digital hubbub

SEMINAR REPORT

On

DIGITAL HUBBUB

Submitted by

ABHIJEET MUKESH

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

in

COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY,

COCHIN – 682022

SEPTEMBER 2008

DIVISION OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE &

TECHNOLOGY, KOCHI – 682022

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar report entitled “Digital Hubbub” submitted

by Abhijeet Mukesh, semester VII, in partial fulfillment of the requirement of

the award of B-Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering, Cochin

University of Science and Technology, is a bonafide record of the seminar

presented by him during the academic year 2008.

.

Mr. Vinod Kumar PP

Seminar Guide

Mr. David Peter S

Head of the Department

Place: Kochi

Date:

Acknowledgement

It is with greatest pleasure and pride that I present this report before you. At this

moment of triumph, it would be unfair to neglect all those who helped me in the

successful completion of this seminar.

First of all, I would like to place myself at the feet of God Almighty for his

everlasting love and for the blessings & courage that he gave me, which made it

possible to me to see through the turbulence and to set me in the right path.

I would also like to thank our Head of the Department, Mr. David Peter S for all

the help and guidance that she provided to me.

I am grateful to my seminar guide Mr.Vinod Kumar P.P., for his guidance and

whole hearted support and very valued constructive criticism that has driven to

complete the seminar successfully.

I would take this opportunity to thank my friends who were always a source of

encouragement.

ABHIJEET MUKESH

i

CONTENTS

Abstract

iii

1 Introduction 1

2 Hub as a Factotum 3

3 Under the Hood 5

3.1 Hardware

3.1.1DSP Processor

3.1.2 USB Bus

3.1.3 PCMCIA

3.2 Software

5

8

9

11

13

4 Neologism of Digital Hubbub 15

5 The Evolving Interface 16

6 Dream Versus Reality 17

7 Conclusion 18

8 References 19

ii

List of figures

Sl.

No.

Images Page

No.

1 Home network using Digital Hubbub 4

2 Core of a Hubbub 7

3 PCMCIA Card Physical Characteristics 13

4 Software layers 14

5 T6 dictionary for mobile 16

iii

Abstract

The latest talk in the consumer electronics industry is about digital hubbub. This

device is used as a hub to interconnect various any home devices. Along with the

interconnecting capability hub also incorporates several functions like recording, play

backing etc of data streams from various electronic devices in the house. The

electronic devices mentioned include a TV, VCR, Camcorder, personal computers etc.

The digital hub would be expected to access high-capacity storage and data

access devices provide and inputs for devices such as TV tuner, digital cameras,

digital video, and broadband digital data. Apart from this it must be capable of

distributing these files and information using connection mechanisms like a cable or

digital subscriber line (DSL) modem on the front end of the hub. Additionally an

efficient user interface is a must and should be a file browser like that of a PC

desktop, modified for a TV screen, and a remote control to provide a familiar

interface and ease of access. How does the Digital Hubbub system manage to solve all

these challenges?

What forms the internal core components of the Digital Hubbub system?

Various disparate technologies will need to be married into a single device to provide

control and connectivity features in an efficient manner. Another facet of the Digital

Hubbub system is the Software. What will be the design of the component? The

functionality of the system will directly depend on the design and power of the

software layer.

What will determine the future of the Digital Hubbub technology? The need for a

uniform standard for product development among the product engineers is just as

important as the actual device itself.

Digital Hubbub

Division of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, CUSAT 1

1. Introduction

Human being is always looking for single device that can be used for various

purposes. We can connect various devices either it is the case of personal computers or home

devices that we use in our day to day life. Interconnection is for easy accessing of

information or data stored on other devices. This is fine when we are connecting the PCs but

when you talk about house devices such as TV, VCR, Cam recorder, personal computers etc.

It looks pretty odd.

We are very much familiar about Hub. Hub is electronic device that connect Small

office, home office (SOHO) applications typically use a single Hub, or an all-purpose

converged device such as gateway access to small office/home office broadband services

such as DSL router or cable, Wi-Fi router. We have something same device faster in

comparison with hub that is Switch.

