I would like to use a windows machine as a USB488/USBTMC device. USB488/USBTMC is a reimplementation of the good old GPIB/IEEE-488 on USB rails. But most articles on the topic refer to a Windows machine as a host/controller. The Windows USB stack is not well suited for USB device/USB OTG modes. However, if you look at some of the high-end gear like oscilloscopes and spectrum/network analyzers, it is well known that they are often Windows machines inside with some additional hardware. So, how it is done?
To some background: it is a project to retrofit a very old SEM microscope with new hardware. The current one is a 68k custom system with a CRT that uses a GPIB interface for comm with a PC. Things like sample spectroscopy are done as a BASIC program running on a pc and communicating through that gpib port. The plan is to replace that 68k junk with a modern day windows pc with an FPGA on a PCIe bus. For compatibility reasons, it would be nice to have a usb488 port in the new PC. Though I have no idea of how to do it properly. The only solution I have so far is to have some cheap USB-capable micro hanging on the SPI bus on the FPGA facing side and a USBTDM class on the USB side. But maybe Im missing something and there is a specific thing or chip that exists that can do it that Im not aware of.
I can only speculate how high-end oscilloscopes achieve it. The most likely option is that they use a dedicated chip like a MAX3420E. It is connected via SPI. Part of the USB protocol is implemented by the chip, part of it will be implemented by the oscilloscope software.
Most USB controllers chips found in PCs can operate as the host only. And even if they could do a role swap, Windows (for Desktop) has not supported device/peripheral mode until recently. It now does. See USB Dual Role Driver Stack Architecture. But I don't fully understand it to tell you what hardware you would need to purchase where this feature is enabled.
Role swapping is very common on smartphones. It is also implemented in Linux (search for "Linux USB gadget"). Many Apple Macs can run in Target Disk Mode, which is a USB device/peripheral mode as well.
How is it possible to determine the commands to operate a usb device, if that device comes from another operating system and traffic monitoring software cannot be installed on that OS. The only method i can think of is sending random commands to the device, until the device responds, but this seems implausible for more complex commands, and potentially dangerous. For example, consider the DualShock 4 controller. Sony has not made an official driver for this device, so what method can i use to create a linux driver for it?
Get a hardware protocol analyzer. Then you won't need to install any software on the host or device under test. Here is one that I have used:
http://www.totalphase.com/products/beagle-usb12/
I'm interested in PC firmware programming, and am just studying the UEFI spec. To my surprise, it seems like a spec for an entire OS which is embedded in firmware. You can even write UEFI "applications", which run directly using the UEFI boot services, without any other OS present.
I've found blog posts which show how to create a "Hello, world!" application which can run in the UEFI preboot environment. This is... interesting, and bizarre at the same time. I'll run my "Hello, world" programs on a regular OS, thank you.
What kind of use cases are UEFI applications actually good for? Fancy boot configuration screens? Does any "real", commercially available PC firmware use UEFI applications to implement anything more than just boot loaders and boot configuration utilities?
Anything that isn't PEI/DXE/SMM core or driver is an application, so any "real" PC have them, because BIOS Setup is actually an UEFI application. Some vendors include various other apps like firmware updaters, diagnostic and troubleshooting utilities, etc. UEFI 2.4 makes possible to add your own application with a properly filled BootXXXX/KeyXXXX variable pair and then run it by pressing a key combination during POST.
Most console applications written in C can be compiled as UEFI application by using StdLib package of current EFI Development Kit and then run in UEFI shell.
Major examples of useful UEFI apps (besides bootloaders, shell and Linux kernel, of course) are Intel ME System Tools, Read Universal, Python 2.7 and many more.
Eventually, when legacy boot will not be available anymore, all currently useful DOS utilities must either be made UEFI applications or go extinct.
Despite many valuable answers here, because I wrote couple UEFI applications myself I will try to add my 2 cents. First, what is UEFI application to just give ground what we talking about:
UEFI Specificatin v2.5:
Section 2.1.1
The major differences between image types are the memory type that the firmware
will load the image into, and the action taken when the image’s entry point exits or returns. An
application image is always unloaded when control is returned from the image’s entry point.
Section 2.1.2
When the application returns from
its entry point, or when it calls the Boot Service EFI_BOOT_SERVICES.Exit(), the application
is unloaded from memory and control is returned to the UEFI component that loaded the application.
Groups of applications that make sense in UEFI:
Configuration tools - Configuration interface for Option ROMs (ie. for storage controllers), out of band management (ie. AMT configuration tools), manufacturer performance tweaking tools
Provisioning tools - used by administrators to preload specific BIOS setting, manually setting all options in BIOS setup would be inefficient
Diagnostics tools - mostly for tests that cannot be performed in OS (DRAM tests, full storage scan, storage R/W tests, etc.). In some districts specific diagnostics tools are required in UEFI BIOS, so those can be sold to government.
