rapid prototyping with open source
DESCRIPTION
Reuse of open-source hardware and software components in a modularTRANSCRIPT
Rapid Embedded Prototyping with Open Source:Software and Hardware
Alison ChaikenNokia Mobility Solutions
Sunnyvale [email protected]
July 12, 2011
Principles:
Reuse components, both own and COTS, HW and SW
Modular, flexible design
Unit testing at regular preplanned intervals
Open Source Platform Features to Consider
● Compatible CPU architectures
● Vendor support, documentation and maintenance and license
● Ported applications, “app store”
● Toolchain (compiler, debugger, package manager)
● Software development kit and integrated dev. environment
● Real-time performance
Popular Embedded Operating Systems
MeyerSound's D-Mitri
EmDebian runs real-time audio for Cirque du Soleil, Disney.
Embedded Linux or alternative?
Have MMU? Soft real-time OK?
GPLv2 OK?
Existing Linux port?
Tools, support
OK?
Power use OK?
Want Linux features?
Driver availability?
MeeGo Linaro Android Ångstrom
Organization Foundation Non-profit Consortium Community
Membership None Core, Club, Community
Unclear None
Planning/gover-nance process
Open on IRC + private
Board, TSGs in private
Private Come again?
License LGPL Upstreams' Apache v2 Upstreams'
Corporate participants
16 : Intel, TI, ∓Nokia?, AMD, Fujitsu, Renesas
ARM, Freescale, IBM, Samsung, ST Ericsson, TI
“over 80,” esp. Mentor in embedded
None
Supported architectures
Atom (x86), ARMv7, MIPS in progress
ARMv7: Cortex A8, A9, & A15
ARMv7, ARMv5, PowerPC, x86, MIPS
ARM, PowerPC, MIPS, SuperH, AVR
Shippingproducts
WeTab, IndaMixx, Amino, Geely, HawTai
Not yet legion Gumstix
Cross-Platform Apps on Mobile POSIX
Plus, port of iOS apps to MeeGo led by Intel'sS. Crabtree with LLVM developers in Argentina!
Debian's Iced Robot
RIM's AndroidPlayer on QNXMyriad's Alien DalvÍk on Maemo
Qt Includes Beautiful UI, Featureful Back-end
Qt Mobility: extensive support for location-based services
Excellent IDE, easy and rapid prototyping with Javascript-like QML.
Qt Runs Everywhere
Deeply embedded (“bare metal”) or headless all the way to desktop.
MeeGo is more like Desktop Linux than Android
MeeGo “Special Sauce”
● Qt application framework and GUI toolkit● Connman connection manager● Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel
(Smack)● Intended to be reconfigured and reskinned: an
“upstream”● Easier to port mainline Linux components to
MeeGo than to Android
connman Connection Manager
Surprisingly strong developer support
Reflects big efforts by Intel and MeeGo vendor community.
MeeGo Problems
● Security and synchronization systems left dangling due to project changes
● Lack of continuity and predictability● GTK → Qt● Debian package manager to RedHat one● Nokia exit● Netbook and handset now unsupported, TV and
tablet added
● 5th place (?) in handset/tablet space● Do “deeply embedded” OEMs care?
Nokia
MeeGoCommunity
HW Development Platform Requirements
● Versatility: support for different buses, comms and display protocols
● Expandability: ports, headers and daughter cards
● Software platform support● Documentation: manuals, gerbers● Device drivers!
Notable ARM Dev Boards in use by aMeeGos
TI BeagleBoard XMx1 Cortex A8 with SGX530 GPU
ST-Ericsson Snowballx2 Cortex A9 with Mali GPU
TI Pandaboardx2 Cortex A9 with SGX540 GPU
Other Prototyping possibilities
Intel N450 Mini-ITXx1 Atom, “integrated graphics”
Gumstix Overox1 Cortex A8 with SGX530 GPU
Variscite AM35x1 Cortex A8 600 MHz, CAN busFreescale iMX53 QuickStart
x1 Cortex A8 1 GHz, SATA
http://elinux.org/images/5/5c/ELC-AlwaysInnovating-Gentil.pdf
Gentil's Demo at ELC2011
Lessons from the Trenches
● chroot approach demonstrated by Gentil is fast, powerful and widely applicable
● Pick popular HW platform for accessories, docs and tools
● Device driver situation is painful no matter what selection is made
Summary
● Wide selection, decent tools and good docs enable rapid prototyping using open source.
● Embedded Linux is useful in many cases.
● Where “app store” is irrelevant, MeeGo is easier than Android.
● Starting with ARM or Atom reference board saves a lot of headaches.
● Linaro and Yocto projects are promising.
● Proprietary device drivers are the biggest problem on any platform.
MeeGo IVI Running on ExoPC
MeeGo-IVI Homescreen on Atom ExoPC Slate
Linux Security for Embedded Environments
● Sandboxing and cgroups
● Hardware approach like DRM → GPU decoding
● SELinux versus Smack
● Java approach:
● don't prevent impermissible actions in policy; instead intentionally omit the facility for implementation of them
● Nothing like “airgap” security at the end of the day
ConnMan Architecture overview
TI's OMAP4430 SoC
6 cores: 2x Cortex A-9, SGX540 GPU, C64X DSP plus 2x Cortex-M
MeeGo-IVI On OMAP4 Pandaboard withHW-accelerated Graphics
Yocto Project Eases Custom Linux Builds
● Based on Open Embedded, with better UI and more quality control
● Source for board-support packages and device drivers,even proprietary and binary ones, where available
● Complete toolchain including revision control, compilation,packaging and testing
● Support for many architectures and software variants
● Broad industrial support
Linaro: improving Linux on ARM
● Industry contributions for ARM to Linux kernel are a mess
● Tools lag x86● Broad industrial support can enable code reuse
and encourage best practices● Primarily funded by Canonical and IBM● Still early in development