A lot of innovations are taking place in the field of consumer electronics. The latest

talk is about a single device which can interconnect all these entertainment devices and

provide many functions such as record, archive, and playback music and videos, organize

digital photo and albums, and distribute signal media around the home.

So companies gave birth to a new electronic device which is known as DIGITAL

HUBBUB. his device is used as a hub to interconnect various any home devices .Along with

the interconnecting capability hub also incorporates several functions like recording play

backing etc of data streams from various electronic devices in the house . The electronic

devices mentioned include a TV, VCR, Camcorder, personal computers etc. The hub consists

of a software part and hardware part. Hardware comes along with CPU. It has Digital signal

processing chips in a memory and different ports for interfacing. Hard disk drive, Universal

Serial bus port, PCMCIA and Ethernet jack are also core of hubbub. Software has got 3

layers an inner layer, a middle layer and an outer layer. These layers are divided on the basis

of various functions they have to do.

To Apple and Microsoft, it looks like a computer. To cable and satellite companies

like Charter, EchoStar, or DirecTV and their suppliers, it's a set-top box. To consumer

Digital Hubbub


electronics companies like Philips or Samsung, it's a stereo component. Various companies

are now trying to make their dream possible, as a company which brought digital hubbub.

Some of the companies like Moxi digital (Palo Alto, California), Digeo Inc. (Kirkland,

Washington), Motorola Inc. (Schaumburg, Ill.) and cable company Charter Communications

Inc. (St. Louis, Mo.) are interested in building boxes that include high-speed data

connections and home-network capabilities, in addition to the digital TV decoders of

ordinary cable systems.

Digital Hubbub


2. Hub as a Factotum

Factotum means an employ that does a lot of things. This is what digital hubbub does

by recording, archiving, store digital photos and albums and distribute digital media around

home. This can be done from sources like CD library, broadcast TV, and the internet. They

will also be able to store and play video games. And they will organize all your media files in

an easy-to-browse fashion and play them back on demand, making available features such as

pause, rewind, and several varieties of skip and fast-forward.

Typically, the digital hub would be expected to access high-capacity storage and data

access devices provide and inputs for devices such as TV tuner, digital cameras, digital

video, and broadband digital data. Apart from this it must be capable of distributing these

files and information using connection mechanisms like a cable or digital subscriber line

(DSL) modem on the front end of the hub. Additionally an efficient user interface is a must

and should be a file browser like that of a PC desktop, modified for a TV screen, and a

remote control to provide a familiar interface and ease of access

On the output side, a digital hub would serve audio and video to every TV set,

computer, and stereo in your home .This would require a wired—or preferably wireless—

network, with cheap receivers scattered around the house to capture the digital signals and

return them to analog form.

Inside, a hub may look much like an oddball PC from the last decade: a 32-bit CPU

ticking over at a few hundred megahertz, with some multiple of 8MB of RAM, a video

interface, and a digital signal-processing (DSP) chip or two to compress and decompress the

video and transform the stored data into a format for display. It will also need 20GB of disk

space and up, as good video requires about a gigabyte an hour, and audio needs about a

megabyte a minute. (Once you have the CPU and DSP chips for encoding and decoding the

streams of digital video compressed for broadcast or storage on a DVD, most of the other

functions of a home entertainment gateway, including the user interface and music storage,

are close to free).

Digital Hubbub


Fig. 2.1 Home network using Digital Hubbub

This figure shows the output side look in which different devices like stereo,

TV, VCR, Digital camera etc. are connected by cable wire or wireless. Wireless

network is done by connecting devices by cheap receivers. All heavy appliances are

connected to hubbub via home network while light appliances are connected directly

to hubbub by USB ports.

Digital Hubbub


3. Under The Hood

Under this heading we deal with the elements which make up digital hubbub. Just like

a personal computer it also got a hardware side and a software side is same way it has also

two parts.

