I want to develop a GSM/3G PacketAnalyzer for study purposes, a somewhat more simplified version of OsmocomBB withouth any TX modules. As some of you may know, even though OsmocomBB is open source it has not been ported but to some very old Motorola and SonyEricsson phones. I would love to be able to do something like OsmocomBB on a newer phone so I can link it with a modern android OS system. I've read that Broadcom is one of open-sourcest Gsm baseband processor manufacturers out there, so - sorry if I have passed some of the information accumulated over here - is there any way I can find any open source RTOS (Real Time Operating System) that is compatible with say Broadcom's BCM28155 so I can modify it and be able to read all GSM/3G stack and transfer this layer 1/2 data to android os? And also be able to re-flash the BCM with a high success rate? Did Broadcom release any CPU drivers or RTOS info on BCM28155?
Thanks!
Related
Hi all,
I am currently working on a research project that requires modification of the WinCE source code. Surprisingly, MS facilitates this by offering the platform builder along with a substantial portion of the WinCE source code - basically enough to make a platform functionally equivalent to Windows Mobile.
I've tested my work using the device emulator, but would now like to run some experiments on real hardware. So, I am looking for a phone that will allow me to do this; download my customized WinCE image and run it on the phone. From what I can tell, this boils down to having access to a board support package (BSP) for the specific hardware, which would allow me to compile an image fully compatible with the chipset and peripherals. However, I have gleaned from various sources that manufacturers aren't typically loose with BSP's. I currently have a Wizard, but have not had any luck finding a BSP.
Does anyone know of a smartphone with a corresponding BSP for WinCE/Mobile that is accessible to developers or enthusiasts? Here are further details of my plight:
- I work in an academic setting (Technology manufacturers are oftentimes willing to cut deals with academic researchers. It makes for good PR).
- I may be able to muster up some money, if necessary.
Thanks in advance,
-Matt
I know this is an incredibly newbish question, but I'd flipped through various forums and articles and googled it and still don't quite seem to understand it.
My question is why is android dependent upon manufacturer's release?
Take for example, a desktop computer.
OS
This is the core of the device and the UI between the user and the hardware.
Applications talk to the OS to instruct the hardware to do stuff.
Microsoft and Apple makes the OS.
ex. Windows 7, Mac OS, Linux.
Hardware
Asus, Nvidia, Realtek, marvell make the hardware.
ex. video, LAN, sound etc.
Hardware Bundler
Dell, Alienware, Gateway, Acer
They take commercial hardware and some OEM hardware and assemble it in a way that many consumers will buy their bundle.
For 99.9% of us, not counting Synapse, this is the only way the hardware is packaged together.
Device Standards
Collectively, the manufactures work together to determine certain industry standards ex. ATX, PCI-E, SATA 3, USB 3.0 etc...
Drivers
The manufacturers also make drivers so the OS can make use of their hardware.
Compatibility Is Determined by Driver Support
If the driver exists to talk to a given OS, then the hardware will work.
Not all hardware manufacturers will code for every OS out there.
ex. USB works on all OS because it's more established, but not every sound card will work on a Linux system.
Bringing it home...
So if Microsoft releases Windows 8, and as long as Nvidia releases a driver that works with that OS, then the video card will work.
Can you help me understand how the android phone architecture is so different that it's no longer
OS <-> Driver <-> Hardware?
Sorry for not getting it.
Culverin said:
Can you help me understand how the android phone architecture is so different that it's no longer
OS <-> Driver <-> Hardware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It isn't different, it's exactly as you written. But manufacturers usually don't release sources of drivers, neither binaries for newer versions of OS. Also many manufacturers add protection against installing your own software into "their" device.
Android is open, but many manufacturers of Android devices - aren't.
Many devices just like????
You say manufacturers, are you referring to components such as the modem (???), video encoding/decoding chip (tegra), sound chip (wolfson)? NFC chip?
Aren't these drivers publicly available?
How else would small companies be able to develop low volume items such as these?
http://www.bigboxstore.com/computers/android-tablet-pcs
http://cheapandroidtablet.org/
When a company, samsung for example, makes a phone.
They start tying all the components together and making them talk to each other.
How "custom" are the "motherboard bios"?
Is that what you are saying by the manufacturers add protection?
Like at the "bios" level?
As for things like this...
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/27/sony-announces-playstation-suite/
Does that mean Sony is banking on Google making it more standardized?
Culverin said:
You say manufacturers, are you referring to components such as the modem (???), video encoding/decoding chip (tegra), sound chip (wolfson)? NFC chip?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean both components manufacturers and phone manufacturers.
Usually there are problems with Wifi, GPS, GPU support, camera, etc. Many alpha-stage ports have problems with these things.
Culverin said:
Aren't these drivers publicly available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean sources? Manufacturers rarely release sources of drivers, even on a PC. This is the reason, why there are problems with some devices on linux systems.
Culverin said:
How else would small companies be able to develop low volume items such as these?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure, but they have to buy a license to use these components in their devices anyway, so I guess they get sources of drivers too, but they can't release them.
Culverin said:
How "custom" are the "motherboard bios"?
Is that what you are saying by the manufacturers add protection?
Like at the "bios" level?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"BIOS" or just "boot phase software" is usually 100% custom - there are no standard solutions I know of.
