Tweeter buttonFacebook buttonLinkedin button
  • 26 May 2010 /  Embedded

    BTnode is an autonomous wireless communication and computing platform based on a Bluetooth radio and a microcontroller. It serves as a demonstration platform for research in mobile and ad-hoc connected networks (MANETs) and distributed sensor networks. The BTnode has been jointly developed at ETH Zurich by the Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory (TIK) and the Research Group for Distributed Systems. Currently, the BTnode is primarily used in two major research projects: NCCR MICS and Smart-Its.

    The low-power radio is the same as used on the Berkeley Mica2 Motes, making the BTnode rev3 a twin of both the Mote and the old BTnode. Both radios can be operated simultaneously or be independently powered off completely when not in use, considerably reducing the idle power consumption of the device.

    The BTnode rev3

    * Microcontroller: Atmel ATmega 128L (8 MHz @ 8 MIPS)
    * Memories: 64+180 Kbyte RAM, 128 Kbyte FLASH ROM, 4 Kbyte EEPROM
    * Bluetooth subsystem: Zeevo ZV4002, supporting AFH/SFH
    * Scatternets with max. 4 Piconets/7 Slaves, BT v1.2 compatible
    * Low-power radio: Chipcon CC1000 operating in ISM band 433-915 MHz
    * External Interfaces: ISP, UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO, ADC, Timer, 4 LEDs
    * Standard C Programming, TinyOS compatible

    Source:
    http://www.btnode.ethz.ch

  • 26 May 2010 /  Embedded

    Nut/OS is based on an intentionally simple RTOS kernel, which provides a minimum of services to run Nut/Net, the TCP/IP stack. It’s features include:

    * Coperative multithreading
    * Deterministic interrupt response times
    * Priority based event handling
    * Periodic and one-shot timers
    * Dynamic memory management

    Main features of the TCP/IP stack are:

    * Base protocols Ethernet, ARP, IP, ICMP, UDP, TCP and PPP
    * User protocols DHCP, DNS, SNTP, SMTP, FTP, SYSLOG, HTTP and others
    * Socket API
    * Host, net and default routing

    Nut/OS is a modular operating system. Instead of providing a fixed kernel block, all code is packed in libraries. Only those parts are linked to the final binary image, which are directly or indirectly referenced by the application. This guarantees the lowest possible footprint. Ernst Stippl regularly publishes related figures on his web site at www.es-business.com/ethernut/.

    Standard C libraries like newlib or avr-libc are supported and allow to write highly portable applications. While direct hardware access and native interrupts are possible in application code, the system offers ready-to-use drivers for a large number of devices, including:

    * Ethernet controllers
    * UART devices with RS-232 handshake and RS-485 mode
    * SPI, I2C and CAN busses
    * MultiMedia and SD cards
    * Hardware and software audio codecs
    * Analog-to-digital converters
    * Serial flash memory
    * Realtime clocks
    * Infrared remote controls
    * Watchdogs and reset controllers
    * Character displays
    * GPIO and interrupt control
    * Modem control

    Note, that not all drivers may be available on all platforms. The following microcontrollers are actively supported:

    * ATmega103, ATmega128, ATmega2561, AT90CAN128
    * AT91SAM7S, AT91SAM7SE, AT91SAM7X
    * AT91SAM9260, AT91SAM9XE
    * Gameboy Advance

    The system is highly configurable and may work on other hardware too. Support for AVR32 is currently under development and a version for the Freescale Coldfire may become available as well. In addition it is possible to run Nut/OS applications on Linux.

    In order to hide hardware specific details from application code, an almost complete C stdio API is available, which provides:

    * C99 integer types and optional floating point I/O
    * File system support, including FAT
    * Low level functions and streams on devices, TCP sockets and files

    Nut/OS is perrmanently enhanced by an active community. The following features are currently not available, but planned for future releases or currently under development:

    * Graphical user interface
    * USB stack
    * IPv6
    * Encryption
    * Wireless LAN

    Source:
    http://www.ethernut.de/en/firmware/nutos.html

  • 26 May 2010 /  Embedded

    OpenOCD JTAG server is a open-source on-chip debug solution for targets based on the ARM7, ARM9, Cortex-M3 and XSCALE families with Embedded-ICE macrocell support via JTAG port. It enables source level debugging with the standard GNU Debugger GDB compiled for the ARM architecture. In addition internal and external FLASH memory programming is supported. Any GDB aware integrated development environment, example Eclipse IDE, IAR or Emacs, can benefit from OpenOCD.
    “Free” means that it is licensed under the General Public License (GPL).

    User interaction is realized through a telnet command line interface and a gdb (the GNU debugger) remote protocol server.

    OpenOCD supports various different types of Amontec JTAG interfaces/programmers:

    * Parallel port wigglers as:
    – Macraigor Wiggler JTAG cable (via Amontec ARM Debug ValuePack / Chameleon POD)
    – Amontec JTAG Accelerator (via Amontec ARM Debug ValuePack / Amontec Chameleon POD)
    * USB port FTDI FT2232:
    – Amontec JTAGkey (USB JTAG / 5V 3.3V 3V 2.5V 1.8V 1.5V)
    – Amontec JTAGkey-Tiny(USB JTAG / 3.3V Only)

    It supports a number of different ARM cores (Flash programming / core debugging):

    * OpenOCD for ARM ARM7TDMI (-s)
    * OpenOCD for ARM ARM9TDMI
    * OpenOCD for ARM ARM920t
    * OpenOCD for ARM ARM922t
    * OpenOCD for ARM ARM926ej-s
    * OpenOCD for ARM ARM966e
    * OpenOCD for ARM Cortex-M3

    Support for Intel XScale CPUs is also included:

    * OpenOCD for XSCALE PXA25x
    * OpenOCD for XSCALE PXA27x
    * OpenOCD for XSCALE IXP42x

    Support for the Marvell Feroceon CPU core as found in the Orion SoC family is included as well.

    Support for TI OMAP is in the pipe.

    Support for cod:blocks is in the pipe. This will enable a much easier IDE than the Eclipse IDE.

    Source:
    http://www.amontec.com/openocd.shtml