DragonBoard 845c Android (AOSP) Reference Board Supports Open Source Graphics, Mainline Kernel

Besides the obvious Google Pixel and Nexus devices supported by AOSP (Android Open Source Project), we previously covered some single board computers that were also officially supported by the project with Hikey and Hikey 960 Android reference boards. Linaro Consumer Group (LCG) has just written about Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 based Dragonboard 845c board. It has been now an official Android reference board for a few months now, and it is the first such board with an open-source graphics stack thanks to Freedreno graphics driver and mesa framework. Since no proprietary blobs are required, the board’s full functionality can also be upstreamed into the mainline kernel, and Linaro currently uses the board as a test target for validating the mainline kernel and stable updates.

Raspberry Pi 4: Chronicling the Desktop Experience – Educational Games for Kids – Week 24

This is a weekly blog about the Raspberry Pi 4 (“RPI4”), the latest product in the popular Raspberry Pi range of computers. With so many young children currently unable to follow their usual routine of going to school, playing with friends, and undertaking many hobbies, it’s vital to keep them happy and learning. There are many ways of advancing a child’s education and well-being including online lessons, video calls with family and friends, combined with parental guidance.

My Linux Story: From 8-bit enthusiast to Unix sysadmin

It all started in the mid-1980s with an Apple ][c that my parents purchased for our family. Although I enjoyed playing games, I quickly became fascinated with BASIC programming and how useful it could be for work and fun. This was an era when computers were viewed as little more than typewriters, so people with "advanced computer skills" could easily use them to their advantage. One example was using BASIC and a dot matrix printer to auto-generate punishment assignments. When I was assigned to write out 200 times some apologetic statements, I asked my teacher if it could be typed out. On confirmation, I wrote a 5 line BASIC program to generate it for me. Another example of subtle trickery was using non-WYSIWYG word processors, such as AppleWorks for micro-manipulation of fonts, line spacing, and margins to "stretch" term papers out to the required length.

Devices With GNU/Linux

• [Older] Wind River Four-Step Procedure to Secure Linux-Based Systems

  The world is increasingly interconnected and a result of this is the exposure to security vulnerabilities has dramatically increased as well. The intricacies of maintaining today's Linux-based platforms make it very challenging for developers to cover every potential entry point. In 2019 there was an average of more than 45 CVEs logged per day. How does a development organization keep up with that? In order to stay on top of this, developers must increasingly spend more time and effort integrating common vulnerabilities and exposure (CVE) patches into their solutions, at the cost of spending time developing their applications Security attacks come in many forms and use various entry points. Each attack type comes in several flavors, as there is usually more than one way that they can be configured or camouflaged based on the experience, resources, and determination of the hacker. While some threats are more prevalent than others, a developer needs to protect against all vulnerabilities. The following chart shows the increase in CVEs over the last 6 years, and how many of those CVEs actually impact any given distribution.

• 4K Digital Signage Player Drives up to 4x 4K Displays with AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 SoC

  We’ve covered plenty of AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 SBC‘s, as well as some mini PC‘s, but the processor’s multimedia capabilities make it an ideal candidate for advanced digital signage players capable of driving multiple 4K displays. Axiomtek leveraged those capabilities in DSP600-211 4K digital signage player that offers four HDMI ports driving up to four 4K displays, as well as dual Gigabit Ethernet.

• 3.5-inch Whiskey Lake SBC has mini-PCIe and dual M.2

  Aaeon’s 3.5-inch “GENE-WHU6” SBC runs on an 8th Gen Whiskey Lake CPU with up to 32GB RAM, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, 2x GbE, and 2x M.2 slots, starting at under $1K. Over the last few days, Aaeon’s 8th Gen Whiskey Lake based PICO-WHU4 Pico-ITX board, which we covered in February, has received a lot of attention from the tech press, with the inevitable comparisons to the Raspberry Pi 4. Although a commercial Intel-based board is a world away from an Arm-based maker board like the Pi in terms of community support and price on the one hand and CPU power on the other, the 100 x 72mm Pico-ITX form factor is as close as the x86 world comes to the compact, 87 x 56mm Raspberry Pi footprint.

• Five years of Raspberry Pi clusters