Category Archives: Newsletters

Inforce Insights March 2017: Vol.3 Issue 2 – Inforce Computing Newsletter

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Hello,

As we finish our first quarter of the year, we are happy to reflect on all the new products, hardware, and software updates since our last newsletter in January with even more on the horizon.

In this newsletter, we share details about enabling RTC on your Inforce platform and how to roll your own Linux build system with Open Embedded.  Lastly, we bring you all the way to Germany where we share our experience partnering with Qualcomm, Basler, and Arrow at Embedded World 2017.

Warm wishes from the Inforce Team!

New Products

  • The much anticipated Inforce 6640, the first Snapdragon™ 820 SBC, is now available on the Inforce store along with display, camera, POE, and Ultra HDMI input accessories.
  • ACC-1H10, a 5MP MIPI-CSI camera with both a 41-pin and 51-pin connector, launched yesterday.
  • We have also launched ACC-1S70, a PoE adapter card, for Inforce 6640 and Inforce 6309, providing power over Ethernet through one single cable.

Product and Software Updates

What you need to know about enabling RTC on your Inforce platform

The purpose of an RTC or a real-time clock is to provide precise time and date which can be used for various application use-cases. Similar to a watch, it runs on a battery and keeps time for you even when there is a power outage on your system! Using an RTC, you can keep track of long timelines, even if your system is disconnected from the power plug.  Read more>> Continue reading Inforce Insights March 2017: Vol.3 Issue 2 – Inforce Computing Newsletter →

Inforce Insights January 2017: Vol.3 Issue 1 – Inforce Computing Newsletter

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Hello,
Another fruitful year goes by and we usher in this New Year wishing health, happiness and success to everyone! We are happy to present our first newsletter of the year! In this issue, we share details on booting up our SBC running Linux entirely from an SD card. Continuing our trust with digital content protection which we had illustrated elaborately through Widevine DRM in our previous newsletter, we now provide a technical article on securing the boot process on our platforms. We hope you enjoy reading our content as much as we love creating it!

Product and Software Updates

  • Inforce 6309™ is now shipping with MIPI-CSI camera feature on Linux.
  • Inforce 6301™micro SOM based development kit is now shipping with full featured BSPs on both Android and Linux.
  • The much anticipated Inforce 6601™ development kit is now available on our website with an Android M BSP.
  • Inforce 6309L™ was launched, a single board computer based on Snapdragon™ 410E with comparable pricing to DragonBoard™ 410c starting at $85.

Boot Linux OS entirely from a SD card, without modifying the existing eMMC content, on Inforce platforms based on Snapdragon™ 410E

Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processors provide external memory interfaces either through Secure Digital Controller lines or through UFS lines. Snapdragon based platforms are typically capable of running either Android or Linux based software and OEMs/Product creators would want to switch between these software flavors seamlessly in their development phase. It is thus desirable to devise mechanisms to create a fully bootable image from an external memory source such an SD card that could be plugged-out from one system and plugged-in to another system!
Read more>>

Qualcomm® Secure boot Prevents malicious software from loading during the system start-up process of Inforce platforms

Hackers keep devising unique new ways to circumvent traditional anti-virus/anti-malware software but with a secure boot process, it becomes extremely difficult if not impossible to gain malicious entry into a system. The bootloader is the first code that is executed after the board is powered up. The bootloader performs initialization of low-level hardware like clocks, memory, communication etc and is therefore highly coupled with the hardware. A boot process is considered vulnerable when bootloader attacks use the boot process itself to load malicious code masquerading as a legitimate operating system, prior to the loading of the real OS. Read more>>

Inforce Insights September 2016: Vol.2 Issue 5–the Newsletter of Inforce Computing

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Newsletter from Inforce Computing

Hello,
We are excited to share with you this month’s Inforce Insights newsletter. In this issue, we have a product spotlight onthe FUJIFILM SonoSite® iViz™. Designed with an Inforce 6400™ SOM, the FUJIFILM SonoSiteiViz is a commercialized ultrasound device that you can easily fit into your pocket. Learn more about how it is saving lives around the world including 5 soldiers in Afghanistan. We also have a technical brief on enabling ROS (Robot Operating Systems) on Inforce platforms, and specifically how a robot kit Turtlebot™ is using Inforce platforms as its heart. Next, we dive into the benefits of the Hexagon™ DSP SDK on Inforce platforms and how you can create an interactive user experience in less time. Lastly, we end with a technical article explaining how you can protect your premium digital content on Inforce based devices with Google’s®Widevine™ DRM. Happy reading!

  • Inforce 6309™ is now shipping with full functionality, including LVDS interface
  • Inforce 6309x™ will be shipping in mid-September and will include LVDS, a thermal shield and a real-time clock (RTC).
  • We are now accepting orders for the much anticipated Inforce 6601™ development kit. Limit 1 per customer and lead time is 2-3 weeks due to large demand

The FUJIFILM SonoSite®iViz™, designed with Inforce 6400™ system on module, is saving lives all around the world

Mobility and connectivity has changed our lives in many astonishing ways from how we play to how we work, and now it is actually saving lives. FUJIFILM SonoSite® has leveraged the Inforce 6400™ system on module to build a portable ultrasound machine, iViz™, to be used in remote locations where people are in need of medical attention such as ambulances, battlefields, emergency rooms, or even in the hands of a midwife.

