firmware

Is low-level / embedded systems programming hard for software developers?

Given my background as a generalist, I can cover much of the area from analog electronics to writing simple applications that interface to a RDBMS backend. I currently work in a company that develops hardware to solve industry-specific problems. We have an experienced programmer that have written business apps, video games, and a whole...

Custom Phone Firmware

Hi, I am looking to develop a custom phone (consumer item) which people can purchase in the market. I am wondering whats the best way to go about it? Basically am looking for a cheap phone on which I can customize the firmware as per my requirements. Something like Android but the price should be cheaper like 100$. I dont mind using a c...

Good sites/blogs for FPGA development projects

I'm looking for interesting online resources on FPGA development - sites, blogs, that sort of thing. What I'm after is examples of fun (and hopefully not too expensive) projects that one can try out and learn from. ...

Testing firmware

This follows a couple of other questions (but I think I have refined my question better). I want to test out my firmware code before I put on the device. I realize that a lot of people write their code, upload, test, etc. But I really want to write and test before upload (mainly because I want to automate the many scenarios). So, w...

Writing firmware: assembly or high level?

Related to: Testing firmware starting a microcontroller simulator/emulator Interpreting assembly code If you are writing code for a microcontroller is there a real difference if you write in assembly or C or some other high level language? If you wrote C code, how would you compile it? Thanks ...

Arduino C++ code: can you use virtual functions and exceptions?

Following up on this comment from the question Writing firmware: assembly or high level?: When compiling C++ code for the Arduino platform, can you use virtual functions, exceptions,etc. Or would you want to (have to) use a subset of C++ (as described in the comment) Any other caveats when programming for the Arduino platform? ...

Yellow Dog Linux 6.1 and PS3 GameOS Versions?

I'm working on installing linux on a PS3 to do some development work and I've run across a bit of a snag. The current version of the firmware on my PS3 is 2.50. The Yellow Dog website specifically mentions that there are problems with this release. The official Yellow Dog install guide (PDF!) also mentions that I should update my PS3 to ...

Readings, tools and libraries for low-level, network related, softwares in C

I'm going to graduate soon in electronics and tlc engineering and I have some decent OO programming experience with PHP and Java. Now I would like to try starting a career as a C programmer. I'm interested in C since this is, I think, the most suited language, without considering Assembly, to develop device drivers, firmwares and other l...

using macros for configuration

I'm writing firmware in C for an embedded processor. I want to have all the configuration information in one header file called config.h. This is causing problems with the ADC initialization, where simple #defines won't do the trick. Right now the code is like so: config.h #define NUMBER_OF_POTS 1 #define POT_1_CHANNEL 27 adc.c #d...

<s>open</s> firmware console on mac osX (intel)

according to ADC: You can access Open Firmware this by holding down Command-Option-O-F at boot time. however, in reality this does not work on current hardware. Does anybody know if there is a way (through trigger-key's, etc) to get to an open firmware (EFI) console on contemporary architecture macs? thanks in advance! |K< EDIT:...

iPhone check firmware version

HI all I want to make one app for iPhone 2.2.* and for version 3.0. Some method in 2.2* is deprecated in 3.0. ( like UITableViewCell setText and setLabel ) Is there any way to check which firmware version is used on iPhone and to set different method to use ...

chinese mobile software development?

Hi, As per my assumption () there are hundreds of millions of Chinese mobile phones (or clones of brand phones) out there. And it seems firmware and OS of those mobile phones are same. Those phones only differ in their design and may be hardware. I was wondering if there is any development kit or software development support for those m...

Need git repo layout suggestion for a new project

I'm working on a new project that I plan to keep in a git repository. I know how I would do this in CVS, but I'm a bit new to git and could use some suggestions. The project is firmware for two embedded devices that talk to each other and are packaged as a pair. For both devices there is a production variant and a manufacturing variant ...

How does Linux Kernel know where to look for driver firmware?

I'm compiling a custom kernel under Ubuntu and I'm running into the problem that my kernel doesn't seem to know where to look for firmware. Under Ubuntu 8.04, firmware is tied to kernel version the same way driver modules are. For example, kernel 2.6.24-24-generic stores it's kernel modules in: /lib/modules/2.6.24-24-generic and it'...

Altering file inside firmware requires new checksum

I have a firmware-file for a picture frame that I want to alter. The purpose of this altering is to make the device display a custom image during boot. I've managed to switch the existing JPEG-file with my own custom file, but it is not possible to flash the device with this new firmware-file. The device complains about an invalid check...

A good serial communications protocol/stack for embedded devices?

After writing several different custom serial protocols for various projects, I've started to become frustrated with re-inventing the wheel every time. In lieu of continuing to develop custom solutions for every project, I've been searching for a more general solution. I was wondering if anyone knows of a serial protocol (or better ye...

Experiences with (free) embedded TCP / IP stacks?

Does anyone have especially good (or bad) experiences with any of the following embedded TCP / IP stacks? uIP lwIP Bentham's TCP/IP Lean implementation The TCP/IP stack from this book My needs are for a solid, easy-to-port stack. Code size isn't terribly important, performance is relatively important, but ease of use & porting is ve...

What can firmware engineers learn from software engineers?

Judging from my knowledge of the history of firmware engineering tools, practices etc. It has consistently lagged behind the software engineering field by several years. For example, as far as I can tell there is still a fair amount of debate in the firmware world as to whether C++ is actually worth using for our applications, and some...

synchronization between two tasks

This is actually a design question for firmware in an embedded system I have two ISRs (of same priority) executed independently . These ISRs are triggered when the h/w generates data. I want a mechanism which must be put in place to synchronise between task1 and task2. task 2 must know about the certain values calculated in task1 which ...

Where does the term firmware come from?

I've heard that the term firmware comes from it being between hardware and software. I have also heard that it refers to software that comes from the firm (company) that builds the hardware. When was the term first used and what is the origin of the term? ...