Monday, December 10, 2007

Nand Stories

--NAND flash preps for 4 bits per cell--
Single-chip 16-Gbit MLC NAND flash devices from 50-nanometer-classprocesses were introduced in the first half of 2007.http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBFuD0FyTZ10FrY0FhNF0Ef

--NAND to scale for several years--
NAND flash is projected to scale at least for another five or soyears, pushing out the need for next-generation or universal memorytechnologies.http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBFuD0FyTZ10FrY0FSzc0EX

--16-Gbit MLC NAND flash weighs in--
To meet increasing demand for more digital storage, leading flashmemory manufacturers are touting their latest single-chip 16-Gbit MLCNAND flash devices. Earlier this year, Toshiba announced a 16-Gbit MLCNAND flash manufactured in the 56-nm process node. Samsung, meanwhile,introduced a 16-Gbit MLC NAND flash using a 51-nm process, a half aprocess node ahead of Toshiba's.http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBFuD0FyTZ10FrY0FhNG0Eg

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Your rights to your own gameplay is limited on PS3!!




Sony goes ahead with a change in policy - quote: "The revised Terms of Service and User Agreement will be effective no sooner than October 30th, 2007".. Since the Mail is on Nov 9th, Weee that is "-9 " days of notice.. "oh by the way,"
11. PUBLIC INFORMATION
SCEA may provide all users with information relating to your game play.
(ADDED FOLLOWING)
You hereby authorize SCEA to use, distribute, copy, display, and publish information relating to your game play for gaming purposes including tournaments and ranking, without payment to you. In addition, you will have the option to post, stream or transmit pictures, photographs, game related materials, or other information through PSN to share with the PSN community ("User Material"), provided no rights of others are violated. You authorize and sublicense SCEA the right to authorize anyone to use, distribute, copy, modify, display, and publish your User Material in any manner on any medium without payment to you, and you hereby waive all claims, including any moral rights, against SCEA, its affiliates and subsidiaries for SCEA or any other third party’s use of User Material and game play information, as applicable. By posting, streaming, or transmitting any User Material, you represent and warrant that you have the appropriate rights to use, post, distribute, and transmit the User Material and to grant SCEA the rights stated in the foregoing sentence. You further agree to cooperate with SCEA in resolving any dispute that may arise from your User Material. SCEA reserves the right to remove any User Material at its sole discretion. "
in short it Fascism by Sony! Previously ur gameplay was shared with all ur fellow users.. Now, well... shrug, U dont OWN your OWN gameplay/material anymore.. So DONT GO SPEND 100s of hours creating something hoping to own it... U are using SONY at SONY's pleasure...

Funny that the market does not like them tooo much.... I wonder why... gosh the kinds of rights one has to give away coz one spend 500 bucks on a great hardware... U know the techie geeks were not behind that wording.. it is big goggled legal beagles and the money grubbing marketting morons who'd scheme that up... why not force "open" by saying "ALL CONTENT u develop on PS3 on blah blah network is GPL V3"... Guess who'd have the last laugh??
Makes one feel like with a

Friday, October 26, 2007

45 nm goes into production

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=154&articleId=9044179&intsrc=hm_topic

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Fat or Thin App processor?

Here is what a friend of mine Jayan John has to say (reposted with permission) on a discussion on various processor variants today in Cellphone business.

The relevant debate may not be “standalone baseband processors” vs”SOC", but whether or not SOC is the best option...

Why? Quote: “Convergence in the industry of computing capabilities and communication protocols has resulted in the development of devices with enhanced functionalities and capabilities. Providing a range of functions at a low cost while maintaining the reliability and compatibility of existing systems and devices is a major challenge today. As devices become more complex with numerous features, it is of prime importance to find out ways to extract more power from the batteries". With this in mind, choosing the right level of integration is a difficult decision.
To make this interesting… Read Texas Instruments vs Philips back in 2005 (http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=159901628). In this interesting debate facts appear to tip the scales in favor of SIP…

Comparison of SiP and SoC:

1. Flexibility: One of the key advantages of an SiP when compared to an SoC, is the high degree of flexibility that it provides for a design house. The ability of an SiP to combine from multiple semiconductor technologies and reuse intellectual property (IP) from multiple sources.

2. Development Time: Short development time/ time to market is achieved more quickly in SiP than SoC.

3. Development Cost: An SoC can typically take $4-5 million to develop, with advanced SoC designs costing $30 million. Such high costs are justifiable only if volumes are high and if the life cycle of the product is long.

4. Device Cost: When compared to an SiP, an SoC typically has a considerably lower device cost.

5. Functionality: The demand for increased functionality in portable devices such as cell phones, PDAs, and so on has driven the electronics industry to develop package solutions that can meet such requirements. Cell phone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) could not keep pace with exponential demand for their products, and decided to integrate multiple active and passive components into an SiP, rather than investing in additional manufacturing lines.

6. Technical complexity: Integration of an IC function in a SoC requires multiple layers and results in an increased die size. Mixed signal processing complexity in SoC is also a concern.

