year.

Diamond Systems Zeta SBC, Ethernet switch solutions, Sabre enclosures at Embedded World 2018

Posted by – March 7, 2018

Diamond Systems founder Jonathan Miller shows the company’s newest products at Embedded World 2018 including the COM-based Zeta SBC, EPSM-10GX (used to connect to a carrier board) and EPS-24G2X Ethernet switch solutions. As Miller explains, the EPS-24G2X brings out all the signals including those for the two 10G SFI ports. There is a lot of Ethernet available via this solution. It’s all about communication, sharing information and so some people want more ports. The switches discussed are examples of those found in unmanned vehicles as well as many other rugged applications. Included in these new products is the EPS-12GMini, one of the world’s smallest 12-port Ethernet switches is a two-board design enabling its small form factor for on-board vehicle use (military and industrial).

The rugged enclosure called SABRE is the newest of Diamond Systems’ enclosures, this rugged box provides protection in the harshest environments and enables complete solutions for their customers. The one on display, Sabre, at this show is for the COM Express Mini form factor and it accommodates the 12-port switch. On the front is a set of three military connectors. Next is a an Industrial MIDI enclosure with a variety of I/O brought out to the front which accommodates an Eagle SBC which uses Toradex Apalis ARM modules and Diamond Eagle carrier board that goes inside along with a variety of I/O (serial ports, CAN ports, connectors, display, analog). Diamond has an ongoing relationship with partner Toradex who I also filmed at EW2018 here

More boards on display in their booth includes the Analog I/O modules: DMM-16-AT along with DMM-16RP-AT which is bus agnostic. Eaglet, a more compact version of the earlier noted Eagle SBC. The discussion turns to PC/104 where Miller notes the longevity of the product and long value it has had as a form factor. A little later, PCIe MiniCards are shown and discussed as used: I/O; CAN module, Analog I/O module; Ethernet and digital I/O.

Pandora box with connectors on the board for connecting directly into the box. Plug in and go. Typically used on a controller.

Products shown on the right half of the booth are proven designs that they have had on the market now already for a while. A large part of the sales are based on these designs and are custom in some fashion depending on customer’s request.

Next for Diamond are more small things, COM Express, small form factors and more. You can read more about their solutions at http://diamondsystems.com

Toradex Apalis iMX8QM, NXP i.MX 8QM, and more demos at EW2018

Posted by – March 7, 2018

Toradex booth tour at Embedded World 2018 featuring their new Toradex Apalis iMX8 QM System on Module (SoM) based on the NXP’s i.MX 8QuadMax processor. Toradex’s demos featuring the Apalis iMX8QM includes one with Qt 3D Studio. The Apalis iMX8QM offers one click OS installation via the Toradex Easy Installer and offers 2x Arm Cortex-A72 cores, 4x Cortex-A53 cores, and 2x Cortex-M4 cores. The Apalis iMX8QM also contains on-board dual-band 802.11ac 2×2 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi and is Bluetooth 5 ready. This SoM offers advanced hardware security and safety features, and is ideal for signal processing, computer vision and HMI applications. Interested third parties can sign up for early access for the Apalis iMX8QM here

In addition, Toradex is also showing their soon to be available Toradex Colibri iMX8X SoM, based on NXP’s i.MX 8X processor. With 2-4x Arm Cortex-A35 cores and 1x Cortex-M4 core, the SoM is ideal for industrial automation, HMI, robotics, building applications and healthcare. The Colibri iMX8X also contains on-board dual-band 802.11ac 2×2 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi and is Bluetooth 5 ready.

Toradex also showcases some of their other demos such as a Deep Learning demo featuring its Toradex Apalis TK1 SoM in collaboration with its partner Vertex.AI, the demo highlights Vertex.AI’s Vision deep learning and object detection software, and is a complete end-to-end deep learning demo, showcasing pasta detection. Additionally, Toradex has a demo in collaboration with its partner, Roboception, which integrates Toradex’s Apalis TK1 SoM for high-performance onboard processing, the demo has onboard SLAM for indoor and outdoor navigation, accurate visual-intertial motion estimation, and standard interfaces for an intuitive WEB-GUI.

