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IBM's Linux Wristwatch
By Trevor Warren <trevor@freeos.com>
If we were to ask you, what are the two things that can get most men's adrenaline rushing, you probably will guess the first one right. Yes, it is 'women'.. and the second ?.... Wrong, it is neither booze nor the thought of gambling a night away at a casino. It is 'Mail' in their inbox. Research and statistical reports of men surfing the Internet support this finding. As for us, in addition to the above two factors "learning new technology" gets us all pepped up too. And talking of new technology, among all of the products showcased at the Bang!inux conference, one particular innovation that stood out among the rest was the Linux Wristwatch from the research stables of IBM. You might have heard about this stunning little gadget from the big blue, which weighs just a little more than 1.5 ounces (approx. 44 gms.) and runs Linux. You might have even read the press release on it. But what we bring you today is an article based on an informal chat with a part of the research team at IBM's Bangalore research center. IBM or `Big Blue', as it is passionately called, is not only a multi-billion dollar giant with a fascinating product line, but also the single largest company with the most number of patents in the world. And if such a company, which has all along banked upon it's proprietary products for it's revenue, were to suddenly turn to Open source it makes you wonder and a little skeptically too. And this is just what's happening. IBM's investment (to the tune of a billion dollars) has got the whole Open Source world rife with speculations about the Big Blue's interest in the Linux arena. Looks like IBM, this time around, don?t want to miss the turn-on-the-road (it has passed a few in the past). Now it wants to show the world that it is serious about the most happening Operating System--`Linux'. The technical specifications for the wristwatch running Linux are as follows: * Kernel: 2.2.1 The Linux watch was conceptualized at IBM's T. J. Watson research center where various groups are continuously exploring the various challenges that arise in the area of user interface design, power management, input devices, wireless communication, sensors and models for co-existences for pervasive devices and wearables. The story goes, that among them, a team of researchers with skills in hardware design, Operating Systems, displays, electronic and mechanical packaging, industrial design and user interface design, that was spread across multiple research IBM sites, worked together to develop the wrist watch that would eventually run Linux and X11. The team, led by Chandra Narayanaswami, worked relentlessly for about 18 months to accomplish this feat. The wristwatch runs the Linux 2.2.1 kernel with the ARM patch from Ben Williamson. According to IBM, there are certain issues regarding the non-availability of this patch in the latest stable kernel release. The ARM processor that powers the watch runs at 19MHz, is RISC based and which according to estimates is almost equivalent to a 100 Mhz Pentium. The motherboard for the watch was fabricated at IBM's Japan research center. The kernel, which required some massive hacking including the shell that the watch runs, was `tweaked' at Big Blue's research center at Bangalore. Porting the `Boot Loader' to miniature architecture was one of their major achievements. According to the guys at IBM's research center at Bangalore, major hacking of the 'SH' shell was necessary to get it running on the wristwatch. Accomplishing the porting of the `boot loader', booting the kernel and obtaining the shell prompt was another of the research teams major milestones which they demonstrated at various conferences internationally. With this, IBM has silently reiterated its commitment to the Open Source movement. Having accomplished their first milestones, the researchers then got hold of the X server version 3.3.1 and compiled the complete code including the necessary X Libraries. After many a laborious hour of tweaking, the size of the X Server was finally brought down to 1.8 MB. IBM plans to work on reducing the size of the X Server to sub 1MB using the latest release -- 4.4.1. Fonts were another major issue. The reason being that the wristwatch had a LCD panel, whereas the X Server would require a VGA driver for display. This called for the researchers at IBM Bangalore to write their own fonts. The solution was writing a driver that would emulate a VGA display over the LCD display. The LCD display offers a maximum resolution of 96 x 120 and that too with a Portrait display. The watch uses the ADS 7843 (BurrBrown) touch screen display, using which one can map the whole screen with respect to the four quadrants. Thus a touch on the upper screen panel is captured and depending on the co-ordinates captured, the requisite application is run. Users can also interact with the watch with a Roller Wheel. We have to admit that the X server on the Linux watch is a piece of art especially, when you see it displaying all the various pixmaps and the software applications that the watch runs. The PIM (Personal Information Manager) that the watch runs, was developed at IBM's T.J. Watson research center and has an approximate memory footprint of about 51kb. The PIM consists of an organizer, WML browser, to-do list and a calculator. In future it would have the capacity to read condensed e-mail messages too. IBM's plan of application development for the watch comprises the ability to write his /her own applications, if the owner so desires. And with the underlying Operating System being Linux, we don't see any dearth of tools available to develop such applications. IBM has made a wise decision in providing an Open platform for developers to work on, as this just exponentially increases the kind of applications the wristwatch can be used for. As far as connectivity is concerned the researchers have solved the problem by providing IR (Infra Red) support and Radio Frequency Wireless connectivity. The wristwatch even supports the latest Blue Tooth protocol to communicate with intelligent devices around it. For synchronizing content with your laptop / personal computer, you may use either the Infra Red support or the Communication ports (COM ports) on the docking station to interface with your laptop/pc. The docking station is also designed to re-charge the batteries. There are many feature-packed embedded gadgetry available around us. But the lean part is the power drain on the battery caused by them. The Linux wristwatch is powered by a specially fabricated Ni-Cd battery, which lasts 4 days without IR support and for 2 days with IR support. One of the major tasks that the researchers are working on is finding out ways and means of extending the battery life. With the Linux wristwatch, IBM has demonstrated the viability of Linux across a wide spectrum of platforms, from large enterprise servers to medium sized and small servers, workstations, desktops, laptops and now a small intelligent device. Though the set of software and hardware developed by IBM has been presently packaged in a high-function wristwatch prototype, they can be utilized in several other small and wearable form factors. With Linux becoming an industry standard, it's important that developers be able to create new applications across all platforms, including pervasive devices, and IBM's research seeks to further that work. Future enhancements will include a high-resolution screen and applications that would allow the watch to be used as an access device for various internet-based services such as up-to-the-minute information about weather, traffic conditions, sports and etc. The availability of source code and a well understood, application-programming environment makes it easy for students, researchers and software companies to add new features and develop applications. We would like to thank the following people for their help and guidance in getting together this article: .Vishal Kulkarni, Senior Design Engineer at IBM Bangalore
Other articles by Trevor Warren
Current Rating: [ 8.11 / 10 ]
Number of Times Rated: [ 363 ]
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