Any volunteer projects for embedded software?

There are microcontroller design contests run by Circuit Cellar magazine

With a good design, you could win cash and recognition (and maybe a job).

Another place you might try is a local hospital where you might be able to design somethingto allow people with disabilities to do things easier.

Take a look at XMK

XMK is an RTOS specifically designed for microcontrollers. We need help in porting XMK to new platforms as well as work on general OS interfaces and primitives.

-john

Great idea. They even supply the development system for free!

-- Joe Legris

The Circuit Cellar idea is an excellant one.

I'm currently working on the HCS_C controller which we are about to port ECOS over to. I'm not sure how you can go about getting the hardware (Robert has made the designs available) but this baby is not cheap.

--
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry        ncherry@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               (Text only)
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http://hcs.sourceforge.net/                     (HCS II)

recognition

Only on a first-come-first-serve basis, they have limited quantities and I suspect they run out fast. But the Circuit Cellar contests do look like a Good Thing.

-----

Expanding on this, do some digging at both

and Yes the bulk of the projects are desktop PC oriented, but (as XMK illustrates), there are some really interesting projects targeted at a lower level. Also check out Etherboot is an open source network boot ROM (you can load from many other sources for testing, or if ROMing just won't work. It's not specific to microcontrollers, but then again, neither is LinuxBIOS.

Embedded and microcontroller is kind of two different areas of interest.

Embedded uses at least a medium-performance processor (nowadays 32 bits CPU with at least 40MHz clock), with 1MB flash or more (without Linux) or 32MB or more (with embedded Linux), good potential for protocol support, intricate logic functions, and generally application software flexibility and sophistication.

Microcontroller is targetted at minimal hardware implementation, low-cost, relatively simple software with no or very primitive kernel facilities.

In embedded, you might refine your skills in kernels, drivers, and O/S (e.g. ABCD Proto-Kernel, eCos, RTEMS, or embedded Linux). The keyword is mastering the tools and interfaces.

Alternatively, you may also look for embedded application development skills, where the keyword is utting the tools and interfaces to a useful purpose.

If you want to develop your embedded skills in the application development area, you might consider the ABCD Proto-Kernel(tm) and the PPCMB/850 hardware. You start with a complete development kit and you leverage your skills on an open source project ABCD Proto-Kernel(tm).

Good luck with your skill expansion effort.

--

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So any device with a 8051, PIC or AVR controller is not an embedded system?

Quoting from your own website:

-------------------------------------- Embedded system: Hardware and software which forms a component of some larger system and which is expected to function without human intervention. A typical embedded system consists of a single-board microcomputer with software in ROM, which starts running some special purpose application program as soon as it is turned on and will not stop until it is turned off (if ever). An embedded system may include some kind of operating system but often it will be simple enough to be written as a single program. It will not usually have any of the normal peripherals such as a keyboard, monitor, serial connections, mass storage, etc. or any kind of user interface software unless these are required by the overall system of which it is a part. Often it must provide real-time response.

- the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

--------------------------------------- So, where is this 32 bit/40Mhz/1MB flash constraint?

Meindert

Says you.

I guess I've been wrong all those years when I thought I was doing embedded work, since (until recently) we only put lowly 8 and 16-bit micros in the telecom equipment we build and sell.

Yeah, and most of those are embedded applications.

An OS does not an embedded application make.

Casey

In article , Thierry Moreau writes

Total bollox.

The vast majority of embedded is 8 bit systems. then 4 bit then 16 bit and finaly 32 bit

Again this is wrong. Whilst the majority of embedded systems do not have an OS many do.

Where are you getting your figures from?

Only if you want to be in the minority market..

So you are trying to sell tools not offer impartial advice?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ \/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/\ /\/\/ snipped-for-privacy@phaedsys.org

\/\/ \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

My new goal is to write some "sophisticated" software.

And if not, what the heck would he call it?

Casey

Thanks to all that replied!

I've been doing a bit of searching around for RTOS stuff and have turned up a few things. I've only got limited previous knowledge of RTOS type things (mostly just one course in Uni.), but it seems like pretty interesting stuff. Maybe this is an area that I'll dig into and see what I can learn.

Thanks again for the advice!

------------- Tony Hill hilla 20 yahoo ca

Bullshit!

Only to an elitist working in this area.

Like a real time image recognition and classification system, with added non-intrusive biomass analysis, and positional servo motor control or an autonomous UAV, both done on Ti MSP430?

More elitist crap.

Or a good old PIC. More of those used in embedded apps than any 16 or 32 bit part.

Al