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How Embedded Systems Transforms the Healthcare Industry?

Imagine how cumbersome healthcare used to be in the past. Back then, a person not feeling well had to approach a doctor, who then proceeded to prescribe medicines based on his external symptoms. How accurate can the diagnosis be in such cases? The reason why a few decades ago a disease that we take for granted today could kill masses was because the diagnosis wasn’t thorough. Then the technology advanced. We got X-ray, ECG, EEG, MRI, CT, pulse oximeters, GlucoWatches, electronic defibrillators, and a large number of sophisticated gadgets (embedded systems) and acronyms that the general public has no idea about. Now, the technology is even more advanced. New microchips, nanotechnology, and embedded systems have managed to revolutionize the healthcare industry.General Electric – A Premier Provider of Medical Embedded SystemsLook at General Electric, the multi-billion dollar vendor of all kinds of electric systems. GE is the premier provider of medical embedded systems in the world. All kinds of technologies–from scanning machines, imaging systems, and diagnostic equipment–are there in GE’s range. Behind all these advanced systems is embedded technology. Take a look at this image of a huge PET scanner from GE, a perfect example of an embedded system:[Image Source: General Electric]Sensors for NewbornsI was perusing the acme of technology IEEE Spectrum, and I stumbled upon an article that describes what the future has in store for us. In the next few years, newborn babies will get tiny sensors within the first few minutes of their birth. A chip that is planted in the body of the infant continuously monitors its health condition, and the biometric data generated and stored in the cloud by the child through this chip within two years will be more than the entire amount of data created by everyone combined in the world today. In essence, this data can be used by medical professionals to track every aspect of the health of the child.Soon, medical gadgets will turn out to be more glittering and sophisticated than the ones in the books of Ian Fleming. A few days ago, BBC reported of a gadget–a tiny ring–that reports and catalogs a person’s medical conditions. This is a perfect wearable that comes handy in emergency situations as a microchip embedded inside this ring alerts paramedics during an emergency.[Image Source: BBC]Electronic TattoosYou have probably heard already about electronic tattoos that dilate with your skin. These temporary electronic tattoos are powered by solar energy and replace those bulky gadgets, such as a pacemaker, to monitor the health conditions of individuals. Since the material used is stretchable, sturdy, and highly flexible, you will not even know you are wearing a health monitor.When it comes to advanced robotics for intricate surgical procedures, check out the da Vinci Surgical System, manufactured by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. This is the only robotic surgery system with approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).But now, a team of geeks from University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Washington have successfully created a set of seven robotic surgery systems for use by medical research labs across the US. These systems use open-source approach for software development, cutting the cost of ownership to the bare minimum.When it comes to embedded technology within gadgets, you probably know about a number of technologies. There are real-time operating systems in the embedded world that find applications in military-grade equipment.Examples like QNX (acquired by BlackBerry), OSE, VxWorks, ucLinux, and LynxOS come into mind.From small embedded systems that monitor the heart rate or identifies a blockage in an artery, the technology seeped into intricate surgical procedures. It is quite possible that in the future you can own your own robot doctor, with or without remote assistance from a real one. As the functionality of embedded systems in use in healthcare increases, one thing that decreases is their size. A recent article in Discover suggests a possible device–a “microbot”–about a decade from now that can be inserted into your body by making a tiny surgical incision. The microbot can travel through your blood vessel and reach the area of concern. It can fix minor issues, such as blockage in an artery, and collect tissue specimens for testing. A tiny camera attached to this device can send high-definition images and videos to the doctor about what is happening in your body. The futuristic microbot can be powered by a tiny motor about the width of two human hairs.ConclusionAs you can see, medical technology has advanced quite a bit with the help of embedded technologies. Stretching the limits of the Moor’s law, semiconductors, processors, and chips are going down in size in an exponential fashion, while the number of transistors in each chip is growing by leaps and bounds. SoCs, embedded operating systems, and software that power these devices undergo some serious R&D. Aziro (formerly MSys Technologies) also has quite a bit of experience in embedded technologies and real-time OS (RTOS) making us a perfect innovator for the technology of tomorrow.

