CNXSoft – Embedded Software Development

VIA Technologies has announced the VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board powered by a Freescale i.MX537 (ARM Cortex A8) processor clocked at 800MHz or 1GHz depending on the requirements, with 1GB DDR3-800 SDRAM and support for eMMC Flash with a capacity of up to 64 GB. The VIA VAB-800 is an industrial board that can operate in a wide temperature range and targets high-end industrial and in-vehicle embedded applications.

VIA VAB-800 (Click to Enlarge)

Here are the specs of the board:

• Processor – Freescale Cortex-A8 single core iMX537 @800MHz
• System Memory – 1GB DDR3-800 SDRAM, using 128M x16 memory devices
• Flash – eMMC Flash, up to 64GB
• Graphics  – Supports two independent, integrated graphics processing units: an OpenGL® ES 2.0,  3D graphics accelerator and an OpenVG™ 1.1 2D graphics accelerator
• Ethernet – SMSC LAN8720A 10/100 PHY transceiver with HP Auto-MDIX support
• Audio – Freescale SGTL5000 low power stereo codec with headphone amp
• HDMI – Silicon image SiI9024A HDMI transmitter
• CAN – TI SN65HVD1050 EMC optimized CAN transceiver
• USB – Hub SMSC USB 2.0 high speed 4-port hub controller
• Onboard I/O
  • SATA I connector with voltage select jumper
  • SATA DOM power supply connector
  • 2 x COM connectors with power supply (one supports 8-wire, another supports 4-wire)
  • 2 x Single-channel, 18/24-bit LVDS connectors
  • CMOS sensor connector for BT.656 camera module
  • RTC battery connector
  • Front audio pin header for line-in, line-out and MIC-in
  • JTAG connector
  • 2 x Boot flash select pin headers
  • Miscellaneous pin header for 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB device port, 2 CAN bus ports, system power-on and reset
  • Miscellaneous pin header for 1 SDIO port, 4-wire resistive touch screen interface, 1 I2C pair and 8 GPIOs
  • 5V DC-in power connector
• Back Panel I/O
  • VGA port
  • 2 x USB 2.0 ports
  • Mini HDMI port
  • RJ-45 LAN port

• Watch Dog Timer
• Power – 2W typical, 5W max.
• Operating Temperature – 0 ~ 60°C (-20°C ~ 70°C for option)
• Operating Humidity – 0% ~ 95% (relative humidity ; non-condensing)
• Dimension:  10 cm x 7.2 cm (Pico-ITX)

The company provides Android 2.3, Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows Embedded Compact 7 (through third party) BSPs for the board.

VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board samples are available now. You can find more information on VIA VAB-800 page.

VIA Technologies has just unveiled the VIA AMOS-3002, a fanless system based on VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board, targeting embedded applications such as telematics, in-vehicle control, machine to machine controller (M2M), digital signage and kiosks.

VIA AMOS-3002 System (Click to Enlarge)

The VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board is powered by VIA Eden X2 dual core processor (1GHz) together with VIA VX900H media system processor (MSP) and VIA Chrome 9 video processor which render VIA AMOS-3002 systems capable of handling hardware video decoding for MPEG-2, WMV9 and H.264 codecs at 1080p resolution.

Two models are available: AMOS-3002-2D10A1 and AMOS-3002-2D10A1. The latter features a 2.5” SATA hard disk drive bay which is not available in AMOS-3002-2D101A1.

Here are the specifications for both VIA AMOS-3002 Models:

