Difference between revisions of "BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2016"

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[[Category: OMAP]]
 
[[Category: OMAP]]
 
[[Category: BeagleBoard]]
 
[[Category: BeagleBoard]]
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[[Category: GSoC]]
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__TOC__
  
 
=Welcome!=
 
=Welcome!=
BeagleBoard.org hopes to be accepted as a mentoring organization in the [[BeagleBoard/GSoC|Google Summer of Code]] for 2011!! Here we collect project Ideas for the 2011 GSoC.
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BeagleBoard.org hopes to be accepted as a mentoring organization in the [[BeagleBoard/GSoC|Google Summer of Code]] for 2015! Below, we've collected project ideas for the GSoC-2015.
 +
 
 +
==Background==
 +
BeagleBoard.org is a volunteer organization that seeks to advance the state of open-source software on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware open-source hardware] platforms capable of running high-level languages and operating systems (primarily Linux) in embedded environments. Born from taking mobile phone processors and putting them on low-cost boards to build affordable desktop computers, BeagleBoard.org has evolved to focus on the needs of the "maker" community with greater focus on the I/O needed for controlling motors and reading sensors to build things like robots, 3d printers, flying drones, in-car computer systems and much more. Past BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects included [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_BotSpeak_PRU_Firmware|creating an interpreter for tiny CPUs]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_PyBBIO|adding SPI and sensor support to Python]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_Bone101|an HTML and git based tutorial sharing environment]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_BeaglePilot|porting autopilot software to Linux]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_BeagleLogic|an open source 100MHz 14-channel logic analyzer]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_Android_Remote_Display|using Android tablets as Linux displays]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Linux_ADC_IIO_Support|putting ADC support in Linux under the IIO framework]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Android-based_Boot|using Android phones as a network boot source]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Userspace_Arduino|Running Arduino code on Linux]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Robot_Operating_System|Robot Operating System support within the Yocto Project build system]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Minix_I2C|Minix I2C support]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/C6Run|an RPC framework for heterogeneous processor communication]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/USBSniffer|a transparent USB packet sniffer]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/XBMC|ARM optimizations for XBMC]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/FFTW|ARM optimizations for FFTs]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/Pulse_Width_Modulation|make-shift pulse-width-modulation]] and [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/OpenCV|RPC optimizations for OpenCV]]. BeagleBoard.org has benefited from sponsorship from Texas Instruments, [[CircuitCo]], Digi-Key, element14 and others, but avoids any dependence on that sponsorship for sustaining the effort. The project has evolved over the past few years with over 500,000 boards in circulation with developers worldwide and strong roots in the Linaro, Yocto Project, Angstrom Distribution, Debian and Linux communities---and support for running most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Buildroot and many more.
 +
 
 +
BeagleBoard was inspiration for Raspberry Pi[http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/features/raspberry-pi-interview-eban-upton-reveals-all] and is available for about $50 through over 30 distributors world-wide (and is even available at Microcenter and Radio Shack in the USA), but is more than a throw-away computer. It is an instance of true open hardware, exposing users to the broader world of electronics, demystifying computers and fostering an environment of clones that have changed the industry for good.
 +
 
 +
Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of cross-compiling before being accepted, but support for demonstration is available through the IRC channel that typically has approximately 150 online chatters logged on at any time, most with sufficient experience to explain the process.
 +
 
 +
'''''<span style="color:red">Every accepted student will be sent a BeagleBone Black before the first week of coding for testing their project.</span>'''''
 +
 
 +
Additional hardware will be provided depending on need and value.
  
'''Background'''<br>
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For more information, check out http://beagleboard.org and http://beagleboard.org/brief.
For a quick view of how the BeagleBoard relates to the open source development community, take a listen to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9xVbntl-DY Mans and Koen's interview with the Linux Outlaws]. The BeagleBoard is a popular [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware open-source hardware] project utilizing the first broadly available ARM Cortex-A8 processor. Over 10,000 people are experimenting with the BeagleBoard today to bring their ideas for the future of everywhere-computing to life and you can be one of them.
 
  
Because the BeagleBoard:
+
==Students looking for ideas==
* utilizes a complex SoC with 3 primary processing cores,
+
Student proposals can encompass projects inspired from the following list of ideas or can include personal project ideas. Previous Google Summer of Code projects show that the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it is not on this list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects via [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle-gsoc the BeagleBoard GSoC IRC] or [http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard-gsoc the BeagleBoard-GSoC mailing list]. There are many potential project ideas and we will match students to projects based on their interests and help scope the proposals to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code timeframe.
** one for general-purpose activities such as running Linux and applications (ARM Cortex-A8),
 
** one for running real-time signal processing algorithms (C64x+ VLIW fixed-point DSP), and
 
** one for rendering 3D graphics (Imagination SGX), and
 
* is specifically designed for low-power (typically running under 2W at full processing load), and
 
* has a very small foot-print that includes standard peripheral expansion like USB,
 
there are many opportunities to explore challenges in computer science in areas of
 
* optimal execution of applications/algorithms on additional instruction set architectures like ARM or C6000,
 
* splitting tasks appropriately between processing cores to minimize task execution time and power consumption, and
 
* integrating computation into new form-factors.
 
  
'''Students and mentors'''<br>
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There are more than 500 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in any of the projects listed on the BeagleBoard.org projects page, contact the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects that can be enhanced to create a GSoC project. There are also several ideas on the [[ECE497_Project_Ideas|ECE497 class project idea list]]. You can also check out [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2014|last year's idea page]].
Student proposals can create projects from the following ideas or propose their own project based on their own ideas. From reading about previous Google Summer of Code projects, the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it not on the list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects on [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle the BeagleBoard IRC] or [http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard the BeagleBoard mailing list]. There are many more ideas of what can be done and we will match projects to students interest and help scope the proposal to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code time-frame.
 
  
There are more than 200 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in one of those projects, talk with the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects with which they can help you contribute. There are also several ideas on the [[ECE597_Project_Ideas|ECE597 class project idea list]].
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==Mentors wondering where to help==
 +
Please start by registering your ideas for student projects below by following the template provided with the existing ideas. Furthermore, scroll down to the bottom and give everyone a bit of information about your expertise and availability by adding yourself to the table. Jason will make final approvals for mentor assignments based on if we first get accepted as a mentoring organization and best matching mentor skill sets with student project ideas deemed valuable to the community.
  
__TOC__
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You will also need to register on [https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2015 Melange] and request to be a mentor for BeagleBoard.org.
  
=General requirements=
+
==General requirements==
 
All projects have the following basic requirements:
 
All projects have the following basic requirements:
* The project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
+
# Once accepted, the project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
* All newly generated materials must be released under an [http://www.opensource.org/licenses open source license].
+
# All newly generated materials must be released under an [http://www.opensource.org/licenses open source license].
* Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
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# Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
* Source code generated during the project must be released on gitorious.org, github.com, repo.or.cz, sourceforge, code.google.com, gforge.ti.com, or omapzoom.org.
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# Source code generated during the project must be released on github.com (to be cloned to github.com/beagleboard on successful completion).
* The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone.  Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog hosting service with known reliability.
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# The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone.  Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog-hosting service with known reliability.
* To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
+
# To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also to help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
** what was accomplished that week,  
+
## what was accomplished that week,  
** any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed, and
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## any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed and
** your goals for the next week.
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## your goals for the next week.
 +
# Students will provide two recorded audio/video presentations uploaded to youtube or vimeo (screencasts are appropriate), one near the beginning of the project summarizing their project goals and another in the wrap-up phase to summarize their accomplishments.  Examples can be found on http://beagleboard.org/gsoc.
 +
# Students will demonstrate their ability to cross-compile and utilize version control software by creating a "Hello World" application and generating a pull request to https://github.com/jadonk/gsoc-application/tree/master/ExampleEntryJasonKridner.  For assistance, please visit http://beagleboard.org/chat or utilize the beagleboard-gsoc Google Group.  The "Hello World" application must print your name and the date out in an ARM Linux environment.  Freely available emulators may be used to test your application or you can ask anyone on the chat or mailing list to help you test.
 +
# All projects will produce reusable software components and will not be "what–I-built-over-my-summer-vacation" projects. Including a hardware component is welcome, but the project *deliverable* will be software that may be utilized by a wide audience of the BeagleBoard.org community.
 +
 
 +
=Ideas=
 +
==Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces==
 +
Improving the state of the Linux kernel, especially with regards to embedded devices and interfaces. Includes improved ARM/OMAP/Sitara platform support, simplifying the development of add-on hardware for embedded systems and exchanging hardware connectivity information with userspace.
 +
 
 +
===BeagleRT: Real-Time Linux with the BeagleBone Black===
 +
Assessment of the real-time limitations and capabilities with the BeagleBone Black.
 +
<br>
  
=Fundamental infrastructure projects=
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* vanilla kernel
These projects fundamentally improve support of existing open source projects for ARM-based devices in general and the BeagleBoard in specific, bringing the broad body of high-level open source applications into smaller, lower-cost, lower-power systems that can go anywhere.
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* vanilla with PREEMPT option
 +
* PREEMPT_RT patches
 +
* Xenomai patches
 +
* PRUSS
  