Toradex also has a range of demos highlighting its Toradex partner ecosystem. From CODESYS’ real-time SoftPLC with EtherCAT, Crank’s low- and high-end UI, DiSTI’s safety focused HMI, Green Hills’ INTEGRITY RTOS on Colibri iMX6, Antmicro’s Android on Vision Kit, Acontis’ optimized EtherCAT, TES’ 3D Surround View/Guiliani, Mender.io’s over-the-air updates, Christmann’s Apalis computer cluster, Gumstix’s voice control carrier board, MVTec’s HPeek and more.

To stay up-to-date with news from Toradex, you can sign up to their newsletter here.

PTScientists 2019 Mission to the Moon LTE and 2 rovers

Posted by – March 5, 2018

Berlin-based new-space company PTScientists is taking you on a Mission to the Moon Working with key technology partners Audi and Vodafone, they aim to drive a pair of Audi lunar quattro rovers on the surface of the Moon, and re-visit the last place that humans set foot on the lunar surface during the Apollo 17 mission 45 years ago. After doing a 384,000 km trip from Earth to the Moon, their ALINA spacecraft will attempt to land safely on the lunar surface to deliver their two Audi Lunar quattro rovers and a range of scientific payloads. Once safely on the Moon, their pair of Audi Lunar quattro rovers will use their four-wheel drive capability to explore the harsh lunar environment to attempt to Drive 500m on the Moon also to test a new lunar communications architecture, with a Vodafone-provided LTE base-station allowing the rovers to transfer data to ALINA. They will attempt to send HD images to the Earth 48 years after the final human footprints were left on the Moon, they will return to the Apollo 17 landing site to capture the first high-resolution images of the original Lunar Roving Vehicle (while taking great care not to disturb the site).

ARM Machine Learning (ML) Processor

Posted by – March 2, 2018
Category: Exclusive videos, MWC, ARM

The Arm Machine Learning processor provides up to 4.6 Trillions of Machine Learning Operations Per Second, as part of the Project Trillium, Arm’s Machine Learning (ML) platform, enables a new era of advanced, ultra-efficient inference at the edge with Programmable layer engines for future-proofing, Highly tuned for advanced geometry implementations, Specifically designed for ML and neural network (NN) capabilities, the architecture is versatile enough to scale to any device, from IoT to connected cars and servers.

Built from the ground up for optimal performance and efficiency, Project Trillium completes the Arm Heterogenous ML compute platform with the Arm ML processor, the second-generation Arm Object Detection (OD) processor and open-source Arm NN software.

The Arm Machine Learning processor consists of state-of-the-art optimized fixed-function engines that provide best-in-class performance within a constrained power envelope. Additional programmable layer engines support the execution of non-convolution layers, and the implementation of selected primitives and operators, along with future innovation and algorithm generation. The network control unit manages the overall execution and traversal of the network and the DMA moves data in and out of the main memory. Onboard memory allows central storage for weights and feature maps, thus reducing traffic to the external memory and therefore, power.

Sony XZ2 with 4K HDR recording

Posted by – March 2, 2018

Sony launches their XZ2 and XZ2 Compact Smartphone (https://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/phones/xperia-xz2/) based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with 4K HDR video recording support. Featuring a 5.7″ Full HD+ (2160×1080) HDR display (5″ on XZ2 Compact), Dynamic Vibration System with powerful stereo speakers, Full HD 960fps slow motion, 19MP Motion Eye camera with memory-stacked image sensor. 4GB RAM, 64GB UFS internal memory.

MediaTek helio P60, octa-core ARM Cortex-A73 and ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-G72

Posted by – March 1, 2018

MediaTek helio P60 is MediaTek’s most powerful chipset yet, built on TSMC’s 12nm FinFET production process, with MediaTek’s CorePilot 4.0, featuring four ARM Cortex-A73 cores at 2.0GHz, four ARM Cortex-A53 cores at 2.0GHz in a big.LITTLE configuration, ARM Mali-G72 MP3 GPU clocked at 800MHz. They also provide a Multi-core AI processing unit (Mobile APU) with a 280GMAC/s performance for deep learning facial recognition, object and scene identification, user behavior-informed performance and other AI and AR application enhancements good for computer vision enhancements on the cameras such as Single or Dual Camera bokeh, Real-time HDR recording and viewing and more.