3.1 Hardware

At the core of a hubbub is

• Central Processing Unit

• Digital signal processing chips

• Hard disk drive

• Universal serial bus port

• PCMCIA connector

• Ethernet jack

All these components are shown in the fig 3.1

• Central processing unit: - As in a computer system, CPU is the master of the hub. It deals

with the data transfer that takes between different peripherals and hub. It checks on the

parallel operations taking place in hub. It enroutes data packages to different operating units.

It receives signals regarding the function to be done from the control panel or from a remote

control Functions are like recording a video or writing an MP3 in a CD or retrieving the

stored data. Based on the received signal the central processing unit generates signals which

control other peripherals to perform the concerned operation.

• Digital signal processing chips: - The analog signals from various peripherals like a TV

set or a tape recorder is received by analog to digital convertors. These digitized data is

accessed by digital signal processing chips via their serial ports. These data streams are

compressed for storage .For displays these stop data is expanded by the same digital signal

processing chips. This processor has parallel operating functional units and this help in real

time processing of data.

Digital Hubbub


• Hard Disk Drive: - The hard disk drive is under a direct control of CPU via disk

controller. As in any device a hard disk drive is used to store the data .The compressed data

from the digital signal processing chips is written onto the hard disk drive and for displays

the same data is accessed via CPU. It will require a capacity of several giga bytes even more

than a 20 GB because a good video require a giga byte for an hour and good audio needs

about a megabyte a minute.

• Universal Serial Bus (USB): - The USB is a synchronous protocol that supports

isochronous and asynchronous data and messaging transfers. This universal serial bus port is

used to communicate data with portable MP3 music players, digital cameras etc.

• Personal Computer Memory card International Association (PCMCIA):- PCMCIA cards

are credit card size adapters which fit into PCMCIA slots found in most handheld and laptop

computers. This is also known as PC card. PC Card was originally designed for computer

memory expansion; it soon became apparent that this same interface could be used to add I/O

devices and hard disk drives. These cards are not used for expansion of memory but also can

be used for wireless connectivity, modem and other functions in laptop/notebook PCs that

may be lacking them natively. In order to fit into these small size drives, PCMCIA cards

must meet very strict physical requirements. It is used in transferring data with non volatile

memory cards or other devices.

• Ethernet Jack: - Hub requires communication with other personal computers as in a local

area network. Ethernet jack is the hardware used for the above said interface.

As the function of different unit are described in above heading. Fig. 3.1 clearly shows

the units inside hubbub.

Digital Hubbub


Fig.3.1 Core of a Hubbub

A Magnifying Look On

3.1.1 DSP Processor

DSP Processor used in Hubbub is enhanced version of A236 video DSP chip i.e.A436

Parallel Video DSP chip. Oxford Micro Devices’ Ax36 of video digital signal processing

chips is highly optimized for handling live images and being programmed directly in ”C” .

Digital Hubbub


Features:

1. Highly optimized and efficient, general purpose, very high performance, 512b advanced

imaging parallel DSP and 32b RISC processor (no MMU) in a single chip in a single

instruction stream.

2. Achieves very high performance with moderate CPU clock rate and main-stream

fabrication.

3. Fully C software-programmable, parallel image processor optimized for real-time

image/video processing/compression.

4. Much faster, more efficient and easier to understand, optimize and use than other fast

DSPs.

5. Directly software programmable in C as universal compressor encoder)/decompressor

(decoder) for multi-format.

6. Provides fully software programmable video compression in real-time.

7. Enhanced version (fourth generation Ax36 core) of proven A236 Video DSP Chip.

8. Easy to program - use C not microcode!

9. Full software development environment includes C compiler, assembler, linker, loader,

simulator and debugger

10. Develop code using our parallel-enhanced ANSI-standard C compiler with assembly

language output

11. Three internal DMA controllers automatically build circular, multi-frame image/video

buffers with programmable sizes in memory, providing a standardized format for video

capture, processing and display

12. uCLinux RTOS(real-time operating system) with TCP/IP and UDP/IP for Internet

connectivity, and file system and device drivers (video input/output, IDE, USB, Ethernet,

PCMCIA) .

