Category: Tradeshows

I’m in Shenzhen, video-blogging 3 tech conferences this week!

Posted by Charbax – April 7, 2011
Category: Exclusive videos, Shenzhen Electronics Fair

Welcome to my extensive video-coverage coming up here on ARMdevices.net showing you all the newest coolest Chinese gadgets. Not only are basically all your consumer electronics devices made in China, more and more are now also designed and engineered by Chinese companies. Expect consolidation, disruption, innovation, I am going to be looking for new awesome value in Android tablets, Android Smartphones, Android Set-top-boxes and any number of other devices in other tech areas.

I will try to film some of the behind the scenes of the impressive market production domination that this region has on consumer electronics, but it’s not sure that I get the right connections and authorisations to film in actual factories in this region, I’ll try.

Look forward to these events that I will post over 50 videos from during the next 10 days:

– 8-10th April Shenzhen Electronics Fair read more

– 12-15th April China Sourcing Fair at Asia World Expo Hong Kong read more

– 13-16th April HKTDC Electronics Fair Hong Kong read more

It’s been years that I have been wanting to come to these bi-annual consumer electronics shows, now I am here in Shenzhen for 5 days, then going to Hong Kong for 5 days, I will try to film you the best possible videos of the latest that is going on here.

If you would like to help me make sure I find the coolest companies here to video-blog, please click on the trade show links above and do some searches for the Shenzhen or Hong Kong based companies that you know about and check if they are exhibitors, and if one of the cool manufacturers are here, please let me know by email to my charbax@gmail.com or comment here so I’ll try to interview their representatives and show their latest products. Let me know to my email charbax@gmail.com or here in the comments if you know or if you are a cool Shenzhen or Hong Kong based company that I should definitely check out and video-blog about.

Top-6 Embedded World 2011 videos

Posted by Charbax – March 14, 2011
Category: Top Video Lists, Embedded World, Toradex

On the 3rd of March, I jumped on a train from CeBIT Hannover to Embedded World in Nurnberg, so that I could try to interview the representatives of some of the cool ARM Powered devices shown there. I managed to film 15 videos during that day at Embedded World, here are my top-6 best videos:

1. Worlds first Samsung Exynos 4210 ARM Cortex-A9 tablet presented by Hard Kernel, it’s just awesome to see this $750 dev-kit transparent Tablet design, allowing to see through all the awesome hardware features of this platform.

2. Worlds most compact Tegra2 PC presented by Toradex, the potential is a $150 ARM Cortex-A9 Powered desktop PC, with dual-screen output (one HDMI, one VGA), USB host ports, Ethernet, audio input/outputs and more. It’s cool!

3. $200 Tegra2 slim PC by Trim Slice Compulab, yet another cool looking Tegra2 powered super compact desktop PC, this one may actually seem to be more finalized than the Toradex, in terms of software and in terms of cheap motherboard design availability, though it’s to be seen once it gets released what the status for software and hardware pricing will be then.

4. 4K2K video playback on the new Texas Instruments DaVinci DM816x and DM814x, the powers of Texas Instruments DaVinci ties in with what they do with OMAP, the DaVinci perhaps targetting more video-centric uses such as potentially one of the next $100 ARM Powered Google TV set-top-boxes. 4K2K ARM Powered Google TV at $100 retail would be awesome. Until then, the OMAP4 stuff is not yet in these DaVinci and the video stuff is not yet in OMAP4, but those are merging their powers.

5. Seco shows x86-ARM Cross Platform, they work on making it easy for the industry to get away from using x86 and to use ARM solutions instead. They support OMAP4, Tegra2, OMAP3 and i.MX51 designs among others. It becomes as easy as swapping the one for the other, all other aspects of the design, even the software being interoperable.

6. QNX talks about their software on the Blackberry Playbook, still no confirmation if Blackberry will choose to install a Dalvik Engine on top of this to support Android apps in there, but it’s sure interesting to try to understand how QNX does it to utilize the dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 Texas Instruments OMAP4430 processor to its fullest to provide the smoothest UI and multi-tasking.

