BeagleBoard Education Workshops

Abstract:
The goal of this hands-on tutorial is to present ideas on how to use Texas Instrument’s DM 3730-based BeagleBoard xM ([www.BeagleBoard.org www.BeagleBoard.org]) for teaching embedded processing using Open Source resources. The DM 3730 is a dual core processor with an ARM Cortex-a8 core and a TI ‘c64x DSP core. The BeagleBoard is Open Source hardware that has sold over 30,000 units since its introduction less than 2 years ago and has a thriving Open Source Software community.

The BeagleBoard has many uses in the classroom. This workshop will show some of those uses and present some of the challenges in teaching with Open Source.

The workshop activities will include:


 * several hands-on exercises to get participants familiar with using the Beagle, and how it differs from a traditional 8- or 16-bit microcomputer.
 * several demonstrations of what the Beagle can do, such as streaming video and programming its DSP and discussions of what topics to include in an embedded/DSP class including dealing with open source comminutes.
 * This workshop is targeted to those who are teaching embedded processors or DSP hardware. Some Linux background would be helpful, but not required. Those with little or no Linux experience will be paired with those with more experience.

Pre Workshop
The purpose of this page is to give you practice editing a wiki and to start building a community of BeagleBoard Educators. Click on the edit tab above and add your name to the list. You will have to create an eLinux account before you can edit the page.

--Mark

Abstract:
This hands-on tutorial presents ideas on how to use TI’s OMAP 3530-based BeagleBoard (www.BeagleBoard.org) for teaching embedded media processing using Open Source resources. The BeagleBoard is Open Source hardware that has sold over 20,000 units since its introduction less than 2 years ago and has a thriving Open Source Software community. After the introduction, this workshop will complement the Sunday afternoon tutorial “From DSP Chips to Embedded Processors for Teaching Digital Signal Processing”. The Sunday workshop examples focus on programming the ‘C64 DSP on the OMAP3530. This workshop will focus on using Open Source software for media processing (such as GStreamer, OpenCV, etc.) and using the OMAP display subsystem for handling video. The workshop activities will include: No BeagleBoards will given out.
 * 1) Several hands-on exercises to get participants familiar with using the Beagle, (same as tutorial)
 * 2) Several demonstrations of what the Beagle can do using Open Source software, including using the display subsystem, recognizing speech, computer vision
 * 3) Discussions of what topics to include in an embedded Linux class.

Pre Workshop
The purpose of this page is to give you practice editing a wiki and to start building a community of BeagleBoard Educators. Click on the edit tab above and add your name to the list. You will have to create an eLinux account before you can edit the page.

--Mark

Labs
Here's an additional handout that didn't make it in time for the printers.

VideoThru Lab

Post Workshop
Here (Getting_a_Workshop_SD_Image) are instructions on how to put the tutorial image on your SD card.

Abstract:
This hands-on tutorial presents ideas on how to use TI’s OMAP 3530-based BeagleBoard (www.BeagleBoard.org) for teaching embedded media processing using Open Source resources. The BeagleBoard is Open Source hardware that has sold over 16,000 units since its introduction less than 2 years ago and has a thriving Open Source Software community. Today’s media handling embedded processors have come a long way from the limited performance of 8- or 16-bit embedded processors or the limited functionality of a dedicated DSP chip. Our students need to see that the days of the single DSP chip are almost over and they need to be prepared for working with DSPs embedded with other processors. The OMAP3530 processor contains both an ARM Cortex-A9 processor and a ‘C6400 DSP and it and chips like it are being used in products today. The workshop activities include: Participants will receive a BeagleBoard and course materials.
 * 1)      hands-on exercises to get participants familiar with using the Beagle,
 * 2)      demonstrations of what the Beagle can do, including streaming video and synthesizing speech and
 * 3)      discussions of what topics to include in an embedded Linux class.

Pre Tutorial
The purpose of this page is to give you practice editing a wiki and to start building a community of BeagleBoard Educators. Click on the edit tab above and add your name to the list. You will have to create an eLinux account before you can edit the page.

--Mark

Labs
Here's an additional handout that didn't make it in time for the printers.

AudioThru Lab

Post Tutorial
Here (Getting_a_Workshop_SD_Image) are instructions on how to put the tutorial image on your SD card.

Post Workshop
Here are some things you might want to do now that the workshop is over.

Here are instructions on how to create the SD card that was used in the workshop.
 * Go here (ECE597_Getting_your_Beagle_running_(precompiled)) to download and install the base image for the Beagle. This will install the kernel and all the files needed to run many of the demos.
 * Download this zip file to get the extra files used in the workshop. Copy it to your BeagleBoard and unzip it there. This file contains the VideoThru, c6run_target, hello.c and helloBeagle.c files.
 * Download the workshop pptx here.

Pre Workshop
If you are an overachiever (not required) go here (ECE497 Lab13 Using the DSP via c6run) to learn how to install the ARM and DSP development tools on your Linux system (Ubuntu 10.4 LTS is required). If you don't have Ubuntu installed, go here to learn how to install it in a virtual machine under windows.

These installs are not required for the workshop; however editing the the table below is.

The purpose of this page is to give you practice editing a wiki and to start building a community of BeagleBoard Educators. Click on the edit tab above and add your name to the list. You will have to create an eLinux account before you can edit the page.

--Mark

2010 ICASSP Workshop
The purpose of this page is to give you practice editing a wiki and to start building a community of BeagleBoard Educators. Click on the edit tab above and add your name to the list.

--Mark

Labs
Here is a list of the hands on exercises we will be doing in the 2010 workshop. Many have suggestions for additional homework that you can do once you are back home and have a network connection.


 * 1) 2010 ICASSP Lab 1 Wiring_and_Running the Beagle
 * 2) 2010 ICASSP Lab 2 The Boot Sequence