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How to build a super simple Linux Based Embedded System Using Buildroot

What’s an embedded system?An embedded system, in simple language, is designed for a specific requirement. It has its own operating software (or operating system), which is designed or specified by you. The coffee machine and the ID card reader at our office are examples of small embedded systems, but there are bigger ones.Have you ever thought of building an embedded system with your choice of hardware and OS modifications and software above it? Believe me; it’s not at all as arduous as it sounds. You need a little knowledge of C, Makefiles (compilation process), shell scripting, and a Linux based workstation, before you start. The process involves an open-source tool called Buildroot. You can download the latest version of Buildroot from www.buildroot.org. Consider you need a system with Linux OS running on an ARM processor with serial, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB modules loaded on it. You can get these pieces of hardware assembled from a hardware vendor or an electronics shop, if you ask for evaluation boards.[Fig: Evaluation board, Lantronix]The term “embedded” is used to indicate memory size restrictions, as it will be expensive to put a lot of memory into a small device. This creates hardware constraints in embedded systems.What about the software or operating system to run on this? Let’s have a look into this in the next section.BuildrootThe executables or software you develop on your PC will usually be only for its own hardware configuration (i.e., x86-based), but our target device is different in this case (i.e., ARM). If you have only one file, we can compile it with hardware specific flags in gcc, but what if we have thousands of files? How to build all the files for a different hardware configuration? Here comes Buildroot into picture.Buildroot is a cross-compilation environment. It provides all the options to compile and build software for specified target hardware. Basically, it’s a cross-compilation platform to generate an image according to the required architecture.Buildroot ConfigurationAs I mentioned earlier, you may download Buildroot and untar it. In Command Prompt, change the directory to the untared folder and issue “make menuconfig”. (You may be asked to install a few GNU-based packages on your host system to support the GUI of Buildroot; install them.)Here it goes; you can see a graphical interface as below.[Fig: Buildroot Main Screen/ Menuconfig]Go through the options, select target hardware or processor in “Target Options” menu. A snippet to select ARM processor is shown below.[Fig: Target Selection]Linux ConfigurationOne of the most important things to remember is the target hardware is different from our host. So, the same Linux OS running on your PC won’t run on the target hardware. We have to specify the Linux kernel as shown below.[Fig: Linux Selection]Once the kernel is downloaded and untared to a directory, you can change to that directory and issue the command “make linux-menuconfig”, to build the Linux OS and select the configuration options. Usually, you can specify the path to save the configuration.Now the “make” from the top directory (i.e., Buildroot) will give you the compiled Linux kernel, which gives you a kernel image in uImage format or one of your choice. Final Linux binary comes around 2MB of size.Busybox configurationOK, we got the kernel now, but have you wondered how Linux commands will be included to the target device? Who will put them into the device? The commands like “ls”, “ifconfig” etc., come with Busybox, which is a software package that provides lite Unix commands. Like Linux, we have to download and configure Busybox. You can change into Busybox directory and configure the stuff needed. Remember, this is an embedded device, and every “bit” matters. So you cannot have all the commands installed over it.Package selectionAs I mentioned repeatedly, because of memory constraints, Busybox selects lightweight commands only—low memory size. They can provide basic functionalities. You may also require a few advanced commands, such as “tar”. The Busybox version doesn’t support “-z” option, but a full version supports that. So you have to select the full target package, not the one which comes with Busybox.Think something like a dhcpv6 server on your target device, but it doesn’t come with Busybox by default, as it’s not a basic requirement. That command may be incorporated on the device by including it on the “Package Selection” menu. You can select “wide-dhcpv6” package under Networking Application to achieve this.Like this, you can go through the entire menu and get whichever package you need for your target.Target selectionYou can select the folder structure on your target device, like /bin, /tmp/, /usr, etc.Final ImageA “make” from the top directory will build the kernel image and root file system image for you.You can get the images at the “topdir/output/build/images” path. Then, you can transfer or load images by following the process mentioned below (or the evaluation board manual). Use conventional method like “tftp” to flash images into the device.Alternatively, use serial download to load the images to the device.If the board is fresh without any loaded binaries, you can use a “flash programmer”, which loads the binary at starting location of the flash.Sounds easy, right? I am here to read your reviews and comments. Please feel free, also, to voice your doubts.