==JTAG debugging==
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''Goal:'' Many applications require a certain degree of real-time response. This project will analyze, test and compare the different approaches for providing Real-Time responses with the BeagleBone Black development board.<br>
Implement, configure and document a complete open source based JTAG debugging development chain for ARM Cortex A8 in OMAP3 used on Beagle Board. This includes final port of open source JTAG software [[BeagleBoardOpenOCD|OpenOCD]] for OMAP3 on Beagle, and then configure and document all software (and hardware) components involved. This could look like:
+
''Hardware Skills:'' PRU, PPM, PWM, PRUSS<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' C, C++, Python, Assembly<br>
 +
''Possible Mentors:'' Siddharth Bharat Purohit<br>
 +
''Workload:'' 1 student full time. <br>
 +
''GitHub:'' https://github.com/BeagleRT/BeagleRT<br>
 +
''References:'' https://www.osadl.org/fileadmin/dam/rtlws/12/Brown.pdf<br>
  
''ARM Cortex A8 <-> OMAP3 <-> BeagleBoard <-> Flyswatter (*)'' <-> OpenOCD <-> GDB <-> Eclipse (CDT)
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===Upstreaming Beagleboard.org Kernel Patches===
 +
The BeagleBone currently relies on a number of out-of-tree kernel patches in order to boot. These patches are maintained by Koen Kooi (CircuitCo) and come from many sources, including TI employees and various mailing lists. Getting more of these patches upstream would make it easier to boot a BeagleBone and also make use of a BeagleBone easier for users and kernel developers who need to track upstream kernel changes, or who otherwise need to be closer to the bleeding edge of Linux kernel development. The current patch set is [https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.8 maintained at github] and contains scripts to easily patch an upstream kernel. The scripts in this repository are used to build the BeagleBoard.org kernels which ship with the Angstrom SD card images.
 +
<br>
  
(*) Note: [[BeagleBoardJTAG#TinCanTools_Flyswatter|Flyswatter]] is used as example JTAG dongle here. All OpenOCD JTAG dongles able to deal with 1.8V and configure EMUx pins correctly can be used.
+
''Goal:'' Push as many patches as possible to [http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git Linus's mainline kernel tree] via the appropriate [http://git.kernel.org/cgit/ staging kernels] for the subsystems involved.<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' [http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git The Mainline Linux Kernel], [http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.8 patches needing to be pushed]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals.<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation and testing.<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Matt Porter, Matt Ranostay, Koen Kooi, Alan Ott<br>
  
''Goal:'' Able to single step kernel code using OpenOCD, GDB, and Eclipse<br>
+
===IIO debugging tools===
''Existing project:'' [http://beagleboard.org/project/OpenOCD+OMAP3+JTAG+support/ OpenOCD]<br>
+
Quick background: IIO is the new way of doing sensors but being a newer interface, it lacks tools
''Hardware skills:'' Able to monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
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for debugging. This project is to produce sometools to debug drivers.
''Software skills:'' C, ARMv7 assembly<br>
+
There are several ways this project can happen:<br>
''Possible mentors:'' Dirk Behme, Ceriand <br>
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1. We can implement userland tools that read IIO data similar to the evtest tool. <br>
 +
2. We can implement a event handler for the IIO driver. This way existing tools and code can be used. There was references from another mailing list (probally LKML) talking about this.<br>
  
'''NOTE: [http://www.tincantools.com TinCanTools] will donate [[Flyswatter]] boards for this project
+
''Goal:'' Userspace application similar to evtest that captures debug events and instrumented IIO driver code to produce those events.<br>
'''
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''Existing Project:'' [http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.8 patched kernel with IIO driver]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' None.<br>
 +
''Software Skills:''C coding (1), (2) requires kernel coding<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Hunyue Yau<br>
  
==Linux kernel improvements==
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===MMC and DMA Linux performance ===
Several improvements are desired in the Linux kernel to make it more useful for embedded/device applications.
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Improving performance of MMC driver by understanding issues, improving MMC, DMA drivers and eliminating bottlenecks.
 +
 
 +
''Goal:''
 +
Both MMC and DMA are critical to high performance of I/O intensive workloads on a Beagleboard/ARM platform, even fast system boot up depends on it.
 +
 
 +
A good amount of performance improvement is possible just by identifying what's going on in hot paths and how things can be done more simply, without breaking anything else. Also improvements are possible using innovative techniques such as intelligent buffer allocation and reducing overhead where possible in dependent components such as DMA. Cutting the fat in hot paths is definitely a start.
 +
 
 +
''Existing Project:'' [http://kernel.org Upstream Kernel]<br/>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Yes<br/>
 +
''Software Skills:'' C, Possible use of JTAG, ftrace, perf etc.<br/>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Joel Fernandes
 +
===Enhance ADC driver for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black===
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Improve the onboard ADC to support more features provided by the hardware. The hardware supports
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things like periodic sampling and averaging along with the ability to schedule the different channels
 +
and allow them to be configured differently.
 +
 
 +
''Goal:'' The Beagleboard.org community lacks a common unified way of accessing the different features available on the ADC. Some of these hacks such as attempts at periodic sampling squaders hardware resources on the BeagleBone when in reality the ADC block can do it directly. The goal is to create
 +
a drive with a plan to upstream that will expose these additional features. It should try to coordinate with the current driver maintainer. The coordination and upstreaming parts needs to be
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weighed and considered due to the limited GSoC time frame.
 +
 
 +
''Existing Project:'' <br>
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''Hardware Skills:'' Yes<br>
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''Software Skills:'' C<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Hunyue Yau (others welcome to volunteer)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==ARM processor support in open source operating systems and libraries==
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Optimizations to applications and libraries like XBMC to make them run better on resource constrained environments or to take advantage of more specialized processing elements.
 +
 
 +
===Library of Arduino-compatible functions for StarterWare===
 +
This would be an implementation of Arduino utilizing the BeagleBone Black and the StarterWare O/S independent library for accessing the hardware. Without having to access the hardware through an operating system, developers will be able to fine-tune the system to achieve optimal resource management of the CPU, peripherals and memory.
 +
The project would also include basic documentation and generation of code samples for various functionality of the library, such as SPI,Serial,Ethernet for starters. This would make the project thorough and ready for use by various developers in the community.
 
   
 
   
''Goal:'' Improve the capabilities of the Linux kernel, especially for embedded devices including ARM Cortex-A8 and OMAP3-based devices.<br>
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''Goal:'' Utilize the Energia fork of Arduino to push support for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black<br>
''Existing project:'' [http://beagleboard.org/project/linux linux-omap]<br>
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''Existing Project:'' [https://github.com/energia/Energia Energia], [http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/StarterWare StarterWare]<br>
''Software skills:'' C, ARMv7 assembly (desired), Linux kernel driver development<br>
+
''Hardware Skills:'' Yes<br>
''Possible mentors:'' Kevin Hilman, Tony Lindgren, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Russell King<br>
+
''Software Skills:'' C/C++<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner (others can be referred if there are interested students)
  
===More detailed kernel improvement ideas===
+
==Heterogeneous co-processor support in open source operating systems and libraries==
 +
Enabling usage of DSPs, PRUs, FPGAs, Cortex-M3s, Arduinos, MSP430 launchpads and other attached processing platforms.
  
'''Expansionboard infrastructure'''<br>
+
===PRU Bridge===
The beagleboard needs a good way to deal with all the expansionboards out there. There is crude support for it in the beagle kernel, but it needs to get improved. Things to fix would be to use the in-kernel muxing, split it out to a seperate c file, etc.
+
The aim of the project is to create a multi channel userspace Linux to PRU bridge (driver). Developers should be able to send and receive data seamlessly from the ARM or PRU. On the Linux side each channel will be represented by a file, and writing to a channel is a simple file write operation. Similarly if the client program on Linux want to read, it will read the file corresponding to the channel. On the PRU side, there will be a event loop listening to any events on any channels. If there is valid data on any channel, the corresponding callback is called.<br>
  
''Possible mentors:'' Koen, Jason
+
Currently the widely used libprussdrv supports exporting of 'interrupts' via sysfs, but no clean way of data transfer. The PRU-bridge will be a remote proc based sysfs driver. Channels here are generic, will enable export of data and interrupts to userspace. [Each channel could carry it's own semantic meaning, completely upto the developer].<br>
  
==Improve bootloader support==
+
Internally the kernel driver will maintain a shared memory circular buffer for each channel, and read or write on a sysfs file will result in an "upcall-downcall" action (a method in which the kernel and PRU interact). Different channels could be specialized for different requirements (i.e. one channel could be fine tuned for block transfers, another for a stream interface).<br>
There are many bootloaders available for the BeagleBoard and other ARM embedded devices, and all can be given improvements for ease-of-use for new users. Nevertheless, U-boot is the most used one and the one that most new Beagleboard users will come in contact with, so improving U-boot for new users gives the most benefit for the project.  
 
