Category Archives: Guides

Android vs. Linux – Which OS is better?

Is Android A Better OS Than Linux?

Android has established itself as an important operating system for mobile devices. Google developed Android as an open source OS based on the Linux kernel. Google selected the Linux kernel because of its proven driver model, existing drivers, process and memory management, networking support and several other core operating system services. However, the Google team had to make several changes to make Android capable of operating mobile devices successfully. Differences with standard Linux are highlighted here.

The target architecture

Although the Linux kernel supports several architectures, right now, Android supports only two: ARM and x86. The ARM platform is more prevalent on mobile phones while the Android-x86 targets mainly the Mobile Internet Devices or MIDs used for general-purpose desktop/laptop/server computing systems. This being the fundamental difference between the two Operating Systems, it provides a strong insight into further divergence between the two.

Modifications in the kernel

Android does not use the standard Linux kernel straightaway, but uses it with some enhancements. These include alarm driver, shared memory driver, inter-process communication interface, power management, low memory killer, kernel debugger and logger. Google has contributed all the kernel enhancements back to the open source community under GPL.

Bionic C library

The GNU C library used by most Linux distributions makes use of the Native POSIX Thread Library or NPTL, which offers high performance, especially in server applications. However, disk space footprint and memory requirements of NPTL are far too large for resource-limited systems such as mobile devices.

This led Google to create a new C library called Bionic. It has fast execution paths, avoids edge cases and remains a simple implementation. As mobile devices are single user systems, for security reasons Google has removed the settings for groups and passwords, keeping only a unique user id and group id. Bionic operates with the limited CPU and memory resources available on Android platforms.

The Dalvik Virtual Machine

Android uses a virtual machine to run applications. Most top cell manufacturers such as Samsung, Motorola and Nokia use J2ME, a mobile optimized version of the Java virtual machine. In contrast, Android uses the Dalvik Virtual Machine, which is a standard Java platform. The dex files used by Dalvik are more compact and optimized to perform well on mobile devices with slow CPUs, limited memory, no swap space and limited battery power.

File system

Most desktop/laptop/server applications use magnetic hard disks, which the standard Linux systems manage with the latest Ext journaling file system. However, magnetic drives are physically too large, too fragile and consume too much power. To provide a robust file system, embedded systems use solid-state memory devices such as NOR for code execution and NAND for storage. Block erasure and memory are important features of solid-state memory, which the Ext file system does not handle. Therefore, Android uses an optimized Linux flash file system called YAFFS and this deals with lifetime limitations, bad block management and error correction for maintaining data integrity in NAND flash systems.

Power management

Standard Linux systems manage power though APM or ACPI. Android does not use either, relying more on its own PowerManager module, which is a Linux power extension. The module has low-level drivers for controlling the peripheral supported such as screen display and backlight, keyboard backlight and button backlight.

Using OpenHAB with a Raspberry Pi

Nowadays it is common to have smart home products that you can remotely command to control, adjust, and to switch on and off. The single board computer, Raspberry Pi or RBPi is suitable for building a touchscreen command center to interface with such smart products and to provide a suitable interface for control and task scheduling. As an introduction, the project will consist of a Wi-Fi enabled RGB LED strip. It will interface with an RBPi running OpenHAB. This will allow wireless control to switch the LED strip on or off from a smartphone or any other computer on the network.

With OpenHAB, you can interface with over 150 different existing smart home products. Moreover, OpenHAB is very flexible, is open source, and is free to use. Although you can use OpenHAB on an RBPi, it can easily run on any platform – Linux, OS X, or Windows. That means the same setup can be run from any old laptop or desktop you may have lying around.

For this project, the main components you will need are an RBPi and its touchscreen. An RBPi2 is recommended and you can use the 7-inch Raspberry Pi Foundation touchscreen. Some of the additional things you will need are a microSD card, a USB Wi-Fi dongle, a power supply for the RBPi, the NeoPixel LED strip starter pack, a logic level shifter, an ADAfruit HUZZAM ESP8266, and some hookup wire.

To begin, assemble the screen to the RBPi. This can be somewhat tricky if you do not have instructions. There will be two flat ribbon cables, a large one for the display, and a smaller one for the touchscreen. The large cable from the display connects to the display controller board, and the smaller cable from the display controller board connects to the display. Once this is done, you can screw the display controller board with the RBPi on its back on to the standoffs on the back of the screen. The ribbon cable from the controller board connects to the display connector on the RBPi. Power to the display comes from the GPIO pins on the RBPi, for which you need to connect the 5 V and the GND pins via two jumper wires of red and black color, respectively.

