Linaro Security Working Group (SWG), Jens Wiklander, Joakim Bech, Pascal Brand and Cedric Chaumont are talking about what is happening within Linaro’s working group that handles security. The group is currently focusing on creating an open source Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) solution running on TrustZone® for ARMv7 and ARMv8 architecture. They also mention that they are going to work on secure boot (UEFI) and DRM schemes (EME) later on. According to SWG there has been and is a lot of interest shown from various companies, markets and countries. People have a hard time trusting a black box that is supposed to protect their most valuable assets. Therefore it is more than welcome to create an open source TEE solution right now, says SWG.
Author:
Brady Forrest of Highway1 San Francisco based hardware incubator
Highway1, PCH’s SF-based incubator, works with hardware startups to help them de-risk the hardware & manufacturing aspects of their business, providing them engineering hours and etc.
Sree Kotay, Comcast Chief Software Architect about starting the Linaro Home Group for optimizing Linux for the ARM Powered Set-top-box
Radically revamping the device development model for Carrier class operators with ARM and Linaro. Comcast? Software? Isn’t that an oxymorom? See how the open source community and modern development models are re-shaping the feature velocity and security models for embedded devices like set-top-boxes, cable modems and gateways. Competing in the modern landscape means building products and experiences that compete with a new breed of innovators. Comcast’s SVP, Engineering and Operations and Chief Software Architect will provide insight into how its reinvented its technology stack and product line.
my interview with him:
The new Linaro Home Group is about optimizing ARM Linux for Multimedia Set-top-boxes. Here’s my interview with Sree Kotay, Comcast Chief Software Architect about how Comcast is interested in working with Linaro to optimize Linux on the ARM Powered Set-top-box.
and his keynote video is here:
Geniatech OTT TV devices, M802 HDMI Stick, DVT-T, ISDB-T, Office Cast, WiTV
This video features:
1. Geniatech ATV180 shows 2Ghz AmLogic M802 based ATV180 Series HDMI Stick with 4K2K support, OTT STB / UHD Support, 600MHz Mali 450MP8 Octa Core GPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB Flash
2. Geniatech PT115 – Android TV Dongle for DVB-T, PT115 DVB-T is a high sensitivity Tiny size digital micro USB TV Stick It turns your Tablet into a portable digital multimedia center. Features Watch and record DVB-T TV on Tablet, Supports Electronic Program Guide EPG and Subtitle Supports Time-Shifting function Low power consumption, requires Android 4.1 and a phone or tablet with OTG USB host support.
3. Geniatech PT230 – Android TV Dongle for ISDB-T same as PT115 but for ISDB-T standard
4. Geniatech Office Cast / any cast New product / connect – display and beam any content from smartphone / tablet / notebook / PC to Beamer. Office use ! Protocol: Miracast, DLNA, UPnP, own APK iOS and Android. ARM CORTEX A9, frequency is 800MHz-1GHz, RAM is 1G, built in 2G-32G flash memory Linux / based !
7. WiTV – Wireless, WiTV is a small stand alone TV tuner which connects worldwide TV signals and streams of live TV wirelessly to mobile devices in iOS/Mac OS/Android OS the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android Phone and Android tablet etc.. Live TV can be watched through your home Wi-Fi network
ARM Cortex-M for Wearables and IoT
ARM Cortex-M Marketing Manager Diya Soubra talks Wearables and Internet of Things using ARM Cortex-M processor family. The ARM Cortex-M is a group of 32-bit ARM processor cores intended for microcontroller use, consists of the Cortex-M0, Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M1, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4. The ARM Cortex-M processor family is an upwards compatible range of energy-efficient, easy to use processors designed to help developers meet the needs of tomorrow’s embedded applications. Those demands include delivering more features at a lower cost, increasing connectivity, better code reuse and improved energy efficiency. The Cortex-M family is optimized for cost and power sensitive MCU and mixed-signal devices for end applications such as smart metering, human interface devices, automotive and industrial control systems, white goods, consumer products and medical instrumentation. ARM Cortex-M processors is a global microcontroller standard, having been licensed to over 40 ARM partners including leading vendors such as Freescale, NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba. Using a standard processor allows ARM partners to create devices with a consistent architecture while enabling them to focus on creating superior device implementations.
