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As the famous saying goes - “Dig your well before you’re thirsty”, engineers and developers who are in the RTOS (Real Time OS) space are looking for ideas on Android APIs / applications to start with.

After buying a Camera Board from e-con recently, I thought that a demo will be very useful for developers to figure out which Operating System will be ideal while in the process of camera development for their devices.

Moreover, this video would help the user community to have a look at this Android Camera performance which is more of an innovation contributing to the embedded Rugged Handheld industry.

This video demo shows Android Camera capability plugging into Mistral’s EVM (Evaluation kit) .

Android’s camera subsystem connects the camera application to the application framework and user space libraries, which in turn communicate with the camera hardware layer that operates the physical camera. By integrating the e-con Linux camera driver onto Android, e-con has enabled Android camera application to take advantage of the camera hardware and use all the features of the camera application provided in FroYo Distribution. Allowing OEMs to realize their Android-based designs with e-con’s technical expertise on camera development in relation to optimized framework for the OMAP35x based devices.

Happy Rugged Handheld development!

This is an article for the designers who are in for reducing time to market with their design & development. Moreover, the board bring-up time needs to be reduced and the ideal solution is Computer on modules. A computer on module is a complete computers built on a single circuit board. The design is centered on a single microprocessor with RAM, input/output controllers and all other features needed to be a functional computer on the one board. However, unlike a single-board computer, the COM module will usually lack the standard connectors for any input/output peripherals to be attached directly to the board. Instead, the wiring for these peripherals are bussed out to connectors on the board. Popularly used for advanced peripheral integration, power saving, Cost effective solution, reduced time to market.

Computer on Modules

Introduction

I have always been faced with a question whether or not this is a right Computer on Module Company to partner with. Well, here is a checklist to help you determine the COM partner.
Target Usage

It is important to identify the applications for which a COM is going to be used. Customers always have a range of applications and would want to have the computer on module working across their different applications. It is obvious that one does not want to develop expertise with the different COMs and would want to spend time on the target applications. Think about the applications you will be probably deploying in the next couple of years and see whether the COM can fit in there. Once this is done short list the companies that provide these COMs that meet your requirements.

Life Time

Some applications like defense demand that you have life time for at least up to 10 years. The customer might order a few thousand pieces after 7 years of production. This is probably one of the challenging ones that a module manufacturer faces as he has to depend on the processor manufacturer for the life time. And unless the processor manufacturer is really committed to that processor, there is no guarantee that he would be continuing the production of the same. The processor has to be supported with huge volumes to stay in production. With the silicon manufacturing process improving at this break-neck speed, the fabrication technology of today becomes obsolete day-after-tomorrow and hence the older processors using older fabrication technology are difficult to produce or tend to be costly in the long run. It would be too much to ask the module manufacturer for a life time of 10 years but see whether he is interested to provide a pin to pin compatible module after the lifetime with similar capabilities.

This I think is reasonable and most module manufacturers provide this. So do not slog away if the lifetime doesn’t match your expectations, ask the manufacturer if you can get a pin to pin compatible module and if you look at their history you will probably able to figure out this.

Support

This is the most important thing to see whether the COM Company has thorough documentation in their website to support their module. For customers interested in designing a custom baseboard using a COM, having a set of application notes on usage of the COM from the COM vendor would be of great help as it would place you on the next orbit of the production design directly. Sometimes you may find the documentation is old and not updated. This is a sigh that there is not enough done for customer support. Check whether the company provides you ticketing support in case you have queries. This is another feature that is necessary and would come to play when you design custom carrier boards around the COM.

Support System

You might have multiple queries and you need to make sure that it might be a chain of email exchanges and probably you would need a log of them, So, I recommend tickets system for support. Another thing is that you have to look for is design support. You need to know if the COM Company backed up by a solid design team that can support your stuff like custom carrier board schematics review. Before you buy the Evaluation boards ask the COM Company as what is the support they provide. Some companies offer free support for a carrier board schematics review.

Reference Designs

Also, check the availability of the design materials of the reference designs using the COM from the COM manufacturer. This will help a lot in custom design. As every manufacturer offers reference design for any of the chip they make, availability of design materials such as schematics, PCB layout files of the daughter board from the COM vendor would be useful, especially while designing a daughter board using their COM.