  
===More detailed bootloader improvement ideas===
+
This project will also require the student to develop a Node.js/Python based API to communicate with the PRU.<br>
'''U-boot USB and networking support'''<br>
+
Another interesting add on would be if the driver supported dynamic pin-muxing when prompted by the PRU. (i.e. can the PRU tell the kernel to enable h/w PWM on particular pins (instead of GPIO)?)<br>
Beagleboard and Beagleboard XM both have an USB EHCI controller that is currently not supported by U-boot. XM has a USB connected ethernet controller that is also not supported. The goal of the project is to:
+
'''Having a standardized driver like this will eliminate the need for writing separate drivers as in the case of applications like [https://github.com/deepakkarki/pruspeak pruspeak].'''
+
 
* Add support for the OMAP3 EHCI controller in U-boot
+
 
** Add support for the ethernet controller on the Beagleboard XM that is connected to the EHCI controler (make sure that with the above done, U-boot can be used to boot from the network - TFTP boot)
+
''Goal'': Develop a driver to enable a robust communication channels b/w Linux userspace and PRU.<br>
** Add USB mass-storage class host support over EHCI to U-boot so that users can boot from USB flash drives.
+
''Existing project'': small writeup available at [https://github.com/deepakkarki/pru_serial pru_serial_doc] and high level python API [https://gist.github.com/alexanderhiam/4310934a026b79fc8c65 RPC example]<br>
* Add USB OTG port (to connect to a PC to download code). This works on a branch, but isn't in good shape for getting accepted upstream.
+
''Hardware skills:'' Knowledge of Linux system programming, basic understanding of Device Driver, PRU architecture.<br>
 +
''Software skills:'' Good knowledge of C, working knowledge of Python/Node.js<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Deepak Karki, Alexander Hiam<br>
 +
 
 +
===PRUSS Support for the newer kernels===
 +
 
 +
Until now, libprussdrv has been the first point of contact for a prospective user of the Programmable Real-Time Units present on the BeagleBone Black. However in GSoC 2014 the two projects targeting the PRUs - BeagleLogic and BotSpeak worked on the remoteproc framework of the Linux kernel for the PRUs which was found to give better results.
 +
 
 +
However, not everyone should need to hack the kernel and the drivers for buiding their projects and as such a proper lightweight message passing framework and firmware loading infrastructure would increase the utility of the PRUs that are on board the BeagleBone (Black).
 +
 
 +
Possible design goals of the new framework:
 +
 
 +
* '''Upstreaming''' The idea is to have support for the PRU in the mainline kernel and not in another "vendor" kernel. <br>Thus the entire framework has to be written keeping the Kernel coding guidelines so that the patch will be ready for submission to the LKML soon by the end of the coding period.
 +
 
 +
* '''Simple and easy-to-use API''' Need to generate examples, documentation and keep the API as simple and straightforward as possible. There is no point in having yet another PRU framework if no one is using it.
 +
 
 +
* '''Language-Agnostic''' Whether one swears by C, uses Python or is a JavaScript programmer, everyone can use the same basic API and objects to leverage the processing capabilities of the PRU. <br>Alexander Hiam posts a sample [https://gist.github.com/alexanderhiam/4310934a026b79fc8c65 gist] which could be used as a starting point.
 +
 
 +
* '''Lightweight''' The PRU is optimized for low latency memory access and I/O operations, be it toggling a GPIO, generating stepping pulses or controlling large streams of WS2812B LED strip modules or sampling GPIOs at regular intervals into RAM.  Larger messages increase this overhead.
 +
 
 +
* '''Support for interrupts to userspace''' The ability to get a callback from the PRUs to userspace or kernel space (according to need of the application). A kernel module may be able to "attach" and "detach" itself from the main pru-remoteproc driver to extend its functionality if so needed.
 +
 
 +
* '''Memory Management''' The ability to allocate shared buffers of arbitrary size shared between the PRU and the kernel if required.
  
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Steve Sakoman, Dirk Behme<br>
+
The list as such is not exhaustive and prospective students / developers are encouraged to participate and edit this section with possible suggestions to make the PRUSS programming more productive and accessible to everyone.
  
'''U-boot DVI console and input support'''<br>
+
''Goal'': Create a new mainline kernel-friendly infrastructure that leverages functionality of the PRU<br>
Many new users have never seen a serial connection and struggle to set it up. Since the Beagleboard has a DVI output and a USB host controller, U-boot could be extended to:
+
''Existing project'': BeagleLogic, PRUSpeak, <br>
* support USB connected input devices (to connect a hub, keyboard, and mouse).
+
''Hardware skills:'' Understanding of basic embedded systems.<br>
* support to give console output over a DVI connected TV/Monitor
+
''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C, understand existing patches with PRU support, PRU Assembly. create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation<br>
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Steve Sakoman, Dirk Behme<br>
+
''Possible mentors:'' Kumar Abhishek<br>
  
'''U-boot configuration header support'''<br>
+
===PRU upstreaming===
* Add a boot configuration header to eliminate the need for x-loader.
+
Remove HWMOD dependency requirement for PRU along with adding device tree bindings so it can be upstreamed into Linus's tree.
  
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Steve Sakoman, Dirk Behme<br>
+
''Goal'': Push patches to Linux mainline providing support for the AM335x PRU<br>
 +
''Existing project'': https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/<br>
 +
''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
 +
''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C, understand existing patches with PRU support, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Start with Jason Kridner and Matt Porter, but we'll get some others involved<br>
  
'''Barebox'''<br>
+
===PRU firmware loader===
It has already been shown that the Barebox bootloader can be scaled very reasonably down to something that can fit into the on-chip memory of the OMAP3, without using the DRAMMaintaining this sort of scalability can be critical to providing the fastest possible boot times.
+
Allow "firmware" which are really binary PRU applications to be loaded directly on PRU cores and executed using the request_firmware() functionality of the Linux Kernel. This should also be Cape Manager to load PRU cape specific applications.
  
''Possible mentors:'' Nishanth Menon<br>
+
Ideal workflow:
  
=Multimedia and user experience projects=
+
* Cape detected that uses the PRU
 +
** Setup pinmux
 +
* Find the respective firmware file for PRU core (or both cores) /lib/firmware/cape_A020_pru0.bin
 +
* Load onto PRU and begin execution.
  
==Add DSP support to MPlayer==
+
''Goal'': Push patches to Linux mainline providing support to loading firmware on PRU cores and executing<br>
MPlayer is often used to play video on the Beagleboard and a lot of users are asking for it. Most are surprised that there is no DSP support (yet). Task to be performed would be to add DSP support to MPlayer using TI DSPLink and CodecEngine and the free DSP codecs that TI provides. CE support already exists in a branch of VLC, the task is to make that also work in MPlayer and do that in a memory efficient way (0-copy between ARM and DSP components)
+
''Existing project'': https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/<br>
 +
''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
 +
''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Matt Ranostay, Matt Porter<br>
  
''Goal:'' Able to play video in MPlayer using DSP codecs<br>
+
===Program PRU using high-level scripting languages===
''Existing project:'' http://www.mplayerhq.hu/<br>
+
Based on Chris Roger's BotSpeak work to provide a virtual machine for typical Arduino functions that can be accessed from LabView, build a virtual machine to enable PRU programming from Bonescript. The virtual machine is a simple interpreter that loops over the commands to perform such as delay, pinMode, analogRead, analogWrite, digitalRead and digitalWrite functions.
''Existing project:'' http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Codec_Engine_Overview<br>
 
''Software skills:'' C<br>
 
''Possible mentors:'' Vladimir Pantelic<br>
 
  
==DSP accelerated color conversion==
+
A basic design is elaborated upon at http://github.com/jadonk/pruduino
Multimedia on the Beagleboard can already make use of the DSP, yet there are still steps like color conversion that can take a lot of CPU resources (e.g. in gstreamer). Task to be performed is to move some of that processing to the DSP side where possible, preferably to run in parallel with ARM side processing. C6Run could be used as the framework to run parts of the SW on the DSP.  
 
  
''Goal:'' Able to do e.g. DSP color conversion in a gstreamer pipeline or in FFmpeg/Mplayer<br>
+
''Goal'': Implement a BotSpeak interpreter that off-loads hard real-time tasks from Bonescript onto the PRU and include that in the BoneScript project<br>
''Existing project:'' http://www.mplayerhq.hu/<br>
+
''Existing projects'': [http://github.com/jadonk/pruduino PRUDUINO], http://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package, http://github.com/jadonk/bonescript, [https://sites.google.com/site/botspeak/the-language Chris' language definition]<br>
''Existing project:'' http://www.FFmpeg.org/<br>
+
''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
''Existing project:'' https://gstreamer.ti.com/gf/project/gstreamer_ti/<br>
+
''Software skills:'' Able to write software in JavaScript and assembly<br>
''Existing project:'' http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/C6Run<br>
+
''Possible mentors:'' Chris Rogers, Jason Kridner<br>
''Software skills:'' C<br>
 
''Possible mentors:'' ???<br>
 
  
==DSP accelerated USB webcam gadget==
+
==Linux userspace support of embedded devices and interfaces in high-level languages==
The Linux USB stack now has a webcam gadget, this means a Beagleboard with a connected camera can act as an USB webcam towards a host PC. Using CodecEngine and the TI DSP codecs, the webcam gadget could use the DSP to more efficiently stream already compressed video data to the host PC.  
+
Improving the Bonescript JavaScript library, the PyBBIO Python library, Userspace Arduino, web-based interface libraries, examples or alternatives in other languages.
  
''Goal:'' Able to stream encoded (MJPG/H264) video data to the host using the USB webcam gadget<br>
+
===Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino===
''Existing project:'' https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/48487/<br>
+
Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino, especially SPI, I2C, Wire, Serial, Servo, Stepper
''Existing project:'' http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Codec_Engine_Overview<br>
 
''Software skills:'' C<br>
 
''Possible mentors:''  ???<br>
 
  
==Speech recognition==
+
This would primarily target the Arduino Tre.
TI has released [https://gforge.ti.com/gf/project/tiesr/ source for a speech recognition library] that runs on the ARM processor of the OMAP3 on the BeagleBoard. This software has now a LGPL  v2.1 license.  Using speech recognition library, several tasks could be performed:
 
* Voice recognition integrated into Ubiquity: Integrate Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Ubiquity, and voice recognition on the BeagleBoard with a microphone.  Use of a Wiimote could provide additional interactive capabilities.
 