Flash the microSD card with the latest build of Raspbian from the Raspberry Pi website and boot up the RBPi with it. You can now connect your keyboard, mouse, and the Wi-Fi adapter. Configure the RBPi to connect to your Wi-Fi network and get the touchscreen to work. For this, you may need to update and upgrade your OS.

The next step is to install the home automation control software, OpenHAB, and its add-ons – follow the instructions here. Next, solder the logic level converter between the ESP8266 and the NeoPixel LED strip. This is necessary, as the strip works on 5 V, whereas its controller, the ESP8266 works on 3.3 V. Make sure the logic level converter is connected the right way. After this, you will need to flash the ESP8266 with the Arduino IDE.

Now, you can download and install the OpenHAB app on to your phone and set it up to control the RBPi on its IP address.

What is Geomagnetic Indoor Positioning?

Thanks to Google and our smartphones, almost all users are aware of GPS or global positioning systems. With GPS, we can locate our position on a map displayed on our smartphones with an accuracy of about 200 m. This technology serves us well while traveling – when we have to reach a destination from our present location or when finding the best route between two locations. However, GPS is not a very suitable technology for either indoor use or when the smartphone is offline.

For instance, it is not easy to navigate successfully through a large shopping mall, a superstore, or an airport unless there are way-finding directions available. In fact, marketing research has pointed out that stores lose considerable business (nearly 15%) because customers are unable to locate their required products in the stores. In the US, customers spend about $500 billion annually, on personal care, groceries, and various sundries. Over time, adoption of indoor location and related initiatives could influence this indoor market by well over $10 billion.

Therefore, there are over several startups competing for attention in the emergent arena of indoor location and proximity marketing. Additionally, there are multiple technologies for bringing offline analytics and indoor location to malls, stores, sports stadiums and other venues. Although these technologies include LED lighting, inaudible sound waves, Bluetooth beacons, Wi-Fi, and Cameras, magnetic positioning leads the way.

All other technologies need installation of additional hardware and hence, involve additional expenses. In comparison, magnetic positioning makes use of the Earth’s magnetic field to enable the compass in the user’s smartphone to locate the individual precisely within indoor spaces. It does not require additional hardware and is compatible with almost all smartphones.

In nature, animals make use of the Earth’s magnetic field to locate themselves in relation to their destination. That is how migratory birds and fish return to their breeding grounds every year even when they are thousands of kilometers away. Smartphones are similarly capable of detecting and responding to magnetic field variations inside buildings.

According to IndoorAtlas, promoting and deploying magnetic positioning, each building or structure, with its reinforced concrete and steel structures, presents a unique magnetic fingerprint. This is based on the way the materials of the building affect and distort the Earth’s magnetic field. Once these patterns are precisely assigned to a building floor plan, users of smartphones can be located accurately inside indoor spaces such as airports, malls, hospitals, and retail stores. In short, this is like indoor GPS, and much more precise.

In comparison to GPS, geomagnetic indoor positioning is capable of 1-2 m accuracies in indoor environments. According to IndoorAtlas, mapping an area of roughly 25,000 square feet requires an hour to offer six-feet accuracy through sensors streaming data into a cloud storage. As a store or building interior is remodeled or changed in any way, the indoor maps are updated automatically using the sensor data.

Apart from tracking shopper location, geomagnetic indoor positioning offers direct blue-dot navigation to an area of product on the shelf or in an aisle. Therefore, customers are able to locate their desired products, bringing immediate benefits to the retailers.

What is the IEC 61800-5-1 Safety Standard?

Almost all industrial applications require using electric motors in some form. You can see them being used in factory robotics, compressors, blowers, cooling and recirculating pumps, lifts, hoists, mixers, cranes, paper mills, printing presses, conveyor belts, fans and in many other applications. Worldwide, over a 300 million electric motors are in use, and their numbers are growing steadily every year.

When dealing with adjustable-speed electric power-drive systems, it is necessary to isolate the low-voltage control system from the actual motor as it most often runs on a higher voltage. Such smart motor-control systems have other names also, such as AC motor drives or variable-frequency drives. Instead of running the motor at a fixed speed or using mechanical elements to control it, smart control systems employ sophisticated power electronics to control the speed, torque, and position of a motor. Adjustable speed drives improve the efficiency and controlling of motor drive systems substantially, and therefore, are widely used in motor drive applications.

