From UML to Embedded Software

Op 18 mei 2006 organiseert DSP Valley een seminarie over het gebruik van UML (Unified Modeling Language) voor betere embedded software ontwikkeling. Het is bedoeld voor iedereen die betrokken is in de ontwikkeling van embedded software, embedded systeem architecten en project managers in de ICT en embedded systems markt.

Embedded designs nemen van dag tot dag toe in complexiteit. Om hiervoor een oplossing te vinden gebruiken de ontwerpers van embedded software en systemen de voordelen van UML. Daardoor kunnen ze fouten vinden en verbeteren in een vroeger stadium wanneer ze minder duur zijn. Door gebruik van UML kunnen sneller nieuwe softwaresystemen gemaakt worden van een betere kwaliteit. UML 2.0 laat ook toe dat software- en systeemontwikkelaars in dezelfde ontwikkelomgeving werken waardoor de communicatie tussen beide groepen beter wordt.

In dit seminarie zullen we de voordelen van het gebruik van UML aantonen. Naast een algemeen overzicht, trends en state-of-the-art in modelleringstalen zullen bedrijven een aantal ontwikkelomgevingen met hun mogelijkheden voorstellen. Bedrijven zullen vertellen vanuit eigen ervaring. De presentaties zijn in het Engels. Het volledige programma is beschikbaar op de DSP Valley website www.dspvalley.com

Naast de lezingen is er ook een mini-beurs waar makers van ontwikkelomgevingen hun producten voorstellen en waar er gelegenheid is tot discussie met de sprekers en standhouders. Indien u wenst deel te nemen aan deze beurs neem dan contact op met Filiep Vincent (+32 16 281 893 of filiep.vincent@dspvalley.com).

Posted by: Patrick Pelgrims - 14 Apr 2006, 14u16

U-boot bootloader on Xsilo

During the past weeks, we have been busy porting the U-boot bootloader to the Xsilo.

Started from the sources of U-boot and the schematics of the Xsilo, we started getting U-boot running from RAM, so the critical code (initialization of the registers) was not executed. The only problem we encountered was the network (which also does not work with the default bootloader of the Xsilo). This problem was caused because the network chip is wired to the PXA in such a way that you can not perform 2 byte writes to addresses which are not 4 byte aligned. The workaround for this problem was replacing the 16 bit write function to a 32-bit read-modify-write cycle.

After this workaround the network started working. An easy ping command worked, but loading a kernel image failed. After some debugging of the network driver we found some byte writes hidden inside the code which also failed. In the network driver these byte accesses were surrounded with defines with comments about the same problem. So adding a Xsilo specific define solved the problem and the network works.

The next step was starting U-boot from flash, in this case the critical code has to be executed. So we had to be sure that the memory configuration and GPIO registers from the PXA were setup correctly. The right configuration value for the GPIO registers could be derived from the schematics, the timings for the connected chips (RAM, flash, network chip) could be found in their datasheets.
We modified the critical code to match these values. But through some wrong use of a debug routine (blinking of a led) the device did not boot. After this issue was solved, the device booted properly, but we get no output on the serial port. After a long search, we found that we commented out some important code in our try to solve the previous problem. After correcting this, U-boot booted fine on the Xsilo.

Now we have a bootloader for the Xsilo with network support.

Posted by: Bart Jonkers - 06 Dec 2005, 15u12

Intel Mainstone II board and Windows CE

As mentioned before, we were able to experiment with the Intel Mainstone II development board.
We succeeded at porting a standard Windows CE system to the bord, but lacked the time to do more experiments. More results about porting Windows CE will be made available in time.

Posted by: Philip Van Pelt - 12 Oct 2005, 09u40