Security applications - HDD encryption/decryption, antivirus scanner and anti thief applications
BIOS capability enhancement - Power Over Ethernet extensions, DRAM discovery, patching and modification of system tables (SMBIOS, ACPI)
Display tools - for displaying complex animations while running, splash screen displaying
Bootloaders - this is special type of application, which can call EFI_BOOT_SERVICES.ExitBootServices() causing termination of all memory management and passing control to Operating System.
Note that very important feature of UEFI application is that it can be added to boot order and be executed each boot time. Also UEFI application do not have to be delivered with BIOS image it can be stored in connected device memory, which is common for Option ROM configuration tools.
Here it is an example of a full blown UEFI Pre-boot Application;
There are SED SSD/HDD drives. As soon as SSD/HDD loses its power it goes into locked state (hardware-based encryption) There is no way you can get access to drive's data and all partitions on the drive are no longer even visible. Only small read-only partition (ShadowMBR) is available. UEFI firmware boots an UEFI application from that only available partition (UEFI app is written on that partition during the initialization process and when the ownership of an SED is taken). It securely authenticate user and if credentials are valid it unlocks the drive. When the drive is unlocked Shadow MBR disappears and all partitions on the drive becomes available. Then the App chain-boots the installed OS.
So if you don't have credentials you cannot even boot the OS and you cannot access the data on the drive by any means.
Here's a couple of examples:
https://github.com/NikolajSchlej/CrScreenshotDxe
UEFI DXE driver to take screenshots from GOP-compatible graphic console (yes, you can make PNG screenshots of your BIOS and save them)
http://ruexe.blogspot.com/
RU.EFI is quite an advanced tool for debugging the BIOS
Well, there are the OS loaders - both the more heavyweight ones (Windows, GRUB, BSD Loader) and the "present a menu" ones (rEFInd, Gummiboot). Shim, which enables UEFI Secure Boot for Linux platforms, consists of an application as well as installing a protocol for use by other applications.
Then you have things like the Linux kernel, which when compiled with CONFIG_EFI_STUB becomes a valid UEFI application, with the awareness of booting itself.
And firmware updates can also be shipped as UEFI applications.
The UEFI shell itself is an application.
Then there are things like factory production testing utilities, development diagnosis tools, ...
Windows 7 - 8 have UEFI installer. I'm not fully aware of the details, but I'm pretty sure this new environment gives a lot more flexibility to the developers than traditional boot environment on DVD.
Some motherboards have "instant on" features that allows you to get to a desktop screen within a few seconds. This is usually a stripped down flavor of some linux that allows you to access a web browser and play music/video. ASUS have such boards.
Is there a library or open sourced Obj C code that will let me sniff for all advertised Bonjour services on a network? Best if it works on Mac OS X or iOS.
Thx all.
You're spoilt for choice.
OS X ships with the mdns command for registering and browsing services on the link-local network. To browse for advertised websites (normally services of type _http._tcp.) you'd do this:
mdns -B _http._tcp
And a list will return and update pretty much instantly as things appear/disappear. Yes, it's open-sourced. Apple's C-based implementation of multicast DNS (both library and tools) compiles without much hassle on most *NIXes.
If you're looking for a GUI tool, I find the bonjour browser app from Tildesoft pretty useful.
If you don't want to use mdns to advertise your own services try the network beacon.
I am looking for board, module, kit for our new project.
requierments:
necessary:
IP interface IPv4/IPv6
DHCP, StaticIp, ICMP(Ping)
SNMP V2, V3
HTTP, Webserver
Email
good to have:
Telnet
SSH
SysLog
There are two ways:
complete controlled modul + master(some 8-bit with rs232, spi, ..)
I've found this http://www.connectone.com/products.asp?did=73&pid=92
But there is probably problem with SMTP, it isnt direct supported. Only UDP.
some board with linux
Thanks for your advices and recommendation.
with such heavy requirements, i would definitely go for an embedded computer running linux or a lighter unix based kernel. it will give you some flexibility over the software package, and you will easily find some support.
(there are plenty of embedded computers on the market, i can't chose one...)
I've found this XPORT PRO from LANTRONIX.
http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/xport-pro.html
There is Linux, so all 'net' stuffs should be supported.
8MB SDRAM/16MB Flash
small, cheap
Do you have some experience with that?
The second tip is http://www.rabbit.com/
Very powerfull modules with C libraries.