The IEC 61800-5-1 is a safety standard specified by the International Electrotechnical Commission for adjustable-speed electrical power drive systems. It covers the safety aspects related to electrical, thermal and energy. In the part covering electrical safety, the standard defines requirements for ensuring proper insulation between circuits carrying voltages higher than 50 V and any drive system connectors or parts that humans may be able to access. What this means is any part of the system that a person can touch – motor, panel, switch, connector, cable, etc. – must be adequately insulated, if it is carrying a voltage higher than 50 V.

Most adjustable-speed electrical power drives use isolators as one of their key electronic components. For instance, by employing isolated gate drives, isolators control the turning On/Off the power transistors such as MOSFETs or metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors used in the power stages. In addition, there are isolated ADCs or analog-to-digital converters and isolated amplifiers to convey voltage and current feedback from the high-voltage inverter output to the low-voltage control system. Moreover, power drives also need general-purpose communication links, where isolators transfer information from high-voltage circuits to earthed circuits. In this capacity, isolators also act as insulators.

An adjustable speed motor drive system has a grid input, which is typically a three-phase AC power supply typically at 400 V, 690 V, or 830 V at frequencies of 50 or 60 Hz. This is followed by a rectifier stage that converts the AC voltage into DC, filtered by high-voltage DC capacitors. A three-phase inverter usually follows, made up of IGBT, insulated gate bipolar transistor modules. IGBTs have isolated gates through which gate drivers provide the necessary drive voltages to turn the IGBT on and off. The control system uses a closed-loop and receives feedbacks through isolated voltage and current sense elements.

To conform to the IEC 61800-5-1 safety standard, the designer of a motor drive system needs to understand a few definitions such as creepage, clearance, system voltage, working voltage, and overvoltage category. Most industrial motor drives fall under Category-III, as equipment is connected permanently to supply mains, downstream of the distribution board.

Volumio: Control Your Hi-Fi through a Raspberry Pi

Traditionally, amplifiers connect to loudspeakers through wires. The wires carry the electric currents that make the loudspeakers work to produce sound. So far, wires were also necessary to feed amplifiers from different sources such as CD players, TV sets and others. By placing amplifiers within the speaker enclosure, part of the ugly wiring was taken care, but the wires from the source persisted until wireless methods were discovered.

Introduction of the Walkman and other portable players changed the music scenario forever, bringing it out of the living room and allowing people to carry their music with them. However, there was a limit to the number of songs one could carry on their person. The advent of the smartphones and the Internet opened another door. People could stream music over the net, leaving their collection at home. This was the age of iTunes, Spotify and Beats Music, facilitating listening to music wherever you may be.

Most often, these new methods prove expensive for those on a budget, and they are forced to bypass the newer ways of consuming music. An RBPi (Raspberry Pi) is a great help in these cases, simply because the single board computer is affordable, flexible and of a convenient size. Its flexibility makes it a perfect fit for use as a home audio solution and you can control your music wirelessly without having to invest in expensive high-fidelity stuff.

An RBPi gives you many modes of selecting songs to play and the manner in which they are played. For this, the RBPi uses a specially tailored Operating System by the name of Volumio. The major attraction is the nice and simple cross-platform web interface through which you can control music.

The RBPi sits as a controller just in front of the amplifier. It can pick up songs from a USB stick plugged into one of the USB sockets, select it from your local home NAS or take your picking from Web Radio. For the last part, you will need a Wi-Fi dongle to connect the RBPi to the Internet.

Volumio is easy to set up, as not much of advanced functions or graphics are to be handled. Simply download the Volumio disk image, transfer it to your microSD card and use it to boot up the RBPi. You will not require a keyboard, mouse or monitor to set up the software, as the entire configuration is possible through the web interface of Volumio.

Use your computer to connect to Volumio. You can find it by connecting your computer to the same network where you have your RBPi plugged in. You may also use Volumio over a wireless network, for which, you will have to first connect to the RBPi via Ethernet to configure its settings for use with a Wi-Fi dongle. This also allows you to control the software with the browser on your smartphone – simply type in the URL ‘http://volumio.local’ in your browser.

Using the RBPi makes it simple to select songs and set up other parameters for playing them on your home Hi-Fi system. As an advanced arrangement, this is affordable and one can easily modify it to suit specific needs.

