Tech Focus: Getting Android ready for embedded apps

HIGHLIGHTS

Understanding Android's strengths and weaknesses

Validating your GNU platform toolchain: tips and techniques

The perils and joys of Android development

Editor's Note

Bernard Cole Site Editor Embedded.com

The enthusiasm for Google's Android mobile software platform continues unabated. As noted in “The perils and joys of Android development , ” building apps for mobile devices is a powerful magnet, as is the possibility of adapting the GNU/Linux/Java framework for use in traditional embedded designs. The October issue of ESD Magazine features two design articles that will be useful in evaluating the platform for both purposes:

Understanding Android's strengths and weaknesses
Validating your GNU platform toolchains

Of recent white papers, webinars and design articles on Embedded.com, my Editor's Top Picks are:

Differentiating your Android-based embedded device
Optimizing Linux and Android applications for ARM
Porting the Android Platform Beyond Mobile Phone Apps

Additional design information about Android and open source will be available in classes to be held at UBM's ARM Technical Conference in Santa Clara, Ca., October 25-27, including:

Design and development of the first Android smart watch
Vome: An Openmax complaint media framework for Android
Android on low cost Arm systems
Optimizing media apps for Android using Arm

There are a number of recent conference and journal articles on Android (available for download in PDF form ) that I think you'll find useful, including:

Analyzing inter-application communication in Android
A study of Android application security
Operating systems for mobile computing

More articles on Android are in the works for publication on Embedded.com. This is a rich and rapidly developing area of software development and I would like to hear from you. Give me a call or email me with your ideas or feedback on the kinds of articles you would like to read.

Design How-Tos

Understanding Android's strengths and weaknesses

Here are techniques for exploiting Android's strengths and managing its limitations, especially in hard real-time, mission-critical systems.

Validating your GNU platform toolchain: tips and techniques

Open-source tools for your open-source Android/Linux platform.

Android, Linux & Real-time Development for Embedded Systems

Colin Walls of Mentor Graphics provides a quicky look at the Android Mobile OS and Linux and their use in a wide range of embedded applications, its architecture, how apps are developed and the deployment of Android on a variety of multicore based devices.

Differentiating your Android-based embedded device

In this Product How-To article, Mentor Graphics' Philip Burr provides a few tips to developers who want the low development cost that the Android standard provides, but want to differentiate their designs from competitive devices using the same platform.

Adapting UI designs to multiple embedded/mobile device display needs

The key elements and approaches needed to build user interfaces to meet the varying display requirements of mobile devices and any embedded system with a display and GUI.

Open Embedded: An alternative way to build embedded Linux distributions

Nick Lethaby and Denys Dmytriyenko of Texas Instruments provide an overview of the key elements of the Open Embedded Linux (OE) build environment and show how to use them to build and customize Linux distributions.

Migrating from proprietary to Linux (Open) development platforms

Linux specialist Rajaram Regupathy provides some tips on making the transition from a design based on a proprietary RTOS to one that makes use of the Linux (Open) standard.

Android-based platforms–Four important tips for UI development

Android is available. What now? How do I maximize user experience by focusing on UI development? Here are four important tips.

The promises–and pitfalls–of open mobile platforms

This article covers the relative strengths of open source mobile technology, the barriers, and how the entire mobile community needs to adopt a holistic approach to allow the open source mobile revolution to realize its greatest potential.

Open source in consumer electronics: What, why and how

This article looks at the motives behind open source, explains where open source is (and isn't) succeeding, and reveals Texas Instruments' thinking on Linux and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).

Teach yourself Android application development–Part I

Here's an excerpt from Sam's Teach Yourself Android Application Development in 24 Hours. Representing Hour 1, this segment of the two-part series covers a brief history of the Android platform, a quick overview of Eclipse, and creating Android projects.

Android is the best operating system choice for many medical applications

Medical-device designers have lots of choices when it comes to operating systems (OSs). The one that's best for your application typically depends on your specific requirements. In many cases, a strong case can be made for using the Android OS.

Apps useful for Electronics Engineers

Here is a list of the apps that might be useful for electronics engineers.

Call for Abstracts, ESC Silicon Valley

Click here for Call for Abstracts.

Calling all embedded systems engineers! Teach other engineers about embedded systems design techniques at the Embedded Systems Conference, Silicon Valley 2012. Click here to see the ESC SV 2012 tracks . September 30th is the submission deadline.

Products

Thirtyseven4 launches security suite for Android devices

Thirtyseven4 Mobile Security for Android (TS4Android) from Thirtyseven4, LLC, is a complete security solution to protect Android smartphones and tablets against all types of malware.

Jamcast enables on-demand digital audio streaming to Android devices

Jamcast Player from Software Development Solutions, Inc., is a streaming client app exclusively for Android devices. Using Jamcast Server and an existing home internet connection, consumers can establish a secure private cloud from which all of their digital music is shared.

ESC – BSQUARE's DragonBoard for Android dev board features Qualcomm's Snapdragon APQ8060 processor

DragonBoard from BSQUARE Corporation is an Android development platform based on Qualcomm Incorporated's Snapdragon APQ8060 processor.

ORBexpress for Android connects Android apps to any platform, anywhere

ORBexpress for Android from Objective Interface Systems, Inc. (OIS) enables application developers to connect their Android apps to any platform, anywhere. Developers also can use ORBexpress to solve the Android device fragmentation problem by using a standard interface on all platforms.

Android platforms gets support from TRACE32 debugger

Lauterbach GmbH (Hohenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, Germany) has added support for debugging and profiling of the Android platform to its TRACE32 in-circuit debugger.

Wind River's Android test development kit replicates human interactions

Wind River's UX Test Development Kit is an Eclipse-based test-authoring environment enabling the rapid creation of automated test scripts for Android devices, applications and browser-based web content.

SYSGO's SSV RTOS PikeOS offers Android Personality

SYSGO has announced that its Safe and Secure Virtualization (SSV) product PikeOS now supports the Android operating system as a guest OS, or 'Personality'. PikeOS technology enables Android apps to run concurrently with other executive environments having more real-time, safety and/or security constraints on the same hardware device, and allows strict partitioning between critical and non-critical applications.