  
Creating a gstreamer plugin for the library would improve the ability of other applications to use it.
+
===Making a stable release of Processing's serial libraries for Tre===
  
''Existing project:'' http://beagleboard.org/project/tiesr<br>
+
===Making a stable release of OpenFrameworks's serial libraries for Tre===
''Possible mentors:'' Lorin Netsch, Sourabh Ravindran, Diego Dompe (if done with gstreamer)<br>
 
  
==Add DSP support to GNU radio==
+
==Improving initial experience for novice developers==
''Goal:'' GNU Radio is a popular Software Defined Radio package for PC based computers. GNU Radio also runs on the Beagleboard and can make use of the floating point unit on the ARM. However, the DSP on the Beagleboard has tremendous potential for increasing GNU Radio's capability on small hardware. The project difficulty is based on the level of effort desired by the student, it should be fairly easy to create a standalone GNU Radio block that talks to the DSP via dsplink, or very complex to modify the GNU Radio block scheduler to launch block on the DSP directly.<br>
+
Improving the methods for communicating how to build projects, improving the out-of-box experience for novices and consolidating support for simplified home manufacturing (CNC, 3D printers, laser cutters, pick-and-place machines, etc.), drones/bots (ROS, IMU, video streaming, etc.) or other common tasks.
''Existing project:'' [http://gnuradio.org GNURadio]<br>
 
''Software skills:'' C++<br>
 
''Mentors:'' Philip Balister<br>
 
  
=Hardware + software projects=
+
===node-webkit based cross-platform getting-started app===
These are "Make"-style projects that advance general knowledge for creating and improving end products for consumers.
+
Newbies often have a difficult time following directions that could be replaced by an application. The steps to download and install an application is something that even newbies can typically manage. This avoid issues like having bad browsers or not having typical development tools like 'ssh'. This is a common problem across all embedded Linux platforms and node-webkit provides a good solution for making it cross-platform.
  
Multiple prototype hardware systems should be made to complete these projects. The process should be documented and be something that the mentor reproduces and that anyone else can reproduce at a reasonable expense with only some minimal hardware skills (soldering, using a volt meter, etc.).
+
''Features'':
 +
* Provide instructions for getting up-and-running with the board based (incorporate the Getting Started Guide)
 +
* Automatically discover boards on the LAN using mDNS and predetermined IP addresses
 +
* Act as a browser to interact with the board, including performing SSH and SCP
 +
* Discover the latest SD card images from multiple distributions
 +
* Bootload the board with a USB-mass-storage-class application
 +
* Program SD cards through the board or a USB adapter
 +
* Program on-board eMMC
  
==Beagleboard Hardware Control Library==
+
''Goal:'' Provide a downloadable application for Linux, Windows and Mac that enables unexperienced users to get going enough to start learning about using Linux and the embedded I/O.<br>
Create a user space library that makes using hardware connected to the Beagleboard expansion connectors easier to use. This includes functions to control GPIO pins (and trigger on GPIO Interrupts) and to send and receive data over I2C and SPI. All this should be well documented so that a new Beagleboard user can learn quickly how to control and interact with attached hardware.
+
''Existing Project:'' [http://github.com/jadonk/beaglebone-getting-started/tree/node-webkit-app Incomplete node webkit app for the BeagleBone Getting Started guide]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' N/A<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' Able to write software in JavaScript and work with node.js modules<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner<br>
  
''Goal:'' provide a library to interface with GPIO, I2C and SPI on the Beagleboard <br>
+
===BoneScript web pages with live-running examples and documentation===
''Hardware skills:'' basic<br>
+
{{#ev:youtube|VP0DOheLxQA||right|5 JavaScript Tricks for BeagleBone}}
''Software skills:'' C<br>
+
The BoneScript JavaScript library enables hardware control from web pages using socket.io for remote procedure calls. This provides an excellent environment for teaching how to wire-up sensors and controls and rapidly prototype user interfaces. Numerous examples exist on the web, but consolidation and testing are required to make them usable by novices. Examples include interfacing with potentiometers, light sensors, temperature sensors, motors and LED arrays then visualizing/controlling with Twitter, Facebook, jQuery, Spacebrew and dweet,io.
''Possible mentor:'' ???
 
  
==Adding Sense to Beagle==
+
'''This is a proposal, Jason Kridner needs to give the OK for this.''' <br>
Sensory aware applications are becoming more mainstream with the release of the Apple iPhone. This project would combine both HW and SW to add sensory awareness to beagle. First, additional modules such as GPS, 3-axis accelerometers, Gyroscopes, Temperature Sensors, Humidity Sensors, Pressure Sensors, etc, would be added to beagle to compliment the microphone input in order to allow sensing of the real world environment. Then SW APIs would need to be layered on top to allow easy access to the sensory data for use by applications.
+
''Goal:'' Get the source code http://diegotc.github.io/bone101/Support/GSOC/views/index.html of last year of the GSOC program and continue
 +
making changes for this new year program. One of the main objectives will be to include the Beaglebone-UI embedded on the cards.
 +
Right now you can run programs that use the bonescript library. A new function of the platform could be that it allows users
 +
to also run programs on other languages like python or ruby. Fixed some design issues with current source code and find the best way to maintained all information on gist.github.com Taking in consideration big images can't be uploaded right now.<br>
 +
''Existing Projects:'' [http://makezine.com/2014/01/14/5-easy-javascript-tricks-you-can-teach-your-beaglebone/ 5 easy tricks presentation], http://beagleboard.org/Support/BoneScript, https://github.com/jadonk/bone101, [https://github.com/jadonk/beaglebone-getting-started/blob/add-bone101/Docs/demo_bmp085.html BMP085 Bonescript example], [http://elinux.org/Category:ECE497 ECE497 examples], [http://jsfiddle.net/gh/gist/jquery/1.9.1/9602198/ JSFiddle on GIST example]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Basic knowledge of digital circuits.<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' JavaScript and some familiarity with Linux<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner, Diego Turcios<br>
  
The Freespace module is already working with the BeagleBoard as are many other sensors. This project should seek to summarize how to connect as many sensors as possible on one place on the eLinux wiki.
+
===Using BeagleBone PRUs to control CNC and 3D printer stepper motor Drivers===
 +
This project is to write code for the PRU (realtime processors on the AM335x used in the Beagle Bone) so that it can generate multiple step and direction outputs based on a queue of commands in real time. This needs to be done in real time so the acceleration and coordination of multiple stepper motors can be controlled and coordinated. A step/dir signal is commonly used in a lot of stepper motor drivers. While it is possible to generate stepper phase information from the PRU, it is also undesireable from a testing stand point. An example of a reason for doing this is controlling the X/Y directions of the head of a 3D printer so that it can generate precise curves. While similar code has been done, it is not done in a real time fashion so it is difficult to add coordination between motors and/or maintain a known acceleration.<p>
  
''Possible mentor:'' Mark Yoder
+
The result of this code should be something interfaceable to a control system like the non realtime portions of the Linux CNC project (formerly the EMC project). But as a demo, this same code should also demonstrate a node.js functionality such as a "G-code" interpreter. This node.js portion can be considered a second project due to the different skill sets required and ideally this project would be split between two GSoC students. One project would be working mostly on PRU assembly with integration into the Linux kernel. The other project would be working mostly on userspace JavaScript in node.js and C++ code for anything needing optimization or low-level kernel access. Mentors would heavily assist on defining the right interfaces between the two programming environments.
  
=Community infrastructure projects=
+
''Goal'': create code to use the AM335x PRUs to generate multiple step and direction outputs for reprap and CNC applications<br>
==Updating BeagleBoard.org UI/backend==
+
''Existing projects'': [http://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package Pru Documentation], [https://www.kernel.org/doc/htmldocs/uio-howto.html UIO Driver documentation]<br>
The BeagleBoard.org website is currently written in JavaScript using Helma and makes use of several Java components through JavaScript.  One advantage of this is you can actually run an instance of the BeagleBoard.org web server on the BeagleBoard with a full clone of the website.
+
''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
* Improve OpenID support
+
''Software skills:'' Assembly and C coding. Node.js for g-code interpretation<br>
* Create Ubiquity scripts to simplify page editing
+
''Possible mentors:''Jason Kridner, Hunyue Yau, Laine Walker-Avina<br>
* Add tags to project entries and improve the views
 
* Import RSS feed items into pages for ranking/tagging
 
* Add microblogging support integrated with the IRC channel
 
** See http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/issues/detail?id=46
 
** Enable users to store http://beagleboard.org/user user profiles
 
** Have the chat show Twitter and Identica update
 
* Translate BeagleBoard.org into other languages
 
** http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/issues/detail?id=4
 
* Update the site for the BeagleBoard-xM launch occurring in June
 
  
''Software skills:'' JavaScript, XML, HTML/CSS<br>
+
===Android-based remote display===
''Mentor:'' Jason Kridner<br>
+
Extend last years project with support for keyboard, mouse and sound. The project is composed of 2 subprojects: a kernel framebuffer+usb driver and a Java application. The basic video interface is in place and tested but the project lacks user input support.
  
=To be classified=
+
''Goal:'' Improve the existing project and add support for keyboard, mouse and sound<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' [https://github.com/praveendath92/bard-droid Android application], [https://github.com/praveendath92/bard-linux Kernel framebuffer driver]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Some knowledge of USB<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' Java, C and familiarity with Android<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Vladimir Pantelic, Jason Kridner, Vlad Ungureanu
  
=== BeagleChat ===
+
===Cross platform USB boot===
'''Easy'''
+
Boot (and flash) your BeagleBone (Black) and BealgeBoard X15 from a Windows, Mac or Linux computer without using a microSD card.
Video Chat Client on Beagle Board. Porting Ekiga (www.ekiga.org) - an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. The client should be able to talk to ekiga software running on PC as well as another beagle board. Optimizations would involve porting audio and video codecs on Ekiga to DSP plus supporting video streaming over USB for webcam support.
 