Comparing Raspberry Pi to Banana Pi

The new version of the hugely famous single board computer, the Raspberry Pi or the RBPi as it is commonly known, brings many improvements to its users. The RBPi version 2, Model B has improved on the CPU, added RAM, more USB ports and GPIO pins. However, the increasing popularity of the RBPi has sparked off a trend with several other manufacturers chipping in to make available SBCs with features similar to and sometimes surpassing those of the RBPi. The Chinese manufacturer LeMaker is one such manufacturer producing a competing product called the Banana Pi.

The Banana Pi manufacturer, LeMaker, took pains to ensure compatibility with the RBPi while improving on the performance. That made LeMaker replace the CPU with a superior one operating on dual cores clocked at 1GHz. That is, until the manufacturers of the RBPi responded with a V2, Model B that has a CPU with four cores firing away at 900MHz.

That made the difference in performance more dependent on the software running on the individual SBCs. The video processor in the new RBPi is somewhat more advanced as compared to the Mali GPU in the Banana Pi. Therefore, those using HDMI out for playback or media streaming will find the RBPi a better choice.

On the other hand, people requiring access to a large storage for consistent read and write, will find the Banana Pi more convenient. The Banana Pi has a SATA port that allows connecting a large hard drive, offering the faster and more permanent options of a mass storage device. Compare this to the MicroSD storage and USB interface that the RBPi relies on for interfacing to memory devices.

Although both devices have Ethernet ports built-in for wired network connectivity, the Banana Pi has gigabit capability. However, that does not tip the scales against the RBPi much, since many devices are yet to have gigabit support anyway. The Pro version of the Banana Pi, however, can simplify a lot of projects with its built-in Wi-Fi and 802.11n support. While with the RBPi, you need to plug in a separate Wi-Fi module, which will tie up one of its USB ports.

The design concept of the RBPi centers on its ease of use and its budget-friendliness. That has made it such an extremely popular entity in the maker community. A large support base of users enforces the usefulness of the device, providing it with a wealth of information on creating software, hardware and innumerable tutorials built specifically for the RBPi. Although such resources do exist for the Banana Pi as well, they are neither as common nor so comprehensible. Moreover, the Banana Pi is somewhat harder to set up when compared to the RBPi setup.

For those planning to use a Banana Pi as a drop-in replacement for the RBPi, there is disappointment in store. Dimensionally, as the Banana Pi is larger than the RBPi, replacement entails a bigger case or an expanded slot for the Banana Pi. A bigger worry is the placement of the CPU, which, for the Banana Pi, is on the bottom side of its board rather than on the top. That may mean additional arrangements for heat removal, as the CPU is the biggest heat generator in any SBC.

How Safe Are the Batteries You Use?

There is occasional news about exploding smartphone batteries. As this is a safety related issue, the topic has generated a lot of interest. Several researchers, from the National Physical Laboratory, UK, the Imperial College, London, ESRF the European Synchrotron, and UCL, the University College, London have tried to find out the reasons and the mechanism behind batteries exploding. Their research reveals how damage to the internal structure of the batteries can spread to neighboring batteries.

Now, researchers at the Stanford University, San Francisco, have developed a safe lithium-ion battery. Based on the temperature inside, the battery can shut itself down to prevent starting a fire.

When lithium batteries are packed tightly, they can overheat and catch fire if they experience short circuits or damage in some way. In fact, fires from lithium batteries have brought down two cargo jets in the past decade. Tests conducted by the US Federal Aviation Administration have found that overheating batteries can cause major fires.

When punctured or shorted, traditional lithium-ion batteries can catch fire. Temperatures inside the battery under these conditions can rise to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the battery to explode. Preventive techniques of adding flame-retardants to the electrolyte of the battery usually do not work because they make the battery nonfunctional, thus defeating the purpose.

Zhenan Bao, professor of chemical engineering, and Zheng Chen, a postdoctoral scholar, have turned to nanotechnology for solving the issue of explosion of lithium-ion batteries. For this, they used a wearable body temperature monitor that Bao has recently invented. The sensor, made of plastic material, has tiny particles of nickel embedded inside. Nano scale spikes protrude from the surface of these nickel particles. To use the sensor in batteries, researchers used a one-atom thick graphene layer to coat the spiky nickel particles. They embedded the coated particles in a thin film of elastic polyethylene.