Top-15 CeBIT 2011 videos

Posted by Charbax – March 8, 2011
Category: Top Video Lists, CeBIT

Here are my top-15 videos filmed at the CeBIT 2011 in Hannover Germany:

1. Interview with Peter Sunde, co-founder of ThePirateBay.org and Flattr, we talk about politics of filesharing, the European Union, Scandinavia, Sweden’s prime minister (and Ikea), implementation of flattr as a Government policy, the influence of TV networks on democracy and more.

2. Worlds First Honeycomb Laptop, while I had seen the Asus Eee Pad Transformer a couple times at previous conferences. It was awesome to see it run Honeycomb for the first time. The idea of Honeycomb running on ARM Powered tablets is awesome. It would be best if those ARM Powered Honeycomb laptops were cheaper, thinner and lighter. But that will come too.

3. Microsoft and Open Source, an interview with the head of open source activities at Microsoft Germany, about the ways in which Microsoft is being more open towards open source. Does that mean Windows 8 for ARM will be open source and free?

4. Zinwell does ARM Powered $70 Android Set-top-box, Zinwell is one of the leading Realtek based media player makers and are now focusing on designing the ARM Powered set-top-box for Android and Google TV support and they need sufficient processor power to render full web browsing experiences as well as rich user interfaces, even gaming as well as all video codecs and streaming.

5. Asus Eee Pad Memo Tablet and MeMic Bluetooth Phone Remote, cool dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260 based 7″ Android tablet from Asus. It fits nicely in any jacker pocket, and can use a bluetooth remote for voice calls.

6. Yifang M707, Android Tablet with infrared pen input, a cool feature, adding infrared sensor to the side of tablets, to scan in real-time the scribbling on paper.

7. Kinstone $95 7″ ARM Cortex-A9 AmLogic (single core) Tablet, this could be the cheapest ARM Cortex-A9 tablet already, though this AmLogic is a single core design, performance should be great.

8. Shenzhen Ider shows $60 Android Cortex-A8 Set-top-box, one of the cheapest ARM Cortex-A8 set-top-boxes for Android and possibly Google TV that I have heard about.

9. Fun video at Shenzhen AUDE comparing x86 with ARM in tablet design, shows how the ARM Powered tablet is 3x lighter, 3x cheaper, 3x thinner than the design based on x86.

10. ARM Powered Tablets by Shuttle, Shuttle is building tablets (and soon Laptops/Desktops) based on ARM chips from Texas Instruments, Nvidia, VIA and others. Watch for their actual compact ARM Powered motherboards at the end of this video.

11. Gigabyte Tegra2 Tablet GN-TB100, Gigabyte is also joining the fun in making Android based tablets.

12. Mobile Tech shows Telechips 8803 ARM Cortex-A8 in new tablets, the new Telechips ARM Cortex-A8 processor is ready for speeding up low cost Android tablets.

13. My first Nintendo 3DS hands-on, it’s pretty awesome. Let’s hope 3D doesn’t hurt.

14. 3Gnet $70 Android Set-top-box, uses Skyviia ARM9 and they plan for a Ziilab ARM Cortex-A8 set-top-box for Android and possibly Google TV as well.

15. Netronix 9.7″ Freescale i.MX51 Android Tablet, same screen, same kind of performance as iPad1, but could retail at $250.

Nuvoton NuMicro Cortex-M0 MCU explained

Posted by Charbax – March 7, 2011
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, Embedded World, Nuvoton

The NuMicro Family is Nuvoton’s new 32-bit Microcontroller product line shown at Embedded World 2011, based on the ARM Cortex-M0 processor with rich peripherals to offer additional features and connectivity capability. Besides the NUC100, NUC120, NUC130 and NUC140 series, the new series the NuMicro M051 series, includes the M052/54/58/516 to supply for the worldwide 8-bit/16-bit microcontroller demand with a higher performance in a 32-bit microcontroller. The Nuvoton Cortex-M0 development kit costs only $20, that sounds cheap for developers to get into experimenting with those kinds of processors.