3.1.2 USB Bus

The motivation behind the selection of USB for the Macintosh architecture is simple.

Digital Hubbub


1. USB is a low-cost, high-speed peripheral expansion architecture that provides data

transfer rates up to 12 Mbps.

2. The USB is a synchronous protocol that supports isochronous and asynchronous data and

messaging transfers.

3. USB provides considerably faster data throughput for devices than does the modem and

printer ports. This makes USB an excellent replacement solution for not only the existing

slower RS-422 serial channels but also the Apple Desktop Bus, and in some cases slower

speed SCSI devices.

In addition to the obvious performance advantages, USB devices are hot pluggable and

as such provide a true plug and play experience for computer users. USB devices can be

plugged into and unplugged from the USB anytime without having to restart the system. The

appropriate USB device drivers are dynamically loaded and unloaded as necessary by the

Macintosh USB system software components to support hot plugging.

Some of comparisons between USB and FireWire is that USB was originally seen as a

complement to FireWire (IEEE 1394), which was designed as a high-speed serial bus which

could efficiently interconnect peripherals such as hard disks, audio interfaces, and video

equipment. USB originally operated at a far lower data rate and used much simpler hardware,

and was suitable for small peripherals such as keyboards and mice.

The most significant technical differences between FireWire and USB include the

following:

• USB networks use a tiered-star topology, while FireWire networks use a repeater-based

topology.

• USB uses a "speak-when-spoken-to" protocol; peripherals cannot communicate with the

host unless the host specifically requests communication. A FireWire device can

communicate with any other node at any time, subject to network conditions.

• A USB network relies on a single host at the top of the tree to control the network. In a

FireWire network, any capable node can control the network.

• USB runs with a 5 V power line, whereas Fire wire can supply up to 30 V.

Digital Hubbub


These and other differences reflect the differing design goals of the two buses: USB was

designed for simplicity and low cost, while FireWire was designed for high performance,

particularly in time-sensitive applications such as audio and video. Although similar in

theoretical maximum transfer rate, in real-world use, especially for high-bandwidth use such

as external hard-drives, FireWire 400 generally, but not always, has a significantly higher

throughput than USB 2.0 Hi-Speed. The newer FireWire 800 standard is twice as fast as

FireWire 400 and outperforms USB 2.0 Hi-Speed both theoretically and practically. The

chipset and drivers used to implement USB and Fire wire have a crucial impact on how much

of bandwidth prescribed by the specification is achieved in the real world, along with

compatibility with peripherals. Audio peripherals in particular are affected by the USB driver

implementation. One reason USB supplanted FireWire, and became far more widespread, is

cost. FireWire is more expensive to implement, resulting in more expensive hardware.

Features:

1. Better Device Expansion Model:-The USB specification includes support for up to 127

simultaneously available devices on a single computer system. (One device is taken by the

root hub.) To connect and use USB devices, it isn't necessary to open up the system and add

additional expansion cards. Device expansion is accomplished with the addition of external

USB multiport hubs. Hubs can also imbedded in USB devices like keyboards and monitors

which provides device expansion in much the same way that the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB)

is extended for the addition of a mouse through the keyboard or monitor. However, the USB

implementation won't have the device expansion or speed limitations that ADB does.

2. Compact Connectors and Cables:-USB devices utilize a compact 4-pin connector rather than

the larger 8- to 25-pin connectors typically found on RS-232 and RS-422 serial devices. This

results in smaller cables with less bulk. The compact USB connector provides two pins for

power and two for data I/O. Power on the cable relieves hardware manufacturers of low-

power USB devices from having to develop both a peripheral device and an external power

supply, thereby reducing the cost of USB peripheral devices for manufacturers and

consumers.

