Mozilla, non-profit organization, well known for its Firefox web browser and Thunderbird mail client has recently moved to the mobile space with Firefox for Android browser for smartphones and tablets. However they intend to go even further by releasing a mobile operating systems named Boot to Gecko (B2G) competing directly with Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Mozilla mobile operating system will use web standards (like Tizen does) and the goal is to displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development (e.g. Android, iOS, WP7). The OS itself will relies on the Linux kernel and some open source libraries and the B2G applications will be written using HTML5/Javascript/CSS3 standard. Basically, it will boot Linux and use the Gecko engine (like in Firefox) to render application in a way similar to what Google does with Chrome OS. The HTML5-based user interface of B2G is called Gaia and is a collection of web apps. […]
Debian is Worth a Lot (Yet it’s Free) and C/C++ Language Still Rules
James E. Bromberger (JEB) , a contributor to Perl CPAN and Debian, has estimated the cost of developing Debian Wheezy (7.0) from scratch based on the the number of lines of code (LOC) counted with SLOCCount tool, the Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) and the average wage of a developer of 72,533 USD (using median estimates from Salary.com and PayScale.com for 2011). He found 419,776,604 lines of code in 31 programming languages giving an estimated cost of producing Debian Wheezy in February 2012 of 19 billion US dollar (14.4 Billion Euros), making each package source code (out of the 17,141 packages) worth an average of 1,112,547.56 USD to produce. He also estimated the cost of Linux 3.1.8 Kernel with almost 10 millions lines of source code would be worth 540 million USD at standard complexity, or 1.877 billions USD when rated as ‘complex’. I don’t know which tool he used for […]
Cross-compiling VMWare View for ARM Linux (in Debian/Ubuntu)
Earlier this month, I wrote an article about PCoIP Technology which shows an Android application (VMWare View) running on an OMAP4 Tablet displaying a Windows 7 desktop. This remote desktop technology relies on a powerful server to do the processing and thin clients (in that case Tablets) to display the desktop. Since only pixels are transferred any OS (supported by the server) could be displayed in the thin client. That made me wonder if there was an open source PCoIP client that could run on low end Linux client such as the Raspberry Pi. VMWare View Open Client provides just what we need, but is only available in source code so we need to cross-compile it for ARM or build it in an ARM machine. Today, I’ll show the instructions I followed to cross-compile it for ARM in Debian using Emdebian Toolchain. First download and extract VMware View Open Client […]
GreenBase GQ-3874 and CG-8148 TI ARM Cortex A8 QSeven Modules
GreenBase Technology has unveiled the GQ-3874 and GQ-8148 Qseven modules based on Texas Instruments Cortex A8 processors. The GQ-3874/8148 features a PCI-e slot, SATA, four USB, four UART, dual CAN bus, ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor, and SGX530 3D graphics engine. The GQ-3874 – Qseven Module uses the following CPU and GPU: CPU – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3874 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 MPU GPU – SGX530 3D Graphics Engine and the GQ-8148 – Qseven Module uses the following CPU, GPU, DSP and Video hardware accelerator: CPU – Texas Instruments DaVinci DM8148 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 MPU GPU – SGX530 3D Graphics Engine DSP – Integra C674 750MHz DSP HDVICP2 Video Encoder/Decoder hardware accelerator Both boards share the following specifications: Memory & Storage Onboard DDR3 Memory 512MB/1GB Onboard eMMC Flash 4GB/8GB Qseven 230 pin Edge Connector with: 2 x GbE 1 x PCIe 1 x SATA 1 x HDMI 4 x USB 2.0 […]
Wayland Library: X11 Display Server Replacement for Linux
The X Window System has been implemented in Linux since the beginning and manages the graphical user interface of most Linux distributions, although some embedded systems do without X11 and use lightweight graphics libraries such as Nano-X, SDL, DirectFB etc… X11 is invisible to the end-user but does all the hard work needed to have Gnome, KDE and Unity user interfaces work properly and smoothly. However, in recent years, GNU/Linux desktop graphics has moved from having numerous rendering APIs talking to the X server which manages everything towards putting the Linux kernel in the middle with direct rending (e.g. OpenGL, VDPAU/VAAPI) with window systems taking the backstage. This new architecture provides a much-simplified graphics system offering more flexibility and better performance. The problem is that the X Window System is highly complex, a complexity that is not really needed with the newest version of the kernel. That’s where Wayland protocol comes […]
Raspberry Pi Linux Distribution: Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix 14
Several operating systems will be able to run on the Raspberry Pi boards. However, the Raspberry Foundation had announced that they were working with Red Hat to deliver a Fedora release optimized for the board and Broadcom BCM2835 processor (ARMv6 + hard-float support). It appears the full name of this distribution is “Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix 14” most probably based on Fedora 14 (as the name implies), and not the latest Fedora 16 release. This Linux distribution will officially be launched on the 22nd of February 2012 at the Seneca Centre for the Development of Open Technology in Toronto, Canada during a 2-hour event (15:00-17:00) featuring: A hands-on opportunity to use a Raspberry Pi Live demonstrations of the Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix software Examples of the educational uses of the Raspberry Pi The 60-computer build farm used to build the Fedora ARM software on which the remix is based Information […]
armStoneA8: 49 Euros ARM Cortex-A8 Single Board Computer
F&S Elektronik Systeme GmbH, a German company, has announced the armStoneA8 , a Single Board Computer (SBC) based on an ARM Cortex A8 that will be available by the first day of the Embedded World 2012 Conference. The great part is that for a limited period (27 February 2012 to 4 March 2012) you’ll be able to buy the board for 49 Euros on their (yet to be launched) online shop. The board, that comes in PicoITX form factor (100 x 72mm), is powered by a Cortex A8 CPU running at 1GHz and the company provides support for Linux, WinCE 6.0 and Windows Embedded Compact 7. The company says the bootloader, SDK, BSP and kernels are already available with support for DirectX, OpenGL and hardware accelerated GStreamer. The company plans to release the detailed specifications before Embedded World 2012, but in the meantime, I found some PDF about the board […]
Embedded World Conference 2012 Schedule
The Embedded World Conference 2012 will taken place on the February 28 – March 1 in Nuremberg, Germany. There will be over 1,000 exhibitors for the tenth conference (it started in 2003) showcasing their new products and solutions for the embedded markets. Beyond the exhibition, there will also be 13 classes and 22 sessions during those 3 days. February 28th 2012 Classes: 09:30 – 15:30 – Modeling Behavior with UML: Interactions and Statecharts by Dr. Bruce Douglass, IBM 16:00 – 17:00 – Agile Systems Engineering by Dr. Bruce Douglass, IBM 09:30 – 18:00 – Introduction to Real-Time Operating Systems by Dr. David Kalinsky, D. Kalinsky Associates 09:30 – 18:00 – Hands-on-Workshop Safety Critical Linux – Automated debugging and code screening with formal methods by Prof. Nicholas Mc Guire, OSADL Safety Critical Linux Working Group and Andreas Platschek, OpenTech. 09:30 – 16:30 – Cryptography and embedded Security – The Workshop chaired […]