53723517 embedded-case-study

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB WITH ANDROID OS

Abstract:

Mobile technology is boosting day by day and same with compactness in laptop technology is

been getting achived. The combination of both mobile feature and high end processing made

the origin of samrtphone on futhur devlopment we got tablet. The samsung galaxy tab consist

of android as a opearting system. Android is a complete operating environment based upon

the Linux® V2.6 kernel. Initially, the deployment target for Android was the mobile-phone

arena, including smart phones and lower-cost flip-phone devices but they took over with

tablets also there by given new area to technology.

Introduction:

The gentle curves and smooth finishes, the Galaxy Tab exudes a basic elegance. It takes

design cues from the Galaxy S phones, and it's certainly more stylish and less clunky than the

aforementioned off-brand Android tablets we've seen pop up across the Web. The back panel

of the T-Mobile Galaxy Tab is shiny black plastic; it's there where you'll find the only

outward T-Mobile branding on the device. The sides are matte black, while the front panel is

glossy black, with a row of four touch-sensitive buttons along the bottom of the screen, just

as on the Galaxy S smartphones.

Fig 1: Samsung Galaxy Tab

The first thing that jumps out about the Galaxy Tab is its manageable size. The Tab measures

7.5 x 4.7 in. and stands at a half-inch thick. That depth is the same as Apple's iPad;

admittedly, though, in this comparison the latter benefits from rounding conventions, as the

iPad measures 13.4mm to the Tab's 13mm.

Hardware description:

Fig 2: different panel in samsung tab

The GT-P1000 model carries a 7" LCD TFT instead of the AMOLED which is used by

Samsung in its other Galaxy S phones. The screen has a 1024×600 resolution. Internal flash

storage of 16 GB or 32 GB can be supplemented with a microSD flash card with up to 32

GB. CPU is a 1.0 GHz ARM architecture Cortex A8 application and has 512 MB of RAM

paired with aPowerVR SGX540 graphics processor.

The tablet has two cameras: a 3.2 MP camera (rear) that comes with a LED flash and a 1.3

MP front camera for video calling. The front camera has auto focus features when pressing

the virtual shutter button. Photo is taken upon releasing the button. The camera also has

autoimage stitching, combining 8 pictures. Modes include Single shot, Continuous,

Panorama, Smile shot, and self-shot. Smile shot will automatically trigger when the subject

smiles.Autogeotagging uses the internal GPS receiver. The tablet has 802.11n Wi-

Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G connectivity through GSM,CDMA, HSPA(HSUPA) networks, and

a GPS chip.

It also has a 30-pin docking/charging connector that is very similar to the PDMI connector,

which is a standard, non-proprietary alternative to Apple's docking connector. Actually, it is

so similar to the PDMI connector that it is widely mistaken for it, but Samsung has changed it

sufficiently that it is non-standard so all accessories, including charging cables, must be

purchased from Samsung and will be incompatible with other products. It is believed that its

4000 mAh battery will give it 7 hours of video playback or 10 hours of talk time.

The GSM variants of the Galaxy Tab have an externally accessible SIM card slot. If you

remove the SIM card while the system is on the system automatically reboots.

The AT&T and T-Mobile variants of the Galaxy Tab ship with a micro SIM in a micro SIM

adapter. For Galaxy Tab outside US with phone function, this slot can also accommodate

a 3G data-only SIM card if the user does not need cellphone-type calling features.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab also has an optional RCA plug Video Cable that can output the

screen to TV or other media. However the screen on the Tab cannot be turned off while you

are watching. The best remedy for this situation is to use a backlight dimming app and keep it

on the lowest setting.

Processor:

The ARM Cortex™-A8 processor is based on the ARMv7 architecture and has the ability

to scale in speed from 600MHz to greater than 1GHz. The Cortex-A8 processor can meet the

requirements for power-optimized mobile devices needing operation in less than 300mW and

performance-optimized consumer applications requiring 2000 Dhrystone MIPS.

The Cortex-A8 high-performance processor is proven in end devices today.  From high-end

feature phones to netbooks, DTVs, printers and automotive-infotainment, the Cortex-A8

processor offers a proven high-performance solution with millions of units shipped annually.

The processor is particularly suited to high-performance applications.

Frequency from 600MHz to 1GHz and above

High-performance, Superscalar microarchitecture

NEON™ technology for multi-media and SIMD processing

Binary compatibility with ARM926, ARM1136, and ARM1176 Processors.

Fig 3: ARM cortexA8 processor arcitechutre

Table 1: performance of ARM cortex A8 processor

   65nm LP process 65nm G+ process

  Optimized  Synthesized  Optimized  Synthesized 

 Frequency (MHz)  600 500  1 GHz  750 

 Frequency conditions  at ss, 1.08v, 125 C  at SS, 0.9v, 125C

 Area with L1 Cache  (mm2)  <4  <4  <4  <4

 Cache Size (I/D)  32K/32K 32K/32K  32K/32K   32K/32K

Touch screen:

A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a

touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device

with a finger or hand.

