Android Client v1.0 for Update Factory

Jan 12, 2020

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Update Factory 1.0 for embedded Android is out!

New Features:

  • Code refactored in Kotlin to improve maintainability
  • Support for A/B double copy system update mechanism alongside single copy and APK updates
  • Example Update Factory UI with more information and statistics
  • Updated API information, here.

Kynetics @ EclipseCon Europe 2019

Oct 17, 2019

eclipsecon europe 2019 osgi

Kynetics‘ Nicola La Gloria will be speaking at EclipseCon Europe 2019 in Ludwigsburg, Germany on Tuesday 10/22/2019. The session is: From Eclipse hawkBit to Update Factory: How to Take an Open Platform to Production (Sponsored by Bosch).

You can find the presentation abstract here.

Kynetics @ ELC North America 2019

Jun 20, 2019

ELC-North-America-2019

Kynetics will be speaking at the Embedded Linux Conference – North America 2019 in San Diego, California during August 21 – 23 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

We will be speaking at two sessions:

Challenges of using Containers to Run Graphical Embedded Systems

Despite their quick success and adoption, containers are already a well established technology and their use is steadily rising also in the embedded community. However the specific requirements of an embedded system set new challenges like running demanding graphical applications.
While containers’ most common use case is to easily deploy headless server applications, graphical subsystem containerization is heavily dependent on the SOC GPU architecture.
This session will provide an overview of the challenges encountered running X11 and Wayland applications inside docker containers on ARM SOCs. In particular we will focus on new advantages with respect to a traditional monolithic embedded OS but considering also container drawbacks and limitations.
In our journey we’ll share our considerations and results with respect to different software setups, security & isolation, support for accelerated graphics and video decoding which are not an option on systems featuring a GUI.

Presented by Diego Rondini

More info can be found here.

Improving Embedded Systems Boot Time by Hibernation: An Overview on the State of the Art and a Case of Study on i.MX family of Processors

Improving boot time is always a delicate matter and literature is very rich. Linux based OSes benefit from standard optimization approaches however, Android is still far away from having exciting results especially because most the heavy block happens in user space. Hibernation, suspend-to-disk, is undoubtedly a different perspective to look at improving boot time. When the hibernation mode is entered the system hardware state is copied to non-volatile memory like MMC and all power can be removed by the system. On resume, the system is restored from peripherals to memory in a predetermined way. From this perspective just the very first boot will be a “regular” one and all the subsequents is just a restore operation which can take a few seconds. This session will provide the current state of the kernel development of Hibernation on ARM architectures and our tests on the popular i.MX family of processors including the new i.MX8 which today is one of the most promising SOCs.

Presented by Nicola La Gloria.

More info can be found here.

Kynetics @ Embedded World Conference – 2019

Feb 15, 2019

embedded world 2019

Kynetics will be attending Embedded World 2019 in Nuremberg, Germany on February 26 to February 28, 2019.

Check out our latest Android BSP developments on the Toradex Colibri and Apalis family product lines including the iMX8 QM, by visiting the Toradex booth. We are also showcasing our Real-Time Android featuring Asymmetric Multiprocessing on the iMX7D. If you’re interested to our Android Real Time on the new iMX7 ULP, visit the NXP booth.
At the NXP booth we are also supporting the launch of the new Nitrogen 8 featuring the iMX8 Mini, by Boundary Devices.

If you would like to connect with our team at the show, Contact Us

Job Opening – Embedded Engineer – Padova, Italy

Dec 17, 2018

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Kynetics currently has a job opening in Padova, Italy for an embedded engineer. The candidate is expected to have the following skills:

  • Excellent knowledge of the GNU/Linux system
  • Excellent knowledge of the shell environment
  • Good knowledge of the C programming language
  • Good knowledge of the Java Programming language
  • Passion for embedded systems
  • Kernel build essentials and cross platform compilation
  • Python is optional but welcome

The candidate will develop/improve their skills significantly working with Linux embedded distributions and Android from scratch.

If you would like to inquire about the position, Contact Us for more info.

Job Opening – Software Engineer – Padova, Italy

Dec 17, 2018

kynetics-logo-portrait

Kynetics currently has a job opening in Padova, Italy for an individual with the following capabilities:

  • the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software;
  • the adoption of an agile approach which manages the requirements capture, the design, the development, the testing, the construction and the configuration of software.

The desired background includes:

  • Languages: Unix shell REPL, C, Java, Scala, Javascript
  • Paradigms: Object Oriented and Functional
  • Frameworks: Spring, Play, Akka
  • Architectures: traditional and actor-based microservices
  • Data Persistence: MySQL, Cassandra, MongoDb, Elasticsearch
  • Building: Gradle, Sbt, Maven, Ant
  • CI/CD: Jenkins, Nexus, Artifactory, Sonar
  • SCM: Git, SVN
  • Cloud Services Platform: AWS
  • Software Container Platform: Docker

If you would like to inquire about the position, Contact Us for more info.