• CPU – VIA Eden X2 @ 1.0GHz
• Chipset – VIA VX900H Media System Processor
• Memory – 1x DDR3 1066 204-pin SODIMM socket (Up to 4GB)
• Storage:
  • 1x CFast Flash disk socket
  • 1 x 2.5” SATA hard disk drive bay (Model AMOS-3002-2D10A1 only)
• Graphic Controller – Integrated VIA Chrome 9 HD DX9 3D/2D video processor with MPEG-2, DivX, WMV9/VC1, H.264 video decoding acceleration
• Video Output:
  • 1x External VGA port (Up to 2560 x 1600)
  • 1x Onboard HDMI 1 port connector
  • Dual View support with independent display of VGA and HDMI
• Ethernet – 2x Gigabit Ethernet
• Audio I/O – 1x Line-out and 1x Mic-in
• USB – 6x USB 2.0 ports
• Serial Ports:
  • 1 x RS-232
  • 1x RS-232/422/485
• GPIO – 1 x D-Sub 9-pin connector of 8-bit GPIO (4 inputs+ 4 outputs) + 5V power source
• Expansion:
  • 1x MiniPCIe slot
  • 1x SIM slot
• Watchdog timer
• Power Supply – [email protected] A
• Dimensions – 197mm (W) x 49mm (H) x 104mm (D)
• Weight – 1.4 kg
• Operating Temperature:
  • -10 °C up to 60°C
  • 0 °C ~ 45°C when system equipped with 2.5” hard disk drive
• Certifications – IEC 60068-2-64, IEC 60068-2-27, CE, FCC Class A and CCC

VIA EPIA-P900 Block Diagram (Click to Enlarge)

VIA AMOS-3002 systems support Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded
Compatibility Standard 7 and Linux operating systems.

You can find more information on VIA AMOS-3002 (Pico-ITX) page as well as EPIA-P900 page.

Thomas B. Rücker,  Program Manager at Tieto, discusses In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) with Android at the Android Builder Summit in February 2012.

Abstract:

In the future vehicles are going to be always online. The constantly increasing number of electronic devices raises consumer expectations. Both driver and passengers want to be online. This requires new and flexible IVI and HMI solutions. Users expect intuitive and simple to operate interfaces, but at the same time they expect the systems to handle a lot of their data and apps. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in Infotainment solutions. Open software platforms will allow users to add new functionality and services, also by third parties, over the whole life-span of a product. This requires solutions that reconcile the multi-media world of consumers with traffic security requirements, in a cost effective and secure hardware platform. The presentation will highlight challenges and opportunities by bringing Android to the IVI environment and introduce the audience to security requirements so far not addressed by smart-phones or tablets. A technology demonstrator will be shown.

You can also download the presentation slides on linuxfoundation.org website.

Huawei is exhibiting their Machine to Machine (M2M) solutions at Cebit 2012 until March 10, 2012.

They are showcasing Smart Meter solutions with home energy gateways, smart gas meters, smart electric meters, in-home displays.. all communicating via Zigbee. Their solution is currently being implement in the UK market. They are also exhibiting diverse modules (mainly based on Freescale i.MX5 processor) featuring Huawei 3G technology that could be used in tablets among other things.

Rear-view Mirror Running Android 2.3

But the thing is really found interesting was their M2M solutions for the auto industry especially the Android car rear-view mirror where you can have the left half of the rear-view mirror displaying a menu so that you can access apps such as GPS maps, control your music or your phone and see information about your car.

Here are some details above this rear-view mirror:

• Samsung SP5V210 Cortex A8 Processor
• 4.3″ TFT capacitive touchscreen – Resolution: 800×480
• Operating System: Android 2.3 or WinCE 5.0
• Camera: 2.0 MPixel
• GPS support with antenna built-in the rear-view mirror.
• G-sensor (why?) / Bluetooth / 3G: WCDMA or CDMA2000 or TD-SCDMA
• Voice recognition

You can watch the video showing Huawei M2M solutions below starting with automotive solutions, different system on modules and finally their smart meter solutions.

The Android Builders Summit and the Embedded Linux Conference took place on February 13-17 2012, in San Francisco. The Linux Foundation has now posted videos of the talks as well as presentation slides on their website.

Android Builder Summit 2012

• Buildbot and Gerrit Integration, Improved CI Automation
• Using Android Outside the Mobile Phone Space
• The Android Ecosystem
• Case Study of Android Ice Cream Sandwich Rapid Bringup
• Towards a Standard Audio HAL for Android
• Topics in Designing An Android Sensor Subsystem: Pitfalls and Considerations
• A Novel Approach to In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) Based on Android
• Android Services Black Magic
• The Case For Security Enhanced (SE) Android
• Hardware and Android App Testing & Tuning
• Exposing the Android Camera Stack
• Usable Hardware Security for Android on ARM devices
• Using OpenOCD JTAG in Android Kernel Debugging
• The AllJoyn Open Source Project
• ADB: (Android Debug Bridge) : How It Works
• Android OTA Software Updates
• USB Device Support Workshop
• Bump In Host on Android – A Host-Based IPv4 to IPv6 Translation
• Android Device Porting Walkthrough

You can also download ABS Presentation slides.

