Those who develop embedded products are frequently faced with the challenge of having to rewrite most of the software when their applications are to be adapted to other computer modules. Module manufacturers can give them valuable help by standardizing access for their hardware to a certain degree.

One way of doing this is by using K-station, a software toolkit made by embedded PC specialist Kontron that comes with a developer’s library. K-station saves developers a great deal of time due to its comprehensive library, ready-made functions and applications, and user-friendly interface.

K-station acts as a software library and a toolkit that provides developers drivers and code, as well as completely encapsulated functions.

The process of standardisation has now come a long way in the embedded computing field in terms of mechanics and electronics: if a developer wishes to adapt his application to a powerful new Computer-on-Module system and trusts in the COM Express standard, these days he can be sure its standard form factor and connectors will still fit in with his design. Which saves time and development costs, of course.

The thing is, these advantages are partly negated when it comes to the software used in the application. After all, when you develop an embedded product, you can’t just buy a board, install the software, and off it goes; a wide range of minor configuration settings and adaptations still need to be found before the application will run as intended.

Less software standardisation

The work already starts at the BIOS level, in fact. It may be that a developer wants to alter the default settings for a particular application so that the firm’s own logo will appear when the system boots up; or he might want to adapt BIOS to older software still in use, or activate a TPM (Trusted Platform Module). Such activities all mean extra work before the application code can be finalized.

The reason for this is that, unlike hardware, the degree of standardization that exists in low-level software is not quite as advanced. If an exchangeable module operates in conjunction with another CPU, developers have to rewrite most of the software, particularly in cases where the functions are very closely connected to the processor, for instance.

In other words, they have to repeat all the time-consuming steps already completed for what was basically exactly the same application; from searching for the right commands in a programming manual to conducting tests and incorporating new programming in the application code as a whole.

A good deal of effort on the part of developers would be saved if they were able to draw on existing drivers and codes when logically integrating certain standard functions ? much like a baker or pastry cook employs certain types of baking mixtures and flour to make his creations, no longer needing to mix these himself.

Both of them save valuable time and are able to concentrate on more original aspects of their work that are also more central to it as a result.

For this to happen, it is necessary for the degree of standardization and modularization that is steadily increasing in the hardware sector to catch on in the software field as well. Embedded manufacturers are in a position to stop this gap, for they acquire the practical knowledge necessary for this when developing their own products.

This knowledge ought to pay off for them, particularly as manufacturers’ hardware products are growing increasingly similar. By providing their customers the software material they will need in a simple way, manufacturers can add even more value to their modules and win some important extra points compared with the competition.

A toolkit with software support

K-station, produced by embedded-computer manufacturer Kontron, is one example of such added value. It’s a type of software toolkit in which Kontron has disclosed parts of its own intellectual property to customers so as to facilitate their work, and includes a large number of function modules.

Downward-compatible to JIDA, K-station acts as a software library and a toolkit providing developers drivers and code in addition to completely encapsulated functions. What is especially convenient for users is that they can easily pick the tools required at different stages of development via a user-friendly interface and then add them to their own applications.

This set of tools provides a particularly high amount of support regarding the transition from development and functional testing in the reference application to the actual application. The source code it provides serves as a sample for developers; once the functions have been tested in the reference application and found to be okay, it is very easy for developers to transfer them to their own applications via the shell tools and then incorporate them.

A language such as C, C++, C#, or Java can be used for the purpose. APIs may be accessed very simply by invoking a specific process, for example.

K-station functions

K-station offers a wide range of additional functions on top of these. Using K-station, developers can monitor the temperature, voltage, and ventilation in their hardware, for instance, or program limit values and threshold value switches.

Besides this, a standardized hardware watchdog is available to them as well as a smart battery management facility that includes a means of checking the charging level and intelligent discharging of a number of batteries, which will no doubt be of interest to programmers who develop mobile devices.

The “Kioports” function also makes it easier to integrate GPIO pin access. Take “K-flash,” for instance, which makes it easier to save and replicate BIOS images on devices, reset default values, or set a customer-specific boot logo. This is an easy and convenient procedure that does not involve any time-consuming adapting of BIOS using the module manufacturer’s own service.

An additional benefit for software developers is that the tools in this kit all work in a uniform way; they can be used in the same manner, regardless of the platform on which Kontron’s Computer-on-Module runs. In other words, there is better portability, and less development effort is required.

K-station also provides numerous functions for incorporating security features in an application. A support team, for example, can track the serial number, runtime, the boot counter, and repair details for quality assurance purposes via a standardized information area on the board.

What’s more, Kontron’s toolkit allows a TFT link to be made via JILI (Intelligent LVDS Interface) along with EDID support (Extended Display Identification Data).

Many of the functions available in K-station and its predecessor, JIDA32, are now being used successfully on a day-to-day basis. Embedded specialist B-plus GmbH, which is also one of Kontron’s sales and design partners, has a customer that employs these K-station tools to manufacture, program, and maintain devices, for example.

While the devices are being assembled, the BIOS settings that have been selected are also transferred to new assemblies by means of a memory stick. This way, a “cloned” assembly can be created very quickly whose BIOS is already parameterized with all the settings that are required for it, thereby saving a huge amount of time.

Since the terminals operate without a monitor, the remote control tool is employed in the field in the event of maintenance or parameterisation being necessary. It also includes a full set of commands at the manufacturing stage in order to parameterize the connected system from a host PC (such as a laptop or netbook), conduct fault analyses, or run minor software updates.

In another customer’s case, the uniform interface resulted in considerable savings being made in terms of time and money.

“We were able to transfer the low-level software produced several years ago for a Kontron Computer-on-Module to Kontron’s new nanoETXexpress-SP very easily. It wasn’t even necessary to adapt the software code,” sais Thomas Limbrunner, head of development at b-plus.

Decreasing time to market

As for the application side, support for the K-station toolbox is implemented in BIOS as a standard feature on every Kontron board. K-station therefore puts a useful range of auxiliary tools at the developer's disposal that not only speed up the development of applications using a Kontron board, but also make it faster and more efficient to manufacture devices and conduct maintenance/parameterization in the field.

To sum up, support kits enable developers to create the software for their applications faster and more easily, regardless of the programming language used, the operating system employed, and the hardware. So now software developers are also able to benefit from increasing modularization and standardization on the embedded market.

Hubert Hafner is Product Manager Computer-on-Modules at Kontron