1/29/09

[08:39:22] Apparently imgtec is short for Imagination Technologies. Imagination Technologies (formerly known as VideoLogic) has a branch called PowerVR that creates both hardware and software intellectual property for 2D and 3D rendering.

It also creates these intellectual property for video encoding, decoding, and associated image processing. PowerVR SGX is a pixel, vertex, and geometry shader hardware.

1/26/09

[05:22:10] GPIO is an acroynym that stands for General Purpose Input/ Output.

GPIOs are often placed into groups of 8 pins. In some cases, GPIOs may use Direct Memory Access in order to move large amounts of data in an efficient manner.

[05:31:29] PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect and is a commonly used interface. Typical PCI cards used in PCs include: sound cards, USB/Serial ports, and other such hardware. The PCI Local Bus (often referred to as PCI), is used for attaching hardware devices in a computer such as a planar device (an Integrated Circuit that is mounted onto the motherboard), or an expansion card.

BeagleBoard Contest

The first ever BeagleBoard design contest has ended. The top 2 winners recieved a BeagleBoard Rev C1 as their prize. The BeagleBoard revision C1 has a working USB HOST and the newest OMAP3 silicon revision. The winners are recieving their boards 2 month before it is made publically available by DigiKey, in March of 2009.

The winning design was the BeagleBot, which essentially dodged walls and obstacles. The projects entered into the contest can be found at http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/contest. This cite also provides information on the contest, judging criteria, and judging results.

The second contest's dates have not yet been decided on, but it is said that the deadline will be no earlier than February 12th, 2009. We encourage everybody to enter a project in the next contest. I look forward to seeing all of your creative and innovative designs.

12/11-12/08

[09:01:26] The SRM firmware, also referred to as the SRM console, is the boot firmware for computer systems based on the Alpha AXP microprocessor. The acronym SRM originated form the phrase Alpha System Reference Manual. The SRM console is capable of display on either a graphical adapter or a serial connection to a VT100-compatible terminal.

In the context of Beagle, the SRM refers to the System Reference Manual as was written by Gerald Coley and shared at http://beagleboard.org/static/BBSRM_latest.pdf.

[09:07:51] A .tar file (Commonly referred to as a tarball) is usually compressed to save disk space. Tar (derived from tape archive) is both a file format and the name of the program used for handling tar files. It is commonly used to assemble collections of files into one larger file, while maintaining file system information.

12/8-10/08

[13:49:16] PowerVR is a branch of Imagination Technologies. They develops hardware and software intellectual properties for 2D and 3D rendering, video encoding, decoding, and other related image processing. The PowerVR technology is aimed towards the low-power industry and can be found in many mobile devices.

[12:53:42] Crofton defined ML as "mail list" on December 10th, 2008.

Update

From this point forward, I will name my post based on the days of the corresponding IRC logs, not the day that I create my post.

For Example: Instead of naming todays post 12/08/08 I will name it 12/06/08, because I am reviewing December 6th's IRC log.

12/06/08

[05:47:15] A Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is commonly used for mass production purposes. It supports and connects electronic components by using conductive pathways etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It may also be refered to as a printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).

[17:07:59] There have been people who have had a touch screen working with the BeagleBoard.


[12:22:17] A QFN (Quad Flat No leads) is an integrated circuit (IC) package used on printed circuit boards. The package comes with an exposed thermal pad that increases thermal preformance by providing an efficient heat transfer path when soldered directly to the PCB.

[15:37:13] Koen said on 12/6/08 that the best way to use dsp through gstreamer is by using the CE gstreamer plugins.