  
=Raw ideas that need to be fleshed out=
+
Extend [https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/bbblfs BBB Linux flasher] to support Windows, Mac and Linux hosts. The support for the BB{B/W} is in place but needs adaptation for Windows/Mac. The BeagleBoard X15 uses another way of USB booting [http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/spruhz6/spruhz6.pdf Peripheral Booting on the X15].
Some additional ideas can be found on the [[BeagleBoard/contest|BeagleBoard contest page]] and the [http://beagleboard.org/project BeagleBoard project page].
 
  
* RTEMS BSP for Beagle board: '''Medium''' [http://www.rtems.org RTEMS] is a free real-time operating system.  This project would require developing an RTEMS Board Support Package for the Beagle board. The Beagle board has come up multiple times in our community as a excellent device for students, hobbyists, and a starting point for customized boards. I am the maintainer of RTEMS and would be willing to co-mentor this with someone from the Beagle board community. --[[User:JoelSherrill|JoelSherrill]] 23:12, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
+
The project can be extended to automatically flash a board and then start executing tests in a CI environment. Another addition can be a cross-platform UI written using QT for easier portability.
  
* Spectrum analyzer using the DSP: '''Medium''' Write a program that uses the DSP to take an alsa input and to all the math and a GUI on the arm that display the realtime spectrum. The DSP side needs to use xdais so other DSP programs can run at the same time.
+
''Goal:'' Download a Linux image from the web and boot a BeagleBoard using it over USB<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BeagleDroid, https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BBBlfs<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Some knowledge of USB<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' C, libusb and familiarity with Mac, Linux and Windows<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Vladimir Pantelic, Jason Kridner, Vlad Ungureanu<br>
  
* Porting open-source codec to DSP (MadPlay, VLC, some of the mplayer codecs …: '''Medium'''
+
===Android under Angstrom===
 +
Some people want to play Angry Birds or run other Android apps on their BeagleBoard/BeagleBone.  Of course, you could use the Rowboat Android project as-is, but then you'd have to give up all of their typical Linux/X11 applications available in Angstrom.  This project would use an Android-enabled kernel and a combination of both Angstrom and Android file systems.  The input and display methods required for Android would need to be adjusted to run in on a virtual terminal and chroot/chvt would be used to invoke the various user space windows.
  
* OpenGL DSP acceleration: '''Hard'''  Research and implement OpenGL ES using the DSP on beagleboard. The DSP side needs to use xdais so other DSP programs can run at the same time. Can take a look at Vincent OpenGL ES open source implementation and add DSP to it
+
This has essentially been done once as part of [https://www.alwaysinnovating.com/beagleboard/ Always Innovating's Super-Jumbo] demo running Ubuntu, Angstrom, ChromeOS and Android simultaneously. The fundamental challenge is getting it reproducible and integrated into the OpenEmbedded build system for Angstrom and then starting to minimize the wasted file space by sharing libraries. Eventually, even making Android applications run in a window is desired.
  
* beagle as DLNA/upnp renderer, server, controller, or media player.
+
''Goal'': Run Android applications under Angstrom and toggle back-and-forth using CTRL-ALT-Fn key presses.<br>
 +
''Existing projects'': http://arowboat.org, http://www.angstrom-distribution.org<br>
 +
''Hardware skills:'' Minimal<br>
 +
''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C and Java, experience with X11 and Android<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Hunyue Yau, Vladimir Pantelic<br>
  
* Wiimote + Pico Projector + 3D art tool
+
===Automated testing for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black===
 +
Produce code samples and test harness for use of I/O on BeagleBone to be placed in the neutral elinux.org BeagleBone community pages.
  
* OpenCL implementation that uses the DSP and/or NEON (could be used as framework for any dsp/neon acceleration)
+
''Goal:'' The Beagleboard.org community has lacked a canonical source of high quality documentation on how to use peripherals found on AM335x. Peripheral use to be documented will include UARTs, I2C, SPI, PWM, ADC, USB Host/Gadget as well as advanced topics such as software development and optimization for the M3 and PRU coprocessors.<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' [http://www.elinux.org/BeagleBone_Community elinux.org BeagleBone Community Page]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Yes<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' C<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Hunyue Yau, Matt Porter and Jason Kridner
  
* Video extender – take in video via usb webcam, compress it using video encoder, stream it over ethernet (could be like a security camera).  Could/should be implemented using DLNA protocols (e.g. view on ps3 or tv's).
+
==Previous ideas==
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2014]]
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2013]]
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2012]]
  
 
=Mentors=
 
=Mentors=
 
 
{| border="1"
 
{| border="1"
 
! Name
 
! Name
 
! IRC nickname
 
! IRC nickname
 +
! Melange name
 
! Native language
 
! Native language
 
! Other languages
 
! Other languages
Line 226: Line 336:
 
|-
 
|-
 
| Jason Kridner
 
| Jason Kridner
 +
| jkridner
 
| jkridner
 
| jkridner
 
| English
 
| English
 
| -
 
| -
| US Central
+
| US Eastern
| web development, C, shell/perl scripting
+
| JavaScript, C, u-boot
 
| wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug
 
| wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug
| infrastructure improvements
+
| BoneScript development
 +
|-
 +
| Vladimir Pantelic
 +
| av500
 +
| vp7
 +
| German
 +
| English, Serbian
 +
| CET
 +
| Experienced on most areas of Embedded Linux, Multimedia
 +
| Schematic Review + Design
 +
| Embedded Linux, Linux Multimedia, Android
 
|-
 
|-
| Leo Estevez
+
| Vlad Ungureanu
| TBD
+
| vvu
| Spanish
+
| ungureanuvladvictor
| English, French, German(basic)
+
| Romanian
| US Central
+
| English
| C, mobile operating systems
+
| GMT +2
| wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug
+
| Linux, C, Android, U-Boot, build-systems, USB
| computer vision
+
| -
 +
| Cross-Platform USB Boot, Android Based Display
 
|-
 
|-
 
| Hunyue Yau
 
| Hunyue Yau
 
| ds2
 
| ds2
 +
| hygsoc
 
| English
 
| English
|
+
| -
 
| US Pacific
 
| US Pacific
| Android, C, Linux, scripting
+
| Android, C, Linux, scripting, Kernel
 
| Yes
 
| Yes
 +
| -
 
|-
 
|-
| Frans Meulenbroeks
+
| Tom Rini
| eFfeM
+
| Tartarus
| Dutch
+
| trini
| English, basic understanding of German
+
| English
| CET
+
| -
| C, User Interface, Linux, booting, performance improvement, networking technology
+
| US Eastern
| no
+
| C, u-boot, OpenEmbedded
 +
| -
 +
| U-Boot or OpenEmbedded development
 
|-
 
|-
| Kevin Hilman
+
| Pantelis Antoniou
| khilman
+
| panto
 +
| panto
 +
| Greek
 
| English
 
| English
| fluent in French
+
| GMT+2
| US Pacific
+
| Linux Kernel, S/W Architecture
 +
| -
 +
| Embedded Linux architecture fixes
 
|-
 
|-
| Luis Gustavo Lira
+
| Deepak Karki
|
+
| karki
| Spanish
+
| karki
| fluent in English and French)
+
| English
 +
| Hindi, Kannada
 +
| IST
 +
| PRU drivers, Python userspace libraries
 +
| -
 +
| PRU Bridge, PyBBIO
 
|-
 
|-
| Koen Kooi
+
| Kumar Abhishek
| _koen_
+
| Abhishek_
| Dutch
+
| Abhishek-Kakkar
| Fluent in English
+
| English
| CET
+
| Hindi
| Buildsystem integration, distribution
+
| IST
| not really
+
| PRU, Linux Kernel Programming
|  
+
| Yes
 +
| PRUSS Support for newer kernels
 
|-
 
|-
| Katie Roberts-Hoffman
+
| Alexander Hiam
| katier
+
| alexanderhiam
 +
| alexanderhiam
 
| English
 
| English
| nope
+
| -
| US Central
+
| US Eastern
| Android, DSP integration (Link/CE/etc)
+
| Python, C, Linux Kernel
| nope
+
| Prototyping, design, layout, debugging
 +
| PRU Bridge, PRUSS Support for the newer kernels
 
|-
 
|-
| Mans Rullgard
+
| Samy Kamkar
| mru
+
| samy/samy_
| English, Swedish
+
| -
| Some German
 
| GMT
 
| C, Assembler
 
|
 
|
 
|-
 
| Mike Zucchi
 
| notzed
 
 
| English
 
| English
|
+
| -
| Australia/South
+
| US Eastern
| C, Assembly, Java, SIMD.  Applications, libraries, GUI, multi-threading.
+
| Python, C, Linux Kernel
| not much
+
| Privacy and security researcher, computer hacker, whistleblower and entrepreneur
|
+
| BeaglePilot
|-
 
| Philip Balister
 
| Crofton
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Robert Nelson
+
| Joel Fernandes
| rcn-ee
+
| joel_
 +
| joelagnel
 
| English
 
| English
 
| -
 
| -
 
| US Central
 
| US Central
| C, Shell Scripting, Deb packaging
+
| C, Linux Kernel, Python
|
+
| Processor Engineer, Embedded systems Architecture
|
+
| Linux kernel improvement (perf and functionality)
|-
 