Pradeep Kathail, Cisco Chief Software Architect
The Linaro Networking Group marked its first anniversary at the Linaro Connect Asia. Here Bob Monkman, ARM Enterprise Segment Marketing Manager, interviews Pradeep Kathail, Cisco Chief Software Architect, Network Operating System Group, to reflect on the year’s accomplishments and current activity within LNG. In addition to delivering Big Endian support in the Linux kernel, LNG launched the OpenDataPlane (ODP) project to enable data plane applications to easily port across different hardware platforms and architectures while retaining the ability to exploit hardware acceleration features unique to each platform. Pradeep discusses the importance of ODP and its relationship to other open source initiatives like OpenDaylight (ODL) as part of the larger industry trends of Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
and here’s my Interview with him:
and here is his keynote video from the LinaroOnAir channel:
HiSilicon D01, 16-core ARM Cortex-A15 presented by Huawei
Here’s the 16-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor from HiSilicon Huawei on a development board for ARM Powered Networking and Servers coming up. Hacked on in this video by Linaro Toolchain Engineer Rob Savoye (2), who now is climbing the Mount Everest. Linux kernel v3.13 is running on this board, with three SATA ports and two Gigabit ethernet ports driver ready. The BSP code will soon be upgraded to kernel v3.14 and be upstreamed in parallel. Source code and binaries are released through Linaro website. Ubuntu Server is verified on this board. In this demo, it runs a GCC toolchain native build. Linaro Toolchain Working Group plans to use this board to run multiple builds per board, to maximally saturate D01’s computing and storage capability.
Kernel source: http://git.linaro.org/landing-teams/working/hisilicon/kernel.git (branch: integration-hilt-d01)
Binary release: http://www.linaro.org/downloads/ (found ‘HiSilicon D01’)
WiKi page: https://wiki.linaro.org/Boards/D01
Energy Harvesting BonsaiLight, wireless light switch, no batteries needed
Dr. Eri Takahashi is founder and CEO of EcoHarvester, green-technology startup, winner of the 2008 UC Berkeley Venture Lab Prize and 2009 NASA Innovation prize at the Rice Business Plan competition. In this episode hosted by William Lumpkins, Senior Member of IEEE, Dr. Takahashi presents her patented energy-harvesting technology that allows humans to power remote switches and controls using kinetic energy, reducing the need for batteries. Combining deep expertise in electronic design and energy-harvesting technology with an award-winning design team, BonsaiLight creates wireless light switches and controls that are battery-free and elegant in design and can operate with Bluetooth and other RF standards to eliminate the need for multiple standards in a system.
Linaro VP of Engineering Mark Orvek talks Security with Joakim Bech and Kernel with Deepak Saxena
Mark Orvek, Linaro VP of Engineering chats with Joakim Bech, Tech Lead Security Working Group; and Deepak Saxena, Tech Lead Kernel Working Group about the work that their teams are focusing on in 2014.
Ongoing activity on the Energy Aware Scheduler
Linaro and ARM engineers talk about their current activities to integrate power management into the Linux scheduler. By integrating cpuidle and cpufreq mechanisms into the scheduler, they hope to work with the community to create an energy-aware scheduler as an alternative to the current performance-oriented scheduler. This work will require improvements in other parts of the scheduler such as better description of processor topology, load estimation in the scheduler and better tools to measure the performance impact of changes to the scheduler.
Linaro engineers implementing ACPI for ARMv8
Linaro is working on implementing ACPI for general purpose servers using the ARMv8 architecture. This has been controversial as it is a competing technology to FDT which has been used now for the 32bit ARM world.
ACPI has been chosen on for the general purpose servers to allow standard distributions such as RHEL and Ubuntu server to boot on hardware which they have no special support in the same way as x86 world. ACPI is used to abstract the hardware to the level the standard distribution can boot to the point it can be useful.
There is a large overlap between FDT and ACPI but they actually do things a different way. FDT is currently holding fast the the mobile and tablets market for ARM. But with Intel implementing ACPI phones and tablets nothing is certain for the future.
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Linaro’s validation team demonstrates using LAVA for native toolchain builds and “hack” sessions on Arndale Octa and APM X-Gene ARMv8 platforms
Linaro’s automated validation architecture (LAVA) is typically used to execute automated tests to validate Linaro’s engineering output. However, LAVA has recently integrated features to automate builds and provide secure remote interactive sessions to developers. Linaro’s lab lead Dave Pigott shows a native toolchain build orchestrated by LAVA. This technology enables developers to validate the toolchain on many ARM processor designs as well as other architectures. Tyler Baker a technical architect at Linaro explains how LAVA abstracts the image deployment, boot process, and installation of software needed to support these “hack” sessions.
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You can read more at:
http://validation.linaro.org
http://community.validation.linaro.org
Samsung ISOCELL CMOS Image Sensors at 16Mp and 13Mp
Samsung’s new CMOS image sensor technology, ISOCELL, substantially increases light sensitivity and effectively controls the collection of electrons, resulting in higher color fidelity even in poor lighting conditions. By incorporating ISOCELL, the image sensor will have 30 percent decrease in crosstalk; 30 percent increase in full well capacity; and 20 percent wider chief ray angle. Using the new technology with 1.12µm ISOCELL pixels, Samsung is introducing two new CMOS image sensors —16 and 13Mpixel.
