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Submission + - Survey says: Raspberry Pi still rules, but x86 SBCs have made gains (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Results from LinuxGizmos.com's annual hacker-friendly single board computer survey are in, and not surprisingly, the Raspberry Pi 3 is the most desired maker SBC by a 4-to-1 margin. In other trends: x86 SBCs and Linux/Arduino hybrids have trended upwards. The site's popular hacker SBC survey polled 1,705 survey respondents and asked for their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorite SBCs from a curated list of 98 community oriented, Linux- and Android-capable boards. Spreadsheets comparing all 98 SBCs' specs and listing their survey vote tallies are available in freely downloadable Google Docs.

Submission + - Intel's Euclid Module is a Brain, Vision, Sensor, and Hotspot for Robots (hackerboards.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: At the Intel Developer Conference in San Francisco last week, Intel showed off a prototype of an Intel Euclid robotics controller, equipped with a stereo depth-sensing Intel RealSense camera and running an Ubuntu/ROS stack. Designed for researchers, makers, and robotics developers, the device is a self contained, candy-bar sized compute module ready to pop into a robot. It’s augmented with a WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth, GPS, and IR, as well as proximity, motion, barometric pressure sensors. There’s also a snap-on battery. The device is preinstalled with Ubuntu 14.04 with Robot Operating System (ROS) Indigo, and can act as a supervisory processor to, say, an Arduino subsystem that controls a robot's low-level functions. Intel demoed a Euclid driven robot running an obstacle avoidance and follow-me tasks, including during CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote (YouTube video).

Submission + - Brazilians Launch Tiny $1 STEM-Oriented Microcontroller Board (hackerboards.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: A team of Brazilian developers has just revealed an open source microcontroller board called the One Dollar Board, that's so simple and inexpensive that it can be distributed as standard teaching materials to kids in schools the world over. The tiny board appears contain a single 8-pin microcontroller chip, along with a handful of passive components, making it considerably simpler and lower-cost than the similarly STEM-oriented and open-sourced BBC Micro:bit board. page. More details about the One Dollar Board are at its Indiegogo campaign page, where you can get one for a contribution of $1 (duh!), plus unspecified shipping and import duties.

Submission + - 50 Embedded Linux Conference Presentation Slide Decks Now Available (hackerboards.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: The Linux Foundation has posted slide presentations from this week’s Embedded Linux Conference, which featured the first ever ELC keynote by Linus Torvalds. Well over 100 technical presentations were presented at ELC, many of which are now available in posted slide shows. In addition to sessions detailing updates on traditional embedded Linux technologies such as security, memory management, real-time Linux, interfaces, cryptography, debugging, and the like, you’ll find presentations on drones, robots, Project ARA, the Chip SBC, and much more.

Submission + - Meet Linux's Little Brother Zephyr, a Tiny Open Source IoT RTOS (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: The Linux Foundation has launched the Zephyr Project, to foster an open source, small footprint, modular, scalable, connected, real-time OS for IoT devices. The Zephyr Project’s RTOS implements both a small footpoint microkernel and an even tinier nanokernel, and is the result of Wind River contributing its Rocket RTOS kernel to the Zephyr Project. (Wind's Rocket RTOS will now become a downstream commercial distribution based on Zephyr sources.) To get a sense of Zephyr's benefit, its nanokernel is said to be able to run in as little as 10KB of RAM on 32-bit microcontrollers, whereas a minimalistic Linux implementation like uClinux needs upwards of 200KB. The Linux Foundation hopes to see cross-project collaboration between the Zephyr and Linux communities. Technical details are at the Zephyr site.

Submission + - Ringing in 2016 with 64 Hacker Friendly Single Board Computers (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This year, we’ve seen some incredible price/performance breakthroughs in low-cost single board computers. LinuxGizmos has put together a compilation of 64 low-cost, hacker friendly SBCs that are all available in models that cost less than $200, with many well below $100, including Shenzhen Xunlong’s $15 quad-core Orange Pi PC, Next Thing's $9 to $24 Chip, and the $5-and-up Raspberry Pi Zero. Processors range from low-end 32-bit single core ARM chips, to 64-bit ARM, x86, and MIPS parts, and with clock rates from 300MHz to 2GHz. This year even saw the arrival of low-cost SBCs based on octa-core processors, such as the $88 Banana Pi M3.

Submission + - New Freescale i.MX7 Processor Line Takes Aim at IoT (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Freescale has unveiled a new i.MX7 embedded processor family. The family launches with two parts having one or two Cortex-A7 cores, along with Cortex-M4 microcontroller cores, and boasts much lower power consumption than the company's popular i.MX6 embedded processors, making it ideal for power constrained Internet of Things applications. The i.MX7 is Freescale’s second i.MX family to use Coretex-A7 cores, and its first to move backward in performance, although significantly upward in power efficiency — a testament to how IoT is impacting the semiconductor business. Like the recently introduced i.MX6 UltraLite, the initial i.MX7 parts are limited to 2D image processing in hardware. An ARMv8 Cortex-A53 based i.MX8 line is also under development, and is expected to be announced next year with 2016 or 2017 availability.