Vuzix AR3000 Smart Glasses starts mass manufacturing

Posted by – February 26, 2018

Vuzix is about to launch the mass manufacturing, they are already shipping a few samples to developers to prepare some of the killer apps that will be available. They will be providing two skews, one more basic consumer edition and more higher spec version for the enterprise. They support Alexa, it runs Android with all kinds of Augmented Reality and Smart Headmounted Dashboard type apps that can be developed. It also has a Smartphone app that simplifies the management of the smart glass, choosing which app to load in the UI.

World’s first 5G chipset: Huawei Balong 5G01

Posted by – February 26, 2018

The Huawei Balong 5G01 chip is a 64bit ARM based chipset, the first in the world, the first to support the latest 3GPP standard for 5G networks, it can transfer data at 2.3Gbps speeds the use case here is for home or enterprise broadband where the 2.3Gbit/s bandwidth comes from the 5G network and broadcasts that as a Wi-Fi signal in the home or office. Later this year or soon, Huawei and others will be reducing the size of the 5G chipset to fit inside of phones and more.

My Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ Review at launch unboxed MWC

Posted by – February 26, 2018

Samsung releases the same phone again, this year still $900, but now they re-imagined the camera. It was already a great camera last year. But now it’s better for sure. Now the “amazing” S9 camera has a mind blowing dual aperture so that is supposedly good. The 960fps slow motion is grainy and blurry but it’s the same Sony did in their XZ phone last year. Samsung Dex is great but it seems they haven’t developed any productivity apps yet, just loading whatever is there for smartphone and tablet. The poop emoji is also here the highlight the most important revolutionary feature of 2018, as a copy of Apple’s poop highlight from last year. Also it’s great you can buy your next makeup using augmented reality. Welcome to my Samsung review!

Rockchip RK3229 Smart Speakers Solution runs Android Things with Google Assistant

Posted by – February 25, 2018

Rockchip has optimized their RK3229 and RK3036 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 System on Module solution to run Android Things or another optimized Linux OS to be able to support Google Assistant, Alexa, iflyertek, DuerOS for high-end to low cost smart speaker products and intelligent voice interactive products, supports sound source localization, sound field enhancement, echo cancellation and noise suppression technology. This Rockchip RK3229 Solution supports 8 channel digital silicon microphones directly connected chip solution, and thus achieves an overall solution of cost-effectiveness and high expandability for the Smart Speakers market.

Blade Shadow cloud gaming pc service launched in UK and California

Posted by – February 24, 2018

Here I film at the UK launch of the Blade Shadow cloud PC gaming service, at the Meltdown London e-sports bar, where they have setup a bunch of Shadow PCs for cloud based gaming PC streaming service
here powering their League of Legends tournament. Blade Shadow is a French startup who I also interviewed at CES here they have now launched their service to cover the UK and they have also activated their West Coast USA server to serve customers in California. For about $35 per month you get remote access to “your own” Xeon gaming desktop with an Nvidia GTX1080 GPU, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD running Windows 10 Pro.

Google for Education at Bett 2018: Chromebooks, G Suite, Jamboard and more…

Posted by – February 22, 2018

Google booth tour at the BETT education technology conference, showcasing some of the newest Chromebooks released for the education market, new security features to help schools prepare for the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU (more information at Google Blog), collaborative tools for teachers and students, the Jamboard interactive whiteboard display device, Google Expeditions using Augmented Reality and VR. Chromebooks are the leading device for the K-12 education market in the USA and now also in Sweden, Canada and New Zealand with 25 million users worldwide. G Suite for Education is used by 80 million users worldwide.

CloudReady turns any old Laptop into a Chromebook

Posted by – February 22, 2018

Neverware CloudReady provides smooth dual boot or single boot of a very recent Chromium OS based OS, with automated security and feature updates coming automatically within 6 weeks after Google releases them, it works smoothly on most laptops released since around 2008, their officially supported devices list is here but many more Intel/AMD powered Laptop models also work fine but may not be supported by CloudReady officially yet.

