UPTEC IT 11 016 Examensarbete 30 hp December 2011 An Evaluation of the PandaBoard as a Set-Top-Box in an Android Environment Torbjörn Svangård 2 Abstract An Evaluation of the PandaBoard as a Set-Top-Box in an Android Enviroment Torbjörn Svangård Teknisk- naturvetenskaplig fakultet UTH-enheten The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the potential of the PandaBoard to take the role as an Android based Set-Top-Box (STB). A STB is a device that converts an external Besöksadress: signal into viewable video on a connected television. The PandaBoard is a low-cost Ångströmlaboratoriet Lägerhyddsvägen 1 development platform intended for mobile software development and is based on a Hus 4, Plan 0 chipset, OMAP4, developed and manufactured by Texas Instruments. Postadress: During the thesis implementation phase a PandaBoard was configured to run Android; Box 536 751 21 Uppsala a popular operating system mainly used in smartphones. A DVB-T2 device was attached to one of the USB-ports on the PandaBoard in order to recieve terrestrial Telefon: digital television broadcasts. 018 – 471 30 03 Telefax: The main obstacle was the fact that despite very promising video accelerated 018 – 471 30 00 hardware specifications on the PandaBoard, they were not available for evalutaion. During the thesis pilot study it became clear that hardware accelerated video playback Hemsida: was not yet supported for the PandaBoard Android-port. Programmable OpenGL ES http://www.teknat.uu.se/student 2.0 shaders was used instead in order to offload the PandaBoard CPU as much as possible. Although this thesis may not be conclusive in terms of the impressive video accelration hardware present on the PandaBoard, the thesis will demonstrate what can be achieved with a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor together with OpenGL ES 2.0 on a system running the Android operating system. The thesis work was performed at the Syntronic Software Innovation office in Kista, Stockholm. Handledare: David Näslund Ämnesgranskare: Arnold Pears Examinator: Anders Jansson ISSN: 1401-5749, UPTEC IT11 016 Tryckt av: Reprocentralen ITC 4 Sammanfattning Syftet med denna rapport ¨ar att utv¨ardera potentialen av utvecklingskortet PandaBoard i rollen som en Androidbaserad set-top-box (STB) !n STB ¨ar en en"et som anv¨ands f¨or att omvandla en extern signal till en videostr¨om som kan visas p#aen ansluten TV !n PandaBoard ¨ar ett utvecklingskort som ¨ar avsedd f¨or utveckling av programvara f¨or s#a kallade smartphones Pandaboardkortet baseras p#aett c"ipset% &'AP4, som utvecklats oc" tillverkas av Texas Instruments. Under examensarbetets implementationsfas kon*gurerades ett PandaBoardkort f¨or att anv¨anda Android Android ¨ar ett popul¨art operativsystem som #ater*nns fr¨amst i smarta mobiltelefoner En +VB-T, dongle kopplades in p#aen av PandaBoardkortets )SB-portar f¨or att f#atillg#ang till marks¨and digital-TV. +et st¨orsta "indret under arbetest g#ang var det faktum att trots mycket lovande specifikationer f¨or "#ardvaruaccelereread videouppspelning p#aPandaBoardkortet% s#avar drivrutiner f¨or Android dessv¨arre inte tillg¨angliga f¨or utv¨ardering. Under examensarbetets f¨orstudie blev det uppenbart att "#ardvaruaccelererad videouppspelning ¨annu inte st¨oddes f¨or PandaBoardkortets androidport Programmerbara &pen-. ES , / s"aders anv¨andes i st¨allet f¨or att avlasta PandaBoardkortets CP) s#amycket som m¨ojligt Aven¨ om denna uppsats inte ¨ar utt¨ommande vad g¨aller den imponerande "#ardvara f¨or video acceleration p#a PandaBoardkortet% s#akommer rapporten redog¨ora vad som kan uppn#asmed en dual core ARM Cortex-A9-processor tillsammans med &pen-. !S , / i ett system med linuxdistributionen Android som operativsystem. !xamensarbetet utf¨ordes p#aplats hos Syntronic Soft4are Innovation i 5ista, Stock"olm. 6 7 Contents 1 Background 11 8 8 The PandaBoard 88 8 8 8 +ucati Sub System 88 8 8 , Pandroid 88 8 , The +VB-pro1ect 89 8 9 +igital Terrestrial Television in S4eden 89 8 9 8 Past and present 89 8 9 , +TTV in the future 89 8 4 Content protection 14 8 6 Set-Top-Box requirements 86 2 Problem description 17 , 8 Linux kernel +VB-stack 8; , , +VB-T2 8< , 9 +ecoding Audio and Video 8< 3 Methods 19 4 Implementation 21 4.8 System peripherals ,8 4.8 8 Usb devices ,8 4.8 , =+'( ,9 4.8 9 The S+-Card ,9 4., System soft4are 24 4., 8 +VB Utils Library 24 4., , >>'peg Library ,6 4., 9 Color space conversion ,7 4., 4 &penG. !S , / ,< 4.9 Results and evaluation ,< 4.9 8 System performance ,< 4.9 , Po4er consumption ,3 5 onclusions 31 6 8 Unsolved problems 98 6 8 8 Audio playback 98 6 8 , Accelerated video playback 98 ! "uture #ork 33 Bibliograph$ 35 ; CONTENTS CONTENTS % P &' nanoStick T2 290e PCB 37 < Glossary ADB Android +ebug Bridge A$0 Advanced Video Coding ATS0 Advanced Television Systems 0ommittee 0&>+' Coded Ort"ogonal >requency +ivision 'odulation +VB-T +igital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial +VB-T2 +igital Video Broadcasting - Second -eneration Terrestrial +TTV Digital Terrestrial Television !PG !lectronic Program -uide -LSL &pen-. Shading Language -PU -rap"ics Processing Unit =+TV High +efinition Television ($A-=+ Image Video Accelerator - =igh +e*nition ISS (maging Sub System 'PE- 'oving Picture !xperts -roup ')? 