The researchers attached the polyethylene film to one electrode of the battery such that the load current of the battery would flow through the film. Under normal temperatures, the spiky particles touch one another and allow conduction of electricity. If the temperature rises, the polyethylene stretches due to thermal expansion. This makes the particles to spread out leading to the film becoming non-conductive. That stops the flow of electricity through the battery, until it cools down.

The polyethylene film starts expanding above 160 degrees Fahrenheit. That causes the spikes on the particles to move apart, causing the battery to shut down. As temperatures drop below 160 degrees, the particles come into contact again with each other, allowing the battery to start functioning again and generate electricity. According to the researchers, they can tune the temperature based on the type of polymer used and the number of nickel particles.

With the film in place, the battery shut down as soon as it got too hot and stopped working. Moreover, it resumed operation quickly as soon as the battery cooled down. As there is no electricity flowing when the battery is hot, chances of it catching fire and exploding are practically nil.

Your Smartphone Can Work as a 3D Scanner Now

Barring professional photographers, almost all possessing smartphones capture images of everyday objects using the onboard camera. Additionally, most smartphones today come with cameras of respectable resolution, with recent ones reaching 21 MP. Now, you can use the camera on your mobile to scan objects to reproduce a 3D image.

Researchers from the Computer Vision and Geometry Group at ETH Zurich have created an application that can transform your smartphone into a portable digital scanner. The 3D mobile technology created by the researchers allows users to scan objects by snapping pictures on the fly. Scanning in outdoor environments is also possible for modeling scenes or arbitrary objects.

Very soon, using the 3D mobile technology, people will be able to use their ordinary mobiles to capture visual 3D representations of scenes and objects as realistically and easily as they take photographs today. Although alternate solutions for 3D scanning do exist, they require hardware dedicate to 3D scanning. With the 3D mobile technology, scanning and generating a three dimensional image becomes as easy as taking pictures. This is of great benefit to the DIY and hobbyist crowd, especially for those without design or engineering degrees.

The user only has to move his phone all around the object of interest. Instead of a conventional photo, the mobile will generate a 3D model of the object on its screen. If any part is missing from the 3D image, the user can add that by [pointing the camera and cover the missing parts. The important part is all the calculations for generating the 3D image happens within the phone, so the results of the calculation are immediate. According to the researchers, apart from being of immense use in daily life, this technology will be of use in the fields of commerce and cultural heritage as well.

Businesses and industries are also showing great interest in the technology, as this has the potential to reshape the 3D scanning and printing industry. As this relatively low-cost duplicating method takes shape, companies begin to grapple with the implications. According to some experts, this method of object reproduction, needing no knowledge of computer design software, will break down the existing barriers in large sections of industry – probably sparking the next industrial revolution.

There is another aspect to this innovative technology. According to professor Pollefeys of Computer Vision and Cultural Heritage, this new 3D mobile technology can also modify the way cultural assets are digitized and preserved at present. This will make the assets accessible to all and will unlock the potential for reuse of the assets. Archaeologists and other cultural heritage professionals can use this technology to combine computer vision, 3D modeling, and virtual reality.

Museums could make exact replicas and precisely simulated objects that visitors could handle or touch without causing damage to the real artifact. A new market could open up with the demand for 3D portraiture or personal statuettes, which people could generate on their own or order. It would be possible to enhance, morph or tweak the models using a computer, opening up space for creative play or editing.

What are UltraHDTV, HDR and 4K TV?

The TV industry is presently going through a turmoil with fresh format battles brewing over HDR or High Dynamic Range technology, which experts deem essential for making a 4K TV look even better. As usual, there are issues related to intellectual property rights. First, let us understand what 4K is about and why should people care about 4K and HDR.

Recently, the UHD Alliance has announced a set of new specifications for Ultra High Definition Premium along with a logo for products and services that comply with the specifications. The UHD Alliance is an industry group consisting of 35 member companies. The group has recommended enhanced performance metrics related to resolution, black levels, high dynamic range, wide color gamut, and peak luminance.

With the new specifications, there is ample clarity about the definition of Ultra High Definition or Premium UHD, which the panel makers were after. According to Myra Moore, the president of Digital Tech Consulting, with the clarity in the definition of Premium Ultra HD, consumers can differentiate and upgrade their TVs to what they think is necessary.

For example, while HDR is about expanding the range between the darkest and the brightest images a TV display can produce, Ultra High Definition Premium goes even further. Premium UHD specifies high dynamic range, content master and display, and distribution, along with color palette, color bit depth and image resolution. The Alliance has adopted HDR 10 from SMPTE as a baseline for HDR.