Conclusion:

SoC is a viable option when the product life cycle is long and there is time and money. When there is enough volume for the product, sometimes, an SoC approach can be much less expensive than an SiP approach, but it depends on whether one is able to recover the nonrecurring engineering (NRE) costs and afford the time, as changes in the market for new products and features happen so quickly.

SiP, on the other hand, is best suited for products where time to market, flexibility, functionality, and cost are extremely important. The ability to combine multiple semiconductor technologies and use IP from different companies is viewed as one of the primary advantages of using SiP. Currently, applications such as cell phones, PDAs, and wireless products are driving the growth of the technology

Sources:

http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&ArticleID=10507

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=159901628

http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market-insight-top.pag?docid=94297860

http://www.research.philips.com/password/archive/23/downloads/pw23_sip_18.pdf

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/10489/33245/01568781.pdf

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

broadcom seems to have some coverage..

Here are some interesting news articles in recent days:
Appilcation processors are dead? http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9250186181.html -> that'd be painful... ;)

Broadcom:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9797486-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 Cnet has some details though not radical
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8838596703.html - that is some indepth info..
Should the world tremble?

Colored printk: http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/Colored_printk_Output i like jazzy stuff.. mebbe i will steal this for uboot v2??...

uboot 2 for omap in development..

So, I am on a slow roll on uboot2 changes for OMAP.. uboot 2 is lot less mature as it can be seen digging into the code, but it is most promising. The main reason I want to jump on uboot2 is that omap support is very nascent here, and lots can be done..
Some areas of concern:
* i2c seems pretty unclear
* I like the dev concept, but should modules of OMAP be also dev based? I dont think so.. generic modules - yes..i2c etc..
* on dev -> it looks very immature considering that include/driver.h has:
45 struct driver_d {

55 ssize_t (*erase) (struct device_d*, size_t count, unsigned long offset);
56 int (*protect)(struct device_d*, size_t count, unsigned long offset, int prot);

59 void (*info) (struct device_d *);

Errrr... erase,protect,info ?? that is flash type device struct rt? it does not fit into a generic driver structure..
* I dont like the fact that there is still a config.h (include/configs/xyz.h SYMLINKed to include/config.h) which makes NO sense to me.. one of the ideas of menuconfig was to kick this crap out rt?? in OMAP I am thinking of maintaining this as a empty file.. but for some reason stuck with this:
CONFIG_BOOT_PARAMS CONFIG_ARCH_NUMBER CFG_MALLOC_LEN CONFIG_STACKSIZE

On my progress so far:
Since I have to sync house chores with uboot ... Not much to add except: the following is my current git-status (yeah yeah.. i need to checkin..)..
# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
# (use "git add ..." to update what will be committed)
#
# modified: arch/arm/Kconfig
# modified: arch/arm/Makefile
# modified: arch/arm/cpu/Makefile
#
# Untracked files:
# (use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed)
#
# arch/arm/configs/omap2430_sdp2430_defconfig
# arch/arm/cpu/Kconfig
# arch/arm/cpu/start.S
# arch/arm/mach-omap/
# board/omap/
# include/asm-arm/arch-omap/
# include/configs/omap.h

I am going in for the following trees:
board/omap/ -> each board file comes here. Kconfig here define the board characteristics
arch/arm/mach-omap/ -> silicon stuff
-- common -> equal to plat-omap on kernel
-- omap1 -> equal to mach-omap1 on kernel
`-- omap2 -> equal to mach-omap2 on kernel
include/asm-arm/arch-omap/ (silicon includes)
-- omap1
`-- omap2
I dont want to throw out an half baked patch out, I kind of have the pinmux framework in place for omap2. i checked 1710,1610 trms, FUNC_MUX concept is a nightmare :(... maybe look at it 2morrow..

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

uboot follies!

Ok today I had a look of Makefile.. Denx supports a unified make file unlike the strategy in kernel. There are some interesting snippets of code in the same. In short, we could have something for configs as follows:

__ _config
Where,
SiliconName = omap2420, omap3430,et.al.
boardName = sdp,osk,apollon etc
Special = Boot Mode -> e.g. nand/onenand or defined boot mode for that platform.

Now, should i have es versions??? 3430 es1 and es2 are different enough to have two code definitions?

One thing I don’t agree to : u-boot.arm/doc/README.ARM-SoC
cpu/$(CPU)/$(SOC)/
does not facilitate re-use -> coz I might want to reuse across arm versions.. and this does not let me do it..

I am getting diverted again -> this time it is U-boot v2!!!!
cg-clone http://www.denx.de/git/u-boot-v2.git/ u-boot.v2
let me see what sacha has got...

