Developed by an Industry Expert the open source reference design has everything you need to develop a building automation controller. This design features the OSD335x C-SiP which integrates an entire Embedded Linux system into a single IC, Relays, Analog Sensor inputs, RS-485, CAN and many other features required in industrial and building automation environments.
We are excited to share the news of our first demo of the STM32MP1 System in Package, the OSD32MP15x.
Some applications of IoT are still being debated. Does your refrigerator really need an operating system and be connected to the internet? Should it try to detect when you’re out of milk and automatically order more? What if there’s an error and 50 gallons shows up on your doorstep? Just like many others, I do not know the answers to all these questions. One thing I know for sure is that IoT does belong in air conditioning and the control systems of medium-to-large buildings. The OSD335x family of System-in-Package products featuring the AM335x, provides an excellent foundation for the design of an Open-Hardware Building Automation System Controller. This article introduces a series of technical application notes for building a reference design with the OSD335x-SM.
It is always worth our while to review the state of the art of integrated circuit technology. As one who has been in the middle of it for over 40 years, it is interesting to see how we have advanced the technology by driving the learning curve, exploiting the physics of silicon and creating new ways to design billions of transistors into functioning, reliable, affordable products. The products that have revolutionized the world we live in.
I believe we are only at the beginning of a transition from integration at the component level to integration at the system level. The new heterogeneous integration method known at System-in-Package (SiP) will be the technology of choice.
That is why Octavo’s products and strategy are based on this proven technology platform known as SiP. Although the technologies associated with SiP integration have been around for over a decade and are well established in the semiconductor industry, they have not been exploited for system integration. Our goal is to develop these existing technologies, along with new concepts, to deliver to you unprecedented integration and design flexibility.
SiP technology will help increase the performance of products while increasing their reliability.
At Octavo Systems, we are always looking for ways to help designers be more productive, be it with application notes, tutorials, reference designs, or design collateral. The goal of our System-in-Package technology is to create modular building blocks that abstract away tedious, repetitive, and complex tasks that designers are forced to spend time on, but don’t really add value to the end system so that they can create better, more innovate products.
Today we took another step in making designing with Octavo Systems devices easier by adding an Altium symbol library for the OSD335x-SM for you to download from our website. Scroll down to the link to download.
Due to its openness, flexibility, and tremendous community support and development, Linux has become the operating system of choice for most new embedded systems. Be it Industrial control systems, robotics applications, or IoT devices, Linux distributions pull together drivers, utilities, libraries, and application software that reduce time to market and development costs. However, the challenge with Linux is:
How does one get started using Linux on a new Embedded System?
With the exciting upsets, shoot-outs and close matches of the FIFA World Cup games this year, predicting who will win each game has been challenging. Therefore, we turned to technology and built an electronic Magic 8-Ball to help make decisions for our bracket.
Fortunately, developers can now rapidly prototype with the OSD3358 System-in-Package (SiP) using the BeagleBoard.org® PocketBeagle® and MikroElektronika click boards™. BeagleBoard.org® is a 501c3 Foundation focused on education. PocketBeagle® is a completely open source, highly affordable super tiny single board computer featuring the OSD335x-SM SiP. One of the most exciting things about the BeagleBoard.org® PocketBeagle® is that is conforms to the standard of the MikroElektronika mikroBUS™ click boards™. This is an open standard interface for which over 400 compatible add-on boards have been created. These compact boards provide a range of added functionality and features from sensors to connectivity and storage. The OSD3358 SiP has the performance capability to process multiple sensor inputs, process information quickly and perform actions such as driving displays, motor control, or communication.
You’re busy. We get it. You ask: Do I really have time to learn about Linux? You don’t have time NOT to. 8 reasons why MCU users love switching to Linux on OSD335x :
The software libraries and device drivers for Linux are supported by a huge open-source community that stretches around the globe with thousands of passionate programmers and developers. This means that device drivers and software libraries, like OpenCV, an image processing library, or the TCP/IP stack, a complete set of networking protocols, are already available for most hardware components in your design. Even with new hardware that has just hit the market, there is a good chance that someone has already started developing or has developed the software you need. It is like having your own world-wide team of software developers.
I have been attending the IEEE’s premier Signal Processing conference, the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) for over 30 years. While at Texas Instruments, ICASSP was the perfect venue for me to meet with the signal processing research community, our customers (both present and future), the editors/analysts who were following the Digital Signal Processing explosion, and our competitors. It became my platform to influence the industry while at the same time sensing the direction in which it was moving. (Read More…)
The application engineering team at Octavo Systems is always looking for cool ways to showcase the distinct and creative ways our devices can be used. Recently, we built a tweeting Rubik’s cube solver to showcase some of the IoT and industrial control capabilities of the OSD335x Family of System-in-Package(SiP) devices. It was amazing how easy it was to give the robot a voice and allow it to talk to the world via social media. So, we decided to explore more IoT capabilities the OSD335x Family of devices can implement without a lot of development overhead. This time, we wanted to incorporate human interaction into the device. What better opportunity than to explore America’s favorite IoT phenomenon, Alexa. So, we whipped out a BeagleBoard.org® PocketBeagle® and got to work. Though our vision for this IoT project is bigger than just implementing Amazon’s Alexa voice service on the PocketBeagle, this is a good place to take a break and showcase a simple step by step way to get your PocketBeagle to be a “man’s best friend” personal assistant. Check out the Hackster.io page for the steps. (Read More…)