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How to cross-compile Embedded Linux (Part 2): Kernel

This is the continuation of series of blogs about cross compiling, loading bootloader, Linux kernel and filesystem into an embedded development platform. Please check the previous blog for the target hardware and setup that is needed.In short, the embedded development platform is beaglebone black with MicroSD card. We have already partitioned the card in the first blog and please look into it for more info.Topics discussed in this document:A little bit about Linux kernelGetting the kernel source codeGet the proper config and start the compilation.Setup the toolchainCompiling the kernelFlashing the kernel imageA little bit about Linux kernelLinux Kernel is the biggest open source project for starters. This is the most dominant OS in the world (Yep, not windows!) and is the de facto platform which the embedded designers choose nowadays even for real time purposes.Even if you haven’t actually heard about it, using an android based smartphone means you are using a Linux kernel already. The Internet literally runs on machines based on Linux kernel. Let’s put it this way, the IT world depends on Linux to achieve its functionality. 98% of the TOP500 supercomputers use Linux as the core O.S. It runs on various embedded devices such as routers, wireless access points, smart TVs, NAS appliances and the list goes on and on.HistoryThe Linux kernel was created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his personal use and he released the source as free software under the GPL license to the open source world. After that, many people contributed code to the project and has since expanded to support large number of computer architectures. Linux rapidly attracted developers and users who adopted it as the kernel for other free software projects. The whole development activity is carried out through emails and patches.The Linux kernel has received contributions from nearly 10,000 programmers from more than 1,000 companies, including some of the largest software and hardware vendors.Getting the kernel source codeThe best place to get the kernel source code is from www.kernel.org website. It is always a good option to choose the stable version of the kernel, and the current stable kernel version is 4.8.7 (at the time when this document is written). Below is command for getting the 4.8.7 stable kernel version.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git$ wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/linux-4.8.7.tar.xzPlease look into the website to know more about available list of releases.The kernel source comes in compressed version, we can Untar and list the contents of the archive.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git$ tar xf linux-4.8.7.tar.xz kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git$ cd linux-4.8.7/ The directory structure looks very similar to the U-Boot bootloader which we have already seen. In fact U-boot took Linux kernel as reference and migrated to this format. Since many of the directories were explained in the U-Boot blog itself let us look into the details about the missing ones.block –> Contains support for block devices.crypto –> Contains support for cryptography. Linux kernel supports a large set of cryptographic algorithms and its supported protocols. Many modifications are made for each and every release. If you deeply look into the cryptographic support provided by the kernel you will understand why Linux kernel is one of the safest kernel’s to use.drivers –> Contains support for humongous set of peripherals devices. This contains almost 60 percent of the kernel code.firmware –> Contains binary or hex files that should be loaded onto the devices when they come up. This can happen either on boot or when the device is inserted into the target. These are mostly provided by the device vendor itself.fs –> Contains support for a large set of filesystem. This is also another major portion of the kernel code. Linux kernel has the best support when it comes to filesystem. In fact, Linux kernel provides the best possible filesystem support of all the O.S that exists in the world today.init –> Contains the initialization code which is non architecture specific. Most subsystems are initialized from here like interrupts, software interrupts, memory management, timers etc.kernel –> Contains the actual kernel related code like scheduler, timer, irqs and threads. You will be surprised to see that the kernel directory contains a small list of files only.lib –> Contains support for libraries. These are helper library functions which includes support for algorithms used for encryption, checking the integrity of the files and etc.mm –> Contains code related to the memory management. This is a very important feature of the Linux kernel. Virtual memory is one key functionality provided by the modern OSes today. This is very much architecture specific and a very complex subject to discuss. ARM processors with MMU can support upto 3 levels of page tables which is pretty much complex.net –> Contains code for networking support. This is also another major subsystem in the Linux kernel. Almost all the networking protocols are supported by the kernel and internet literally runs with the support of Linux.The other directories are self explanatory.Get the proper config and start the compilationAs with the bootloader each boards are categorized by a specific config file which comes with the Linux kernel itself. It is best advised to use the already available config file as it has been tested and is known to be working. All the configs files related to development platform are stored in their corresponding architecture specific directory.For example, in case of ARM processor, all related boards configs are kept at arch/arm/configs/. You can check this for other architectures also.