The 16Mpixel ISOCELL imager provides a wider, clearer viewing experience to mobile device users by implementing a 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing for full-size, high-resolution images and video to be displayed on screen without field-of-view (FOV) loss. This high-speed sensor captures full FOV 16:9 full HD (1080p) video at 60fps, and for the first time in the industry, enables continuous shooting of all 16Mpixels at 30fps. Samples of the 16Mpixel ISOCELL CIS are available now and scheduled for mass production in the first quarter of 2014.
Samsung’s new 13Mpixel ISOCELL CIS features Smart Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) technology, which allows users to capture images at 30fps. With a mosaic pattern of multiple exposures, images are then processed with an advanced algorithm for wider dynamic range. This enables users to capture details clearly in both bright and dark areas even in high contrast lighting conditions. This Smart WDR feature is based on Samsung’s advanced 65nm stacked process, where the pixel array is attached right on top of the logic circuit. Samsung’s 13Mpixel product is sampling now and is scheduled for mass production in the second quarter of 2014.
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Samsung Exynos 5410 in Android Set-top-box
Samsung shows the Exynos 5 used for advanced Android Set-top-box systems, showing multi-window, content sharing, camera integration, supporting everything in the house through this Samsung Octa Core set-top-box and Android. Gaming, advanced VOD and more. 4K video playback also supported and more.
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Samsung S5N2120 Low Power Wi-Fi MCU for the IoT market
Samsung offers its first wireless connectivity solution, S5N2120, for the growing Internet of Things (IoT) market. This solution supports IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, and has an extremely small footprint, which is essential for a wide array of applications.
This solution features an integrated micro control unit (MCU) with a power amplifier, power management, audio codec and direct microphone functions. With this MCU, OEM customers can easily reconfigure their existing designs to add Wi-Fi connectivity functions. This allows for a shorter development lead-time and less engineering resources are required.
This flexibility along with excellent performance and a small footprint is optimal for battery-constrained applications such as Wi-Fi speakers, headsets, remote controls, digital & sports cameras, smart heating/cooling meters, sensors and other types of IoT or M2M applications. Samsung’s new Wi-Fi connectivity solution, S5N2120, is currently sampling and scheduled for mass production in the second quarter of 2014.
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Samsung Widcon, 17GB/s+ Memory Bandwidth for future ARM Processors
Using Widcon, the latest and future Samsung ARM Processors and memory are stacked directly through TSV (Through Silicon Via) technology, this is the next step after Package-on-Package (PoP) designs where there is a circuit board between the processor and memory, thus data had to move through wires. In the new Widcon Processor and Memory package from Samsung, this means data can move through each ball and memory bandwidth becomes wider up to and beyond 17GB/s. This structure also brings better energy efficiency. Higher bandwidth allows application processor to perform maximum performance even at low clock speed. Moreover, superior thermal dissipation comes from TSV structure also enables the new Exynos 5 Octa processor and likely future Exynos6 to maximize the full potential performance of the processor at a lower power consumption. You can also see my previous video with Samsung talking about Widcon Wide IO memory technology here: http://138.2.152.197/2013/11/21/samsung-wide-io-memory-interface-for-the-faster-and-lower-power-arm-processors-of-the-future/
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Linaro Enterprise Group LEG accelerating Linux development on ARM Servers
The Linaro Enterprise Group (LEG) is dedicated to accelerate Linux ARM server ecosystem development and extends the list of Linaro members beyond ARM silicon vendors to Server OEM’s and commercial Linux providers.
Linaro Enterprise Group (ARM Servers) engineers Ed Nevill, Leif Lindholm, Andrea Gallo, Al Stone, Hanjun Guo share key achievements in the OpenJDK, HipHopVM, UEFI and ACPI areas, building on new hardware, defining plans towards upstream acceptance, solving bugs and more.
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299€ Huawei MediaPad M1 8″ Tablet with 4G LTE
This is Huawei’s budget 8″ 1280×800 IPS tablet with the HiSilicon Kirin 910 1.6GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Mali-450 GPU, 5-megapixel camera, 1-megapixel front-facing camera, 4800mAh battery, dual front-facing speakers, 7.9mm thinness and a weight of 329gr.
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Barcelona Carnival Greasy Thursday
Greasy Thursday is dedicated to the Greasy and Vice and celebrated with many festivals, here featuring the giant couple dancing through the streets of Barcelona.
Nokia Here Maps, an overview
Nokia makes Here Maps, to compete with Google Maps, Baidu Maps and Bing Maps. Now Nokia has ported Here Maps for Android, exclusively for now on the Nokia X Android phone. This video features an 18 minute overview of Nokia Here maps, including the UI, technology overview, automotive and more.