So far, four companies have developed their own technology and intellectual property rights for achieving the HDR format – the BBC, Philips, Technicolor, and Dolby. Now, the battle is about which technology will finally be added to Ultra High Definition TV. For the past one year, proposals from the four companies are under review.

Over the years, both consumers and filmmakers have been showing tepid interest in 4KTV, usually defined as TV with resolution higher than 3840×2160 pixels. For example, Walt Disney Studios and Hollywood feel that merely adding more pixels will do little to change the marketplace over to a new format. In their opinion, more contrast and dynamic range is necessary to make consumers take to the new format.

With 4K UHD, although there are more pixels, you are unable to see the extra pixels unless very close to the screen. Added resolution does not mean much unless there is more contrast as well.

At present, the contention is about maintaining backward compatibility with SDR or Standard Dynamic Range TV displays. What this means is no matter what TV consumers use, they will be able to see content. With backward compatibility, as proposed by Philips and Technicolor, distributors will be sending only one signal to their consumers. That signal will contain an SDR signal layer and other parameters to reconstruct the HDR from the SDR video stream. As the unique signal is part of the MPEG stream, no change is necessary for the transmission infrastructure.

Dolby is offering three different packages with various characteristics, one of which uses less bandwidth and could be less expensive to implement. The UHD Alliance is yet to complete an official HDR format, which means the battle over HDR is hardly over.

Does the Raspberry Pi 3 Run Hotter than the Raspberry Pi 2?

Several people are now eagerly using and testing the new SBC or single board computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the Raspberry Pi Model 3, or RBPi3. Although the overall response has been of enthusiastic welcome, there are some notes of concern as to the new board running rather warm under load. Michael Larabel has run some tests to compare and show just how warm the RBPi3 can get when compared to what the RBPi2 does. Finally, we suggest some remedies for cooling down the RBPi3.

Michael has used the Phoronix Test Suite while monitoring the SoC temperature on both, the RBPi3 and RBPi2, when running the same benchmarks in the same manner for both. One important point to note is the RBPi2 was running inside its case, while the RBPi3 ran completely exposed.

The average temperature of the SoC on the RBPi3 under load was 61∞C, peaking at 82∞C. Under the same conditions, the RBPi2 (within its case), recorded an average temperature of 48.9∞C, peaking at 59∞C. That means the RBPi3 under load, operating in open air, was peaking at more than 20∞C, over its predecessor. That also means if you are planning to put the RBPi3 inside a case when operating, it might make matters worse.

Therefore, if you are planning to stress your RBPi3 routinely, you might consider the following options to keep the RBPi3 temperature down.

Wait for the Linux 4.6 kernel

According to Eric Anholt from Broadcom, the VC4 DRM driver is undergoing an update to get into the Linux 4.6 kernel merge window. This will include a significant 3D improvement in performance and a fix to the HDMI hotplug detection for the RBPi2 and RBPi3. The improvement in performance comes from the RBPi kernel DRM driver pairing with the user-space driver of the VC4 Gallium3D.

Better performance is mainly due to the pipelining, binning and rendering jobs from using xllperf or GLAMOR over OpenGL, which boosts the performance by over 20-30%. The hardware is capable of running separate threads simultaneously for binning and rendering, while OpenGl waits for them to complete before it submits the next job.

Wait for the 64-bit Raspbian

Michael has done some tests to show that there is a conclusive evidence of performance difference between using 64-bit software on supported hardware over a 32-bit operating system. Since the new RBPi3 is a 64-bit system at hardware level, the results should apply to this SBC as well.

For the test, Michael has used an Intel UX301LAA ultrabook with 8GB of RAM and 128GB SanDisk SSD. The operating system was Ubuntu 16.04 daily ISO build, in 64-bit and 32-bits version.

The average power used by the 64-bit system was 30.1W compared to 31.9W by the 32-bit system. Lowest power consumption with 64-bit build was 8.5W compared to 9.4W. The peak power consumed by the 32-bit system was higher at 54.3W compared to 49.7W by the 64-bit system.

Use a Heat Sink to Cool the RBPi3 immediately

For immediate relief, you can use the passive heatsink available that fits the RBPi2 as well as the RBPi3. At $5 from Amazon, this solution is cost-effective in addition to being immediately available. Moreover, the heatsink will drop the temperature of the SoC by almost half.