$279 Acer C732 Chromebook and other latest Acer Chromebooks

Posted by – February 22, 2018

Acer C732 Chromebook is an education-focused Chromebook with IP41-rated durability, a quad- or dual-core Celeron processor, and the option for built-in LTE connectivity. It can be configured with an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 IPS touchscreen, IPS non-touchscreen, or non-touch TN panel. It has two USB-C 3.1 ports as well as two USB-A 3.0 ports and a microSD slot. Pricing starts at $279.99 for non-touch and $299.99 for touch.

$219 Lenovo 100e Chromebook

Posted by – February 22, 2018

Lenovo 100e has a 11.6″ HD anti-glare display, powered by the 2.4 GHz Intel Celeron dual-core processor, military-grade durability with rubber bumpers, reinforced ports, a 180-degree hinge that won’t snap under pressure, compliant with MIL-STD-810G testing for shock and awe, it’s drop-resistant up to 29.5 inches (75cm), roughly the height of a school desk, a sealed touchpad and resists spills of up to 1.39 cups (330 ml),10 hours of battery life, two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports, 2 x 2 AC WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, Micro SD card reader.

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e (5th Gen) Chromebook

Posted by – February 22, 2018

Extra-durable 11.6” HD IPS touch with Gorilla Glass convertible laptop for education, with the World Facing Camera, Garaged EMR Pen. A flexible 360-degree hinge and 10-point multitouch display, all day battery life, features up to 7th Gen Intel Core i5, Up to 8 GB DDR4, Up to 256 GB SSD, 2 x USB 3.0, HDMI, USB-C DisplayPort, 4-in-1 micro card slot, RJ45, 3.5 mm combo audio / mic jack, weights starting at 1.54kg.

Lenovo 500e Chromebook

Posted by – February 22, 2018

Lenovo 500e Chromebook is a 11.6” 2-in-1 Chromebook with a 360-degree hinge for four modes of interaction, a garaged EMR (electromagnetic resonance) pen, features like Two HD cameras, 720p front-facing camera and a 5MP world-facing camera.

Robin Saxby Lecture: Growing a start-up into a global powerhouse

Posted by – February 20, 2018
Category: Exclusive videos, ARM

At the 2017 IET Christmas Lecture, Hub Mentor and pioneering technology entrepreneur Sir Robin Saxby, founding CEO and Chairman of ARM Holdings (who I interviewed here) shares his advice for growing a start-up with limited resources into a global powerhouse. Under his leadership, ARM became the world’s leading semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP) company, and now connects over 5 billion people, powering everything from supercomputers to each Whatsapp message on your phone.

[You can auto-translate the english subtitles to any language from YouTube on a desktop, the video is also available with only external subtitles here]

He answers questions like:
How can a small start-up compete with far bigger competition?
How do you build the right team?
What is the most common mistake technical founders make?

Sir Robin continues to champion entrepreneurship in the UK, and is a committed supporter of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub (https://enterprisehub.raeng.org.uk/)

Exciting Liverpool Technology start up:
http://www.sensorcity.co.uk/

Robin and Friends Bandcamp
https://robinandfriends.bandcamp.com/

Participated in creating this video:
Jan Mary Baloyo, IET
Nilar Shyun Mya, IET PSB Academy On Campus
Syafiq Shahul, IET PSB Academy On Campus
Stanley Liau, IET Singapore LN

Better Gaming with HDMI 2.1 using VRR, QMS, QFT, ALLM

Posted by – February 10, 2018

HDMI 2.1 Specification Supports a Range of Features for Enhanced Gaming:
– Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) reduces or eliminates lag, stutter and frame tearing for more fluid and better detailed gameplay.
– Quick Media Switching (QMS) for movies and video eliminates the delay that can result in blank screens before content is displayed.
– Quick Frame Transport (QFT) reduces latency for smoother no-lag gaming, and real-time interactive virtual reality.
– Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) allows the ideal latency setting to automatically be set allowing for smooth, lag-free and uninterrupted viewing and interactivity.