Friday, May 15, 2009

Software Components need for Intel CE3100 development board

This is first time I involved in the Embed System development, all my previous experiment is OS kernel development so far, especially on the network part. so this Intel CE3100 is a brand new area for me. so let's start from some basic knowledge.

software components need for the Intel ce3100 development board. that is my understand of the system.
BIOS -- CEFDK (Consume Electric Firmware Development Kit)
BootLoader --- Redboot( small boot loader orignaly come with ceos. intel has burn it onto the on-board flash)
kernel -- Customized Linux zImage( could be modified when got SDK)
file system -- rootfs(pre-defined filesystem.has busybox inside, like kernel image, I think it also could be modified inside the SDK)

so the start procedures are:
1. CEFDK --->find Redboot,execult red boot.
2. reboot --->load kernel & file system from hard disk or network,into ram or flash
3. reboot --->execult the kernel and filesystem in format like :
exec -b 0x100000 -l 0x200000 -c "console=tty0,115200 root=/dev/mtdblock2
rootfstype=jffs2 ip=none"
4. kernel start with the pre-build filesystem. bring up the sh or ash.

Intel CE3100 Development Board


today, Received CE3100 development board from Intel.
first let's take a look at the develop board picture



and the interfaces on board

we did not received the SDK yet, the SDK need to download from Intel website with the access account. but the board do come with a hard disk and on-board flash, which have the redboot, pre-build kernel image, a rootfs system and some demo script.

basically, connect the board with power,hard disk,video out and hyper terminal. you can start see some demo through HDMI.

frankly speaking, this a fairly big board, also missing some key components like TV tuner, WiFi module.

we are going to discuss the detail software components on next post.