Let's imagine you have bought a new PC with some preinstalled OS. You don't have administrator rights on it, you can't boot from other device than HDD and if you want to update your system, you have to use special software, which has administrator rights, but it checks whether updates were created by device manufacturer. This is more or less how most of phones work.
Culverin said:
Does that mean Sony is banking on Google making it more standardized?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what do you mean?
Culverin said:
I know this is an incredibly newbish question, but I'd flipped through various forums and articles and googled it and still don't quite seem to understand it.
My question is why is android dependent upon manufacturer's release?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because individual makers add their own hardware.
Can you help me understand how the android phone architecture is so different that it's no longer
OS <-> Driver <-> Hardware?
Sorry for not getting it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It still is. Android OS is JUST THE BIOS, in your example. The VXDs/drivers are made by different manufacturers (hardware level drivers) and loaded at system time.
You can load a plain Android OS, but it won't be able to talk to the phone's hardware except in a very general sense. You can touch screen, launch apps, but no phone, and only generic camera without special resolution support and such. It won't be able to do data or phone at all. That requires special VXDs (or their linux equivalent, I'm a Windows guy). Not all phones have the same buttons, or the same screen rez, or the same keyboard, and so on.
That's why there are various experimental Gingerbread ROMs out there already, but they don't work that well, because nobody had debugged the "drivers" for the hardware yet.
And if nobody release the source of the drivers (even for the earlier versions) nobody can use that to figure out if they are compatible with the next OS rev. Binary hacking is way too difficult.
I have been reading some of the items about people modifying ROMS, porting ROMS, etc. and I am not certain if I have all of the terminology correct. I am wondering if there is some type of architecture definition or diagram that would indicate the different parts of a ROM.
I found one web post that broke items down to kernel, libraries, bootloader, recovery, radio, framework, core, android runtime. What I don't know is what kind of correlation there is between a framework and runtime to a kernel. Is this a situation like Linux where you have a kernel with all of its drivers and you would run the Android GUI on top of that and any version of the Android GUI is going to work with pretty much any kernel, or is there some type of match-up between a kernel and specific versions of Android?
I have an Elocity A7+ which uses a Tegra II 1ghz dual core CPU. It was only built with Android 2.2. It seems like this tablet should be able to run ICS fairly well since I have seen a number of single core tablets running it. The manufacturer made the kernel source available for this tablet, but what I don't understand is if it is possible to build the ICS framework and runtime with this kernel.
Without detailed information it would seem to me that the kernel is taking care of interfacing directly with items like the touch screen, the camera, the audio system, the buttons, the wi-fi, etc. Do requirements for kernel interfaces change from android version to android version or can an ICS framework communicate with the kernel from a 2.2 device? Is there any kind of documentation that indicates what kernel calls have to be available to the different Android versions?
I apologize if I am not asking the right questions.
May be a dumd question, but I'm asking anyway. Why is Android so hardware specific?. or better yet, why can't you install any android system on any phone?
example: you can install windows or linux on any system, you don't have to have a certain set of chips. Is it a propitiatory type thing with these phone makers. is the whole android system so small, that the coding can't be added to make it installable on any phone.
I'm not a coder, or prgrammer, I do understand it enough to read what it is doing, but cannot write anything. Can someone shed some light on this
Thanks in advance
You've got this completely bass ackwards. Android is decidedly not hardware specific. Phones, tablets, computers, car stereos, home heating/AC, watches, TVs, etc. Android is open source, which means anybody can develop it to work on just about any platform they wish. I mean, you can get refrigerators and microwaves that run Android for Pete's sake.
If you're complaining that you can't get Android on an iPhone or a Nokia Lumia, then you're barking up the wrong tree.
To add some more "devices" to the list above on which android can be installed - cars! I'm working in that industry now
And the answer above is right - if your device is totally closed for others, then you will not be able to install anything on it, maybe, without really breaking into it. Android can be put mostly on any hardware - if the hardware manufacturer wants it. The short description is - Android is implemented on top of HALs (Hardware Abstraction Layer) which are then implemented by manufacturers specific to their devices and then Android works "out of the box".
Warning: Fairly long query ahead
Hello, I recently purchased a Banana Pi Dev. Board, which is manufactured by Lemaker/Lenovator. In essence, it is a Raspberry Pi clone but with higher specifications (1GHz Dual Core Processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, SATA support etc). Every information regarding Allwinner A20 SoC is available at linux-sunxi.org/A20. The Android OS (4.2.2) compiled with Kernel is available at lemaker.org/resources/9-38/image_files.html
What I am trying to achieve is to enable Telephony, SMS, and USSD functionality via 2G/3G USB Dongle (usually based on Qualcomm or MediaTek chip-set). The problem here is that the above mentioned functions are available, after Software installation, on Systems running Windows XP/7/8, MAC OS etc. But for Android, the USB Dongle only connects the System to the Internet and nothing else. No other services are available.
The limited research that I have done tells me that A20 has the capacity for Telephony services as BUILD.PROP has following files in it:
rild.libargs=-d/dev/ttyUSB2
rild.libpath=/system/lib/libsoftwinner-ril.so
I think, theoretically, it is possible to turn this Dev. Board into a Smartphone (of sorts) via USB Dongle, but it requires playing around with Android RIL (Radio Interface Layer), of which I have absolutely zero clue.
Any help that I can get from this forum in this regard would be highly appreciated.
Anxiously waiting for some response.