Flashlite porting on DaVinci DM6446
This case study showcases the porting of Flashlite 3.1 Plug-in player for Opera browser on TI DaVinci 6446 platform.
Client
Established in 1968, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has grown to be the largest IT services firm in Asia based on its record of outstanding service, collaborative partnerships, innovation, and corporate responsibility.
TCS' ability to deliver high-quality services and solutions is unmatched. TCS’ Integrated Quality Management System (iQMS™) integrates process, people and technology maturity through various established frameworks and practices including IEEE, ISO 9001:2000, CMMI, SW-CMM, P-CMM and 6-Sigma. Apart from services, TCS has recently entered into product development specifically for India market.
Challenge
TCS has designed a Set Top Box like product for rural & semi-urban India market based on TI DM6446 DaVinci processor for cable TV and internet applications. The set top box gives not only standard Cable TV connectivity but also internet connectivity with for users to play online games and watch video through YouTube™. To enable this, TCS wanted to provide Flashlite Plug-in support for DaVinci platform running with Monta vista Linux Kernel 2.16.xx. The Plug-in support was for Opera browser.
Solution
With very limited support from Opera, Aspire Communications used the Opera GOGI Plug-in APIs for browser and Flash plug-in interaction and Opera APIs for painting to Linux frame buffer and in timer handling.
Once the porting of Flashlite 3.1 plug-in player for Opera Browser on DaVinci platform 6446 was completed, comprehensive tests were conducted using ATS tests. Aspire also got the solution certified by Adobe.
Major changes were then made on the platform to get features such as audio, xml socket, color format, touch screen etc working on this platform.
Automated Test Suite (ATS) was run on the developed Flashlite Player to ensure that there were no issues with the player.
Technology
Hardware
The target platform has a TI DaVinci6446 which combines a 300 MHz ARM9 core with a 594 MHz DSP core.
Software
Flashlite 3.1, Montavista Linux 2.6.xx, Flash ATS, GTK/X11, Direct Frame buffer.
Benefits
- The client entered the rapidly growing CAS market early and was quickly able to corner a large market share
- With several similar products in the market, the client's feature rich set top box with Flashlite plug-in for playing on line games and watching YouTube™ was a big differentiator