Digital Hubbub


3.1.3 PCMCIA

Founded in 1990, the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association

(PCMCIA) was developed a set of standards by which additional memory could be added to

portable systems. This is also known as PC card as well as its successor Express Card. PC

Card was originally designed for computer memory expansion; it soon became apparent that

this same interface could be used to add I/O devices and hard disk drives as well, thereby

dramatically increasing functionality of laptop computers. Although this refers to memory

cards, but their standards are not limited to memory devices. These cards can be used for

wireless connectivity, modem and other functions in laptop/notebook PCs that may be

lacking them natively.

Physical Characteristics

The PCMCIA specification 2.0 was released in 1991 and added protocols for I/O

devices and hard disks. The 2.1 release in 1993 refined these specifications, and is the

standard around which PCMCIA cards are built today.

PCMCIA cards are credit card size adapters which fit into PCMCIA slots found in

most handheld and laptop computers. In order to fit into these small size drives, PCMCIA

cards must meet very strict physical requirements as shown in Figure 3.2.

There are three types of PCMCIA cards. They are as follows:-

1. Type I feature a 16-bit interface. They are 3.3 mm thick and generally used for memory

cards such as FLASH, OTM, RAM and STATIC RAM.

2. Type II features a 16- or 32-bit interface. They are 5.0/5.5 mm thick and used for I/O

peripherals such as serial adapters, parallel adapters, and fax-modems.

3. Type III cards are 16-bit or 32-bit. These cards are 10.5 mm thick, allowing them to

accommodate devices with components that would not fit type I or type II height, which are

used for rotating media such as hard disks. The only difference in the physical specification

for these cards is thickness.

Digital Hubbub


Fire wire and USB devices are available for almost all functions that the PC Card interface

was used for in the past, although it retains the advantage of containing devices entirely or

almost entirely inside the case of the portable device. This can be an important consideration

for portable systems, where additional external peripherals and their associated cables, space,

and sometimes additional power supplies can reduce portability and convenience. However,

even in this case Express Card devices have the same advantages as PC Card devices, with

additional bandwidth & functionality. On the other hand many devices do not need the speed

of PCI Express, and often PC Card devices with adequate performance can be found cheaply,

as discounted new parts or on the used components market, and will suffice for many users'

purposes.

Fig. 3.2 PCMCIA Card Physical Characteristics

3.2 Software

As in a normal personal computer we have software that describes a collection of

various programs procedures and documentation of some tasks. It checks on user interface,

Digital Hubbub


applications etc. with hardware. Software of digital hubbub can be considered as a series of

layers.

These layers are as follows:-

1.Innermost Layer: - In the innermost is an operating system that manages resources such as

storage or CPU timing.

2. Middle Ware Layer: -The middle ware that handles such house keeping details as

displaying text and graphics on TV screens. The middleware interpret the input from

different panel or remote control and it enables the CPU to generate signals according to the

concerned function. It also deals with the communication with the cable that supplies the

digital video and data strings.

3. Outermost Layer: - The outermost layer handles several applications .These applications

includes recording controls program guides and onscreen signup for additional services and

games and even web browsers. It provides a search engine that with only a few button pushes

could find all movie musical starring, for instance Elvis Presley, or action dramas with Jackie

Chan, or new episodes of your favorites home improvement show.

Software for digital hubbub is provided by mediabolic Inc. (SAN FRANCISCO). Figure 3.3

showing different layers in software of hubbub.

Fig. 3.3 Software layers

Digital Hubbub


4. Neologism in Digital Hubbub

The success of any product relies on the compactness and cheapness of the product.

As any electronic device digital hubbub is also required to be compact and cheap.

Compactness is brought about by implementing chips with multi-functions or in other way it

can be said as compactness can be brought by merging 2 or 3 chips to do a single function.

Therefore several electronics firm are doing lot of research and development to bring about a

much compact and cheap digital hubbub. A few affords to make the digital hubbub compact

and cheap are as follows:

1.Conexant Systems Inc. (Newport Beach, Calif., formerly Rockwell Semiconductor

Systems) announced a chip that combines digital TV reception with a cable modem. It lets

cable operators sell broadband interactive services in a low-cost package that includes 100-

plus TV channels.

