Timesys will host a free, four-session webinar series devoted to building a Bluetooth-enabled home automation device using Atmel's ARM9 AT91SAM9263-EK Evaluation Kit. Starting with the first session on Feb. 26, the bi-monthly webinars will teach basic embedded Linux development skills, while showcasing Timesys's LinuxLink 3.0 subscription service, says the company.

Each webinar will include a mix of presentations and hands-on exercises devoted to building a networked remote sensor control device based on the low-cost AT91SAM9263 system-on-chip (SoC), says Timesys. The home automation device gathers data from an accelerometer via a Bluetooth short-range wireless connection, and then changes the state of the controlled devices via GPIO.

The four sessions cover typical embedded Linux development tasks, including assembling a development environment, configuring and booting an initial Linux image, customizing the kernel, and assembling a root filesystem, says Timesys. By the end of the fourth session, the completed design should be available, deployed in on-board flash, including a touchscreen graphical control interface displayed on the attached LCD. The resulting Linux platform will then be freely available to session attendees via the LinuxLink Test Drive Program, says the company.

The sessions showcase Timesys's new LinuxLink 3.0 embedded Linux development subscription service, which was launched last month. The updated service offers a new build engine and web-services-based automation, plus a new interface and Toolkit. As with the previous LinuxLink, the new version is said to offer collections of Linux sources, gathered and updated from thousands of community sources, and patched and configured for a wide variety of processors and development kits. In addition, version 3.0 uses web services technology to package a new build service called the “Embedded Linux Factory.” The Factory build engine ensures “repeatable builds from source with a scriptable GNU-based environment,” says the company.

Stated Gregory Quiggle, VP of Marketing for Timesys, “These webinars will serve as a great means to introduce embedded developers to the power of open source Linux.”

Availability

This first of the four free bi-monthly webinars on ARM9 Bluetooth device development is scheduled for Feb. 26, 2009 at 11:30AM EST, says Timesys. More information may be found here.

 
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