T e c h n o l o g y B r i e f

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EXTENDING THE REACH OF ANDROID TO CONSUMER ELECTRONICS AND BEYOND

To help device manufacturers build innovative products faster on the Android platform, Mentor Graphics offers an optimal development environment from start to finish.

The Development System for Android-based Devices enables both systems and applications developers to extend the reach of Android to encompass multimedia, Mobile Internet Devices, digital video/home entertainment, automotive, medical, networking, instrumentation, and industrial control. With unmatched expertise in leveraging and optimizing open source software for intelligent devices, Mentor engineers have a long history of bringing commercial products to market based on open source software. This key experience is the foundation for the Development System for Android-based Devices.

Figure 1: The Development System for Android-based Devices from Mentor Graphics.

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Organized into a cross-development kit, the Development System for Android-based Devices provides the best open source technologies – integrated, optimized and fully supported – so developers can build their commercial product efficiently, on time and within budget. Mentor Graphics® offers a set of integrated open source software components built into an easy-to-use development environment for board-level porting as well as driver and application development. The Development System also includes cross compilers, libraries, debuggers, pre-built file system images, and product-specific support libraries.

Highlights of the Development System include:

▪ Support for cross development of system-level and application software providing the optimal development environment to build devices running the Android platform

▪ Up-to-date production kernels, run-time libraries, and other core components ensure developers are working with the latest, stable Linux and Android runtime

▪ Dalvik Virtual Machine and Java Native Interface (JNI) are ported and optimized for the architecture and CPU cores used in the Android-based device under development

▪ The Android Application Framework and SDK (Eclipse plug-in) now extend beyond the handset assumptions for which Android was originally developed with a product-specific SDK and emulator. The Development System also enables development of product and industry-specific classes

Further, native non-Java applications can be integrated with Android, whether they are applications a developer has already developed, applications unique to a product line offering, or relevant non-Java applications available in open source. The Development System allows teams to develop and add product-specific C/C++ libraries. For building and integration of custom applications to board-level ports, the Development System provides an environment with release management ready for integration with the development team's own source control system. It arrives optimized and configured to create both development and production flash images. As needed, product development teams can add components, and rebuild the entire development system from source.

FIND AND FIX PROBLEMS QUICKLY WITH A GRAPHICAL, ECLIPSE-BASED IDEThe Development System features a graphical, Eclipse-based IDE that allows developers to step through their source code, scripts, and configurations to diagnose problems quickly. Particularly useful when debugging, the IDE may be used throughout the entire development process or to find a specific problem. An easy-to-use command line interface is also available.

TOOLS AND RUNTIME FOR PRECISE PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS The Development System for Android-based Devices provides tools and generates runtime to exact product specifications. Developers can acquire and integrate Android platform code from Mentor Graphics and other project repositories such as kernel.org, and from semiconductor and systems suppliers, whichever is best for the product in development. Mentor integrates a fully tested, latest-stable Linux kernel into the build system. Kernel source, including configuration files for unique hardware, is also included.

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DOCUMENT CODE CHOICES AND OPTIONS FOR LICENSE COMPLIANCETo simplify open source best practices and optimize real-world workflow, the Development System offers Software BoM creation to document packages, versions, licenses, upstream source, patches and dependencies for both development and production builds; license auditing to flag Open Source licenses and highlight compliance obligations to match your specified policies; source package creation to build comprehensive device project sources and create source packages tailored to meet licensing disclosure requirements; and traceability to support tracking and verification of matched sources and binaries for redistribution, license compliance, maintenance and end-product customer support.

CONCLUSIONEmbedded developers everywhere see a great opportunity to develop new, innovative devices on the Android platform. Originally designed for phones, significant optimizations and additions are required to optimize Android for other connected devices. Mentor Graphics has made the investments to take Android beyond the smart phone. The Development System for Android-based Devices offers a complete Android development environment from start to finish. And Mentor's end-to-end services capability helps developers deliver a quality Android product on time to the growing marketplace.

Figure 2: From spec, build, and test – to the final product, the Development System for Android-based Devices is an all-inclusive design environment.

For more information, call us or visit: www.mentor.com/fpgaCopyright 2008 Mentor Graphics Corporation. This document contains information that is proprietary to Mentor Graphics Corporation and may be duplicated in whole or in part by the original recipient for internal business purposes only, provided that this entire notice appears in all copies. In accepting this document, the recipient agrees to make every reasonable effort to prevent unauthorized use of this information.

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Visit www.mentor.com/embedded for the latest product information.©2009 Mentor Graphics Corporation. All rights reserved.

This document contains information that is proprietary to Mentor Graphics Corporation and may be duplicated in whole or in part by the original recipient for internal business purposes only, provided that this entire notice appears in all copies. In accepting this document, the recipient agrees to make every reasonable effort to prevent unauthorized use of this information.

OVERVIEW: KEY FEATURES OF THE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM FOR ANDROID-BASED DEVICES

▪ Build custom development and production environment ▪ Customize configuration to match your product requirements ▪ Integrate commercial and open source components ▪ Develop and add board ports and custom drivers ▪ Develop and add your product specific C/C++ Libraries ▪ Optimized libraries for architecture and CPU core ▪ Customizable HAL for hardware specific needs ▪ Application Framework: develop and add product-specific classes, customize the UI, theme, and icons ▪ Eclipse-based graphical IDE for application development, tools and debug ▪ Application SDK and device emulator (Eclipse plug-in) ▪ Customize the emulator to match product (hardware, behavior, skins) ▪ Custom application SDK builds to include product-specific APIs ▪ Standard Ubuntu workstation hosting (other hosts available) ▪ Android bionic library, linker and other software infrastructure ▪ Dalvik runtime, Java Native Interface (JNI) ▪ Optimized VM for the architecture and the CPU core ▪ Develop and add product-specific JNI routines ▪ Best practices and real-world workflow tools: reproducible builds, software BoM, source packaging, license auditing, and traceability

▪ Multiple build targets: development, test, production, and manufacturing ▪ Test utilities and setup

▪ Documentation, including user guide and test plan