Submission + - Pi Stays Sky High in 2015 Hacker SBC Survey (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: The results from the 2015 Hacker SBC Survey cohosted by LinuxGizmos.com and the Linux Foundation's Linux.com community site have just been announced and, not surprisingly, RPi won two of the top three slots. With 1721 voting in the survey, the ten most popular single board computers turned out to be the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, Beaglebone Black, Raspberry Pi Model B+, Odroid-C1, DragonBoard 410c, Odroid-XU3, Parallella, Arduino TRE, Edison Kit for Arduino, and Odroid-U3. The report includes scores for all 53 SBCs that were listed in the susrvey, along with data on feature preferences, targeted applications, and the nature of participants' use of single, and more.

Submission + - Emulator Now Runs x86 Apps on All Raspberry Pi Models (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Russia-based Eltechs announced its ExaGear Desktop virtual machine last August [Slashdot], enabling Linux/ARMv7 SBCs and mini-PCs to run x86 software. That meant that users of the quad-core, Cortex-A7-based Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, could use it as well, although the software was not yet optimized for it. Now Eltechs has extended extended ExaGear to support earlier ARMv6 versions of the Raspberry Pi. The company also optimized the emulator for the Pi 2 allowing, for example, Pi 2 users to use automatically forwarding startup scripts.

Submission + - New Freescale i.MX6 SoCs Include IoT-focused UltraLite (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Freescale announced three new versions of its popular i.MX6 SoCs, including new DualPlus and QuadPlus parts featuring enhanced GPUs and expanded memory support, and a new low-end, IoT focused 528MHz UltraLite SoC that integrates a more power-efficient, single-core ARM Cortex-A7 architecture. The UltraLite, which will be available in a tiny 9x9mm package, is claimed by Freescale to be the smallest and most energy-efficient ARM based SoC. It has a stripped-down WXGA interface but adds new security, tamper detection, and power management features. All the new Freescale i.MX6 SoCs are supported with Linux BSPs and evaluation kits.

Submission + - Rate These 53 Sub-$200 Hacker SBCs, Win One of 20 (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: LinuxGizmos and Linux.com have just launched their annual 2-minute survey asking folks to rate their favorite hacker SBCs from a list of 53 single board computers that are priced below $200, supported by open documentation and Linux or Android OSes, and will ship before July. As usual, the survey's data will be made available publicly, but one big change this year is that participants can register for a random drawing that will give away 20 hacker SBCs, split equally among the BeagleBone Black, Imagination Creator CI20, Intel Edison Kit for Arduino, and Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c. (Emails submitted will only be used for selecting and notifying SBC drawing winners, say the sites.)

Submission + - Linino-enabled Arduino Yun Shrinks in Size and Cost (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Arduino announced a smaller, cheaper Arduino Yun Mini version of the Arduino Yún SBC at the Bay Area Maker Faire Today. The $60 Arduino Yún Mini SBC sacrifices a number of interfaces in order to reduce size, and gives the OpenWRT Linux based Linino distribution, which is also used by the original Yún, more control over the board’s functions. Arduino also announced a new community web portal called my.arduino.org, plus an open source Arduino IDE-alpha development system that is entirely based on JavaScript, which will be available there by the end of the month.

Submission + - Imagination to Release Open MIPS Design to Academia (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Imagination Technologies has developed a Linux-ready academic version of its 32-bit MIPS architecture MicroAptiv processor design, and is giving it away free to universities for use in computer research and education. As the MIPSfpga name suggests, the production-quality RTL (register transfer level) design abstraction is intended to run on industry standard FPGAs. Although MIPSfpga is available as a fully visible RTL design, MIPSfpga is not fully open source, according to the announcement from Robert Owen, Manager of Imagination’s University Programme. Academic users can use and modify MIPSfpga as they wish, but cannot build it into silicon. 'If you modify it, you must talk to us first if you wish to patent the changes,' writes Owen.

Submission + - Linaro Launches an Open-source Spec for ARM SBCs (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Not content to just standardize ARM-based Linux and Android software, Linaro has just launched 96Boards, an open-source spec for ARM-based single board computers. Along with the spec's rollout, Linaro also announced a $129 HiKey SBC based on a HiSilicon 64-bit, octa-core Kirin 620 SoC, and compatible with the 96Boards Consumer Edition (CE) spec's 85 x 54mm 'standard' form factor option. The 96Boards initiative plans to offer a series of specs for small-footprint 32- and 64-bit Cortex-A boards, including an Enterprise Edition (EE) of its spec in Q2.

Submission + - Embedded Linux Conference Hijacked by Drones (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: The Linux Foundation has released the full agenda for its annual North American Embedded Linux Conference + Android Builders Summit, which takes place Mar. 23-25 in San Jose, Calif. The ELC, which this year is titled Drones, Things, and Automobiles, increasingly reflects new opportunities for Linux in areas such as drones, robots, automotive computers, IoT gizmos, 3D sensing, modular phones, and much more. For those worried that ELC is skimping on the basics as it explores the more colorful sides of Linux, worry not, as there are still plenty of sessions on booting, trace analysis, NAND support, PHY frameworks, power management, defragmenting, systemd, device tree, and toolchain.

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