A capacitive touchscreen panel is one which consists of an insulator such as glass, coated

with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO). As the human body is also an

electrical conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the

screen'selectrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance. Different technologies may

be used to determine the location of the touch. The location is then sent to the controller for

processing. Unlike a resistive touchscreen, one cannot use a capacitive touchscreen through

most types of electrically insulating material, such as gloves; one requires a special capacitive

stylus, or a special-application glove with finger tips that generate static electricity. This

disadvantage especially affects usability in consumer electronics, such as touch tablet PCs

and capacitive smartphones.

WLAN and bluetooth module in processor:

The Bluetooth is integrated with the BlueZ protocol stack in Linux and with Microsoft's stack

in WinC

Fig 4: integrated WLAN and Bluetooth with processor

WLAN Driver

The WLAN driver is a Kernel module which implements the device driver. It transfers

data to and from the device and the network stack and it manages and monitors the

WLAN connection and all related activities, as required by the WLAN protocol. 

WLAN interface with the Host

Hardware interface that is supported is SDIO and SPI, however we do only provide the

SDIO driver and it gives the option to the customer to develop his own SPI driver 

Linux BlueZ and OpenObex

BlueZ and OpenOBEX are not TI products. They are managed by the Open Source

community and as such are provided as-is

BlueZ is the official Linux Bluetooth® protocol stack. It is part of the official Linux

kernel since version 2.4.6.

BlueZ is an Open Source project distributed under the GNU General Public License

(GPL).

BlueZ supports a variety of profiles based on implementation from various sources

that must be collected and integrated by the OEM/ODM. E.g. OpenOBEX adds

profiles for file and object transfer

proximity and Accelrometer sensor :

Fig 5: proximity and accelrometer sensor

A proximity sensor is a sensor able to detect the presence of nearby objects without any

physical contact. A proximity sensor often emits an electromagnetic or electrostatic field, or a

beam of electromagnetic radiation (infrared, for instance), and looks for changes in

the field or return signal. The object being sensed is often referred to as the proximity sensor's

target. Different proximity sensor targets demand different sensors. For example,

a capacitive or photoelectric sensor might be suitable for a plastic target;

an inductive proximity sensor requires a metal target.

Fig 6: cost estimation for samsung galaxy TAB

Software description:

This tablet comes with Android 2.2 which has been modified with some custom skins and

applications. Most Android 2.2 apps developed using Google's guidelines for Android should

scale properly when displayed on larger-screen devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Adobe Flash 10.1, DivX, MPEG 4, WMV and Xvid, H.263, H.264 support has also been

announced. It come with Atmel's maXTouch touchscreen Multi touch capacitive, and multi-

tasking. It features calendar, email and instant messaging applications. It has a launcher for

e-reading applications which starts PressDisplay when reading newspapers, Kobo when

reading e-books, and Zinio when reading magazines. For viewing and editing Microsoft

Office documents, the Galaxy Tab also comes bundled with the Android version

of ThinkFree Office Mobile.

Samsung Galaxy Tab can also provide tethering, acting like a WiFi hotspot for up to 5

devices. Samsung Galaxy Tab phone allow you to store address that is link to Google

maps/GPS with one click. It also allows linkage with a contact's Facebook profile if the

phone address is linked with the contact's facebook address.

Samsung Galaxy Tab HD video content is supported by a wide range of multimedia formats

(DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264 and more) which maximizes support for various video

format media. Samsung Galaxy Tab plays video well, either stored on the device itself or

streamed from YouTube and it can output 720p video to a TV using either a composite video

cable or via HDMI when using the optional dock. Text input in Galaxy Tab can be done

using Swype, by tracing a path over letters on a virtual keyboard, but standard XT9 predictive

typing is also supported. Samsung Galaxy Tab also allow screenshot by pressing and holding

the back button and power button at the same time. Screenshots will be captured in a

Screenshots folder in your Gallery.

Its all possible due to the android operating system so lets see all about the android.

AndroidAndroid is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices, based on the Linux

kernel, developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to

write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java

libraries. Applications written in C and other languages can be compiled to ARM native code

and run, but this development path is not officially supported by Google.

Open Handset Alliance

Open Handset Alliance, is a consortium of several companies which include Google, HTC,

Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and NVIDIA, These companies which

aim to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and

distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this

direction a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system,

middleware, user-friendly interface and applications.

