BSP and firmware
This page gives you a summary of our BSP and firmware expertise.
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Technologies |
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Processors |
Peripherals |
ARM7: NxP LPC series
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| ARM9: TI DaVinci DM355, DM365 |
| Intel: Atom, XScale PXA, IXP |
| TI: OMAP, DaVinci, L1xx, Piccolo |
| Microchip: PIC18, PIC24, PIC32, dsPIC |
Operating systems / device drivers
Linux 2.4.x, 2.6.x
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| Android |
| Windows CE 5.0/6.0 |
| Windows Mobile 6.0 |
| eCos |
| FreeRTOS |
| Maven embedded OS |
| VxWorks development |
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Flash: OneNAND, NAND, NOR drivers
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| Bus / interface drivers: USB 1.1, 2.0, OTG,
PCI, mPCI,
SDIO,
PCMCIA,
SATA |
| ZigBee: MeshConnect, TI CC2420, CC2430 drivers |
| Bluetooth: CSR BC04/BC05 driver |
| Wi-Fi: Device drivers for 802.11a/b/g/n, Marvel, Microchip ZeroG |
| GSM / GPRS: Modem driver |
GPS: Skytraq Venus, LeadTek, SiRF star and ublox GPS drivers with NMEA / SiRF / TSIP / TAIP protocol support
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PLC (Power Line Communication): Yitran (HomePlug CC), Intellon / Atheros (HomePlug AV / 1.0) drivers
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| Ethernet: MI-II, RMI-II drivers |
| Serial: UART (RS232 & RS485), SPI, I2C, CAN drivers |
| Telecom: FXS, FXO drivers |
| Video: VGA, CCIR-656, MPEG2/4, H.264, MJPEG CODEC, OSD, LCD interface drivers |
| Audio: PCM, I2S, AC97 drivers |
| Touchpad drivers |
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Design expertise |
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Power management |
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Performance tuning |
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TI DaVinci audio video codecs (H.264, MPEG2/4, G711) |
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GUI library |
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Boot loaders |
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POST (power on systems tests) |
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Remote network upgrade |
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Remote diagnostics |
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File systems |
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USB stacks |
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Certifications and compliance |
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Technologies - solution details |
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 Operating systems / firmware: After selecting a right kind of processor, it is extremely important to select an appropriate operating environment. At Maven, we consider various factors such as memory footprints, performance, power requirements and licensing costs.
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Firmware development: Low memory foot-print data structures and programs are developed for controlling various peripherals. The hardware abstraction layer (HAL) contains drivers developed for interfaces such as RFID readers, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Weigand readers, USB host and device, UART, RS485, battery, LCD, keypad and IOs, touch screen and storage devices. Firmware development for different family of microcontrollers such as Microchip PIC (PIC18, PIC24, PIC32) and LPC series is done. These are primarily used in logistics management, location identification and asset tracking applications. |
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High end operating systems: High-end 32-bit processors with operating systems are used for different requirements such as support for video cameras, streaming applications, Wi-Fi, storage requirements and HMI displays. Maven has expertise in porting Linux 2.6, Android 2.0 and WinCE 5.0 and 6.0 on various platforms such as TI’s DaVinci and OMAP series, NXP’s LPC series and Intel’s PXA and IXP family of processors.
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Multimedia and user interface applications on Linux (based on DM368 or DM365) are developed by taking advantage of the hardware acceleration and software frameworks such as Linux GStreamer and TI’s digital video software development kit (DVSDK) Rich UI and video based application development is done using QT and specific codec plug-ins like H264 and MPEG4. |
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Applications like driver console with cameras, video based security surveillance systems and wireless DVR solutions are developed using operating system based applications. |
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Ask for more details |
 Bootloader / redundant image support / remote upgrade: Maven has developed bootloaders for flash and USB. Facility of on the fly image upgrade is provided. We also support redundant images. The applications are developed to support serial port, Ethernet and on-the-image upgrades.
 Storage and file systems: Firmware based drivers are developed for internal flash, EEPROM, external data flash, microSD card, standard SD card, USB mass storage, and hard disk. For high-end applications, Linux and WinCE based drivers are ported for USB SATA hard disk and USB mass-storage.
File systems such as FAT-32, NTFS, EXT-2, EXT-3, JFFS2, UBIFS, CRAMFS have been ported for Linux. FAT, TFAT and NTFS file systems have been ported for WinCE.
 Power management: Power management firmware is developed to provide fine level of control over individual devices such as displays, disks, modems, Wi-Fi, processor or any of the peripherals. Use of accelerometer, timer and other algorithms ensures extraordinarily long life on battery power.
 Mobile communications: Mobile solutions have become an integral part of all the devices used in real-time tracking, monitoring and control. To ensure fail safe communication, dual SIM card facility is provided. GSM, GPRS and 3G based communication mechanisms are used to support different application needs such as only data transfer or supporting multimedia streaming protocols. Modems from Simcom, Centerion, Telit and Wavecom are supported.