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Day 1: getting a feel and a few thoughts

Where are the files?
u-boot.arm is what i am basing myself on.
Directory: u-boot.arm/lib_arm/
Description:
ARM specific library function implementation
Files:
armlinux.c _ashrdi3.S cache.c _divsi3.S _modsi3.S _umodsi3.S
_ashldi3.S board.c div0.c Makefile _udivsi3.S
Contains:
some important (if I may use such a word - all look important):
bootm implementation,
banner display
cache functions
start_armboot

Directory:/u-boot.arm/cpu/arm1136
Description:
ARM1136 CPU specific logic. This is kind of common for most part. I can see that ARM integrator and 2420 are the two folks using this so far at least..

Files:
config.mk cpu.c interrupts.c Makefile start.S

Contains:
start.s is the basic starting point of the boot process..
__start is where the code starts the boot..
So... after almost an year and a half of CCS assembly, I need to brush up the GNU ARM Assembly.. i got it somewhere.. hmm..
Ref:
GNU ARM Assembly Quick Reference Guide: http://www.microcross.com/GNU-ARM-Assy-Quick-Ref.pdf
An Introduction to the GNU ARM Assembler - A Summary of the GNU Assembler Manual: http://www.microcross.com/assembler-intro.pdf
GNU inline assembler cookbook: http://www.ethernut.de/en/documents/arm-inline-asm.html

AND ofcourse:
ARM Architecture manual: http://www.arm.com/documentation/books/1183.html
(some 50 bucks or so... )
U can also see ARM V7 info here: http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM_Cortex-M3_v7.html

Note: I am just putting links here from google.. so lets see where it gets me.

(idea) on reset:
we do an ivt relocation to trampoline vector of rom code.. Hmm.. that should move out of there...
if i move it to cpu_init_crit....and keep _start to r0... will that work? mainly do arm integrator folks care?

I like Kyumin Park's patch on reusing the same uboot as xloader with lots of options stripped out.. so the boot code should be capable of that too..

(idea) arm1136_cache_flush
all flush and cache routines should go out to mmu.s

(idea) .reset_cpu is SOC based.. does not belong here..

(idea): asm/arch/omap2420.h
hmm...i'd like it as:
asm/arch/cpu.h
depends on asm/arch/soc.h
That brings about a larger question:
how should the code be organised.. I think the following is logical:
ARM --> SOC1
\-> SOC2 --> board1
\-> board2
reuse capability:
accross boards (e.g. fpga logic)
across soc (e.g. b/w 3430 and 2430 if i want to reuse gpmc)

now, that raises a question as to how each of the following should be organized:
a) board directory
b) cpu/arm1136
c) include/asm/arch

(idea): should int handling be isolated L220 specific? does not make sense to me... but.. on a larger context??

ok.. it is dinner time and bit of tv mebbe now..

OMAP Uboot port work started

I am starting off with a fresh OMAP port of uboot. Nothing is proper unless i answer some of my questions..

Why Do this?
* The main reason of doing this is coz I am sick and tired of crappy code and repatch folks have been doing.. and am hoping that I can do a clean reuse for OMAP platform
* U-boot is largely ignored for maybe the lack of fame and fortune stuff, but I kinda like it at the moment, coz it reminds me the first line of code i wrote for 2430 port.. it was in uboot.. on virtual platform. kind of presilicon. pressures were high, could never do a clean job then.. here is a chance to get things right..
* I am kind of tired doing my "project" work
* My wife is getting busy for her exams and other than an hour's walk, I wont get troubled much for a week at least (I hope ;) ).

What is my plan?
I am hoping to integrate a lot of modules and avoid repetitions where possible.. e.g.:
why have multiple board file for each of omap2420 platforms?
GPMC as an example remains common thru out, why not isolate it out...
FPGA is another example..
maybe I'd move with kernel like plat-omap, mach-omap1,mach-omap2 etc.. I don't know yet.. i will discuss my ideas with the list..
I will post every activity, thoughts i have on this blog, label such blogs with uboot, so it is a nice thing to check out *if* you are interested in this activity.. also u can let me know if you would like to contribute and any ideas, wish list etc is most welcome.


PS: Google's spell check sucks :( no add to dic option.

Friday, October 05, 2007

sine theta in kernel?

cordic algo seems pretty powerful: http://www.ddj.com/embedded/196700769
C Code for the same: http://my.execpc.com/~geezer/embed/cordic.c
Now to see if VFP and Neon support can handle float ops.. never tried it so far... Hmm...

Thursday, September 20, 2007

GRRRR USB3.0

Damn... they killed my template!!!!!!

by the way, USB 3.0 is out!!! here is more what my friend passed on:

USB 3.0
  • ----------
  • Superspeed Personal USB interface
  • 10 times faster than the present USB
  • optimized for low power and improved protocol efficiency
  • USB 3.0 ports and cabling will be designed to enable backward compatibility as well as future-proofing for optical capabilitie
  • USB 3.0 specification is expected by the first half of 2008
  • Intel, HP, NEC, NXP, TI, Microsoft are the 3.0 promotors

Ref:

  1. http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20070918comp.htm
  2. http://focus.ti.com/docs/pr/pressrelease.jhtml?prelId=sc07155

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

now thatz weird

Brain dead Windows Vista says:
C:\Users\XYZ>ipconfig /release
The requested operation requires elevation.

