BeagleCast 2011-05-06: Talking ARM with Greg K-H

Today we interview Greg Kroah-Hartman and your hosts are Jason Kridner and Jeffery Osier-Mixon. Gerald will be back in two weeks.

To provide questions or suggestions:

• Call +1-713-234-0535 or
• visit the BeagleCast suggestions form

Links to the recordings

• BeagleCast-20110325.mp3
• BeagleCast-20110325.ogg

Links to show topics

• Some in stock @ Digi-Key this week!   
• A 300ms BeagleBoard boot?   
• Using git submodule and busybox to track mainline development
• Announcing the Level One eXpansion (LOX) Board   
• BeagleBoard at Embedded Linux Conference (CATCAN, Gumstix Stagecoach, SuperJumbo, Avnet, and WLAN hacking)   
• Always Innovating talk at the 2011 Embedded Linux Conference    
• Sandia cluster of 49 OMAP3s   
• TI introduces OpenLink   
• Processing and Processing-JS on the BeagleBoard under Angstrom   
• BeagleBoard based oscilloscope using JavaScript and Processing.JS    
• Arduino IDE and upload with avrdude to Trainerboard (AVRISP2)   
• Processing on Beagleboard xM   
• Making Processing/Arduino IDE/ReplicaorG work on ARM    
• Android Oscilloscope on the Beagleboard xM using Rowboat   

Upcoming events

• Maker Faire Bay Area, May 21-22, 2011
• ESC Chicago, June 6-8, 2011
• Stompbox Design Summer Workshop at Stanford University, July 18-July 22, 2011    

The Greg K-H interview is roughly the last 15 minutes.

Beagle Board at ESC Boston

The Beagle Board is back at ESC Boston! There will be a user's group meeting following the training sessions. There is a two-hour hands-on introduction and 3 hands-on classes featuring Android, DSP-accelerated audio/video, and use of the 3D graphics accelerator. Classes are free for ESC attendees with a $99 setup fee to get access to a lab station if you bring your own Beagle Board and $299 to get a new Beagle Board with the class.

For more information, visit http://beagleboard.org/esc.

On-line Community Lightning Talks and Hands-on Training

To complement its $99 world-wide Tech Days 2009 program, TI is putting on a new free, on-line event called eTech Days (http://www.ti.com/etechdays). It is a full day of interactivity and problem-solving on Thursday, August 27 2009.

As just one part of this event, open source community developers are invited to present on their on-going activities and drive discussion on the #beagle IRC channel on Freenode. For more information or to register a talking slot, visit the wiki information page at: http://wiki.omap.com/index.php/ETechDays_Community_Lightning_Talks.

Also, if you haven't already heard, the Beagle Board is back at ESC Boston! Sign up for hands-on training today at: http://esc-boston.techinsightsevents.com/ti_beagleboard.

Rev C available for Silicon Valley BeagleBoard User's Group meeting

Rev C2 is available now! Same part number at Digi-Key and the same price!

• Twice the RAM (256MB, instead of 128MB)
• High-speed-only dedicated-host USB port with standard A-type connector
• LCD expansion header

All of the Rev B units sold out, so all new orders will be filled with Rev C units which are already in stock. The timing worked out perfectly with the last Rev B units being sold the day after the Rev C units arrived.

All of this is just-in-time for our Silicon Valley BeagleBoard Users' Group meeting being held immediately following the Embedded Systems Conference. We'll be enjoying a few beers and discussing the BeagleBoard.org sponsored project program. The meeting will be held in room B1 in the convention center right after the show closes at 4 PM, Thursday, April 2nd. Join us in the ESC Theater an hour earlier for a chance to win a BeagleBoard and a Tektronix scope. Hope to see you there!

Crossing 1,000 mailing list subscribers

Last week was a very busy one for Beagle Boarders.

We had hundreds of people sign up for the 4 days of Beagle Board training at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston. Class attendance for several sessions were at capacity and many of the classes were hands-on, including hands-on classes on 3D user interface creation and . Those attendees are now able to refer to the course materials for the hands-on classes on-line and all the people who signed up walked away from the event with Beagle Boards in hand. Many thanks to MontaVista, RidgeRun, Bill Gatliff, Special Computing, HY Research, Angstrom Distribution developers, and all of the others involved. It was an amazing event.


We also had great demos on the show floor, including BSquare's wireless demo running on the OMAP35x EVM, CalSoft's Flash demo running on the Beagle Board, and the Gumstix Overo running Angstrom. I also got my first chance to play with a DLP Pico Projector, which drew a nice crowd at the booth.

Additionally, those of you who have been waiting on documentation for the power management device, the technical reference manual (TRM) for the TPS65950 is now available on-line. This is a drop-in functionally equivalent replacement for the TWL4030 with some analog performance improvements, including to the on-chip USB PHY.

Almost forgot to mention that I got an article published regarding use of open source software in consumer electronics. Beyond using open source software in consumer electronics, I really believe there is a future for products like the Neuros OSD as people want more control and ownership over what their products can do.

Lastly, at the time of this writing, we are now only 10 people away from having 1,000 mailing list subscribers. Interest is overwhelming and continuing to grow. Thanks for making the Beagle Board such a success so far and helping to set the course of where it goes from here!