I’m on German Radio, DRadio Wissen interviews me at CeBIT about my video-blogging

Posted by Charbax – March 7, 2011
Category: Opinions, CeBIT

German National Public Radio reporter Moritz Metz interviews me (in English) for 6 and a half-minutes for radio channel DRadio Wissen (pre-ceded by a short bit by Chris Ziegler of Engadget talking about 1-man blogging operations like mine): http://wissen.dradio.de/cebit-blogger-reist-gadgets-hinterher.36.de.html?dram:article_id=8810&dram:audio_id=11295&dram:play=1 (direct mp3 download link)

DRadio Wissen is a science and knowledge National German Radio channel operated by public radio broadcaster Deutschlandradio out of Cologne.

Exciting!

Peter Sunde, co-founder of ThePirateBay.org and Flattr.com, at CeBIT 2011

Posted by Charbax – March 6, 2011
Category: Web, Other, Exclusive videos, Opinions, CeBIT

A few years ago, Peter Sunde together with a bunch of cool guys in Sweden started thepiratebay.org, which is kind of a fun site where people can find torrent files for all kinds of things. It has been in the media. There is a chance that you know about that site. Peter Sunde is very much involved in the politics around filesharing on the Internet, the politics of media and content, he has spoken at the european union and RIAA and MPAA have a bunch of lawsuits going after him and his team. He tried to buy a country once to implement freedom of filesharing rules there or to build a server farm there, but instead thepiratebay is hosted around the world and can never be shut down and nobody knows who controls it. Those guys are fun (read their Legal Threats page). What do you think about Copyrights, Piracy and those kinds of things? Write your opinions in the comments.

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Toradex shows Tegra2 computer on SO-DIMM form factor

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, Marvell, Embedded World, Toradex, Windows

This may be the most compact Tegra2 fully featured box PC computer thus far. They use 256MB RAM DDR2, 1GB flash storage for 99 euros, they’ll also do a slightly higher end version with 512MB RAM and 4GB flash storage version soon. The cheapest board and box could be made for less than 50 euros more. Thus the idea is a sub-150 euro Tegra2 box PC all included and it being slightly larger than a box of playing cards, just big enough to accomodate the connectors.

Seco x86-ARM Cross Platform

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, Freescale, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Embedded World, Ubuntu, Windows

Seco provides cross platform Q7 platforms where users can swap from x86 to ARM Powered seamlessly, with minimum hardware and software porting. They provide Quadmo747-X/T20 for Tegra2, OMAP4, OMAP3, i.MX51 and i.MX28. This way, customers can have as much choice as possible, going from one processor to the other. All board vendors are joining the Q7 board standard, for interoperability in swapping modules.

QNX talks about the Blackberry Tablet OS on Playbook

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Tablets, Software, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Embedded World

QNX has been working with RIM for quite some time now to enable full multi-process hardware acceleration. QNX Neutrino OS enables deep hardware and software integration, there has been a collaboration between Texas Instruments, QNX and RIM to make this work. QNX has had SMP utilization since 1997, they were enabling dual discreet parts back then. QNX is used to scaling. The ARM Cortex-A9 Dual-core, Quad-core and further processors will enable QNX to deploy their value on the market.

Nvidia Tegra2 enables Cortex-A9 for the Embedded World

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Exclusive videos, Nvidia, Embedded World, Toradex, Android, Ubuntu, Windows

Nvidia is working in the embedded space for some time, they are supporting long term support, industrialization, temperatures and everything else needed in the embedded market. Nvidia provides the chip and some level of software support to enable them and they are supporting the customizations of the implementations. Nvidia showcases their work with MSC, Seco, Toradex and Trim Slice.

ARM Embedded in Motor Control demo

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Development Boards, Exclusive videos, STMicroelectronics, Embedded World, ARM

ARM is showing Motor Control comparing two rotating water vessels, one controlled in a conventional manner, the other is controlled in a more advanced algorithm called Field Oriented Control on a STM32 Cortex-M3 processor. This more advanced algorithm allows more efficient operation of the motor, better control of the torque and allows for quieter operation. The idea is to use less power to control motors. This is just the start of their investigation into Field Oriented Control using the Cortex-M3 processor.