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ ls arch/arm/configs/ -lThe above command gives us the list of available config files supported by this kernel. In this plethora of config files, “omap2plus_defconfig” is the config file which we need to use.Setup the toolchainAs we have downloaded the toolchain and untarred it for compiling the bootloader we need to do almost exactly the same setup here too, to compile the kernel. We need to setup the cross toolchain path so that it compiles the kernel.Below are the command for our machine:kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/u-boot$ export PATH=/home/kasi/git/gcc-linaro-6.1.1-2016.08-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin:$PATH; kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/u-boot$ export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/u-boot$ export ARCH=arm; After setting up the cross tool, we can now use the already available config file to create a .config file.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ make omap2plus_defconfig HOSTCC scripts/basic/fixdep HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/conf.o SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.c SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.lex.c SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.hash.c HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.o HOSTLD scripts/kconfig/conf # # configuration written to .config # kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ The output shows that the .config file was created.Let us check a few things here. When you execute the below command it will show the list of options/selections available for this kernel.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ make menuconfigFew things to note from the above image, at the top left corner it should show the architecture version for which we are compiling. In our case it is showing as ARM and it is the correct one. If it shows as x86 or anything else, then the cross toolchain path has not been setup correctly. We can now exit this menu and start the compilation.Please look into the available options as it will help you to get a better understanding.Compiling the kernelkasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ make uImage dtbs LOADADDR=0x80008000uImage –> Creates a kernel image which contains headers understood by U-Boot.dtbs –> Compile the device tree blobs.LOADADDR –> It is the physical address from which the kernel should start executing.The above command will start the compilation process. It may take from few minutes to hours to compile the kernel depending upon the build machine hardware specs and the list of options we have chosen this kernel to support. In the below case it took 12 to 15 minutes to compile the kernel.scripts/kconfig/conf --silentoldconfig Kconfig CHK include/config/kernel.release WRAP arch/arm/include/generated/asm/clkdev.h WRAP arch/arm/include/generated/asm/bitsperlong.h AS arch/arm/boot/compressed/piggy.o LD arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux OBJCOPY arch/arm/boot/zImage Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready UIMAGE arch/arm/boot/uImage "mkimage" command not found - U-Boot images will not be built arch/arm/boot/Makefile:77: recipe for target 'arch/arm/boot/uImage' failed make[1]: *** [arch/arm/boot/uImage] Error 1 arch/arm/Makefile:330: recipe for target 'uImage' failed make: *** [uImage] Error 2 kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ If you get an error like this don’t panic. Actually it needs a tool “mkimage” with which it should be able to create the uImage. It is provided by the package u-boot-tools.Dependency installation (if any)kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ sudo apt install u-boot-toolsNow rerun the above make command again so that uImage is created.