Linux BSP contents
The Linux BSP that is distributed as part of the Almach - Rapid development kit for DM3730 Computer on Module - eSOM3730 is production ready. The BSP has been used by a number of customers worldwide to get their product in to production. Here are the features of the BSP:
Uboot level
S.No |
Feature |
Support |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Diagnostics for all peripherals |
Diagnostics are provided for most of the peripherals like SDRAM, NAND flash, RTC, micro SD Memory, USB Host, ADC and GPIOs. |
Helps during production to check the status of the peripherals. |
2 |
Boot up Splash Screen |
e-con systems logo gets displayed on LCD on booting. This is restricted to the size of the display. |
The image to be displayed is converted to header file format and added in bootloader. |
3 |
uboot prompt |
uboot prompt can be supported on any of the serial ports. |
Useful during development when download has to be done or during production when diagnostics has be done. All the Standard uboot commands are supported. |
4 |
LEDS - Software controllable |
Yes |
The LEDS can be controlled through software and is used for debugging purpose. |
5 |
USB support |
Pendrives, keyboards and mouses are supported. |
Mouses and keyboards should be connected using USB Hub. |
6 |
Kernel boot options |
Supports kernel boot via external SD card, NAND flash and USB pendrive. |
User can choose the device from which kernel boots using bootargs |
7 |
Uboot version |
U-Boot-2013.01. |
The BSP is updated time to time. During purchase, please check the latest u-boot version that is supported. |
Kernel Support
S.No |
Feature |
Support |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Kernel Debug messages |
The debug messages shall appear on the serial port. |
|
2 |
Serial port driver |
Serial port driver is provided. |
Almach supports 3 UARTs for reading and writing through these serial ports. UART 1 is available on Almach board. UART 2 ** can be made available using an add on board. UART 3 is the debug UART which is available on Almach board. |
3 |
USB Host - USB Mass storage |
Support for USB flash stick up to 8GB is provided |
Tested with Transcend USB flash stick up to 8 GB. |
4 |
USB Host - Ethernet support * |
Support for Ethernet over USB |
The device exports a network interface and can be accessed as a network device from the PC. Useful when you have socket based applications and you don't have Ethernet communication. |
5 |
USB device - USB serial interface |
Support for USB serial interface |
The USB device acts like a COM port on the PC and supports the USB serial device class. |
6 |
USB device - Mass storage support |
Support for USB mass storage. The device port when plugged in to the PC acts like a mass storage. Any storage devices like the NAND flash or the SD card can be mapped as a mass storage. |
Useful for devices like digital camera or any other device where the end user has to just have access to the data storage on the device. |
7 |
USB device - Ethernet support |
Support for Ethernet when plugging the OTG port of the device to PC. |
The device exports a network interface and can be accessed as a network device from the PC. |
8 |
Cold plug support for USB OTG |
Support for detecting devices connected to OTG port on booting. |
The USB device can act as serial device, ethernet device and mass storage device when connected to a development PC on power on. It can also detect storage devices connected to the OTG port on power on. |
9 |
SD card - Storage |
Supports SD high capacity storage up to 8 GB. |
The SD card can have multiple partitions where one partition can be used to store the OS and the other partition can be used to store the file system. |
10 |
HDMI display |
DVI display driver is provided. |
DVI output is converted into HDMI output and given to HDMI interface. |
11 |
Display - 7" LCD driver |
LCD driver support is provided. |
Resolution supported is 800x480 |
12 |
Touch screen driver |
Touch screen driver is supported |
The Almach kit supports a capacitive touch screen. Applications for calibration and testing are provided. Supports a resolution of 800x480 |
13 |
Wi-Fi |
Supports WI-Fi driver |
Supports Access Point** and station modes. |
14 |
Bluetooth |
Supports Bluetooth driver |
Supports RFCOMM profile. Suppport for A2DP **, HIDD **, OBEX **, PPP ** and SDAP ** profiles can be added. |
15 |
Bluetooth Low Energy Device * |
Supports communication with other Bluetooth low energy devices. |
The Almach board can communicate with other Bluetooth low energy Devices by connecting a Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle to the Almach kit. This feature has been tested with the TI sensor tag. The sensor tag from TI has 6 sensors namely accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, baraometer, humidity sensor and temperature sensor. Almach kit can read the sensor values from the sensor tag. |
16 |
Camera driver * |
Supported as a add on module. Video for Linux is supported (V4L2). |
Video for Linux is ported and sample application is provided.
|
17 |
NAND flash - Storage |
The device will appear as a storage device. Supports up to 1GB in storage |
NAND Flash supports UBIFS file system. |
18 |
I2C |
Yes provided. |
The PMIC is connected via I2C interface. The esom3730 controls the RTC, MADC, audio interfaces presentin PMIC via I2C protocol. Camera and Touch screen are also controlled by I2C protocol. |
19 |
MADC driver |
Analog to Digital Convertor driver is provided |
Tested channels 0 and 2 |
20 |
Audio |
Audio driver is provided. |
Tested by playing .wav files. Also supports audio Recording. |
21 |
GPIO driver |
Supports configuring GPIO direction, receiving input, toggling GPIOs, etc |
|
22 |
Frequency scaling |
Binaries are provided for dynamic CPU Frequency switching |
Supported frequencies are 300 MHz, 600 MHz, 800 MHz and 1 GHz. |
23 |
Kernel version |
Supports linux kernel versions 3.8.0 and 3.13.0 |
Please check with e-con during purchase for any release updates. |
File system support
S.No |
Feature |
Support |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
File system in SD card |
Supports ext3 and FAT file system |
Root file system is present in ext3 formatted partition of sd card. The boot binaries namely MLO, u-boot.img and uImage are present in FAT formatted partition of SD card. |
2 |
NAND flash file system *** |
UBIFS file system is supported. |
rootfs.ubi is the root file system in UBI format and is flashed in NAND's fifth partition |
3 |
File system in pendrive |
Supports ext3 and FAT file system |
Root file system can also be mounted from pendrive by formatting a pendrive to ext3 file system. The pendrive can also be used to boot kernel image if the image (uImage) is present in pendrive with FAT format. |
User interfaces and Build environment
S.No |
Feature |
Support |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Command line interface |
Busybox is supported |
Busybox version 1.21.1 is supported |
2 |
Build environment |
e-con's build script |
The build script is a shell script that downloads source, applies patches, configures and builds the sources. It also builds a single sd card image which can be dumped to sd card. |
3 |
Arm Linux GCC version |
4.6.1 |
Code sourcery toolchain |
4 |
Host PC |
Ubuntu 12.04 or later |
Supports both 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems |
* - Available as add on solution
** - to be released on request basis
*** - NAND Flash Partitions
S.No | Partition Name | Binary stored |
1 |
X-Loader |
MLO |
2 |
U-Boot |
u-boot.img |
3 |
U-Boot Env |
U-boot environmental variables |
4 |
Kernel |
uImage |
5 |
File system |
UBIFS file system -> rootfs.ubi |