Zen and the art of higher conciousness in Vista??? or is it yogic powers?? XP used to be down to earth like us common folks.. ;)

Thursday, August 16, 2007

weathering the world

It is interesting to see http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2766418755.html .. if windriver manages to get taken over by IBM, do we see a better set of patches coming the opensource way? i'd say there'd be finally a good competition to Montavista in embedded support sphere

Keep track of kernel developments... if u track kernel trap like me.. u'd want this too in ur list: http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Linux_Weather_Forecast

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Duh Ubooot!!!

With Denx opening the gates on Dat's Das Uboot, it is kind of interesting to see how things will flow on the "much belated" uboot push into the uboot official tree.
For those interested:
Uboot home page: http://www.denx.de/wiki/UBoot
Custodians: http://www.denx.de/wiki/UBoot/Custodians
ARM custodian is:Peter Pearse
ARM Tree weblink: http://www.denx.de/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=u-boot/u-boot-arm.git;a=summary
How to pull a uboot git: http://www.denx.de/wiki/UBoot/CustodianGitTrees

Patch status: http://www.denx.de/wiki/UBoot/PatchStatus

Compiler to use was already covered in my document: http://www.geocities.com/crecmca98/Linux/omap2430_From_almost_scratch.pdf
Codegen is the best..

Things I am planning on doing: start with 2430, move to 3430 patches.

I am thinking strongly of forcing muxing of individual drivers(not in uboot) to be done exclusively by kernel..

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Next generation of OMAP3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy1uqv9nNGs
The board looks good.. the next generation of boards much more "compressed" and deadlier!!! Love being on the bleeding edge of tech!!!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Quick RPM creation

Searching for a ready made rpm is pain if yum does not pull it out automagically. instead download source, and run "rpmbuild -ta git-1.5.2.3.tar.gz"

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Denx uboot stories

Denx is out looking for a new u-boot maintanence mechanism similar to what Linux has.
some new(?) guidelines on development: http://www.denx.de/wiki/UBoot/DesignPrinciples

See this thread on the maintainer stuff: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=20070704002828.E7F34353B2C%40atlas.denx.de&forum_name=u-boot-users

here is more on code refactor stuff: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=E1I5qQW-0007cq-3i%40jdl.com&forum_name=u-boot-users

A story of 16 byte character LCD driver on linux

Yesterday night, I was looking at my linux box, and thought, let me revamp my old kernel driver skills.. thought I'd write a small character LCD driver.. checked the datasheet, gathered that it was childish. Till i started looking at userspace functionality... Thats when I groaned..
Options:
LCDProc: http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/
LCD Module: http://lcd.sourceforge.net/
LCD mod: http://lcd-mod.sourceforge.net/
etc....
in the end.. hmm.. I kind of have decided on lcd proc.. dunno how difficult it is.. the worst part is that.. there are no standard interfaces in the kernel itself..
Will update this post as I develop on this..

Friday, June 29, 2007

GPL3 the pain child is born..-> implications for cellphones??

http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6194139.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

As of last, Linus was against pulling in GPL3 for kernel... what sayeth he now??? Gotta read it sometime later this weekend..

Update: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6228340866.html

GPL V3: http://gplv3.fsf.org/ - there is GPL and LGPL - Good!!

One feature I am worried upon is the "non tviozation" concept:
Imagine.. one day Linus says ok to GPL v3 for linux, all apps are GPL V3. Now, using today's technology, the h/w vendor who releases a GPL V3 based software for a cellphone..needs to ensure that you dont have a malicious "cracked" version running on the board. How does they do it? by providing signature for images.. Does "non tvio" software mean the signatures are published? Errr.. beats the purpose right? Does this imply that the vendor should impart the tools to make the modified s/w run on thier boards -Errrr.... why should the vendor want to give the key to the safe? Solution: hardware firewalls..
TI for example provides on 2430,3430 some really advanced firewall features, which can be used in this scenario:
properiotory signed code accesses/provides features to the critical components (e.g. SIM/MegaSIM cards), exposes if needed heavily controlled LGPL APIs -> communicated with GPLV3 baseport and s/w.. the firewall configuration will be such that only the prop code(on prop processor as an e.g.), can access the critical components.. the "Application OS" does not have rights..
Why this wont work:
  • To an extent this is already present in the concept of "mobile processor" vs "application processor" concept.. but lots of companies (including TI, Infenion, Freescale) are looking for single processor systems to reduce cost.. imagine the resultant overheads.. just to ensure security..
  • Easier said than done.. how do u prevent a "cracked" keypad driver not grabbing all keystokes and passing it to ethernet driver for transmission over GPRS?

Cell phone security is a very very complex thing compared to desktop OS: I kind of predict.. it is only a matter of time before some "fruitcake"-brained cokers decide to do something abt it... and make life a wee bit more difficult..