Design Services

Sometimes it makes sense if the COM Company is also offering design services. This might be an important point if you do not have time to build the carrier board or the base board and you want the COM Company to do it. In future, if you require any customization of Software, does the COM Company have the ability to take it up? Or if they are too small, would they be able to take it up on time? So if the COM Company has a large resource pool, they might be able to provide resources for customization of Software.
Partner Status

If you choose WinCE or Windows XP Embedded or Windows Vista Embedded, it is good to have a partner status of Gold Partner. This would mean accreditation by someone on their potential. Also, this would help doing design services like driver development / application development.

BSP Quality

Whatever may be the OS, one has to know whether or not the COM Company provides enough documentation on their BSP Features. It is very important to ask for Release Notes of the BSP before selecting it.

You don’t want to spend too much time on debugging the BSP. You would ideally want to spend more time on writing your application that will achieve the marketing specification. Read the release notes carefully before selecting the BSP.

BSP Source

In my opinion, you would need access to it when you debug the drivers and add more code to the OAL layers in WinCE. This may not be needed for most of the customers but having an option to license the source IMO is very important factor. So see whether the COM company is willing to do that.

Sample Applications

Check whether the evaluation board has got sample applications for the peripherals you are interested in. If you are not good in ‘C’, then Linux may not be the option but if you are good in ‘C’, you can choose Linux as the OS. If you are familiar with C# then Windows CE with .NET compact frame work is the better option. See whether the COM Company is offering application on top of .NET compact Framework

Pricing

While choosing a module, pricing is one of the key factors. However, other than pricing of the module in various volume categories, you need to look for.

* What is the cost of loading my target image into the COM during production? This is often missed and it is better to discuss this upfront with the COM Company. A customer would want to load your target applications also so that it can be shipped directly from the factory. This might also save you the application loading cost. So talk to the company about loading the Kernel, file system and application binaries as the modules during production. There are hidden costs and the cost of the module should be calculated on the basis of this.
* Runtime license loading – Does the COM Company offer runtime license loading on the module. This saves your time and hence cost.
* Review of schematics – What is the cost of reviewing carrier board schematics? Some of the COM companies provide it free and hence if your COM Company is charging for it, it has to be added to the price of the module.
* Support Hours cost – What is the cost of support hours? You cannot discount this cost and need to factor this too.

In all, pricing is very important, but at the volumes that COMs are procured, the unit price does not impact very much. But the choosing a lowest cost COM that is not supported well or supported at exorbitant cost, would be disaster to the company that is planning to use such low cost module. With the goal being to get the product in to market faster using the COM, one should understand that though the module cost is marginally higher, it is the support (even paid-support) availability is the key criteria than rock-bottom cost COMs with little or no support.

Source: http://www.e-consystems.com/Choosing-Computer-on-Module.asp

Google Chrome is no longer in beta. Google claims their new browser combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology for people to browse on the Internet. Here is a Video 0f Google Chrome Walkthrough.

However, it is believed that Google chrome is limited to users with their Internet browser experience rather than high end usability in any other operating systems like Windows or Ubuntu.

NAGW (National Association of Government Webmasters) Conference 2009  will be held at Moody Gardens Resort on Galveston Island, Galveston, Texas, September 16-18.

This is a premier conference that focuses on local and regional government web professionals. Local, regional, state and federal government web professionals join their peers at the conference for two and a half days of education, training and networking in a relaxed professional environment.

Attendees will learn about the latest trends, get hands-on training with the newest software, and hear presentations from leading professionals from the government and private sectors. They also will have the opportunity to network with peers during meals, at the opening reception, and the Awards banquet. Get more info, straight from NAGW Website.

This gives an opportunity to the local webmasters to exchange tips and tactics with the current Trends in the industry and also to discuss the pros and cons on Website Security.

Lets hope that the outcome of the Webmasters conference would be more useful this time. Cheers!

On the broadcast, CNBC’s Jim Goldman claimed that over time PCs were more expensive than Macs. PC owners would have to buy software, he claimed, that Mac owners didn’t need.

Hot on the heels of CNBC’s bold statement that Apple is beating the recession comes a range of new statements: From appearances alone, Apple’s Mac OS X comes with Photoshop, and PC users need to pay at least $600 to perform as well as a Mac. Also he compared other costs like the costs of Antivirus software etc., that should be bought for other PCs which will be free for Mac PCs

Here is a CNBC Video that gives a synopsis of the “true costs” of owning a PC, versus owning a Mac.