Embedded Linux Conference 2012

• Pin Control Subsystem Overview
• OpenEmbedded – A Layered Approach
• Getting the First Open Source GSM Stack in Linux
• Ubuntu on ARM: Improvements and Optimizations Done by Linaro
• The Kernel Report
• What Android and Embedded Linux Can Learn From Each Other
• Close Encounters of the Upstream Resource
• Binary Blobs Attack
• Yocto Project Update
• Comparing Power Saving Techniques For Multicore ARM Platforms
• Status of Embedded Linux
• PeakCurrent Management in x86-Based Smartphones
• A New Simplified Thermal Framework For ARM Platforms
• SPI Framebuffer Driver
• Making RCU Safe For Battery-powered Devices
• The Internet of Things
• Automated Testing With ktest.pl
• Intricacies of a MIPS Stack Backtrace Implementation
• Embedded-Appropriate Crash Handling in Linux
• Ineffective and Effective Ways To Find Out Latency Bottlenecks With FTrace
• The Power of SPDX
• Board Bringup: LCD and Display Interfaces
• Embedded License Compliance Patterns and Antipatterns
• Linux on eMMC: Optimizing for Performance
• LAVA Project Update
• M68k: Life in the Old Architecture
• Optimizing the Embedded Platform Using OpenCV
• Adapting Your Network Code For IPv6 Support
• GUIs: Coming to Uncommon Goods Near You
• HTML5 in a Plasma-Active World

You can also download ELC 2012 presentation slides.

I may upload some of those videos to my YouTube channel later on.

Freescale showcased i.MX6 Series (ARM Cortex-A9) based in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems at CES 2012. Charbax (armdevices.net) has an interesting interview, where they show IVI products based on Freescale i.MX6 series running QNX operating system with the dashboard, a control panel and a tablet for the back seats. There are also some impressive 3D demos as well as real-time 3D modelling of the car thanks to 360 cameras and OpenCL support in the iMX6 GPU. 3D modelling allows the driver to see a top view of the car while parking in narrow spaces. Freescale provides Long Term Support (LTS) for processors used in the automotive and aerospace industries and the company has committed to 15 years of support for the i.MX6 series.

During LeWeb 11 exhibition, Renault announced the R-Link, a 7″ touchscreen tablet that will equip Renault’s cars starting with the Zoe Electric car and the new Clio (Clio 4) in 2012 for a cost of between 500 to 1000 Euros.

Renault R-Link Tablet

The R-Link features a 7″ resistive touchscreen display and comes with steering wheel-mounted controls and speech recognition to make sure the driver keeps an eye on the road. This tablet is said to be running a modified version version of Android 2.2 on a Texas Instruments ARM Cortex A8 processor clocked at 800 Mhz.

Renault says the R-Link covers all the car’s functions and data while offering access to a menu of useful and community applications already available on Smartphone such as Tom Tom GPS, Emails, an application finding available parking (Apila),  public transport routes (Metro), multimedia applications to play music & video and display picture… At the time of its release, the R-Link is expected to pack more than 50 applications, and more application will be available via the R-Link Store.

You’ll also be able to make phone calls (as shown in the video below) via voice recognition or by using the steering wheel controls to select contacts.

If you have the Zoe Electric car, you’ll be able to control the charging times (to charge during off-peak time) and view the battery status. Whether you use the electric car or a car based on internal combustion engine, there is an “Eco Challenge” application that will tell you how “green” if you driving style and what you can do to improve it.

If you are young software development company, you can submit your proposal to develop an application for Renault’s Connected Mobility by January 31st 2012. You’ll need to be able to read French, as the form is only available in that language.  Renault plan to support selected start-ups both financially and technically. I think this is only open to companies around Paris, but you could probably contact them at mobiliteconnectee [at] parisincubateurs.com if you want to make sure.

Further information can be found at Renault’s R-Link product page. If you can understand French, I also recommend you watch the 15-minutes video interview /demo on frandroid.