TVIO, I think is a moot point.. end of the day, they put a hashkey in ROM, before the app processor runs, compare hash key to image hash.. if it matches, continue.. else.. poof.. solid hardware security.. add a fuse and blow out the processor to a unusable state... lol.. no wonder the FSF folks are pissed....

But it does not hide the real threat... How do u make cell phones with GPLV3 code?

Read this to listen to the kernel hacker's mind: http://lwn.net/Articles/200422/

Stories (with apologies to spanish)

Intrest Story:

Amusia Musica La MainFrama : http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2007/07/IBM1401_Musical




Ze Linux Killer?? Reiser SNAFU!


For some one who had hacked around with File systems, name such as JFFS2,JFFS3 etc reminded strongly of reiserfs -> the filesystem that made ext2fs look crap.. Now.. this!! http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-07/ff_hansreiser





Signed-off-by: Nishanth Menon



Essentially.. get ur ipods and shared drives ready.. internet stations are dying!!!

Power:

Lol.. intel understands it today??? but then the media was always slow compared to research community.. http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/power-plays.ars


Open Kerala Project:

Will the Open Kerala become Open Karela (bittergord in Hindi)?? Knowing the place where i was born, it is going to be interesting...


It is still to be seen if this is a political gimmick or a political will!! For those who know the story of maveli, it is tux coming for Onam!!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

TI sells DSL unit

http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;262730519;fp;4;fpid;319049444

News

Business :
--Programmer shortage: A problem, but what kind? How bad? And how to
solve it?--
Convinced that the software programmer crisis is due to fewer college
students coming into technical fields, Jack Ganssle points to "stark
numbers" that have convinced him of the urgency of the problem.
http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAJ10FyTZ10FrY0FLqX0Ex

--Five chipmakers control 32% of manufacturing, says analyst--
Samsung, TSMC, Intel, Toshiba, and UMC had the five largest shares of
the world's chip manufacturing capacity at the end of 2006, with a
combined capacity of just over 2.9 million 200-mm equivalent wafer per
month. They accounted for 32 percent of total wafer capacity as of
year-end 2006, according to market research company IC Insights.
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBALV0FyTZ10FrK0FLvK0EG

--Big shakeup predicted in flash memory markets--
The market for trapped charge and phase change memories is set to
outpace many other flash memory sectors and capture a 30.7 share of
the $56.5 billion market in 2012, according to market research group
Web-Feet Research Inc.
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAGH0FyTZ10FrK0FLZF0EO

Technology:
--Intel to get more bang for 45-nm buck --
With its new fab and capital efficiency programs in place, Intel Corp.
is readying a massive shift towards 45-nm chip production.
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAI80FyTZ10FrK0FLl50EB

--WirelessHD readies 60-GHz spec--
The WirelessHD group has released its specification for 60-GHz radios
for short range, high bandwidth home networking for final review.
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAI80FyTZ10FrK0FLmC0EQ

--To save power, embedded tries multicore --
Like their microprocessor-making cousins in the X86-based PC world,
suppliers of high-end embedded processors appear to be raising the
white flag in the breakneck megahertz race.
http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAJ10FyTZ10FrY0FLqV0Ev

--Behind the curtain at Intel research--
The chip vendor rolls out research prototypes in chips, mobile
computing, and tera-scale computing.
http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAJ10FyTZ10FrY0FLqW0Ew

Process:
--Make sure your projects succeed--
How to prevent your bright ideas and hard work from going the way of
the wastebasket.
http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAJ10FyTZ10FrY0FLqU0Eu

Others:
--Why I Became an Engineer--
Why did you become an engineer?
http://newsletter.embedded.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBAJ10FyTZ10FrY0FLqZ0Ez

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Star UML- Finally a worthwhile Opensource OOAD tool

People who know me, know my love for UML. Ever since I used it for my Master's project, I have been a fan of UML. After years of experimentation between Visio and Rational Rose(depending on the resources available to the project I worked on), I have always felt that Rational Rose took the prize! In my opinion, opensource was always lagging behind. I played with ArgoUML, KUML, Dia and bunch of other projects, never got convinced.. Today, the search began again, since my Rational Rose 98 License expired and I was lazy to contact IT for getting a new one.. Then hit this deadly project: Star UML. Love its capability - a cross between Visio and Rational Rose. It can read my Rose MDL files, generate C++ code and overall pretty usefull..

Loves:
  • Formatting Options -> For someone who plays with usecases, aligning them properly was a pain in Rational Rose, easy on Visio..
  • Ability to generate code easily (unlike Grr.. Rational rose which needs a deployment and component view to do anything useful)
  • Simple plain interface - pretty intutive
  • Supports patterns -> though I did not find any which I could integrate..

Hates:

  • Despite the "open" nature, a bunch of properiotory stuff is required.. Delphi based..
  • C is not supported -> this is my biggest gripe so far.. I am a device driver writer on a slightly complex diagnostics at the moment.. though there are claims of extensibility... it is not something I can pitch up in an hour or so.
  • If you want to say that a function x returns unsigned char, duh... after hours of searching.. I found that U need to add a parameter, set it to unsigned char, and set the direction as Return.. (RTFM Nishanth...But then.. Manual is sketchy...)
  • Lack of large number of plug in modules.. I guess Delphi puts a cramp on development.. but there seems to be half a dozen of modules around.. some hardcore folks I guess..