Xilinx Zynq 7000 series Cortex-A9 in FPGA at Embedded World 2011

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Software, FPGA, Other, Exclusive videos, Xilinx, Embedded World

Xilinx is the market leader in FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), at Embedded World 2011, they are showing their new implementation consisting of putting a Dual-core Cortex-A9 system, memory controller, and nand controller is put inside of the FPGA system. The Zynq 7010, with a dual-core Cortex-A9 running at 800MHz and 30,000 programmable logic cells, will sell for less than $15 in volume. This solution can be imagined to be found in automative applications such as driver assist applications, medical applications and industrial control applications.

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Cypress PSoc5 Cortex-M3 at Embedded World 2011

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Displays, Software, Other, Exclusive videos, Cypress, Embedded World

Cypress Semiconductor shows their new PSoc5 Cortex-M3 based solution and development kit based on their PSoc Designer 5.0 software. They also do solutions for 10-finger or more capacitive touch detection and proximity sensing.

Toshiba ARM Cortex-M3 32bit MCU for Motor Control and Multi-touch resistive system

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Displays, Other, Exclusive videos, Embedded World

Toshiba shows some of their new embedded technologies such as their ARM Cortex-M3 MCU TMPM374FW with BLDC, hardware vector engine for AC-induction motors, for industry, field oriented control and home appliance. Then they also show their multi-touch resistive touch screen solution using their ARM9 TMPA900 processor, for using touch screens with pen stylus or with gloves.

Mentor Graphics UI tools free for i.MX51/53 customers

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, EDA, Software, Exclusive videos, Freescale, Embedded World, Android

Mentor Graphics provides 3D UI tools on top of Android, customers who use the Freescale i.MX51 or i.MX53 can get access to these tools from Menthor Graphics for free.

Freescale Xtrinsic MAG3110 magnetometer

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, Freescale, Embedded World

Freescale shows their new 3-axis magnetometer at Embedded World 2011 in Nurenberg. In addition, Freescale shows the the Xtrinsic MMA9550L accelerometer with a 32bit microcontroller inside which has nominated for the embedded award.

MSI Wind Box DC100, AMD E350 compact desktop

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, CeBIT

Here’s a concept for a potentially $200 AMD Fusion E350 based compact desktop nettop thing. MSI will release it if customers want it.

ASrock E350M1-USB3, AMD E350 Mini-ITX Motherboard

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, CeBIT

ASRock is one of the major motherboard makers, here they have their new AMD Fusion E350 based Mini-ITX board.

Zinwell ZSA-3210, virtual surround speakers with HDMI pass-through

Posted by Charbax – March 4, 2011
Category: Speakers, Other, Exclusive videos, CeBIT

Zinwell releases this virtual surround sound system with HDMI passthrough, they also make a version with a built-in media player.

Trim Slice Tegra2 ARM Cortex-A9 Dual-core Desktop!

Posted by Charbax – March 3, 2011
Category: Laptops, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, Embedded World, Android, Ubuntu

Compulab is showing this Tegra2 desktop for the first time at a trade show, it’s a full ARM Powered desktop computer based on the Nvidia Tegra2 processor. Has 2 HDMI outputs, one for full HDMI video, one for a secondary display, Gigabit Ethernet, 4 USB hosts, stereo audio output, audio in, SPDIF output, 12V power connector, connector for wireless antenna for WiFi and Bluetooth, SD slot, RF232 Serial Port, Micro-USB slave. They also have a slightly bigger version that can slot in a 2.5″ Sata hard drive. 1GB RAM, it also has an internal Micro-SD slot to store the OS. So if you want to upgrade or change the OS, just change the MicroSD card and reboot. It also ships with 32GB Flash storage. They are launching this with Ubuntu 10.10 and they will add support for Honeycomb by launch. Availability is June, the price is targeted at below $200 in bulk (can be re-branded as ODM) and to be about $250 at retail. You can find more information and follow the latest official news about it at http://trimslice.com

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