| Soren Steen Christensen
 
| soren.ssc
 
| Danish
 
| Fluent in English and some German
 
| CET
 
| C/C++, ASM, Device Drivers
 
| OMAP chip, HW design, Low level development & debuging
 
| All kind of HW and low level SW stuff
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Mark Yoder
+
| Greg Kroah-Hartman
| yoder
+
| gregkh
|
+
| gregh
 
|-
 
|-
| Jeff Osier-Mixon
+
| David Scheltema
| jefro
+
| dschelt
| English (US)
+
| dcschelt
|
 
| US Pacific
 
|
 
|
 
| documentation
 
|-
 
| Laine Walker-Avina
 
| Ceriand
 
 
| English
 
| English
|  
+
| Latin ;)
 
| US Pacific
 
| US Pacific
| C, Assembly, Buildroot
 
| USB protocol & logic analyzers, Various JTAG probes
 
| OpenOCD, bootloaders, Linux kernel
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Frank Walzer
+
| Charles Steinkuehler
| franktango
+
|
| German
+
| cdstienkuehler
| English
 
| CET
 
| C++, OOP
 
| Debug, JTAG, Interfaces
 
| Graphics, GUI, Build systems
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Khasim Syed Mohammed
+
| Steve French
| khasim
+
| VoltVisionFrenchy
| English
+
| voltvisionfrenchy
| Hindi
 
| India
 
| C, C++, Assembly, Linux device drivers, board bring up, bootloaders
 
| Schematic review, board development
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Siji Sunny
+
|Anuj Deshpande
| siji
+
|anujdeshpande
| Hindi
+
|anujdeshpande
| English
+
|English
| India
+
|German, Hindi
| C,Operating Systems(Ubuntu-Arm,Angstrom,Android,Debian),Open Source Application/GUI Development(Clutter, GTK), Language Computing,Text processing,Unicode,Fonts
+
|IST / GMT-530
| No
+
|C, Python, JS
| Language Computing, Text Processing, Operating System, Text To speech
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Devaraj Rangasamy
+
|Diego Turcios
| Deva
+
|DiegoTc
| Hindi, Tamil
+
|DiegoTc
| English
+
|Spanish
| India
+
|English
| Android, Linux Kernel Base Port
+
|US Center
| No
+
|JS, Node, Javascript
| Language Computing, Text Processing, Operating System, Text To speech
+
|
|-
+
|Improving initial experience for novice developers
| Joel Sherrill
 
| DrJoel
 
| English
 
| -
 
| US Central
 
| RTEMS maintainer, real-time, cross tools
 
| No
 
| RTEMS BSP
 
|-
 
| Diego Dompe
 
| ddompe
 
| spanish
 
| english
 
| GMT -6.00
 
| Expert on most areas of embedded development, Gstreamer, GUI, DSP development
 
| No
 
| GStreamer
 
 
|}
 
|}
 +
[[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2012#Mentors|Previous mentors]]

Revision as of 12:15, 20 February 2015


Contents

Welcome!

BeagleBoard.org hopes to be accepted as a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code for 2015! Below, we've collected project ideas for the GSoC-2015.

Background

BeagleBoard.org is a volunteer organization that seeks to advance the state of open-source software on open-source hardware platforms capable of running high-level languages and operating systems (primarily Linux) in embedded environments. Born from taking mobile phone processors and putting them on low-cost boards to build affordable desktop computers, BeagleBoard.org has evolved to focus on the needs of the "maker" community with greater focus on the I/O needed for controlling motors and reading sensors to build things like robots, 3d printers, flying drones, in-car computer systems and much more. Past BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects included creating an interpreter for tiny CPUs, adding SPI and sensor support to Python, an HTML and git based tutorial sharing environment, porting autopilot software to Linux, an open source 100MHz 14-channel logic analyzer, using Android tablets as Linux displays, putting ADC support in Linux under the IIO framework, using Android phones as a network boot source, Running Arduino code on Linux, Robot Operating System support within the Yocto Project build system, Minix I2C support, an RPC framework for heterogeneous processor communication, a transparent USB packet sniffer, ARM optimizations for XBMC, ARM optimizations for FFTs, make-shift pulse-width-modulation and RPC optimizations for OpenCV. BeagleBoard.org has benefited from sponsorship from Texas Instruments, CircuitCo, Digi-Key, element14 and others, but avoids any dependence on that sponsorship for sustaining the effort. The project has evolved over the past few years with over 500,000 boards in circulation with developers worldwide and strong roots in the Linaro, Yocto Project, Angstrom Distribution, Debian and Linux communities---and support for running most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Buildroot and many more.

BeagleBoard was inspiration for Raspberry Pi[1] and is available for about $50 through over 30 distributors world-wide (and is even available at Microcenter and Radio Shack in the USA), but is more than a throw-away computer. It is an instance of true open hardware, exposing users to the broader world of electronics, demystifying computers and fostering an environment of clones that have changed the industry for good.

Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of cross-compiling before being accepted, but support for demonstration is available through the IRC channel that typically has approximately 150 online chatters logged on at any time, most with sufficient experience to explain the process.

Every accepted student will be sent a BeagleBone Black before the first week of coding for testing their project.

Additional hardware will be provided depending on need and value.

For more information, check out http://beagleboard.org and http://beagleboard.org/brief.

Students looking for ideas

Student proposals can encompass projects inspired from the following list of ideas or can include personal project ideas. Previous Google Summer of Code projects show that the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it is not on this list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects via the BeagleBoard GSoC IRC or the BeagleBoard-GSoC mailing list. There are many potential project ideas and we will match students to projects based on their interests and help scope the proposals to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code timeframe.

There are more than 500 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in any of the projects listed on the BeagleBoard.org projects page, contact the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects that can be enhanced to create a GSoC project. There are also several ideas on the ECE497 class project idea list. You can also check out last year's idea page.

Mentors wondering where to help

Please start by registering your ideas for student projects below by following the template provided with the existing ideas. Furthermore, scroll down to the bottom and give everyone a bit of information about your expertise and availability by adding yourself to the table. Jason will make final approvals for mentor assignments based on if we first get accepted as a mentoring organization and best matching mentor skill sets with student project ideas deemed valuable to the community.

You will also need to register on Melange and request to be a mentor for BeagleBoard.org.

General requirements

All projects have the following basic requirements:

  1. Once accepted, the project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
  2. All newly generated materials must be released under an open source license.
  3. Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
  4. Source code generated during the project must be released on github.com (to be cloned to github.com/beagleboard on successful completion).
  5. The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone. Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog-hosting service with known reliability.
  6. To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also to help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
    1. what was accomplished that week,
    2. any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed and
    3. your goals for the next week.
  7. Students will provide two recorded audio/video presentations uploaded to youtube or vimeo (screencasts are appropriate), one near the beginning of the project summarizing their project goals and another in the wrap-up phase to summarize their accomplishments. Examples can be found on http://beagleboard.org/gsoc.
  8. Students will demonstrate their ability to cross-compile and utilize version control software by creating a "Hello World" application and generating a pull request to https://github.com/jadonk/gsoc-application/tree/master/ExampleEntryJasonKridner. For assistance, please visit http://beagleboard.org/chat or utilize the beagleboard-gsoc Google Group. The "Hello World" application must print your name and the date out in an ARM Linux environment. Freely available emulators may be used to test your application or you can ask anyone on the chat or mailing list to help you test.
  9. All projects will produce reusable software components and will not be "what–I-built-over-my-summer-vacation" projects. Including a hardware component is welcome, but the project *deliverable* will be software that may be utilized by a wide audience of the BeagleBoard.org community.

Ideas

Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces

Improving the state of the Linux kernel, especially with regards to embedded devices and interfaces. Includes improved ARM/OMAP/Sitara platform support, simplifying the development of add-on hardware for embedded systems and exchanging hardware connectivity information with userspace.

BeagleRT: Real-Time Linux with the BeagleBone Black

Assessment of the real-time limitations and capabilities with the BeagleBone Black.

  • vanilla kernel
  • vanilla with PREEMPT option
  • PREEMPT_RT patches
  • Xenomai patches
  • PRUSS

Goal: Many applications require a certain degree of real-time response. This project will analyze, test and compare the different approaches for providing Real-Time responses with the BeagleBone Black development board.
Hardware Skills: PRU, PPM, PWM, PRUSS
Software Skills: C, C++, Python, Assembly
Possible Mentors: Siddharth Bharat Purohit
Workload: 1 student full time.
GitHub: https://github.com/BeagleRT/BeagleRT
References: https://www.osadl.org/fileadmin/dam/rtlws/12/Brown.pdf

Upstreaming Beagleboard.org Kernel Patches

The BeagleBone currently relies on a number of out-of-tree kernel patches in order to boot. These patches are maintained by Koen Kooi (CircuitCo) and come from many sources, including TI employees and various mailing lists. Getting more of these patches upstream would make it easier to boot a BeagleBone and also make use of a BeagleBone easier for users and kernel developers who need to track upstream kernel changes, or who otherwise need to be closer to the bleeding edge of Linux kernel development. The current patch set is maintained at github and contains scripts to easily patch an upstream kernel. The scripts in this repository are used to build the BeagleBoard.org kernels which ship with the Angstrom SD card images.

Goal: Push as many patches as possible to Linus's mainline kernel tree via the appropriate staging kernels for the subsystems involved.
Existing Project: The Mainline Linux Kernel, patches needing to be pushed
Hardware Skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals.
Software Skills: Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation and testing.
Possible mentors: Matt Porter, Matt Ranostay, Koen Kooi, Alan Ott

IIO debugging tools

Quick background: IIO is the new way of doing sensors but being a newer interface, it lacks tools for debugging. This project is to produce sometools to debug drivers. There are several ways this project can happen:
1. We can implement userland tools that read IIO data similar to the evtest tool.
2. We can implement a event handler for the IIO driver. This way existing tools and code can be used. There was references from another mailing list (probally LKML) talking about this.

