Adobe Flash served by embedded processor w/o O.S.

Jun 08, 2009 2 Replies

Currently, I use AJAX to provide a near-realtime display of data for a device (basically data acquisition and some control). The box contains a 16-bit processor, TCP/IP stack, but no OS (I use timer interrupts the same way car companies use them in engine controllers). The user interface is a table of values read/set, some alarms when something is out of spec., and a few configuration forms. No animation at this point. I was asked if Flash player could be used for the GUI since it maintains a constant connection and doesn't have to be polled like AJAX.



After looking at Adobe's web site, it appears that the server (the embedded device in this case) needs to have a desktop/server OS. However, I saw one article about using Flash with a kit from NetBurner and their RTOS. So I was wondering if this really is possible, how to do it, perhaps some example projects, and the Reader's Digest version of how Flash works (nothing quickly found on Adobe's web site)? Now that I think about it, perhaps the first quest I should ask is if the effort is worthwhile?



Thanks, Dave


I believe you can open persistent connections in Flash. This is the same general idea as running the UI for your product as Java - since the UI runs on the browser, not the embedded device, it doesn't care whether you have no OS or a full desktop OS on the backend.

Not really true that it "doesn't have to be polled like AJAX" though - you'll still have to supervise the connection to make sure it's alive.

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