Fig 6: layer in Android OS

Android uses LinuxAndroid uses Linux for its device drivers, memory management, process management, and

networking. However you will never be programming to this layer directly. The next level up

contains the Android native libraries. They are all written in C/C++ internally, but you’ll be

calling them through Java interfaces. In this layer you can find the Surface Manager (for

compositing windows), 2D and 3D graphics, Media codecs (MPEG-4, H.264, MP3, etc.), the

SQL database (SQLite), and a native web browser engine (WebKit). Next is the Android

runtime, including the Dalvik Virtual Machine. Dalvik runs dex files, which are converted at

compile time from standard class and jar files. Dex files are more compact and efficient than

class files, an important consideration for the limited memory and battery powered devices

that Android targets. The core Java libraries are also part of the Android runtime. They are

written in Java, as is everything above this layer. Here, Android provides a substantial subset

of the Java 5 Standard Edition packages, including Collections, I/O, and so forth.

The next level up is the Application Framework layer. Parts of this toolkit are provided by

Google, and parts are extensions or services that you write. The most important component of

the framework is the Activity Manager, which manages the life cycle of applications and a

common “back-stack” for user navigation. Finally, the top layer is the Applications layer.

Most of your code will live here, along side built-in applications such as the Phone and Web

Browser

Network Connectivity It supports wireless communications using:

GSM mobile-phone technology

3G

Edge

802.11 Wi-Fi networks

Security Android is a multi-process system, in which each application (and parts of the system) runs in

its own process. Most security between applications and the system is enforced at the process

level through standard Linux facilities, such as user and group IDs that are assigned to

applications. Additional finer-grained security features are provided through a "permission"

mechanism that enforces restrictions on the specific operations that a particular process can

perform, and per-URI permissions for granting ad-hoc access to specific pieces of data.

Security Architecture A central design point of the Android security architecture is that no

application, by default, has permission to perform any operations that would adversely impact

other applications, the operating system, or the user. This includes reading or writing the

user's private data (such as contacts or e-mails), reading or writing another application's files,

performing network access, keeping the device awake, etc. An application's process is a

secure sandbox. It can't disrupt other applications, except by explicitly declaring the

permissions it needs for additional capabilities not provided by the basic sandbox. These

permissions it requests can be handled by the operating in various ways, typically by

automatically allowing or disallowing based on certificates or by prompting the user. The

permissions required by an application are declared statically in that application, so they can

be known up-front at install time and will not change after that.

Performance Devices hosting Android applications have limited capabilities. That's why code should be

efficient, avoid all unnecessary memory allocations, method calls (it takes a lot of time) and

so on. In order to make our applications working fast on a mobile device we need to leave

back some habits, good from OOP point of view. In a mobile device we are not able to make

a full model of reality what we want to operate on.

Few things to remember:

avoid object instantiation - create objects only if it is really necessary, because it

costs time and memory. More instances means more-frequent garbage collection what

lowers user-experience (freezes).

use native built-in methods - they're written in C/C++ what makes them faster about

10-100 times than implemented JAVA code (loops etc.). However note that calling

native method is more expensive then calling implemented one.

virtual over interface - in conventional programming it is usual to declare variables

as interfaces, i.e.: Map myMap1 = new HashMap(); It is not good for embedded

applications. Calling a method from interfaces takes 2 times more time than in normal

way: HashMap myMap2 = new HashMap();

static over virtual - declare methods static if they do not need access to the object's

fields. It can be called faster, because it doesn't require a virtual method table

indirection. It's also good practice, because you can tell from the method signature

that calling the method can't alter the object's state.

cache field lookups, because accessing object fields is lower than local variables. The

same situation is with methods - i.e. by for-statements, you should cache size()

method if it is possible:

Future possibilities Android sits alongside a new wave of mobile operating systems designed for increasingly

powerful mobile hardware. Windows Mobile and Apple’s iPhone now provide a richer,

simplified development environment for mobile applications. However, unlike Android,

they’re built on proprietary operating systems that often prioritize native applications over

those created by third parties and restrict communication among applications and native

phone data. Android offers new possibilities for mobile applications by offering an open

development environment built on an open source Linux kernel. Hardware access is available

to all applications through a series of API libraries, and application interaction, while

carefully controlled, is fully supported.

In Android, all applications have equal standing. Third-party and native Android applications

are written using the same APIs and are executed on the same run time. Users can remove

and replace any native application with a third-party developer alternative; even the dialer

and home screens can be replaced.

Google Android Sales to Overtake iPhone in 2012

The OHA is committed to make their vision a reality: to deploy the Android platform

for every mobile operator, handset manufacturers and developers to build innovative

devices

Intel doesn’t want to lose ownership of the netbook market, so they need to prepare

for anything, including Android

Fujitsu launched an initiative to offer consulting and engineering expertise to help run

Android on embedded hardware, which aside from cellphones, mobile internet

devices, and portable media players, could include GPS devices, thin-client computers

and set-top boxes.