Kynetics @ EclipseCon Europe 2018

Oct 23, 2018

eclipsecon europe 2019

Kynetics’ Nicola La Gloria will be speaking at the EclipseCon Europe 2018 in Ludwigsburg, Germany on Tuesday 10/23/2018. The session is: Edge Devices in Industrial Automation. The presentation showcases an enterprise industrial IoT device, co-developed by Kynetics: RevoEdge.

RevoEdge banner - ELC Europe 2018

Webinar – Heterogeneous Multiprocessing with Android on NXP i.MX 7

May 18, 2018

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Kynetics will be speaking at a webinar hosted by Toradex on June 6, 2018. The subject is: Heterogeneous Multiprocessing with Android on NXP i.MX 7.

heterogeneous multiprocessing android

This webinar presents a technical overview on asymmetric multiprocessing and its implementation on an NXP i.MX 7 Colibri SoM running Android on the Cortex-A (master core) and FreeRTOS on the Cortex-M (real-time core).

Key takeaways:

  • Understand Asynchronous Multicore concepts
  • Learn what’s required to port the Android Kernel and RPMsg driver to the Colibri iMX7
  • See how to setup and program the Cortex-M4 microcontroller core
  • Experience a hands-on demo which brings together Android, FreeRTOS, RPMsg, IPC, Java, JNI

    • Kynetics’ own Nicola La Gloria and Laura Nao will each be speaking at different times of the day to accommodate different schedules.

    If you would like to learn more or register for this webinar, see the Toradex Event Page!

Update 06/15/18: below you’ll find the webinar:

Technical Notes Goes Live!

May 10, 2018

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Kynetics is now offering technical notes regarding some of our work to both help our customers get up to speed and provide insights to the broader open-source community. Topics range from detailed technical examples or demos, troubleshooting guides, getting started guides and general HOWTO documents.

We hope that our customers, peers and the broader open-source community find these documents as useful as we do!

Read more: Kynetics Technical Notes.

Kynetics joins Toradex Partner Network

May 10, 2018

toradex logo us

We are happy to announce that Kynetics recently joined the Toradex Partner Network. Over the past 18 months, we have been actively providing quality, customized embedded software services to a number of our customers who utilize the Apalis and Colibri families which include i.MX6 and i.MX7 NXP SoCs.

In addition we’ve also been contributing back to the Toradex community, offering detailed documentation and also binary images of Android 7 (Nougat) for some of the Colibri family SoCs. You can learn more over at: Kynetics Technical Notes. Here are the direct links:

Android Nougat for Toradex Colibri iMX6DL
Android Nougat for Toradex Colibri iMX7D
Android Asymmetric Multiprocessing on Toradex Colibri i.MX7D

Kynetics joins the Eclipse Foundation

May 6, 2018

eclipse-logo

We are proud to announce that Kynetics is now a Member of the Eclipse Foundation! At Kynetics, we honor the contribution to open-source because we recognize the value of community driven collaboration and software. Joining this great team of individuals and companies is an opportunity for Kynetics to contribute actively in companionship with great industry leaders.

We look forward to the next chapter!

Nicola La Gloria, Ph.D, CEO, Kynetics

Kynetics @ ELC and OpenIOT Summit 2018

Jan 26, 2018

ELC-2018

Kynetics will be presenting at the Embedded Linux Conference and OpenIOT Summit 2018 in Portland, Oregon – March 12-14.

We will be covering the following topics:

Remote Software Updates for IoT Devices with Eclipse hawkBit

In the past embedded software updates have often been based on custom software, but now several open source frameworks are emerging as community based software components to build configurable, scalable and robust update platforms.

This talk will show how to build a remote software update management platform to transparently manage a heterogeneous set of devices (embedded Linux and Android).

For the remote software update management platform the Eclipse hawkBit software will be presented, showing its architecture, security model and use cases.

For the IoT device hawkBit client two heterogeneous solutions will be presented: a SWUpdate based Linux client and an open source DDI service Android app. The SWUpdate Linux client will be configured in a two phase Android-style approach separating the installation of the update files in a single purpose recovery OS. Presented by Diego Rondini.

More info can be found here.

An Introduction to Asymmetric Multiprocessing: When this Architecture can be a Game Changer and How to Survive It

Asymmetric multi-processing (AMP) systems fulfill the need for high performance and real-time by combining the responsiveness of a MCU with the processing power of an application processor which runs a full OS.

This talk will present a technical overview on asymmetric multiprocessing platforms focussing on motivations, use cases and how to handle interprocess communication between MCU and MPU in practice.

Tools and strategies on how to develop software on such platforms will be presented, as well as debugging techniques which take into account the diversity and complexity of such systems. A case of study based an AMP architecture is analyzed. Low-latency tasks such as high-rate reading/sampling can be handled more easily and efficiently by the MCU core running a RTOS while data visualization can displayed by the Master core running a full Linux operating system. Presented by Nicola La Gloria and Laura Nao.

More info can be found here.