PROJECTS

Company Name	Project	Description
Peavey	Claro	Bring up from scratch a new board containing TMS320C6A816 (ARM single core SOC chip with DSP) processor running Linux Kernel (version 4) and proprietary software to control/mix/filter audio signals. Main responsibilities were creating and debugging U-boot (including Loading FPGA code), Kernel issues, Device tree modifications, proprietary kernel drivers and applications using C and C++. Multiple on and off SOC devices used/setup as follows:- DDR3, GPMC, EMAC, MDIO, USB, SD, SPI, I2C, UART, Timers, Flash, GPIO, RTC, DAC's, ADC's, FPGA, FAN's, LED's, Silicon Labs POTs chip, Temperature sensors, and Marvell Ethernet chip.
Peavey	Pots Pod	This equipment provides a simple interface from other Peavey equipment using control lines and audio I/O controlling 4 POTs lines. This uses a combination of Clare/IXYS POTs chipsets and MSP430 controller. Bring up from scratch with new code using JTAG.
Software Consultant	WiFi Communications	Hardware and software Design off a low speed proprietary low speed WiFi link between several nodes and a main server using the Cypress 6936 2.4GHz DSSS series chips. Implementations of I2C, ADC, Liquid crystal display and RS232 where used.
Telesoft Blandford	VSSP	Working with a small team to create Linux applications to control mobile telephone calls between callers and destinations via a controlling server using VSSP. This used signalling over T1’s (encapsulated inside SDH streams) for the incoming and outgoing calls. Telesoft hardware, stacks, messaging and TCP/IP sockets where also used. Event reporting was carried out using SNMP traps.
HTEC	Electronic Payment systems	Provide the communications link between a single master and several slave devices to control/extract data using TCP/IP sockets. The application ran on an embedded Linux card reader.
Telesoft Blandford	UDP/TCP Sockets	Working with a small team to create a Linux application (using UDP/TCP Sockets) to communicate with a proprietary piece of equipment to extract high speed call setup packets and filter/modify the output before passing to another application. This was achieved by looking at E1’s in side of SDH streams and examining the SS7 MSU, FISU, LSSU, SCM packets. XML was used to store configuration and temporary data.
Peavey (MediaMatrix)	CAB8N	Complete rewrite of code for an 8 channel Analog i/o device which sends/receives audio over a network connection using the CobraNet protocol. ARM Cortex M3 (LM3S3748) processor controlling several I2C devices (A/D. D/A, GPIO, and Volume control), EEPROM and FLASH upgrading. Embedded operating system used was Proto Threads. Module tested using VC6 on windows. Compiled (GCC), downloaded (BDM) and debugged (GDB) using a Linux/Windows workstation.
Softoptions	GPS Tracker	Design and development of a GPS tracker system which determines the position of the device and sends the position along with other data to a central server using GPRS via a GSM radio. Data could also be sent from the server to the device. The device was a Falcom X55 which has an ARM7TDMI chip processor with Tri Band GSM/GPRS and TCP/IP stack.
IBM	SVC	Working with a large team to design and coding of a module which performed Virtualisation of mass storage (4 exa bytes), including seamless migration of customer data from old storage to new (i.e. no interruption of service to the user). This was carried out on IBM SVC (SAN Volume controller) which is an embedded Linux application running on compass architecture (IBM specific) on SMP machines (either Intel or Motorola). The application is scalable across 2-32 SVCs forming a cluster with redundant paths. Software upgrades are performed with no interruption of services.
Motorola	TETRA Digital Cellular Radio	Working with a small team on the Motorola TETRA Site Controller (TSC) board support package. The TSC consists of a MPC750 (POWER PC) processors with an 8260 (Power QUICC II) Comms processor as a slave. The work involves developing/testing and debugging an X21 driver for the 8260 Power PC.Additional tasks include development and testing of SPI, 10B2 and 10/100-T drivers. The operating system used is pSOS Multi-Tasking Operating System. Code was developed on a UNIX platform with clear case and the DIAB compiler.
Vtech	DECT Telephone	Working with a small team on the development of a DECT telephones for the European market. This included design (Using SDL and Telelogic Tau Tool), coding and testing of Mobility management (Layers 1 &2), Ringing detection, and Caller Line Identification (CLI). Modification and improvements to the Symbionics DECT stack in the MAC, DLC, Network and IWU layers where also undertaken. Test harnesses where created using Visual C++ and windows sockets and also to interface to the SDL tool.
Westbridge Design	SDH DAX	Designing, Coding and testing of windows based manager to control an SDH DaXs using the Borland Data base engine and OWL via a serial port. Interfaces on the Box included SDH, VC12, VC2, VC3 and HSSI.
Westbridge Design	DAX	Designing from scratch, software for a telecommunication digital cross connect switch unit (DAXs), which can switch timeslot(s) or bit(s) from/to any one of 256 2MBit E1 streams. This involves using a Motorola 68360 as a central system controller, connected, via HDLC links to 64 Motorola 68340's controlling 4 E1 streams. The design was derived using Popkins System Architect with Ward Mellor Methodology. Nucleus was used for the real-time operating system on both processors with a DOS port for testing. Coding, Unit testing and some integration testing was then carried out using PC's to simulate the target environment. Final integration and testing was carried out on the Target using the SDS 68K on chip debugger and BDM to test and fault find.
Westbridge Design	Windows Local Manager	A windows 3.1 based manager was developed for the DaXs above. The design was derived using Popkins System Architect with Ward Mellor Methodology. The software had to run on a 386 machine with the Borland database engine and OWL as the interface for windows using C and C++ as the language.
Cray Comm	Multi-Mux Mini-Mux Detmux	Several Multiplexer built on the same code base that can take various protocols (E1, T1, V11, V28, X35, X21, etc.) and multiplexing them into various channels of a 2048KHz data stream (CCITT G703). The unit consists of a system controller card with 80186 processor that communicates with multiple dumb cards and/or intelligent cards with Z80 processors. The programming consisted of various real time components (working at 256uS, 2mS, 10mS and 1Second) and background tasks on both the system controller and the intelligent cards. The design includes inter-processor communication, redundant mode of operation and route protection schemes. One of its variants was specifically modified for use in the channel tunnel.
Cray Comm	Mini-Dax	Digital cross-point switch that can take 8 or 16 G703 streams and cross connect any single channel to any other channel of any other stream. Design included inter-processor communication and route protection schemes. Other tasks included Network supervisor of the Novel Network, and Network backup.
Marconi Secure Radio Systems		Designing and using automatic test equipment to test various products as follows :- CDMA, Radio's for Tanks, Land Rovers, ship-born Digital Satellite communications Systems, Radio Relay Systems, Encryption Devices, PCM Multiplexers, Telegraph Converter units, Audio Signalling Units and a Spread Spectrum Frequency Hopping Modem.