In Afghanistan, 5 American soldiers will live to see another day because of this ground breaking technology. Read more>>

Robot’s hearts are beating with Inforce platforms as the main computing device with Robot Operating Systems (ROS) and the possibilities are now endless

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a collection of tools, libraries, and conventions that aim to simplify the task of creating complex and robust robot behavior across a wide variety of robotic platforms. ROS encourages collaborative robotics software development. For example, one laboratory might have experts in mapping indoor environments, and could contribute a world-class system for producing maps. Another group might have experts at using maps to navigate, and yet another group might have discovered a computer vision approach that works well for recognizing small objects in clutter. ROS was designed specifically for groups like these to collaborate and build upon each other’s work. With this, the primary goal of ROS becomes to support code reuse in robotics research and development and it is all open source! Read more>>

Enabling SDK for Hexagon™ DSP on Inforce Platforms in order to create an interactive user experience in less time

DSPs are specialized processors dedicated to digital signal processing. Similar to GPUs, DSPs are designed to perform a very specific subset of tasks and also to exploit parallelism. Like CPUs, they often make use of SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) and VLIW processing to boost throughput and total performance per watt. CPUs such as Snapdragon™ can handle these tasks (and sometimes do), but DSPs offer better performance than general processors, and more flexibility than a traditional ASIC. Qualcomm’s® Hexagon™ DSP is designed to accelerate certain workloads at performance efficiencies well above anything a modern CPU can offer. Read more>> Hexagon DSP

Protecting your premium HD content with Widevine™ Digital rights management (DRM) on Inforce platforms

Multimedia contentmust be protected against unauthorized access and distribution and thus needs protection. Qualcomm® provides a comprehensive content security through its hardware and firmware which allows users to seamlessly enjoy the latest premium content, at up to 4K Ultra HD resolution.

The Content Protection feature on Qualcomm chipsets protects premium HD content based on the Qualcomm’s TrustZone (TZ) solution. TrustZone is a hardware based security system built into Qualcomm chipsets to provide secure end points and roots of trust. Read more>>

Inforce Insights July 2016: Vol.2 Issue 4–the Newsletter of Inforce Computing

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Newsletter from Inforce Computing

Hello there!

Can you believe we’re already into the 2H of 2016?! Hope our US readers have had a great 4th of July weekend, while everyone out there is also enjoying the full tilt of summer. Welcome to Inforce Computing’s July 2016 Newsletter! In this issue of Inforce Insights, we’d like to share a couple of technical notes [thermal management methods for Inforce’s SBCs & SOMs and running Debian Linux on the Inforce 6309 Micro SBC platform], an article on emerging IoT solutions in the burgeoning asset tracking space, and an interesting customer case study on video collaboration (scroll down). In the June newsletter, we shared the news about NASA’s Astrobee embedding two of Inforce’s compute platforms in their next-gen free-flying robot—did we also mention that the Inforce 6501 Micro SOM beat five other vendor products in a bakeoff? If you missed that part, you can read the benchmarking study here and find out why.

Have a great rest of the summer. Stay safe, cool, and hydrated, and please do share your stories of building great embedded IoT products with us at marketing@inforcecomputing.com!

From the editorial desk at Inforce Computing.

#InforceInspired

Continue reading Inforce Insights July 2016: Vol.2 Issue 4–the Newsletter of Inforce Computing →

Inforce Insights June 2016: Vol.2 Issue 3–the Newsletter of Inforce Computing

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Inforce Insights Newsletter on buliding Embedded Products

Hello there!

Welcome to Inforce Computing’s June 2016 Newsletter! In this issue of Inforce Insights, we’d like to share a couple of useful technical application notes and two exciting customer case studies (scroll down). What does enabling 3D printing, computer vision, video analytics, and space-bound free-flying robots have in common? All of these are powered by advanced Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor-based Inforce Computing platforms [SOMs and SBCs]. Moreover, Inforce’s value added software and hardware design assistance services have complemented and accelerated product development in these cases.

Software and Product Updates

We’re close to having an upstream kernel Linux BSP release (Linaro 15.10 version) available for the Inforce 6410Plus SBC. Stay tuned for download instructions and release notes for the latest BSP. Once available, please log on to Inforce’s TechWeb and look for the product specific menu under the software tab.

For those that have been eagerly waiting for the Inforce 6601™ Micro SOM, we will be taking pre-orders soon. We thank you for your interest in the latest Inforce 6601 Micro SOM and your patience is much appreciated as we ramp up our manufacturing. In the next few weeks you’ll also be able to read about and download more technical details of the affordable and new Inforce 6301 Micro SOM powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor.

We’d love to hear your feedback about Inforce’s newsletters as well as your stories on building exciting embedded products based on Inforce’s compute platforms. We’re more than glad to share your success story in these columns, so don’t hesitate to write to us at marketing@inforcecomputing.com.

Happy reading!

From the editorial desk at Inforce Computing.
#InforceInspired

Continue reading Inforce Insights June 2016: Vol.2 Issue 3–the Newsletter of Inforce Computing →

Inforce Computing to Exhibit at the Embedded World, Nuremberg, Germany, February 23-26, 2016

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Newsletter from Inforce Computing about Inforce 6601 Micro SOM
Greetings!
We’re excited to share some great news with you. Inforce Computing’s much anticipated, highest performing, and cross-compatible Micro SOM based on the latest Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 820 embedded processor (APQ8096 SoC) is here! Coming close on the heels of Snapdragon 820 processor-based high-end smartphone announcements at the recent 2016 Mobile World Congress, designers can now leverage the same underlying cutting edge mobile technologies for implementing next-gen embedded systems. The Inforce 6601™ Micro SOM delivers a superior compute platform to enable advanced AR/VR based wearable, computer vision, 4K HEVC video encode/decode, medical imaging, video analytics, and high-end IoT applications, to name a few. Designers can also seamlessly upgrade from legacy Inforce 6401™ and Inforce 6501™ Micro SOM based designs. You can download a datasheet of the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM here and read an informative FAQ here >>>.