Conclusion:

Nice thing to use if you are stuck without Rational Rose. Better than Visio.. still to mature.. but it is a project to really keep a watch on.. Maybe sometime later I'd get sometime to create a C module and write a document on how to use it do design a device driver for Linux.. hmm.. maybe add a couple of RT patterns also??

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Duh!! vats x-loader man??

From u boot mailing list - one lil nugget of a link:
http://download.micron.com/pdf/technotes/nand/tn2916.pdf

At least the concepts remain same for all platforms... they might miss a little bit on certificates etc..

Oh by the way, Mentor Graphics is sponsoring how they "empowered" USB on TI's DaVinci processor, next month on embedded magazine!! grok brok pow mow...

Monday, June 18, 2007

Thought experiments



For someone of physics background... this news is interesting:



http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/15-06/st_best

Future vehicles: http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/news/2007/06/future_engines

Friday, June 15, 2007

some pretty interesting news

For those who have seen Tesla in the movie Prestige will enjoy this: http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e8rv0FyTZ10FrX0FKEC0AM

--Wibree becomes Ultra Low Power Bluetooth--The Bluetooth Special Interest Group and Wibree forum are merging in amove that makes the Nokia pioneered ultra low power wirelesstechnology part of the Bluetooth specification as an ultra low powerBluetooth technology.http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e8rv0FyTZ10FrX0FKEA0AK

--Intel details R&D on multi-core--In a handful of recent technical papers, Intel Corp. is disclosingmore details about its research into the future of multi-coreprocessors.http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e8rv0FyTZ10FrX0FKD80AA

Thursday, June 14, 2007

russel's ettiquette!!!

http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/mailinglists/etiquette.php
Love his spelling...

If you reply to a message, avoid top-posting like this:
Thank you for
your reply. Wouldn't it be a better idea to
frobnicate
foo?
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Alice [mailto:alice@example.com]
Sent: Tuesday,
January 11, 2005 8:47 PM
To: Bob
Cc: linux-arm-kernel
Subject: Re: What
is foo supposed to do?
It's to make sure bar does not eat the
gnats.

OSS opensourced

For those folks interested in audio drivers... ALSA Vs OSS debate rolls
on... Thread:
http://linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-dev/2007-June/019294.html

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Some Interesting News




Micro AB receptacles to replace Mini AB receptacles

http://www.usb.org/developers/Deprecation_Announcement_052507.pdf announces this. So, to see a such a connector or cable, a bit of google: From here I got the following info:


Micro-A plug (white)
Micro-AB receptacle (gray)
Micro-B plug
(black)
Micro-B receptacle (black)
hehe that is useful for color blind folks too :)


Standard-A receptacle to Micro-A plug (no other adaptors allowed).
Quote: Micro-USB plug is rated for 10,000 connect-disconnect cycles. It is
about half the height of the mini-USB connector in widespread use today but
features a similar width.
I hear it is stainless steel also :).. Ok, now my Mot A1200 gets plugged in and out of USB cable at my desk around 5 times a day, and once in house on average, that gives me like 4 year or so life time for my cable.. Err.. where are those days where u buy a TV and expect it to last 20 years ;).. just kiding ofcourse.. (my dad has a 15 year old TV and loves it)..

Tons of pages later, I get here..(warn: link might go to archive in the site) and finally get to see a supplier. and another german supplier here(English Translation).
---------------------------------------------
Palm's FollyOh or JollyYO?
--Palm's Foleo gets mixed reactions--Palm Inc. launched today the Foleo, an
ultra thin, light andinexpensive notebook-like companion for a smartphone, but
the conceptis already being greeted by mixed reviews. More here and here
I mean that thing looks crap - i like UMPC size of a N800 with a full LCD+touchscreen better.. speaking of which.. hmm 500 quid.. errr.. dats same cost as N800 duh?
folly oh
---------------------------------------------
Microsoft's ScarFace
If you are a Unspeakable-Named-Company fan.. well this is gonna hurt.. the "NEXT" "IN" "THING" in technology: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/.. BAH!! tslib+tsc2101+kdrive with a sensible configuration... I dont like my computing to be stuck looking down(Ive got enuf neck issues of my own) Though the page shows the forefiger.. I feel like giving it the "you-know-which" finger.. I suppose the servers are overloaded for the videos to pop up, so check out the history sections.. kinda gives u the feel..

SCARFACE

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

3430 in git

Khasim finally started posting OMAP 3430 patches to git.. will take me a while to get to looking at the patches.. but.. it is good to see them come finally!!

interestingly some devices using various OMAPs: http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=pdamaster i suppose lots of similar sites exist..

