INE5346 - Software/Hardware Integration - 2003/1

Program

Schedule

Mailing list

Students

Practical Work

Warner Bros' Red Planet movie depicts interesting scenarios for academic discussion, our particular interest being software/hardware integration. After having overpopulated Earth and depleted its resources, mankind (sure, we'll all be Americans by 2050) sets out to colonize Mars. A series of "Hollywoodian disasters" brings the mission crew into a couple of challenging software/hardware integration duties:

1. After a disastrous landing on the red planet, the crew tries desperately to send a message to the spaceship in orbit so mission control gets to know they are still alive.
   
   Problem: their high-tech personal assistants got damaged during landing and are no longer able to send.
   
   Solution: go for Pathfinder (by that time a 50-year old scrap metal), take its radio out and wire it to the PDA (electronic incompatibility isn't a point here: hardware doesn't change much in 50 years). Afterwards, you just have to reconfigure/reprogram the PDA to work with such an exotic radio. Of course you do have a screwdriver!


2. The spaceship is about to head back for Earth and the crew on Mars would like to get a lift. That is, they must go back to solve the life-on-Mars puzzle and save mankind. Unfortunately, their return vehicle has been eaten by hungry bugs and they'll have to fly an old Russian rocket that failed to take over many years before.
   
   Problem: the rocket's navigation system is broken.
   
   Solution: plug the refurbished PDA to the rocket control system and have a new flying control program downloaded. You need more than a screwdriver this time, since a crazy killer-robot disagrees on the cold-war-over issue and doesn't want to see American astronauts flying such an ugly Russian rocket.

Much to your surprise, the crew succeeds in saving mankind, doing their hardware/software integration duties in a couple of ours without even disposing of a gdb. I can only conclude their grandparents attended a very good software/hardware integration seminar while they were studying computer science.

And what about you? Would you be able to save mankind?

Well, in order to help you answering this question, this edition of software/hardware integration seminar will feature a realistic simulation of the previously described scenario.

What is what?

• Mission Control
  The seminar's lab will be the mission control. You can tackle on anything you find here, including the Internet. An Xbox video-game will play the role of communication gateway to the spaceship. Unfortunately, the device was damaged by an electromagnetic storm and is currently only able to play games. You'll have to repair it in order that it will be able to run LINUX. You're allowed to install a fully-fledged LINUX on the communication gateway, excluding only the BlueTooth driver. This driver is up to you. Downloading an existing BlueTooth driver for LINUX will only keep you away from the killer robot if you are able to explain ALL of its MINOR details.
• Spaceship
  An old notebook will play the role of spaceship. Similarly to the mission control, you're allowed to install a fully-fledged LINUX on the spaceship, excluding only the Bluetooth and WaveLAN drivers. Both drivers are up to you. BlueTooth will be used for the communication between the spaceship and the mission control, while WaveLAN will be used for the communication between the spaceship and the crew on Mars. Once more, downloading existing BlueTooth and WaveLAN drivers for LINUX will only keep you away from the killer robot if you are able to explain ALL of its MINOR details.
• PDA
  It's hard to imagine what a 2050's PDA will look like, but for now an iPAQ running LINUX should do. Just like the spaceship, the PDA wasn't prepared to handle Pathfinder's old radio, that is, WaveLAN. Moreover, your Linux installation won't cover Infrared, which is your communication means to the Russian rocket. Both drivers are up to you. Keep an eye on the killer robot!
• Pathfinder's Radio
  The radio that was taken out of the Pathfinder will be performed by an ordinary WaveLAN PCMCIA card.
• Russian Rocket
  Considering our department budget restrictions, building a real rocket for the software/hardware integration seminar could be a bit exaggerated. Therefore we will take on an off-the-shelf LEGO Mindstorms kit to build a rocket that runs instead of flying. Since the mission didn't plan to go back home on a broken Russian rocket, you won't have any software on the RCX but a boot loader. Your best choice here would be PURE but EPOS should also do the work with the advantage of local help.
• Killer Robot
  That's me!

Useful Tools

• Xbox
  
  • XODUX Flash Programmer
  • Xbox GPL BIOS
• iPAQ
  
  • IA32->SA1110 cross compiler
• RCX
  
  • IA32->H8 cross compiler

Useful Docs

• Xbox
  
  • Overview
  • LINUX project
  • XODUX Matrix mod-chip
• iPAQ
  
  • Overview
  • SA-1110
  • LINUX project
• RCX
  
  • Overview
  • H8/300
  • CHAOS project
• Infrared
  
  • Overview
  • LINUX project
• Bluetooth
  
  • Overview
  • LINUX project
• WaveLAN
  
  • Overview
  • Datasheet
  • LINUX project

Students' Work

1. A device driver for BlueTooth networks, by Brian Schmitz Tani, Guilherme T Tessmer and Herbert Mattei de Borba.
2. A device driver for IEEE802.11b wireless networks (I), by Lucas Francisco Wanner, Martin Prusse and Rafael Simon Maia.
3. A device driver for IEEE802.11b wireless networks (II), by Claudio Ulisses Nunes Biava, Felipe de Luca Medeiros and Leandro Ricardo Orthmann.
4. A device driver for infrared networks, by Fabio Luis Stange, Islon de Souza Scherer and Thiago Ramos Dos Santos.
5. A set of EPOS abstractions to build an executive for the Lego RCX, by Diogo Fernando Veiga, Pedro de Stege Cecconello and Ulisses Muniz de Queiroz.
6. An infrared network abstraction for EPOS on the Lego RCX, by Crineu Tres, Igor Tibes Ghisi and Roberto Hartke Neto.
7. A set of EPOS abstractions to handle the RCX control program, by Eduardo Ruhland, Mauricio Schoenfelder and Thiago Cornelius de Leon.