L&T Infotech is shipping a media playback reference board based on the Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP3530 system-on-chip (SoC). Supporting Linux, Android, and Windows CE, the TI OMAP3530 Reference Platform is equipped with a 4.3-inch QVGA touchscreen, a hard disk drive (HDD), and numerous wireless features including DVB-H, says the company.

Developed by L&T Infotech's GDA Technologies subsidiary, the OMAP3530 Reference Platform is aimed at mobile TV devices, portable media players (PMP), personal navigation devices (PNDs), mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and portable gaming devices, says the company. Board Support Packages (BSPs) are said to be available for Linux, Android, and Windows CE.

The reference platform's BSPs are said to facilitate the following applications:

• Portable Media Player
• Portable Navigation Device — GPS/NEMA references are said to be available
• Mobile TV — includes ESG Engine, FLUTE Engine, PSI/SI Manager, PAL (Platform Abstraction Layer), and TV application with electronic service guide
• Mobile Internet Device

Like TI's open platform BeagleBoard, distributed by DigiKey, as well as the newly announced Empower Technologies EMP3530 single-board computer (SBC), the L&T design is built around TI's OMAP3530, the most powerful of its four OMAP35xx SoCs. Equipped with a 600MHz, superscalar ARM Cortex-A8 core, the OMAP3530 offers both an OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics engine and a TI TMS320C64x+ digital signal processor (DSP) core designed for digital media acceleration.

Compared to the latest "Revision C" version of the BeagleBoard, the L&T reference board offers the same amount of flash memory at 256MB, but half the RAM at 128MB. Like the BeagleBoard it provides USB connectivity and an LCD interface. In addition, it supplies a 4.3-inch, QVGA (480 x 272) TFT LCD touchscreen, a 1.8-inch CE-ATA HDD, and a VGA camera.

The L&T design appears to lack an Ethernet port, but is studded with a rich array of wireless communications features. In addition to WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth, the battery-ready board provides DVB-H support for mobile digital TV reception. A microSD slot is said to support a WiMAX radio for MID devices.

Specifications listed for L&T Infotech's TI OMAP3530 Reference Platform include:

• Processor — TI OMAP3530 @ 600MHz
• Memory — 128MB DDR II
• Flash — 256MB NAND flash
• Flash expansion — Micro-SD slot
• Storage — 1.8-inch CE-ATA HDD
• Display — 4.3-inch, QVGA (480 x 272) TFT LCD touchscreen
• USB — USB 2.0 Host and OTG support
• Wireless connectivity:
  • WiFi
  • Bluetooth
  • GPS
  • DVB-H
  • FM tuner
• Other features — VGA camera; 3×3 matrix keyboard
• Audio — Speaker, Mic, headset
• Power — supports 3.7V, 1AH Li-Ion battery
• Operating system — Linux, Android 1.1, and WinCE 6.0
  

Background

India-based L&T Infotech is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, an $8.5 billion construction and technology company. In 2007, L&T Infotech announced a Linux-based software reference design with a man-machine interface (MMI) stack, that was aimed at wireless industrial applications. The year before, L&T Infotech's GDA Technologies subsidiary shipped a Linux-based smartphone reference design equipped with Freescale's i.MX31 SoC.

Stated Praveen K Ganapathy, Director, Business Development, Texas Instruments India, "We are confident that L&T Infotech's Reference board solution will inspire sleek, optimized and innovative designs across multiple platforms."

Availability

L&T Infotech's TI OMAP3530 Reference Platform is shipping now, says the company, which did not mention pricing. More information on L&T Infotech may be found at its website, here.

 
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