Sherlock

A little more about this topic regarding Android boxes and their mysterious ARM processors.

I want to establish what processor is in the MyGica ATV520E box, that sounds like a simple thing to do, as I have one right here, so I will put my detective cap on and start.

The box runs Android 4.2.2 and I went into settings, clicked on "about device" and nothing on that screen indicated what processor was running, although there may be clues that sail right over my head. It tells me that the model number is "MBX reference board (stvmx)" and if I search online I score a result from Geekbench that the processor for that is (perhaps) an ARM Amlogic @ 1.51 GHz with 1 processor and 2 cores. Another search hit from Passmark gives me information on a Geniatech MBX reference board (stvmx) running an ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l) with 2 cores and an average passmark rating of 1367.

An application I installed, called Kodi, version 16.1 which is "Jarvis" has a system information screen and under hardware it confirms that it is an ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l) running at that dubious benchmark of 2393.70 BogoMips.

I now understand from previous enquiries that ARMv7 is an architecture, but what processor is installed? - the online specifications for the ATV520E say that it is an ARM Cortex A9 Dual core CPU but the internet is full of fake news and I would like to confirm the facts somehow from my own investigations.

I installed AnTuTu benchmark and put the old box through the various tests, I'm not going to detail the performance results in this post, just the processor information it provided.

The program reported that it is an ARM Cortex-A9 and to be more exact, a 32 bit Amlogic AML8726-MX with 2 cores with running speed from 96~1512 MHz and it was currently running at 1200 MHz.

Progress!

The next step was to search online for the Amlogic AML8726-MX and I established that it supports the ARMv7 architecture, it's primary CPU is a 32 bit dual ARM Cortex-A9 with Harvard Superscalar processor cores and it is a RISC design. The GPU on the SoC is a 400 MHz dual ARM Mali-400MP2 dual core and in addition, the SoC has a Dual ARM Neon SIMD Engine for Digital Signal Processing. The 40nm build supports HDMI, USB 2.0, DDR3 RAM and is reported to be capable of decoding video at 1080P at 30 FPS.

It was with a sense of accomplishment that I considered the investigation closed.

That's what is inside the old ATV520E toaster, the question now is, does it still make toast?

ATV520E - preamble to a review

This old device is circa 2014 and it cost me $31 including shipping.

Specifications, the ATV520E has an ARM Cortex A9 Dual core CPU with a MALI-400 MP2. It has 1GB RAM with 4GB of NAND flash memory and this is running Android 4.2.2 API Level 17. 2393.70 BogoMips.

The CPU is identified as an ARMv7 Processor.

The internet can of course be used to establish what some of that means, but I will expand, for my own education, on a little of the above, and in addition, hopefully prevent any readers of the blog from falling asleep.

It confused me years back, this designation of the CPU in different ways, but I found it best just to allow the confusion to continue. An ARM Cortex A9 is an ARMv7-A 32 bit architecture, the Cortex A9 was touted, back in the day, to offer 25% more performance than the Cortex A8. In the advent of many of our computer devices becoming mainstream appliances, the names of the processors are becoming redundant, at the end of the day, if it is a toaster, does it make toast?

The MALI-400 MP2 is a dual core graphics chip, or GPU and again, it is part of the SoC of this unit and although this Android box harks back to 2014 the ARM A9 and ARM MALI-400 are longer in the tooth by about five years.

API Level is an integer value that uniquely identifies the framework API revision offered by a version of the Android platform. The Android platform provides a framework API that applications can use to interact with the underlying Android system. The framework API consists of a core set of packages and classes. In simple terms, if an application (or app) requires an API level less than or equal to 17 then it will run, if the requirement is higher, then more than likely, or perhaps definitely, it will not.

I will explain how that may become a problem in the next post.

Wikipedia gave me a giggle when I looked up BogoMips (from "bogus" and MIPS) as an unscientific measurement of CPU speed made by the Linux kernel when it boots to calibrate an internal busy-loop. An often-quoted definition of the term is "the number of million times per second a processor can do absolutely nothing" which sounds a little of what my brain is all about in my advanced years.

Yes, it was a paltry $31 including shipping, and the internal memory is a less than spectacular one gigabyte.  In addition, there is a scant four gigabytes of some sort of storage memory and a more than obsolete version of the Android operating system and API, the question is, will any of that become an issue for my intended use of this vintage box?

We will see.

MyGica Android TV Box - ATV520E

In my eBay lurking mode I will often come across used tech items, and the price can either be ridiculously high or low and in the latter case, I will place them on my watch list and wait to see if I can snipe a "win" at the end of the auction.

This was one of those items, it is a MYGICA ATV520E :

 
As you can see, it is another TV streaming box and I have taken a picture of the box and it's remote, and my preferred method of control of these devices, a Logitech wireless mouse and unified receiver.

I will review the excellent Logitech unified devices in a later blog, but next, I will explain myself regarding the purchase of yet another Android box this year.