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ make uImage dtbs LOADADDR=0x80008000 CHK include/config/kernel.release CHK include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h CHK include/generated/utsrelease.h CHK include/generated/timeconst.h CHK include/generated/bounds.h CHK include/generated/asm-offsets.h CALL scripts/checksyscalls.sh CHK include/generated/compile.h CHK kernel/config_data.h Kernel: arch/arm/boot/Image is ready Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready UIMAGE arch/arm/boot/uImage Image Name: Linux-4.8.7 Created: Tue Nov 15 11:40:41 2016 Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed) Data Size: 3852856 Bytes = 3762.55 kB = 3.67 MB Load Address: 80008000 Entry Point: 80008000 Kernel: arch/arm/boot/uImage is ready We have compiled our own Linux kernel image. The image should be available in“arch/arm/boot/” and the device tree blobs should be available in “arch/arm/boot/dts/“. The device tree blob which belongs to BBB is “am335x-boneblack.dtb“.Flashing the kernel imageThere are many to ways to test the built kernel image. If we are early in our development phase and trying to freeze on a kernel version to choose then it would be better to boot the built kernel through tftp. From U-Boot cli, using tftp we can directly load the uImage and dtbs into the RAM and start execution from there. If there are any issues with kernel like crashes or it doesn’t load any subsystem or if you want to try any other kernel version it is as easy as resetting the device and from U-Boot prompt try to loading another kernel image of your choice. This kind of development is very fast and a much preferred one. We are not going to follow that procedure here. We are going to load the kernel image into the Micro SD card and make sure the boot loader loads the uImage from there. It is like having a static image that we don’t want to change with time. As you can guess in this method you can stop any time in the bootloader prompt and try to load the kernel image which you want to test.Since we have decided to boot from Micro SD card we need to copy these images into the MicroSD card’s boot partition (partition type FAT16 with boot flag set). We need to add one more file by the name uEnv.txt to the boot partition. We can create this file in our build machine, copy the below contents to that file and then copy the file back to the Micro SD card’s boot partition.aziro_kernel=fatload mmc 0 0x80008000 uImage aziro_dtb=fatload mmc 0 0x88008000 am335x-boneblack.dtb aziro_load=bootm 0x82000000 - 0x88000000 uenvcmd=run aziro_kernel; run aziro_dtb; run aziro_load; After copying the uEnv.txt file to the Micro SD card the contents of the boot partition should be like this.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ ls /media/kasi/BOOT/ am335x-boneblack.dtb MLO u-boot.img uEnv.txt uImage And the contents of the txt file should read like this.kasi@kasi-desktop:~/git/linux-4.8.7$ cat /media/kasi/BOOT/uEnv.txt aziro_kernel=fatload mmc 0 0x80008000 uImage aziro_dtb=fatload mmc 0 0x88008000 am335x-boneblack.dtb aziro_load=bootm 0x80008000 - 0x88008000 uenvcmd=run aziro_kernel; run aziro_dtb; run aziro_load; Now remove the Micro SD card, insert it in the target and follow the procedure to boot from Micro SD card. It should boot with the kernel which we have compiled.Few points to note if no log messages are seen in the serial portIf the kernel is not booting up, then try to change the cmdline parameter:Default will be like:CONFIG_CMDLINE="root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait console=ttyO2,115200"Now change this to:CONFIG_CMDLINE="root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait console=ttyO0,115200"This is the bootlog for the kernel which is loading.U-Boot SPL 2016.11-rc3-00044-g38cacda-dirty (Nov 14 2016 - 13:02:35) ############################ ##### AZIRO Technologies #### ##### We were here #### ############################ Trying to boot from MMC1 reading uboot.env ** Unable to read "uboot.env" from mmc0:1 ** Using default environment reading u-boot.img reading u-boot.img reading u-boot.img reading u-boot.img U-Boot 2016.11-rc3-00044-g38cacda-dirty (Nov 14 2016 - 13:02:35 +0530) CPU : AM335X-GP rev 2.0 Model: TI AM335x BeagleBone Black DRAM: 512 MiB NAND: 0 MiB MMC: OMAP SD/MMC: 0, OMAP SD/MMC: 1 reading uboot.env ** Unable to read "uboot.env" from mmc0:1 ** Using default environment not set. Validating first E-fuse MAC Net: eth0: ethernet@4a100000 Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0 switch to partitions #0, OK mmc0 is current device SD/MMC found on device 0 reading boot.scr ** Unable to read file boot.scr ** reading uEnv.txt 193 bytes read in 7 ms (26.4 KiB/s) Loaded env from uEnv.txt Importing environment from mmc0 ... Running uenvcmd ... reading uImage 3852896 bytes read in 252 ms (14.6 MiB/s) reading am335x-boneblack.dtb 34185 bytes read in 8 ms (4.1 MiB/s) ## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 80008000 ... Image Name: Linux-4.8.7 Created: 2016-11-15 9:57:37 UTC Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed) Data Size: 3852832 Bytes = 3.7 MiB Load Address: 80008000 Entry Point: 80008000 Verifying Checksum ... OK ## Flattened Device Tree blob at 88008000 Booting using the fdt blob at 0x88008000 Loading Kernel Image ... OK Loading Device Tree to 8fff4000, end 8ffff588 ... OK Starting kernel ... [ 0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0 [ 0.000000] ################################## [ 0.000000] ###### AZIRO Technologies ###### [ 0.000000] ###### We were here too ###### [ 0.000000] ################################## [ 0.000000] Linux version 4.8.7 (kasi@kasi-desktop) (gcc version 6.1.1 20160711 (Linaro GCC 6.1-2016.08) ) #3 SMP Tue Nov 15 15:27:26 IST 2016 [ 0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [413fc082] revision 2 (ARMv7), cr=10c5387d [ 0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache [ 0.000000] OF: fdt:Machine model: TI AM335x BeagleBone Black [ 0.000000] cma: