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Standalone Android PC?

Former Member

1. Will I be able to add standard peripherals to a Zedboard to create a standalone Android PC? Standard power supply, USB keyboard/mouse, USB HD, ethernet, HDMI 1080p monitor?

2. Will I be able to run Android based dev tools on the Zedboard, targeting itself for execution (testing)? Or dual-boot Linux, run Eclipse, code/build/deploy an Android app to its local filesystem, reboot to Android, and run? Possibly run Linux on one ARM for Eclipse, and run Android on the other ARM for testing, without rebooting? Android apps that config the FPGA?

3. Will a Zedboard PC boot to an Android desktop with apps, including an Android Market? Will the Market supply Zedboard apps, including FPGA configs?

4. Does the Zedboard support Android accessories? Those are usually for phones/tablets that are USB slaves, but Zedboard seems to be a USB host (but has a microUSB port, so maybe can also be a slave). Will I be able to attach an Android Accessory Development Kit (PIC version) to the Zedboard and run it?

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  • 0

    1a. Yes, you will be able to connect the power supply (wall transformer) to the Zedboard to supply DC power.

    1b. Yes, you can connect a USB keyboard and mouse to the zedboard, however the drivers must be installed on the operating system running on the ARM core(s).  If you are running Android, it must have those drivers available to load at boot.

    1c.  Again, as with 1b, if you are running an OS that supports it, the Zedboard hardware (and more specifically the Zynq hardware) will support any USB peripheral including a USB Hard Drive.

    1d. The zedboard does have an HDMI encoder IC as well as an HDMI port.  You will need to load in custom code to drive the HDMI encoder IC, or load in a third party GPU core (contacting you local Avnet FAE can provide you with additional information).

    2a.  The Zedboard supports several Operating Systems, including versions of Linux that will run Eclipse and the Android specific development tools.

    2b.  This is one possible option yes.  There is a boot loader internally in ROM that will allow the Zedboard to boot from an SD-Card.  Multiple images could be placed on this card and selected from uBoot.

    2c.  Multiple Operating Systems running on the Zynq device is a possibility, however significant configuration may be necessarily.

    2d.  I do not know of any applications currently written for Android that would configure the FPGA fabric.  The development team is working hard to create as many example projects and applications as possible.  You may be better off posting this question in the "Software Application Development" section of the forums (ref link: http://zedboard.org/forum/20).

    4a.  Due to the highly configurable nature of the 7-Series FPGA fabric and IO structurs, there are very few peripherals that the Zynq EEP will not be able to interface too.  The exact interaction will require a better understanding of what peripherals you are talking about.  In the event that they are USB based, they will, again, need to have the correct drivers installed on the local Operating System.

    4b.  The Zedboard can run in USB Host mode as well as Slave mode depending on what Operating System and USB stack is loaded/configured.

    4c.  Since the Android Accessory Development Kit provides a USB host, and an application must be run on the Android side (to handle handshaking after enumeration), interfacing to the AADK should not be hardware dependent.  The ability to interface will depend on the version of Android that the AADK Android client runs on, and what version will be supported by Zynq.

    On a side note:  I would not suggest doing development on the Zedboard it's self, as the ARM cores will not provide the same level of performance as a traditional desktop PC.  Android allows for a significant number of hooks into the OS for debugging software on hardware in real-time via USB - I would recommend going that route.

  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    The version of Android that will come out first for Zynq will be Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).  With this being said, the Android Accessory Development Kit rely's on the Android ADK which is available in Gingerbread and Honeycomb.  There shouldn't be any reason why the AADK wouldn't work with Zynq running Gingerbread.

    Hope that helps.

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