 GPS solutions: GPS solutions are used for fleet management and individual / logistics / asset tracking requirements. Interfacing of GPS modules from Skytraq, Venus, LeadTek – SiRF STAR III/LP, Ublox 5 has been successfully done at Maven.
 MEMs device/ accelerometer: MEMs sensor based devices / accelerometers are used in various solutions which need sensing of directions using ‘dead reckoning’ techniques in absence of GPS. Vertical falls or crash can be determined using these devices. In healthcare area these prove extremely useful for devices used in monitoring old people or patients. Drivers for Freescale MMA7455L have been integrated in all solutions.
 Wi-Fi solutions: Wi-Fi solutions with support for 802.11 b / g / n are designed considering factors such as range, number of nodes / traffic and type of data to be transferred. Wi-Fi drivers are developed for firmware based solutions used in home automation and security solutions. Wi-Fi drivers have also been ported on Linux and WinCE platforms with high bandwidth requirements for audio video streams transfer. High data rates have been achieved using throughput optimization techniques.
 Displays: Display options such as LED, character LCD, graphics LCD and TFT LCD display are used to suit product requirements. High end devices with TFT color LCD with touch screen are used with applications such as video streaming and audio-video communication with VGA and QVGA resolutions. Industrial HMIs / MMIs, security solutions and driver consoles are developed using high resolution – industrial grade displays.
Maven has developed drivers for firmware to support range of LCDs including character LCDs, graphic LCDS and TFT LCDs. Maven has also ported and customized drivers for Linux based TFT LCDs. Touch screen and keypad interfaces are provided as user touch points. Drivers for various touch screens and IO based keypads are developed at Maven.
 ADCs: Internal and external ADCs are used in solutions for industrial and home automation. If the resolution supported by internal ADCs is not sufficient, higher resolution external ADCs (16, 18 or 22 bits) are used. Drivers for architectures such as ‘Delta sigma’ and ‘SAR’ are supported depending on internal or application level sampling.
 PLC: Maven provides advanced ‘Power Line Communication’ solutions for retrofit solutions. RF or WiFi based networks have penetration problems through concrete walls or have issues over long distances. Sometimes wiring infrastructure becomes a problem as adding new communication back-bone to already available concealed wiring is near to impossible and a costly affair. These issues are tackled with PLC based solutions. These types of problems are typically observed in cold storage plants or existing facilities which need BMS solutions or places where industrial automation needs to be implemented. Maven’s PLC to wireless gateway proves to be a great advantage in such situations. Maven has developed firmware based solutions like PLC to RF, PLC to Ethernet and PLC to serial gateways.
 RF solutions: Support for low and high frequency RF modules is made available for different applications. 2.4 GHz, 433 MHz, licensed and open frequencies are used for applications needing wireless communication with different range requirements. Firmware applications are developed to support updating change of parameters and bulk data transfer over custom protocols. Special care is taken for power management and data is transferred in bursts or only when needed. RF repeater modules are designed for signal amplification to cover long distance communication and RF mesh networking solution. RF to PLC and RF to serial gateways are developed for communication between different mediums.
 Bluetooth / ZigBee: Bluetooth based solutions are used for connecting mobile phone applications for quick display and easy access of information of data from data loggers and controllers. Firmware for Bluetooth modules from CSR are integrated with solutions for data centric or device controlling industrial applications with support for services such as file-transfer and Obex.
ZigBee modules are integrated in home / office / industrial automation solutions. ZigBee protocol implementation for sensor communication and mesh networks has been developed.
 RFID solutions: RFID based solutions are developed for reading active and passive RFID tags. Firmware for RFID (TRF79xx ISO 14443 A/B, ISO 15693, ISO 18000-3) has been developed to read RFID tags.
 Protocol gateways: Maven has developed firmware for several gateways and protocol converters to ensure communication between non-compatible communication channels. Following gateways / protocol converters are developed.
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PLC to RF and RF to PLC |
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PLC to serial and serial to PLC |
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PLC to Ethernet and Ethernet to PLC |
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RF to serial and serial to RF |
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Ethernet to serial and serial to Ethernet (along with protocol conversions) |
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Ask for more details |
 USB: Drivers for USB 1.1, 2.0 and OTG support are developed / ported for various microcontrollers and processors. USB host support is provided for connectivity with mass storage devices, printers, etc. USB device support is provided for debugging and device charging. Solutions with multiple USBs with and without DMA support are integrated.
 Audio / video: Maven has integrated CCD cameras in high end security solutions with video surveillance. Maven has developed driver for 4-channel NTSC / PAL video decoder (TVP5158). Single camera is displayed using VGA resolution on LCD monitor and multiple cameras using QVGA resolution. TI DM365 based processor is used for a solution to capture streams from a CCD camera with VGA resolution and transferring streams over Wi-Fi. Video based application development is done using specific codec plug-ins like H264 and MPEG4. Audio codecs such as G.711 are integrated.
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