Reserved 16 MiB at 0x9e800000 [ 0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writeback [ 0.000000] CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode. [ 0.000000] AM335X ES2.0 (sgx neon ) [ 0.000000] percpu: Embedded 15 pages/cpu @df913000 s31080 r8192 d22168 u61440 [ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 129408 [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait console=ttyO0,115200 [ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes) [ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes) [ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes) [ 0.000000] Memory: 480212K/522240K available (7168K kernel code, 771K rwdata, 2368K rodata, 1024K init, 8121K bss, 25644K reserved, 16384K cma-reserved, ) [ 0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout: [ 0.000000] vector : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB) [ 0.000000] fixmap : 0xffc00000 - 0xfff00000 (3072 kB) [ 0.000000] vmalloc : 0xe0800000 - 0xff800000 ( 496 MB) [ 0.000000] lowmem : 0xc0000000 - 0xe0000000 ( 512 MB) [ 0.000000] pkmap : 0xbfe00000 - 0xc0000000 ( 2 MB) [ 0.000000] modules : 0xbf000000 - 0xbfe00000 ( 14 MB) [ 0.000000] .text : 0xc0008000 - 0xc0800000 (8160 kB) [ 0.000000] .init : 0xc0b00000 - 0xc0c00000 (1024 kB) [ 0.000000] .data : 0xc0c00000 - 0xc0cc0f6c ( 772 kB) [ 0.000000] .bss : 0xc0cc2000 - 0xc14b0570 (8122 kB) [ 0.000000] Running RCU self tests [ 0.000000] Hierarchical RCU implementation. [ 0.000000] RCU lockdep checking is enabled. [ 0.000000] Build-time adjustment of leaf fanout to 32. [ 0.000000] RCU restricting CPUs from NR_CPUS=2 to nr_cpu_ids=1. [ 0.000000] RCU: Adjusting geometry for rcu_fanout_leaf=32, nr_cpu_ids=1 [ 0.000000] NR_IRQS:16 nr_irqs:16 16 [ 0.000000] IRQ: Found an INTC at 0xfa200000 (revision 5.0) with 128 interrupts [ 0.000000] OMAP clockevent source: timer2 at 24000000 Hz [ 0.000016] sched_clock: 32 bits at 24MHz, resolution 41ns, wraps every 89478484971ns [ 0.000038] clocksource: timer1: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 79635851949 ns [ 0.000081] OMAP clocksource: timer1 at 24000000 Hz [ 0.000552] clocksource_probe: no matching clocksources found [ 0.001435] Console: colour dummy device 80x30 [ 0.001495] Lock dependency validator: Copyright (c) 2006 Red Hat, Inc., Ingo Molnar [ 0.001505] ... MAX_LOCKDEP_SUBCLASSES: 8 [ 0.001513] ... MAX_LOCK_DEPTH: 48 [ 0.001521] ... MAX_LOCKDEP_KEYS: 8191 [ 0.001529] ... CLASSHASH_SIZE: 4096 [ 0.001537] ... MAX_LOCKDEP_ENTRIES: 32768 [ 0.001545] ... MAX_LOCKDEP_CHAINS: 65536 [ 0.001552] ... CHAINHASH_SIZE: 32768 [ 0.001560] memory used by lock dependency info: 5167 kB [ 0.001568] per task-struct memory footprint: 1536 bytes [ 0.001601] Calibrating delay loop... 996.14 BogoMIPS (lpj=4980736) [ 0.078741] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301 [ 0.079192] Security Framework initialized [ 0.079334] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) [ 0.079347] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) [ 0.082691] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok [ 0.084154] CPU0: thread -1, cpu 0, socket -1, mpidr 0 [ 0.084230] Setting up static identity map for 0x80100000 - 0x80100070 [ 0.088466] Brought up 1 CPUs [ 0.088492] SMP: Total of 1 processors activated (996.14 BogoMIPS). [ 0.088502] CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode. [ 0.092409] devtmpfs: initialized [ 0.129785] VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 3 part 30 variant c rev 3 [ 0.130677] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns [ 0.132282] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem [ 0.137079] NET: Registered protocol family 16 [ 0.143206] DMA: preallocated 256 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations [ 0.188334] omap_hwmod: debugss: _wait_target_disable failed [ 0.242397] cpuidle: using governor menu [ 0.255562] OMAP GPIO hardware version 0.1 [ 0.280850] No ATAGs? [ 0.280877] hw-breakpoint: debug architecture 0x4 unsupported. [ 0.281102] omap4_sram_init:Unable to allocate sram needed to handle errata I688 [ 0.281118] omap4_sram_init:Unable to get sram pool needed to handle errata I688 [ 0.326561] edma 49000000.edma: TI EDMA DMA engine driver [ 0.331170] SCSI subsystem initialized [ 0.332881] omap_i2c 44e0b000.i2c: could not find pctldev for node /ocp/l4_wkup@44c00000/scm@210000/pinmux@800/pinmux_i2c0_pins, deferring probe [ 0.332998] omap_i2c 4819c000.i2c: could not find pctldev for node /ocp/l4_wkup@44c00000/scm@210000/pinmux@800/pinmux_i2c2_pins, deferring probe [ 0.333257] pps_core: LinuxPPS API ver. 1 registered [ 0.333270] pps_core: Software ver. 5.3.6 - Copyright 2005-2007 Rodolfo Giometti [ 0.333319] PTP clock support registered [ 0.337569] clocksource: Switched to clocksource timer1 [ 0.438537] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.6.0 [ 0.438724] VFS: Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes) [ 0.470052] NET: Registered protocol family 2 [ 0.472005] TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes) [ 0.472107] TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 5, 147456 bytes) [ 0.473276] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096) [ 0.473477] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 2, 20480 