Tech Focus: Making the case for open source

HIGHLIGHTS

The Compelling Case for Open Source Embedded Tools

Validating your GNU platform toolchain: tips and techniques

Open Embedded: An alternative way to build embedded Linux distributions

Standardizing on a common embedded Eclipse IDE

Editor's Note

Bernard Cole Site Editor Embedded.com

The speed with which Google's Android platform has captured the imagination of embedded systems developers has been a boon for all things open source. Not only is a Linux operating system distribution at the core of the mobile development platform, but a wide range of open source tools, including the GNU tool chain and the Eclipse IDE , are used and promoted as preferred methods of software development.

No matter how wedded you are to the security that proprietary tools and RTOSes provide in terms of reliable operation and long-term support, the fact that Android is so widely used in mobile designs and is moving into a number of non-hard real-time embedded apps is a good reason to familiarize yourself with the variety of open source tools and building blocks available.

Collected in this issue of the Embedded Tech Focus is a repository of open source related design articles, product news stories, white papers and webinars that you can use as resources. Of these, my Editor's Top Picks are:

“Understanding Android's strengths and weaknesses , ” where Juan Gonzales, Darren Etheridge, and Niclas Anderberg discuss a number of other less-used open source tools such as X11/KDE, Qt/Embedded, Packet Video OpenCore, Google Starbright, and OpenMax.

“Do it yourself embedded Linux development tools , ” in which Alexander Sirokin provides a good breakdown of all of the open source resources available for use when doing Linux development, with a particular focus on the smaller, less well-known but useful tools such as BusyBox, Wine, VirtualBox, Emacs, Cscope, Insight and OProfile.

“Open Embedded: an alternative way to build embedded Linux distributions,” in which Nick Lethaby and Denys Dmytriyenko provide an overview of the Open Embedded Linux build environment with particular attention to BitBake, a cross-compilation and build tool.

Design How-Tos

Do-it-yourself embedded Linux development tools

These key tools can be fine-tuned to fit your needs and your style of work.

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.

Validating your GNU platform toolchain: tips and techniques

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

Getting real (time) about embedded GNU/Linux

Here is the latest on how embedded developers can have their Linux operating system and real time deterministic operation too, through the use of various resources now available on line from the embedded systems design and Linux/open source communities.

Embedding with GNU: The GNU Compiler and Linker

The GNU compiler, gcc, is capable of producing high-quality code for embedded systems of all types. Here the author discusses the gcc features that are most useful from embedded engineers.

Standardizing on a common embedded Eclipse IDE

With few exceptions, most embedded software and hardware tool vendors have standardized on the open source Eclipse IDE as a common industry-wide development enviornment.

How to use Eclipse for C and C++ development

Mike McCullough reviews briefly on the history of the Eclipse framework and provides details and perspective on new additions to the Web-based IDE, such as Eclipse Plugin Central (EPIC), Callisto, BIRT, and CDT

Eclipse: Under The hood

Robert Day of LynxWorks provides an overview of the Eclipse open-source IDE framework that is integral to many embedded systems development tools, roll-your-own, open source, and proprietary.

Debugging of embedded Linux applications on ARM9/ARM11 processors

Embedded Linux as an operating system for modern ARM processors? Maybe not such a bad idea? Linux is a multitasking operating system and therefore, each process must be assigned its own process address space. However, this partitioning greatly complicates the debugging of processors and inter-process functionality. So what can be done to tackle this? This article illustrates some possibilities how you can successfully achieve your goal.

Building Bare-Metal ARM Systems with GNU: Part 1 – Getting Started

In this first part in an on-going series of ten articles, Miro Samek of Quantum Leaps details developing apps on the ARM processor using QNU, complete with source code in C and C++. First up, laying the ground work

Getting down to basics: Running Linux on a 32-/64-bit RISC architecture – Part 1

In this series Dominic Sweetman, author of “See MIPS run Linux” gets down to the basics on how to implement Linux on the MIPS 32k/64k architecture. In Part 1: GNU/Linux from eight miles high

Using open-source GNU, Eclipse & Linux to develop multicore Cell apps: Part 1

In a five part series this week, Matthew Scarpino, author of “Programming the Cell Processor,” describes how to use open source GCC tools, Linux and the Eclipse IDE to develop multicore apps. Up first: Introducing the Cell Processor.

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.

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.

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

Mentor's new Sourcery CodeBench IDE is based on GNU toolchain

Sourcery CodeBench from Mentor Graphics Corporation is a next-generation integrated development environment (IDE) based on the open source GNU toolchain.

Fujitsu selects Wind River FAST for Android testing

Fujitsu Limited is using Wind River Framework for Automated Software Testing (FAST) to test its next-generation Android smartphones for software quality, performance, and compliance.

Wind River's Linux 4 Update Pack 2 adds rich graphics

Wind River Linux 4, Update Pack 2 is the first commercial embedded Linux to provide a fully integrated graphics software stack, from the board to the user interface framework level, for the latest Intel and Texas Instruments processors.

ARM extends Development Studio with Linux edition

ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5) v5.3 has been released and the DS-5 Linux Edition is also commercially available. DS-5 supports boot code, kernel, driver and application development for ARM Linux-based products

Macraigor Systems offers GNU remote protocol for high-speed debugging tool

The latest version of mpDemon, a high-speed debugging tool built proprietary on-chip debug technology, includes the company's applications programming interfaces and the standard GNU Debugger remote protocol.

Linux environment upgraded for multicore processors

Enea has released a major upgrade to the Linux development environment that it offers for NetLogic Microsystems' multicore, multi-threaded processors. The key addition to the offering is Timesys LinuxLink as the configuration and build engine of the platform.

Unison ultra tiny Linux OS for SmartFusion

Unison is an ultra tiny Linux compatible OS for use with Actel SmartFusion devices. It consists of a set of modular software components, which, like Linux, are either free or commercially licensed.

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