Goal: Userspace application similar to evtest that captures debug events and instrumented IIO driver code to produce those events.
Existing Project: patched kernel with IIO driver
Hardware Skills: None.
Software Skills:C coding (1), (2) requires kernel coding
Possible mentors: Hunyue Yau

MMC and DMA Linux performance

Improving performance of MMC driver by understanding issues, improving MMC, DMA drivers and eliminating bottlenecks.

Goal: Both MMC and DMA are critical to high performance of I/O intensive workloads on a Beagleboard/ARM platform, even fast system boot up depends on it.

A good amount of performance improvement is possible just by identifying what's going on in hot paths and how things can be done more simply, without breaking anything else. Also improvements are possible using innovative techniques such as intelligent buffer allocation and reducing overhead where possible in dependent components such as DMA. Cutting the fat in hot paths is definitely a start.

Existing Project: Upstream Kernel
Hardware Skills: Yes
Software Skills: C, Possible use of JTAG, ftrace, perf etc.
Possible mentors: Joel Fernandes

Enhance ADC driver for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black

Improve the onboard ADC to support more features provided by the hardware. The hardware supports things like periodic sampling and averaging along with the ability to schedule the different channels and allow them to be configured differently.

Goal: The Beagleboard.org community lacks a common unified way of accessing the different features available on the ADC. Some of these hacks such as attempts at periodic sampling squaders hardware resources on the BeagleBone when in reality the ADC block can do it directly. The goal is to create a drive with a plan to upstream that will expose these additional features. It should try to coordinate with the current driver maintainer. The coordination and upstreaming parts needs to be weighed and considered due to the limited GSoC time frame.

Existing Project:
Hardware Skills: Yes
Software Skills: C
Possible mentors: Hunyue Yau (others welcome to volunteer)


ARM processor support in open source operating systems and libraries

Optimizations to applications and libraries like XBMC to make them run better on resource constrained environments or to take advantage of more specialized processing elements.

Library of Arduino-compatible functions for StarterWare

This would be an implementation of Arduino utilizing the BeagleBone Black and the StarterWare O/S independent library for accessing the hardware. Without having to access the hardware through an operating system, developers will be able to fine-tune the system to achieve optimal resource management of the CPU, peripherals and memory. The project would also include basic documentation and generation of code samples for various functionality of the library, such as SPI,Serial,Ethernet for starters. This would make the project thorough and ready for use by various developers in the community.

Goal: Utilize the Energia fork of Arduino to push support for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black
Existing Project: Energia, StarterWare
Hardware Skills: Yes
Software Skills: C/C++
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner (others can be referred if there are interested students)

Heterogeneous co-processor support in open source operating systems and libraries

Enabling usage of DSPs, PRUs, FPGAs, Cortex-M3s, Arduinos, MSP430 launchpads and other attached processing platforms.

PRU Bridge

The aim of the project is to create a multi channel userspace Linux to PRU bridge (driver). Developers should be able to send and receive data seamlessly from the ARM or PRU. On the Linux side each channel will be represented by a file, and writing to a channel is a simple file write operation. Similarly if the client program on Linux want to read, it will read the file corresponding to the channel. On the PRU side, there will be a event loop listening to any events on any channels. If there is valid data on any channel, the corresponding callback is called.

Currently the widely used libprussdrv supports exporting of 'interrupts' via sysfs, but no clean way of data transfer. The PRU-bridge will be a remote proc based sysfs driver. Channels here are generic, will enable export of data and interrupts to userspace. [Each channel could carry it's own semantic meaning, completely upto the developer].

Internally the kernel driver will maintain a shared memory circular buffer for each channel, and read or write on a sysfs file will result in an "upcall-downcall" action (a method in which the kernel and PRU interact). Different channels could be specialized for different requirements (i.e. one channel could be fine tuned for block transfers, another for a stream interface).

This project will also require the student to develop a Node.js/Python based API to communicate with the PRU.
Another interesting add on would be if the driver supported dynamic pin-muxing when prompted by the PRU. (i.e. can the PRU tell the kernel to enable h/w PWM on particular pins (instead of GPIO)?)
Having a standardized driver like this will eliminate the need for writing separate drivers as in the case of applications like pruspeak.


Goal: Develop a driver to enable a robust communication channels b/w Linux userspace and PRU.
Existing project: small writeup available at pru_serial_doc and high level python API RPC example
Hardware skills: Knowledge of Linux system programming, basic understanding of Device Driver, PRU architecture.
Software skills: Good knowledge of C, working knowledge of Python/Node.js
Possible mentors: Deepak Karki, Alexander Hiam

PRUSS Support for the newer kernels

Until now, libprussdrv has been the first point of contact for a prospective user of the Programmable Real-Time Units present on the BeagleBone Black. However in GSoC 2014 the two projects targeting the PRUs - BeagleLogic and BotSpeak worked on the remoteproc framework of the Linux kernel for the PRUs which was found to give better results.

However, not everyone should need to hack the kernel and the drivers for buiding their projects and as such a proper lightweight message passing framework and firmware loading infrastructure would increase the utility of the PRUs that are on board the BeagleBone (Black).

Possible design goals of the new framework:

  • Upstreaming The idea is to have support for the PRU in the mainline kernel and not in another "vendor" kernel.
    Thus the entire framework has to be written keeping the Kernel coding guidelines so that the patch will be ready for submission to the LKML soon by the end of the coding period.
  • Simple and easy-to-use API Need to generate examples, documentation and keep the API as simple and straightforward as possible. There is no point in having yet another PRU framework if no one is using it.
  • Language-Agnostic Whether one swears by C, uses Python or is a JavaScript programmer, everyone can use the same basic API and objects to leverage the processing capabilities of the PRU.
    Alexander Hiam posts a sample gist which could be used as a starting point.
  • Lightweight The PRU is optimized for low latency memory access and I/O operations, be it toggling a GPIO, generating stepping pulses or controlling large streams of WS2812B LED strip modules or sampling GPIOs at regular intervals into RAM. Larger messages increase this overhead.
  • Support for interrupts to userspace The ability to get a callback from the PRUs to userspace or kernel space (according to need of the application). A kernel module may be able to "attach" and "detach" itself from the main pru-remoteproc driver to extend its functionality if so needed.
  • Memory Management The ability to allocate shared buffers of arbitrary size shared between the PRU and the kernel if required.

The list as such is not exhaustive and prospective students / developers are encouraged to participate and edit this section with possible suggestions to make the PRUSS programming more productive and accessible to everyone.

Goal: Create a new mainline kernel-friendly infrastructure that leverages functionality of the PRU
Existing project: BeagleLogic, PRUSpeak,
Hardware skills: Understanding of basic embedded systems.
Software skills: Able to write software in C, understand existing patches with PRU support, PRU Assembly. create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation
Possible mentors: Kumar Abhishek

PRU upstreaming

Remove HWMOD dependency requirement for PRU along with adding device tree bindings so it can be upstreamed into Linus's tree.

Goal: Push patches to Linux mainline providing support for the AM335x PRU
Existing project: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Able to write software in C, understand existing patches with PRU support, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation
Possible mentors: Start with Jason Kridner and Matt Porter, but we'll get some others involved

PRU firmware loader

Allow "firmware" which are really binary PRU applications to be loaded directly on PRU cores and executed using the request_firmware() functionality of the Linux Kernel. This should also be Cape Manager to load PRU cape specific applications.

Ideal workflow:

  • Cape detected that uses the PRU
    • Setup pinmux
  • Find the respective firmware file for PRU core (or both cores) /lib/firmware/cape_A020_pru0.bin
  • Load onto PRU and begin execution.

Goal: Push patches to Linux mainline providing support to loading firmware on PRU cores and executing
Existing project: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation
Possible mentors: Matt Ranostay, Matt Porter

Program PRU using high-level scripting languages

Based on Chris Roger's BotSpeak work to provide a virtual machine for typical Arduino functions that can be accessed from LabView, build a virtual machine to enable PRU programming from Bonescript. The virtual machine is a simple interpreter that loops over the commands to perform such as delay, pinMode, analogRead, analogWrite, digitalRead and digitalWrite functions.

A basic design is elaborated upon at http://github.com/jadonk/pruduino

Goal: Implement a BotSpeak interpreter that off-loads hard real-time tasks from Bonescript onto the PRU and include that in the BoneScript project
Existing projects: PRUDUINO, http://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package, http://github.com/jadonk/bonescript, Chris' language definition
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Able to write software in JavaScript and assembly
Possible mentors: Chris Rogers, Jason Kridner

Linux userspace support of embedded devices and interfaces in high-level languages

Improving the Bonescript JavaScript library, the PyBBIO Python library, Userspace Arduino, web-based interface libraries, examples or alternatives in other languages.

Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino

Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino, especially SPI, I2C, Wire, Serial, Servo, Stepper

This would primarily target the Arduino Tre.

Making a stable release of Processing's serial libraries for Tre

Making a stable release of OpenFrameworks's serial libraries for Tre

Improving initial experience for novice developers

Improving the methods for communicating how to build projects, improving the out-of-box experience for novices and consolidating support for simplified home manufacturing (CNC, 3D printers, laser cutters, pick-and-place machines, etc.), drones/bots (ROS, IMU, video streaming, etc.) or other common tasks.

node-webkit based cross-platform getting-started app

Newbies often have a difficult time following directions that could be replaced by an application. The steps to download and install an application is something that even newbies can typically manage. This avoid issues like having bad browsers or not having typical development tools like 'ssh'. This is a common problem across all embedded Linux platforms and node-webkit provides a good solution for making it cross-platform.

