Android 2.3 features near field communication (NFC) in order to allow payment through your phone as it is already implemented in Japan with FeliCa (Felicity Card), a contactless RFID smart card system from Sony, direct communication between NFC devices, RFID reader, etc… NFC is already supported in Samsung / Google Nexus S. In this blog post, we’ll see what near field communication is, which hardware is needed and what needs to be done at the software level (driver and NFC stack). What is Near Field Communication ? Extract from Wikipedia: Near Field Communication or NFC, is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 centimeter (around 4 inches) distance. The technology is a simple extension of the ISO/IEC 14443 proximity-card standard (proximity card, RFID) that combines the interface of a smartcard and a reader into a single device. An NFC […]
HTTP Server for uCLinux
You may need a web server on your no-MMU embedded system in order to allow remote configuration or possibly provide external access to some files. Usually, you’ll need a lightweight webserver (e.g. not Apache) with the required features and in case of no-mmu system, source that can accommodates uClinux limitations such as no fork support. You’ll also take into account the programming language or the server: e.g. C/C++. Java, Ruby, Perl… If your system does not support Java or Perl for example, that may not be the best solution to add one of those only for the web server and it also depends on the resources (Flash/RAM) available. There are plenty of C/C++ lightweight http servers such as thttpd or lighttpd, however those are using fork in their code. One open source http server that is lightweight and uses vfork (instead of fork) is mathopd. At the time of writing, […]
Resources for NVidia Tegra 2
NVidia Tegra 2 is currently one of the most powerful processor used in smartphones and tablets such as the upcoming LG Optimus 2X smartphone or the new version of Samsung Galaxy Tab. NVidia describes the processor as follows: NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 is the world’s most advanced mobile processor, featuring the world’s first mobile dual-core CPU for up to 2x faster Web browsing; the world’s only ultra-low power (ULP) NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU for up to 5x faster gaming; and the world’s first mobile 1080p HD video processor for flawless HD video conferencing and playback. Get never-before-seen experiences on a mobile device with NVIDIA Tegra. NVidia Tegra 2 is based on a dual core Cortex A9 running up to 1GHz, supports 32-bit DDR2 RAM and features NVidia Geforce GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support. Contrary to many other companies finding the development kit, documentations and tools is straightforward. Once you get to […]
An Update for Qualcomm Augmented Reality SDK and Extension for Unity is Available
Qualcomm has just released their new Augmented Reality SDK with Unity Support: We encourage you to upgrade immediately to the newest version of Qualcomm’s augmented reality (AR) software development kit (SDK) and Extension for Unity released today, Friday, December 17. This version includes support for virtual buttons and multi-image targets and improved stability for both the SDK and the AR Extension. Additionally, we are pleased to announce that the Qualcomm AR SDK now supports several new devices including the Dell Streak, HTC Desire HD, HTC Desire Z, T-Mobile G2 by HTC, HTC myTouch 4G, Motorola DROID 2, Motorola DROID X, and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Download the latest Qualcomm SDK and Extension for Unity at developer.qualcomm.com/ar AR SDK version 0.10.0 (BETA2) Changelog: Added support for multi-image target reconfiguration (add / remove / reconfigure parts on the fly) Added support for virtual button reconfiguration (add / remove / reconfigure buttons on […]
Freebox Revolution Set-Top Box: Internet, TV, VoIP, Mobile and Gaming
Free (Iliad) has just announced the Freedom v6 Révolution on the 14th of December 2010. This solution that offers 28 Mbps internet access, digital television (IPTV/DVB), telephony (DECT, VoIP, Mobile…), Network Access Storage (NAS) and Gaming is actually based on two boxes designed by Philippe Starck: Freebox server: Handles networking (ADSL 2+ /wifi), NAS, telephony… Freebox player: Handles multimedia functions with the blu-ray player, digital television support… Free also released the technical specifications for both devices: Technical Specification of Freebox Server ADSL / ADSL2+ ANSI T1 413 / ITU G.992.1, G.992.3, G.992.5 Annex A 4 Ethernet ports 10 / 100 / 1000 Base-T SFP Port 2 USB 2.0 Ports e-SATA Port Stereo audio input/output with integrated speakers FXS Port (Telephony) WiFi 802.11b/g/n 3×3 450 Mbps 2.4 Ghz Base Station DECT CAT I/Q Internal 250 GB Hard Disk ARM9 Processor @ 1.2GHz with 512 MB RAM Noise < 37dB (while HDD […]
Building Archos Gen8 Source on Ubuntu 10.10
[ad#Google Adsense-Leaderboard] In a follow-up post of GPL Source code and SDE for Archos Gen8 Devices earlier today, here are the steps I followed to build the toolchain, kernel and root file system with buildroot on Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop version: Extract the source code: tar xzvf ../Downloads/gen8-gpl-froyo.tgz Install extra packages for the build: sudo apt-get install flex bison build-essential zip curl libmpfr-dev libmpfr1ldbl automake autoconf libtool gettext texinfo Run the build to generate the toolchain, kernel and root file system: cd gen8-gpl-froyo/buildroot sudo make Then wait for a while (It took 1h15 on my machine) to get the binary images: zImage (kernel) in buildroot/linux/arch/arm/boot rootfs.arm.squashfs (rootFS) in buildroot/binaries/uclibc Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com
GPL Source code and SDE for Archos Gen8 Devices
Right at the end of November, Archos released the first version of their Android 2.2 firmware (2.0.54). They now have also released the GPL code for this firmware. http://www.archos.com/support/download/software/sources/gen8-gpl-froyo.tgz In this package, you’ll find the following: Linux Kernel 2.6.29 buildroot – Set of tools to generate the cross-compilation toolchain, the kernel and the root file system A directory called “external” with the following libraries, tools and drivers: alsa-lib – Audio library blktrace – Driver debugging tool elfcopy – Tool to generate executable binaries grub – Bootloader iptables – Firewall Tool liblzo – LZO Compression Library webkit – Web Browser Engine alsa-utils – Audio Tools BlueZ – Bluetooth Protocol Stack elfutils – Tool to manipulate executable binaries hostapd – For Wifi Authentication jdiff – Java Code Analyzer openvpn – VPN Client/Server wpa_supplicant – Wifi tools for WPA/WPA2 bison – Parser Generator dbus – Libray and daemon for IPC (InterProcess Communication) genext2fs […]
Unusual USB Devices in Linux Kernel
Some USB devices (especially cheap ones) are not fully compatible with the USB Stack and when you connect such devices to your target board, the kernel may output errors similar to the one below even though most other devices work perfectly. sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000 end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0 Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0 sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000 end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 8 Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 1 sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000 end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 16 sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000 end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 24 sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000 It previously happened to us with a IDE to USB adapter based on Super Top Bridge ( VID: 0x14CD / PID: 0x6600). The […]