'ultiplexer &!' &riginal !:uipment 'anufacturers &>+' &rt"ogonal >requency +ivision 'odulation &'AP &pen 'ultimedia Application Platform &pen-. !S , / Open -raphics .ibrary for !mbedded Systems PCB Printed Circuit Board S+TV Standard +efinition Television S('+ Single (nstruction 'ultiple +ata SoC System-on-a-Chip STB Set-Top-Box TI Texas (nstruments 3 CONTENTS CONTENTS 8/ Chapter 1 Background 1.1 The PandaBoard The PandaBoard is a low-po4er and low-cost platform intended for mobile soft4are development It is e:uipped 4it" a 4t" generation &pen 'ultimedia Application Platform (&'AP4) chip The &'AP brand name is a family of System on 0"ips (SoC) for mobile multimedia applications developed and manufactured by t"e American semiconductor and computer tec"nology company Texas (nstruments, widely known as T( The PandaBoard is e:uipped wit" t"e &'AP4430 SoC% whic" "ouses a dual-core ARM Cortex-A3 processor wit" eac" core running at 8-=@% a Po4er$2 SGX540 -rap"ics Processing Unit (-PU) and an Image Video Accelerator-High +efinition (($A-HD) Sub System The &MAP4 family is one of the *rst dual-core Cortex-A9-based arc"itectures on t"e market A community of Linux experts and ent"usiasts supports t"e PandaBord via t"e 4ebsite PandaBoard.org The PandaBoard supports playback of "ig" definition video content at t"e =+TV standard 1080p% perhaps more kno4n by its marketing term A>ull =+A The PandaBoard’s "igh performance video media support is made possible t"anks to its dedicated "ardwareC t"e +ucati Sub System 1.1.1 Ducati Sub System The +ucati sub system consists of t4o ARM 0ortex-M9 processors, t"e (mage Video Accelerator - High +efinition (($A-HD) sub system and t"e (maging Sub System (ISS) The ($A-HD sub system is t"e "ardware for encoding and decoding video up to 1080p resolution at 9/ frames per second. It supports multiple video codecs suc" as t"e 'peg-4 A$0% also known as = 264, codec The ISS processes pixel data coming from an external camera sensor or from memory The purpose of these sub systems is to offload video and image processing from t"e main ARM Cortex-A9 CP) 1.1.2 Pandroid Pandroid is a Texas (nstruments supported port of Android for t"e PandaBoard Android is an operating system for mobile devices, developed and maintained by -oogle. It consists of a complete system based on t"e open source Linux kernel% middle4are i e. libraries that can be used by developers and applications. T"e applications are the actual programs that t"e user sees on a display and interacts wit" The difference bet4een Pandroid and standard Android is a number of patc"es that enables support for "ard4are found on t"e PandaBoard; suc" as TI specific hard4are not 88 1.1. THE PANDABOARD CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND >igure 8 8F PandaBoard Layout from pandaboard.org (00 BY-SA 9 /) yet included in the Linux kernel Ot"er more directly practical patc"es are also included suc" as support for an USB mouse. Standard Android is designed for touc" screen usage and lacks default USB mouse support >or the implementation t"e Pandroid .,; 8/ , released in 'arc" ,/88 is used. It is based on code from t"e Android version , , named >royo. This Pandroid release "as t"e follo4ing main featuresF !xternal monitor via =+'(H+$( • USB 5eyboard • USB 'ouse 4it" mouse cursor • Ii*H</, 11n • Bluetoot" • !thernet • Po4er$2 S-X540 -P) +rivers • Note t"at neither the &'AP4 Ducati Sub System nor audio playbackHrecording is available in t"is release Ho4ever &penG. !S , / is supported t"rough t"e Po4er$2 -P) drivers. 8, CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND 1.2. THE DVB-PROJECT 1.2 The DVB-pro ect The +igital Video Broadcast (+VB) pro1ect 4as established in September 8339 to develop a common video broadcasting standard It is a consortium consisting of over ,6/ diEerent companies and organizations from 96 countries wit" interest in open standards for delivery of digital media services[87L Although +VB usage is t"e most widespread +TTV standard% some alternatives exists To name a fe4 countries that do not use t"e +VB standardsC USA uses the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard% Mapan use t"e Integrated Services +igital Broadcasting (IS+B) standard See 8 , for an +TTV standards overview. >igure 8 ,F +TT$ 4orld coverage[8L Currently t"ere are over 6// million receivers in the 4orld% compatible wit" a standard from the +VB-project The +VB-pro1ect has produced a number of widely used standards.