Features:

  • Provide instructions for getting up-and-running with the board based (incorporate the Getting Started Guide)
  • Automatically discover boards on the LAN using mDNS and predetermined IP addresses
  • Act as a browser to interact with the board, including performing SSH and SCP
  • Discover the latest SD card images from multiple distributions
  • Bootload the board with a USB-mass-storage-class application
  • Program SD cards through the board or a USB adapter
  • Program on-board eMMC

Goal: Provide a downloadable application for Linux, Windows and Mac that enables unexperienced users to get going enough to start learning about using Linux and the embedded I/O.
Existing Project: Incomplete node webkit app for the BeagleBone Getting Started guide
Hardware Skills: N/A
Software Skills: Able to write software in JavaScript and work with node.js modules
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner

BoneScript web pages with live-running examples and documentation

{{#ev:youtube|VP0DOheLxQA||right|5 JavaScript Tricks for BeagleBone}} The BoneScript JavaScript library enables hardware control from web pages using socket.io for remote procedure calls. This provides an excellent environment for teaching how to wire-up sensors and controls and rapidly prototype user interfaces. Numerous examples exist on the web, but consolidation and testing are required to make them usable by novices. Examples include interfacing with potentiometers, light sensors, temperature sensors, motors and LED arrays then visualizing/controlling with Twitter, Facebook, jQuery, Spacebrew and dweet,io.

This is a proposal, Jason Kridner needs to give the OK for this.
Goal: Get the source code http://diegotc.github.io/bone101/Support/GSOC/views/index.html of last year of the GSOC program and continue making changes for this new year program. One of the main objectives will be to include the Beaglebone-UI embedded on the cards. Right now you can run programs that use the bonescript library. A new function of the platform could be that it allows users to also run programs on other languages like python or ruby. Fixed some design issues with current source code and find the best way to maintained all information on gist.github.com Taking in consideration big images can't be uploaded right now.
Existing Projects: 5 easy tricks presentation, http://beagleboard.org/Support/BoneScript, https://github.com/jadonk/bone101, BMP085 Bonescript example, ECE497 examples, JSFiddle on GIST example
Hardware Skills: Basic knowledge of digital circuits.
Software Skills: JavaScript and some familiarity with Linux
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner, Diego Turcios

Using BeagleBone PRUs to control CNC and 3D printer stepper motor Drivers

This project is to write code for the PRU (realtime processors on the AM335x used in the Beagle Bone) so that it can generate multiple step and direction outputs based on a queue of commands in real time. This needs to be done in real time so the acceleration and coordination of multiple stepper motors can be controlled and coordinated. A step/dir signal is commonly used in a lot of stepper motor drivers. While it is possible to generate stepper phase information from the PRU, it is also undesireable from a testing stand point. An example of a reason for doing this is controlling the X/Y directions of the head of a 3D printer so that it can generate precise curves. While similar code has been done, it is not done in a real time fashion so it is difficult to add coordination between motors and/or maintain a known acceleration.

The result of this code should be something interfaceable to a control system like the non realtime portions of the Linux CNC project (formerly the EMC project). But as a demo, this same code should also demonstrate a node.js functionality such as a "G-code" interpreter. This node.js portion can be considered a second project due to the different skill sets required and ideally this project would be split between two GSoC students. One project would be working mostly on PRU assembly with integration into the Linux kernel. The other project would be working mostly on userspace JavaScript in node.js and C++ code for anything needing optimization or low-level kernel access. Mentors would heavily assist on defining the right interfaces between the two programming environments. Goal: create code to use the AM335x PRUs to generate multiple step and direction outputs for reprap and CNC applications
Existing projects: Pru Documentation, UIO Driver documentation
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Assembly and C coding. Node.js for g-code interpretation
Possible mentors:Jason Kridner, Hunyue Yau, Laine Walker-Avina

Android-based remote display

Extend last years project with support for keyboard, mouse and sound. The project is composed of 2 subprojects: a kernel framebuffer+usb driver and a Java application. The basic video interface is in place and tested but the project lacks user input support.

Goal: Improve the existing project and add support for keyboard, mouse and sound
Existing Project: Android application, Kernel framebuffer driver
Hardware Skills: Some knowledge of USB
Software Skills: Java, C and familiarity with Android
Possible mentors: Vladimir Pantelic, Jason Kridner, Vlad Ungureanu

Cross platform USB boot

Boot (and flash) your BeagleBone (Black) and BealgeBoard X15 from a Windows, Mac or Linux computer without using a microSD card.

Extend BBB Linux flasher to support Windows, Mac and Linux hosts. The support for the BB{B/W} is in place but needs adaptation for Windows/Mac. The BeagleBoard X15 uses another way of USB booting Peripheral Booting on the X15.

The project can be extended to automatically flash a board and then start executing tests in a CI environment. Another addition can be a cross-platform UI written using QT for easier portability.

Goal: Download a Linux image from the web and boot a BeagleBoard using it over USB
Existing Project: https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BeagleDroid, https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BBBlfs
Hardware Skills: Some knowledge of USB
Software Skills: C, libusb and familiarity with Mac, Linux and Windows
Possible mentors: Vladimir Pantelic, Jason Kridner, Vlad Ungureanu

Android under Angstrom

Some people want to play Angry Birds or run other Android apps on their BeagleBoard/BeagleBone. Of course, you could use the Rowboat Android project as-is, but then you'd have to give up all of their typical Linux/X11 applications available in Angstrom. This project would use an Android-enabled kernel and a combination of both Angstrom and Android file systems. The input and display methods required for Android would need to be adjusted to run in on a virtual terminal and chroot/chvt would be used to invoke the various user space windows.

This has essentially been done once as part of Always Innovating's Super-Jumbo demo running Ubuntu, Angstrom, ChromeOS and Android simultaneously. The fundamental challenge is getting it reproducible and integrated into the OpenEmbedded build system for Angstrom and then starting to minimize the wasted file space by sharing libraries. Eventually, even making Android applications run in a window is desired.

Goal: Run Android applications under Angstrom and toggle back-and-forth using CTRL-ALT-Fn key presses.
Existing projects: http://arowboat.org, http://www.angstrom-distribution.org
Hardware skills: Minimal
Software skills: Able to write software in C and Java, experience with X11 and Android
Possible mentors: Hunyue Yau, Vladimir Pantelic

Automated testing for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black

Produce code samples and test harness for use of I/O on BeagleBone to be placed in the neutral elinux.org BeagleBone community pages.

Goal: The Beagleboard.org community has lacked a canonical source of high quality documentation on how to use peripherals found on AM335x. Peripheral use to be documented will include UARTs, I2C, SPI, PWM, ADC, USB Host/Gadget as well as advanced topics such as software development and optimization for the M3 and PRU coprocessors.
Existing Project: elinux.org BeagleBone Community Page
Hardware Skills: Yes
Software Skills: C
Possible mentors: Hunyue Yau, Matt Porter and Jason Kridner

Previous ideas

Mentors

Name IRC nickname Melange name Native language Other languages Timezone Software help Hardware help Focus projects
Jason Kridner jkridner jkridner English - US Eastern JavaScript, C, u-boot wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug BoneScript development
Vladimir Pantelic av500 vp7 German English, Serbian CET Experienced on most areas of Embedded Linux, Multimedia Schematic Review + Design Embedded Linux, Linux Multimedia, Android
Vlad Ungureanu vvu ungureanuvladvictor Romanian English GMT +2 Linux, C, Android, U-Boot, build-systems, USB - Cross-Platform USB Boot, Android Based Display
Hunyue Yau ds2 hygsoc English - US Pacific Android, C, Linux, scripting, Kernel Yes -
Tom Rini Tartarus trini English - US Eastern C, u-boot, OpenEmbedded - U-Boot or OpenEmbedded development
Pantelis Antoniou panto panto Greek English GMT+2 Linux Kernel, S/W Architecture - Embedded Linux architecture fixes
Deepak Karki karki karki English Hindi, Kannada IST PRU drivers, Python userspace libraries - PRU Bridge, PyBBIO
Kumar Abhishek Abhishek_ Abhishek-Kakkar English Hindi IST PRU, Linux Kernel Programming Yes PRUSS Support for newer kernels
Alexander Hiam alexanderhiam alexanderhiam English - US Eastern Python, C, Linux Kernel Prototyping, design, layout, debugging PRU Bridge, PRUSS Support for the newer kernels
Samy Kamkar samy/samy_ - English - US Eastern Python, C, Linux Kernel Privacy and security researcher, computer hacker, whistleblower and entrepreneur BeaglePilot
Joel Fernandes joel_ joelagnel English - US Central C, Linux Kernel, Python Processor Engineer, Embedded systems Architecture Linux kernel improvement (perf and functionality)
Greg Kroah-Hartman gregkh gregh
David Scheltema dschelt dcschelt English Latin ;) US Pacific
Charles Steinkuehler cdstienkuehler
Steve French VoltVisionFrenchy voltvisionfrenchy
Anuj Deshpande anujdeshpande anujdeshpande English German, Hindi IST / GMT-530 C, Python, JS
Diego Turcios DiegoTc DiegoTc Spanish English US Center JS, Node, Javascript Improving initial experience for novice developers

Previous mentors