Yesterday Steve K showed me a cool setup -> he got himself a USB->VGA convertor (some 70 bucks), plugged the 2430 to a USBhub, plugged in a USB keyboard, and vroom.. he is all set.. lovely.. all those stuff.. throw them out.. just provide tons of USB ports ;)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

WPA and wireless

Played arnd with my Dell inspiron 9300 laptop.. I had been lazy to update linux to new WPA-PSK key at home.. just finished it..along with a bunch of other stuff.. (I got a debian etch now):
WPA apt-get install wpa_supplicant
then installed
/etc/network/interfaces---->
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
address 127.0.0.1
netmask 255.0.0.0
# eth0-wired The primary network interface
iface eth0 inet dhcp
#Wireless - eth1
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
<---
Minimal /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to associate with open
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
### Home network
network={
ssid="MyNetworkSSID"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="MyNetworkPASSKEY"
}
Then ofcourse, i tried playing around with this: http://www.beryl-project.org/
installed and got it running.. but for some reasons.. it is too slow to be usable on my Celeron laptop :(... but ended up recompiling and reconfiguring the X once more..Sigh... one cant win all..

Saturday, May 12, 2007

lm sensor compilation..sdp2430

If you already know how to build a filesystem, good else for OMAP2430, here it is: http://www.geocities.com/crecmca98/Linux/omap2430_From_almost_scratch.pdf

lmsensor for OMAP has been a slight pain so far..
lmsensor needs sysfsutils to build properly..
pick them up here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=44427
./configure --target=arm-linux --build=i386-pc-linux-gnu --prefix=/home/fs/nmenon/arm/ --host=arm-linux CC=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc
mymake install

lmsensor: Download it from here: http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/Download
compiling this is a pain:
first I modified Makefile, changed
I2C_HEADERS := $(LINUX_HEADERS)
WARN := 1
DEBUG := 1
CC := $(CROSS_COMPILE)gcc
the last one was not sensible... but personally, I hate seeing CC=gcc in Makefiles...
might have been good to have ETCDIR := $(PREFIX)/etc

Next compilation started
mymake LINUX=/home/nmenon/opensource/copy/linux-omap.git/ MACHINE=ARM CFLAGS="-I/home/fs/nmenon/arm/include/" V=1 PREFIX=/home/fs/nmenon/arm/ LIBDIR=/home/fs/nmenon/arm/lib INCLUDEDIR=/home/fs/nmenon/arm/include ETCDIR=/home/fs/nmenon/arm/etc user_install

For some stupid reason, it'd not compile lib/libsensors.so.3.1.3
quick step: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -shared -Wl,-soname,libsensors.so.3 -o lib/libsensors.so.3.1.3 lib/data.lo lib/general.lo lib/error.lo lib/chips.lo lib/proc.lo lib/access.lo lib/init.lo lib/sysfs.lo lib/conf-parse.lo lib/conf-lex.lo -lc -lm -L/home/fs/nmenon/arm/lib -lsysfs
later it compiles and proceeds to install... :)

I had posted a FIFO enable patch to the omap list here: http://linux.omap.com/pipermail/linux-omap-open-source/2007-May/009842.html. This seem to remarkably stabilize i2c operations for 2430 HS/FS ops(it has i2c-dev enabled).. but I am still not happy.. look at the following:
~ $ i2cdetect -y -a 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f

00: 00 01 02 03 04 -- 06 -- 08 -- -- -- -- -- -- 0f

10: 10 11 12 13 -- 15 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 27 -- -- -- -- -- 2d -- --

30: 30 31 32 33 34 35 -- 37 38 -- -- -- -- 3d -- --

40: 40 41 -- -- 44 45 46 47 48 -- -- -- -- 4d 4e --

50: 50 51 -- 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5a 5b 5c 5d -- 5f

60: -- 61 -- -- -- -- 66 67 68 69 6a -- -- -- -- --

70: 70 -- -- 73 74 75 -- 77 78 79 -- -- -- 7d -- --

~ $ i2cdetect -y -a 2

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f

00: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f

10: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f

20: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f

30: 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f

40: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 UU UU UU UU 4c 4d 4e 4f

50: 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f

60: 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f

70: 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 7a 7b 7c 7d 7e 7f


I know that there are no devices all those locations... but why does it display it?? need to dig into this in the middle of mundane tasks such as grocery shopping, movie and library visits... Shrug.. Also need to probe with a scope the i2c scl and sda lines to see if multistart causes goof up in hsi2c protocol.. aaah.. bugs bugs to fix.. not ever enough time to do... I still need to be reading for my new work.... err.. somethings are addictive :(

Saturday, March 17, 2007

what drives the arm power consumption?

some interesting questions put up by shardul in the ARM orkut forum:
"what is 'it' that actually affects power consumed by a procesor...?the bus
traffic?internal register altrations?memory reads / cache
interaction?von-numann- / harvard- base?what is the factor that
differentiatessome processor designs (like ARM etc.) to be
power-efficientcompared to other processors (like x86) ?"