bytes) [ 0.473648] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 2, 20480 bytes) [ 0.474451] NET: Registered protocol family 1 [ 0.476406] RPC: Registered named UNIX socket transport module. [ 0.476433] RPC: Registered udp transport module. [ 0.476444] RPC: Registered tcp transport module. [ 0.476454] RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module. [ 0.479729] hw perfevents: enabled with armv7_cortex_a8 PMU driver, 5 counters available [ 0.483994] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: 2, 16384 bytes) [ 0.484217] audit: initializing netlink subsys (disabled) [ 0.484459] audit: type=2000 audit(0.470:1): initialized [ 0.488422] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=17 bucket_order=3 [ 0.491038] NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type [ 0.491368] Key type id_resolver registered [ 0.491383] Key type id_legacy registered [ 0.491534] jffs2: version 2.2. (NAND) (SUMMARY) �© 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc. [ 0.496681] io scheduler noop registered [ 0.496707] io scheduler deadline registered [ 0.496824] io scheduler cfq registered (default) [ 0.499185] pinctrl-single 44e10800.pinmux: 142 pins at pa f9e10800 size 568 [ 0.501857] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled [ 0.507841] omap_uart 44e09000.serial: no wakeirq for uart0 [ 0.508472] 44e09000.serial: ttyO0 at MMIO 0x44e09000 (irq = 158, base_baud = 3000000) is a OMAP UART0 [ 1.218200] console [ttyO0] enabled [ 1.261748] brd: module loaded [ 1.288730] loop: module loaded [ 1.294385] mtdoops: mtd device (mtddev=name/number) must be supplied [ 1.304075] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed [ 1.377622] davinci_mdio 4a101000.mdio: davinci mdio revision 1.6 [ 1.384001] davinci_mdio 4a101000.mdio: detected phy mask fffffffe [ 1.394381] libphy: 4a101000.mdio: probed [ 1.398751] davinci_mdio 4a101000.mdio: phy[0]: device 4a101000.mdio:00, driver SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720 [ 1.409691] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet: Detected MACID = c8:a0:30:af:7e:3d [ 1.421534] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice [ 1.427370] i2c /dev entries driver [ 1.433707] omap_hsmmc 48060000.mmc: Got CD GPIO [ 1.558869] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs [ 1.566706] oprofile: using arm/armv7 [ 1.571341] Initializing XFRM netlink socket [ 1.576148] NET: Registered protocol family 10 [ 1.587785] sit: IPv6, IPv4 and MPLS over IPv4 tunneling driver [ 1.596392] NET: Registered protocol family 17 [ 1.601280] NET: Registered protocol family 15 [ 1.606285] Key type dns_resolver registered [ 1.610982] omap_voltage_late_init: Voltage driver support not added [ 1.617682] sr_dev_init: No voltage domain specified for smartreflex0. Cannot initialize [ 1.626120] sr_dev_init: No voltage domain specified for smartreflex1. Cannot initialize [ 1.635272] ThumbEE CPU extension supported. [ 1.639836] Registering SWP/SWPB emulation handler [ 1.644846] SmartReflex Class3 initialized [ 1.686505] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch, assuming write-enable [ 1.699452] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address aaaa [ 1.709476] mmcblk0: mmc0:aaaa SL08G 7.40 GiB [ 1.718495] random: fast init done [ 1.723267] mmc1: new high speed MMC card at address 0001 [ 1.733401] mmcblk0: p1 p2 [ 1.740069] mmcblk1: mmc1:0001 MMC02G 1.79 GiB [ 1.751587] mmcblk1boot0: mmc1:0001 MMC02G partition 1 1.00 MiB [ 1.759861] mmcblk1boot1: mmc1:0001 MMC02G partition 2 1.00 MiB [ 1.770808] mmcblk1: p1 p2 [ 1.785471] tps65217 0-0024: TPS65217 ID 0xe version 1.2 [ 1.792114] omap_i2c 44e0b000.i2c: bus 0 rev0.11 at 400 kHz [ 1.802517] omap_i2c 4819c000.i2c: bus 2 rev0.11 at 100 kHz [ 1.810044] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0) [ 1.815338] sr_init: No PMIC hook to init smartreflex [ 1.820944] sr_init: platform driver register failed for SR [ 1.849865] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): couldn't mount as ext3 due to feature incompatibilities [ 1.863870] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem [ 1.871676] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): write access will be enabled during recovery [ 1.890566] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): recovery complete [ 1.900088] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) [ 1.908821] VFS: Mounted root (ext4 filesystem) readonly on device 179:2. [ 1.918129] devtmpfs: error mounting -2 [ 1.924181] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1024K (c0b00000 - c0c00000) [ 1.931942] Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found. Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/init.txt for guidance. [ 1.945847] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found. Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/init.txt for guidance. It took just two seconds to boot the kernel.We shall fix this in the next blog and get a complete working embedded Linux machine with the tools we need. The panic is because the kernel is not able to find “init” binary and hand over control to it.[/vc_column_text]

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How to Leverage Embedded Web Server for Globalizing the PLC Systems?