More Android devices are coming and some will push the envelope even further

Software Development Developing an application on the Android platform requires the following:

knowledge of programming in Java

knowledge of XML (optional but recommended)

Android SDK (requires x86 OS like Windows, Linux, Mac; JDK version >=5)

Eclipse IDE (at least version 3.3) with Android Development Tools (ADT) plug-in

Android powered smartphone

IDE and Tools Android SDK

Beside of the actual java class library the Android SDK (latest version 1.1r1) contains all the

tools that are necessary to build an Android application. Typically every Android SDK

version consists of:

Developer Tools

As already mentioned above the SDK comes with a bunch of tools that relieve the creation of

an Android app. In the following only the most important tools are described:

aapt - Android Asset Packaging Tool Creates *.apk-files which contain all the

resources as well as the program itself. Those ZIP-format based files can be

transferred to and installed on an Android phone or the emulator.

adb – Android Debug Bridge The main purpose of this tool is to set up connections to

a real Android device or an Android emulator instance in order to transfer and install

(apk)-files on it. With adb the developer also has the possibility to remote control the

devices shell.

dx – Dalvik Cross-Assembler The dx is used for merging and converting Java-

Standard-ByteCode Classes (*.class) into one single binary file (*.dex) that can be

executed by the Dalvik VM. These *.dex-files are subject to be put into an *.apk-file

together with resource files.

ddms - Dalvik Debug Monitor Service This tool provides port-forwarding services,

screen capture on the device, thread and heap information on the device, logcat,

process and radio state information, incoming call and SMS spoofing, location data

spoofing, and more.

Emulator and System Images

The SDK also contains an emulator that is able to simulate almost all the functionality of an

actual Android device. This is achieved by booting so called system images which represent

the Android OS with the whole software stack of a real Android device.

Documentation, Sample Code

Of course the SDK also provides the developer with a comprehensive documentation which

consists not only of an API reference but also of programming guidelines as well as detailed

descriptions for the several tools. There are also a few code examples that will allow

understanding the typical workflow of an Android application right away.

IDE Support

Although it is possible to develop Android apps with every modern IDE Google recommends

doing so is by using the Eclipse IDE with a special plug-in called ADT (Android

Development Tools). The ADT makes use of all the Dev Tools that come with the SDK and

therefore supports and simplifies all the steps from assembling the classes over packaging

and signing to running the final application on the emulator.

The ADT is not just speeding up the testing process but also relieves the developers work in

terms of UI creation and application description. For that reason the ADT offers the

developer graphical representations of what has otherwise have to be written in XML.

Programming language

The officially supported programming language on the Android platform is Java. It is also

recommended to have some knowledge of XML as the descriptor file as well as the user

interface of an application is based on that.

As the Linux kernel of the Android platform is based upon an ARM processor architecture it

would also be possible to write code in C or other languages and compile it to ARM native

code.

Program example for proximity and accelrometer operation:

Sensor mySensor = event.sensor;    // if (mySensor.getType() != Sensor.TYPE_ORIENTATION) return;    if (mySensor.getType() == Sensor.TYPE_ORIENTATION)    {        float x = event.values[0];        float y = event.values[1];        float z = event.values[2];

        tv.setText("Rotation around X, Azimuth = " + x);        tv1.setText("Rotation around Y, Pitch = " + y);        tv2.setText("Rotation around Z, Roll = " + z);    }    if (mySensor.getType() == SensorManager.SENSOR_PROXIMITY)    {

        float p = event.values[0];        tv3.setText("Proximity = " + p);

    }

Advantages of Android:

There are a host of advantages that Google’s Android will derive from being an open source

software. Some of the advantages include:

The ability for anyone to customize the Google Android platform will open up the

applications playing field to small and new players who lack the financial muscle to

negotiate with wireless carriers like AT&T and Orange.

The consumer will benefit from having a wide range of mobile applications to choose

from since the monopoly will be broken by Google Android.

Although this will depend on the carrier, one will be able to customize a mobile

phones using Google Android platform like never before, right down to the screen.

Features like weather details, opening screen, live RSS feeds and even the icons on

the opening screen will be able to be customized.

In addition, as a result of many mobile phones carrying Google Android, companies

will come up with such innovative products like the location – aware services that will

provide users with any information they might be in need of.

This information could include knowing the location of a nearby convenience store or

filling station. In addition the entertainment functionalities will be taken a notch

higher by Google Android being able to offer online real time multiplayer games.

Conclusion:

Reference:

[1.] www.freescale.com.cn

[2.] www.gsmarena.com

[3.] www.samsung.com

[4.] www.stackoverflow.com

[5.] en.wikipedia.org