What indeed.. I'd say CPU Speed is a factor.. but that just means all the gates in the processor run at a lesser speed.. hence the per gate consumption is lower. but really.. what is the architecture factor that gives the edge for ARM?? I am keeping a close watch on this discussion..

Friday, March 16, 2007

marker day

An out of context post, but sad day today, the manager I most respected in TI left..

Saturday, March 10, 2007

news today

--TI's CEO sees new chip drivers --The semiconductor market may be mature and feeling the brunt of aslowdown. But there are still many new and untapped markets in the ICarena, namely in medical, video, among others, said Richard Templeton,president and chief executive at Texas Instruments.http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e5Mi0FyTZ10FrK0E67y0Ec

--ARM tips plans for next-generation processor--ARM Holdings plc, the licensor of processors and related intellectualproperty, has tipped sparse details of plans for a next-generationprocessor a follow on to the three processor cores the comprise theCortex series.http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e5MV0FyTZ10FrX0E64b0A1

--1.2 percent dip in chip sales 'reflect seasonal decline'--Sales of semiconductors in January were worth $21.47 billion inJanuary, up 9.2 percent on the corresponding month in 2006, accordingto the Semiconductor Industry Association. However, this represents aseasonal decline of 1.2 percent from the $21.74 billion reported inDecember.http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e5MV0FyTZ10FrX0E64k0AB

crypto news: https://webmail.wipro.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0702a.html

Thursday, March 08, 2007

OAV

Object oriented programming speaks of Objects and classes. Classes have operations and attributes.. How can we exploit this for Embedded baseport environment?
Operations: read/write/ioctls etc
Attributes: variants accross boards and silicons: such as base address, Chip selects etc..
Values: the initializing value for the driver creating this..
benefits: portability..
linux already has something of this sorts: resource structure.. only, it can be extended to a larger extent.

OMAP has IP Blocks.. such as i2c controllers, DMA4 controllers etc... we can use the above concept to create "in theory" a highly portable model.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Future of ARM as a Micro processor

(I am not in general a technology prediction guru.. but here is a interesting another orkut driven discussion: "do we use ARM processor in Embedded Systems? We have already 8085 & 8086 processors. Then why do we go for it?"
Some answers:
power. Multiprocessor (DSP+ARM), more address space, IO, ISA, power again..
here is one set:
1) speed/MIPS.2) co-processor support3) No. of I/O s4)
the peripherals
supported by both the processors5) amount of addressable
memory6) security
options


now, my view:(note, I have been a ARM guy through out my professional life).
Have ya all heard of Intel's SOC with Pentium? if u guys been following news of intel selling off its Xscale processor family to Marvin, u guys might be aware of this.. dont yet sign off Intel from the match.. with it comes a BIG set of apps... http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2460545479.html and ofcourse.. two things to keep in mind: the next gen 35nm phreus or what ever new hafnium based chips will boost intel and IBM.. all ARM IP users need to scale to that tech.. but with guarenteed lower power.. will the reign of ARM still remain?? imagine the entire power of win32 and other already huge development base coming on intel based cellphones.. it'd be fun to watch how ARM responds.. look at it this way: GB ram - with IBM-DRAM on 45nm technology today?- is going to be dirt cheap - so already is the in non-volatile memories 4GB nands and what not.. 3D cores already available.. all u need is a processor - the missing link.. u'd have windows vista on cellphones - kill 2 birds in one shot -develop for a "PC" and it works on a cell too.. the only killer will be I/O ->LCD replace with tvout(already here - not too useful on travels), and input keypad.. that would be only differentiator i think.. more of cross breeding to see... life is going to be pretty exciting once more in the technology front now.. :)

For those with short memories: remember the success factors:
1. technology/sales(read cost/performance)
2. user base (again read cost/feature set)
3. developer base (again read cost of development)

Arm Introduction doc

was in orkut today and hit this neat document on ARM intro.. recomended for those starters:

Ajay
11/20/06 Hi Pankaj, not sure why - something wrong with Rapidshare. I have
uploaded it to another location as well:http://ajaydudani.googlepages.com/Programming_the_ARM_Microprocessor_for_Embedded_Systems.pdf

Link to the community: http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=5818698&tid=2499023171415881585&start=1

From another post: http://www.heyrick.co.uk/assembler/

Monday, February 12, 2007

motoming rulz

heh heh.. forget abt mot support.. there are "not so lazy" blokes arnd http://www.motorolafans.com/MotorolaFansPHPbb/viewforum.php?f=21 and orkut has a smattering of moto ming hackers(just search for A1200)...
mebbe next post might be - I dommed my cell :(( heh heh... calvin, hobbes.. here I comeeeee...

shifting blogs...

Phew... moved most of the tech posts of old livejournal here.. hopefully will be useful for someone... sometime..wish it was easier though.... am back from Indian vacation and did post a SDP2430 bring up document here: http://www.geocities.com/crecmca98/Linux/omap2430_From_almost_scratch.pdf

Also decided to move to orkut and linkedIn.. just to meetup with like minded folks :)