The video posted by CNBC, embedded above starts off giving a brief history of Microsoft and Apple’s ad campaigns, and Apple’s market share, etc.

See Also:

Sam Symon’s Blog

Comodo Internet Security

Here are a short video clips relating to breaking news and critical issues in Computer/Internet Security and Trust by renowned guru, Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO of Comodo Group.

Is Your Security Good Enough

More money in cyber-crime than illegal drugs?

By Thendral Muthusami

If you have tons of music files that you collected painstakingly over the years, are you prepared to lose all of them, just because you thought they are safe enough and there isn’t any need to back up them? What would you do if your entire precious collection of all those music files disappeared tomorrow leaving you with only a bunch of discordant notes – a disk full of corrupted files? You cannot afford to realize that you needed a good back up program after your hard disk crashes or your computer was stolen.

Naturally, you always have the option of copying important files to removable media, such as a CD, DVD or additional hard disk, but considering the cost and time involved in creating a backup onto these devices, online storage is a handy and cheap way. Backing up your essential files using online backup services, such as the one offered by Comodo is neither difficult nor time consuming. Once you backup your files onto their secure remote servers, you can conveniently access your files from anywhere, using Internet connection.

Comodo through its powerful online backup service offers a simple and safe way to back up all the important stuff on your computer. A copy of the files you want to backup is stored in a secure, remote location for safekeeping, should something happen to your computer, your data is still retrievable, anytime. This solution that provides secure and scheduled remote backup services takes the pain out of keeping your vital data safe.

The following are some of its key features that make it the best free online backup service:

• Easily backup files or folders anywhere on your computer, network, DVD-RW, CD-RW or FTP server
• Email, FTP, zip and configuration passwords are stored in the registry with encryption
• Protect yourself against ever losing those critical files that took hours to create
• Quickly recover your data in the event of data loss
• Schedule backups to run automatically at a time that suits you
• Synchronized backup feature - save a file and it gets copied instantly
• Send E-mail notifications to team members about the status of a backup job
• Save Disk space by compressing your backups as ZIP files
• Configure in minutes with its intuitive interface

Apart from providing a good secondary protection against unforeseen issues such as fire, theft or damage, it allows file exchange with friends and family members or store data that would take up too much space on your hard drive, such as music, photo and video files.

By Thendral Muthusami

You think your PC is secure because only you have access to it. You visit only secure sites. You do not open an email attachment without checking it for virus. Think again. Without proper protection for your system, when you go online, you are running the risk of malware and virus attacks. When you are online, clicking on that seemingly innocuous looking “check your computer for viruses” may lead to system malfunction, data theft and worse - losing your precious data for ever. For most of such ads are viruses and spyware in disguise waiting to take control of your system. When you use the search engines too the scores of sites that are listed may not be authentic ones. They may be designed to install a malware once you click anywhere in that site.

You cannot stop using the Internet, for the Internet holds large amounts of information and you use it at home and in business. Intelligence lies in knowing you are vulnerable when you connect to the Internet and taking precautions to protect your system.

So, what do you need to protect your data and system?

A firewall. A firewall can help you protect your system against hostile intrusions from the Internet by preventing unauthorized access to your system.

As you know, the Internet is a network of networks, and thousands of computers have access to your computer when you are online. Viruses can be written by anyone who has some programming skills. And you will have hundreds of them out there who think creating a virus is accomplishing something. So they spread the virus in the network and without a firewall in place, they have direct access to anyone on the Internet.

But with a firewall in your system, those malicious programs will have to return disappointed. For a firewall inspects and filters the information and all traffic routed between the Internet and your system to see if it meets certain security criteria. If it does, it is allowed otherwise it does not. A firewall is literally a protective fence that keeps off malicious programs from your system. That’s why it s called a firewall.

Installing a firewall is easy and they are highly configurable. Sometimes it’s frustrating to install a new program that you are not familiar with. In that case, you can get assistance from technical support providers for firewall installation and configuration. That shouldn’t be costing you much. And once installed, they don’t require much change in the settings – for most of us home users, it s safe enough to work with the default settings provided by the firewall program unless there is a specific need to change it.

With your PC protected by a firewall, you can relax, your PC is highly protected and there are no more security holes in your system to be exploited. You are secure!

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