2. Cirrus Logic Inc. (Austin, Texas) has among its chips a combined DVD and digital-video

chipset that powers Samsung's PVR.

3. Linksys Group Inc. (Irvine, Calif.) is known for its pocket routers (units that connect small

home or office networks to the Internet), it has a new chip that combines routing circuitry

with a cable modem and a wireless network access point. Such a chip could be built into a

stand-alone digital hub or slotted into a PC acting as a home server.

4. PVR maker TiVo Inc. (Alviso, Calif.), engineered into its custom disk-controller chip. The

chip can read data streams from the disk surface in whatever order is most efficient for the

head and then reassemble the information before handing it off to the video section.

Meanwhile, the price of hard-disk drives has put enormous volumes of storage within

reach of even a run-of-the-mill set-top box. Currently, a 40-GB drive, which stores more than

50 hours of video, is very less wholesale. Even a small fraction of that disk space can store

dozens of hours of audio and thousands of digital photos.

Digital Hubbub


5. The Evolving Interface

The interface looks like TiVo’s where you peck out the name of the show on a virtual

onscreen board: as you type each letter, an adjacent display of potential matching titles gets

shorter until only a few choices remain. Once the right show is found, recording its episodes

is a matter of pressing just a button or two.

Mox is simplifying matters further by mapping the letters most likely to be typed next

to the numbers 1 through 9 on the remote’s keypad. Typing text on a numeric keypad will be

familiar to the millions of people who send text messages by cellular phone. Here Figure 5 is

t9 dictionary used in Sony Eriksson mobile as we are looking when we are writing any word

character is potentially match with other words stored in dictionary in same way searching is

done in hubbub. It helps in faster searching of data.

Fig. 5 T9 dictionary for mobile

Digital Hubbub


6. Dream versus reality

Any build-up to a single home gateway that controls your television, air

conditioning, and e-mail will not come overnight. People won't replace their VCR, DVD

player, and home network all at once.

Thus far, there are barring a few exceptions such as "universal" remote controls and

serial control inputs for some cable boxes. Manufacturers focus on locking consumers into a

single supplier. That’s why we look for devices which should be compatible with digital

hubbub. If not compatible, then consumer cannot afford to buy such devices which are

compatible with hubbub. Whether that philosophy can stand up to the ultimate purpose of a

digital hub—connecting all the disparate entertainment devices a consumer may own and

even replacing some of them—is probably the crucial question for the evolution of this new

technology.

Digital Hubbub


7. Conclusion

The Digital Hubbub technology has the potential of revolutionizing the way people

will access devices. As Technology advances at a rapid pace, there are barriers that will

impede the integration of all our needs into a single platform or device. Even if technology

was to overcome all barriers and we were really able to produce an all-in-one device, people

will not want it. Why? Simply because people have a choice: and it comes down to user

interface, convenience and security. Let’s take the convergence of internet with mobile

phones. Wireless networks catering to this service are slow, and most sites are not optimized

to mobile screens. Your fingers will tire if your eyes and patience do not give out first.

Introducing a single home gateway that controls everything from a television, air

conditioning, to e-mail will not come overnight because people will not want to replace their

favorite VCR, DVD player, and home network devices and that too all at once.

Since the development of this technology is a nascent stage it provides a lot of scope

for computer science engineers like us for research and areas of study. The philosophy of

digital hubbub which aims at uniting disparate devices allows infinite possibilities of

convergence and a vast scope for creativity. This field will dominate the electronics industry

in the years to come and gives a glimpse into the kind of work we will be doing in future.

Digital Hubbub


8. References

1. Oxford Micro Devices, Inc. Summary of A436 Parallel Video DSP Chip, June

2001.

2. Paul Wallick, ”Digital Hubbub”, IEEE Spectrum, July 2002, pp 26-31

digital hubbub

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