A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC or programmable controller) is a device that can be programmed to perform a series or sequence of events. These events are triggered by some stimuli (usually called inputs) received by the PLC or through delayed actions such as time delays or counted occurrences. When an event trigger occurs, its associated electronic device is actuated through the turning on or off of the electronic control gear. A programmable controller will continually loop through its internal, user-defined program waiting for inputs and giving outputs at the programmed times. PLCs with anti-interference and high reliability are widely used in industrial control. However, PLCs are hard to implement using the embedded intelligent control algorithm for web-based control systems. Here, we can use an embedded controller that can act as a web server—which has Ethernet and wireless configuration and can deal with the global network. In this article, let’s see how we can implement an embedded web server. With the rapid improvement of embedded controllers, integrated microcontrollers are used to satisfy all kinds of demands of the industry. Other such systems as SCADA need more cost to implement, and it is not worthwhile for small PLC systems. Why embedded web servers? Embedded servers are an emerging device technology used in industries and other places like automated traffic signals, where accuracy and instant response are needed. They support all the networking protocols, such as TCP/IP, I2C, SPI, HTTP, etc. We can customize and design the embedded web server, or we can purchase the embedded server which satisfies our needs. Interfacing the PLC and the embedded web server This is an entire web control system consisting of embedded controller, PLC, access point, and routers. The web server consists of Ethernet, wireless LAN, and RS232 communication support, which can be configured to communicate with the global network. The web server deals with Ethernet and server configuration. And the TCP/IP method is implemented in it using the desired C/C++ coding. The algorithm implemented on the board handles the data from the global network. The data received from the global network is handled and analyzed by the embedded web servers. Then the required data is transferred to the PLC through a UART port. HTML and JavaScript are also included in the box to effect web display and user interaction. The data from the user is sent by the POST input methods in HTML. Then the corresponding data is retrieved by our base code. Ethernet/wireless communication which integrates the embedded controller with the real world In an Ethernet network, the interface to the network is an Ethernet controller chip and its driver. The Ethernet driver contains the program code that manages communication between the controller chip and a higher level in the network protocol stack. To send an IP datagram over an Ethernet network, the IP layer passes the datagram to the Ethernet controller’s driver. The driver instructs the Ethernet controller to transmit an Ethernet frame containing the datagram, preceded by a header that contains addressing and error-checking information. To receive an IP datagram from the network, the Ethernet controller checks to see if the destination address matches the interface’s hardware address or a multicast or broadcast address that the controller is configured to accept. If there is a match, the controller checks for errors and the driver passes the datagram or an error indication to the IP layer. This cannot be directly implemented in PLC, and the protocol algorithm for TCP/IP cannot be directly configured in PLC. But in the meanwhile, in embedded controllers, it can be implemented and can be used for various applications based on the user needs. RS 232, a standard and simple protocol that interfaces the PLC and embedded controller An RS-232 serial port used to be a standard feature of a PC that is used for connection to printers, modems, data storage, mice, uninterruptible power supplies, and other peripheral devices. However, the low transmission speed, large voltage swing, and large standard connectors promoted development of the Universal Serial Bus, which has supplanted RS-232 in most of its peripheral interface roles. Many modern PCs have no RS-232 ports and must use either an external USB-to-RS-232 converter or an internal expansion card with one or more serial ports to connect to RS-232 peripherals. RS-232 devices are still found especially in industrial machines, networking equipment, and scientific instruments. Most of the PLC and other instrumentation devices have this serial port, and through this port, we can communicate with the embedded controllers. It supports full duplex communication, and it has to be configured at both ends for proper synchronization. Conclusion A Web PLC used for data acquisition and control, based on embedded web server, has been explained, implemented, and tested successfully. The system adopts browser/server mode and controls the remote systems. Therefore, remote users can control and manage the operation using a web browser over the Internet. With the rapid development of industrial process control and the wide range of applications in network intelligence, it is necessary to make the data accuracy and reliability of a control system higher. This embedded system can adapt to the strict requirements of the data acquisition and control systems such as the function, reliability, cost, size, power consumption, and remote access. This system is operated by an embedded web server to acquire the signals and control the devices remotely. Embedded web server mode is used to share the data with clients online. This system is a substitute for PLC – SCADA system. Do share your comments and doubts.

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