Android Support

Now that new Toradex SOMs are not using Windows CE any longer, is Toradex considering supporting another OS besides Linux such as Android? I’m aware that Android OS for Toradex hardware is provided by third parties, but this is not as good as if Android would be supported by Toradex directly (ie. no Android support on this very useful forum, Android bsp is not free, no support for great Toradex tools like Toradex easy installer). Linux support by Toradex seems to be fantastic. It would be great if Android were supported the same way.

Thanks!

Hi @Jared, I forwarded your question to the respective people within Toradex and you will get an answer shortly.

Yes we are working on a new OS offering.
Some of the priories are:

  • The ease of use
  • Ready for critical industrial applications
  • Access to large Linux Eco System

We call it Torizon and you see a first early alpha on our Toradex Labs Page:

In the next days we will also add information about our Microsoft Environment migration. This are feature mostly targets Window PC and WinCE users. It include things like Visual Studio Integration.

Torizon is usable in volume productions without rebuilding the kernel, its simple to configure, has integrated security and will allow for easy OTA.

We think Torizon is the best fit for most of our customers.

However we do understand that in some use cases Android makes sens. Here we are still working with partners but we have new improved agreements.

  • Toradex Easy Installer Integration
  • Close Tracking of Updates
  • Support for Toradex Peripherals like the 7" and 10" Touch Displays

We are also happy to receive feedback about our plans and direction of Torizon.

Interesting, I was not aware of this project. It looks like Torizon is just a new OpenEmbedded Distro with OTA and docker support. I sounds like a great idea though, and would suit many use cases. I look forward to trying out the Distro, but will have to get the right SOM first.

Is there any support planned for Tegra? I’ll assume the answer is no, because of lack of accelerated graphics for NVidia in mainline kernel? We might be interested in this eventually, even without the accelerated graphics. Problem is, we have to migrate from WinCE to Linux first. So, is there anything here that helps with users migrating from WinCE to Linux? I’ll be curious to see the details of the Visual Studio integration, so I’ll check back once in a while to check.

At the moment we focus on the NXP based SoCs. We will also support downstream kernels.

We plan to have information pulse a first alpha ready of the Microsoft Environment ready by Jan 18th.
I will update this thread. It should easy the migration for our WinCE customer to Linux.

Here a link to the Microsoft Environment for Torizon
https://labs.toradex.com/projects/torizon-microsoft-environment

Torizon looks great, is there any statement about real time behaviour? Will Torizon with Microsoft Environment working like WEC2013, or will it work like Linux (which is no RTOS in any case).

Thanks a lot for helping.

With best regards

Gerhard

Hi @Gerhard,

Torizon at it’s core is a Linux based distribution, we do have a variant of Torizon that offers real time functionality in the form of the real time patch-set for Linux (PREEMPT_RT).

We have done some internal preliminary testing on this. The results are comparable with previous tests we have ran (pre-Torizon), those older results can be found here: Real-Time Linux | Toradex Developer Center

Best Regards,
Jeremias

Hi Jeremias,

nice numbers, but I can’t find any unit. Are the values milli-seconds?

With best regards

Gerhard

I believe those values are actually in microseconds.

Pay attention to this WEC7 and WEC2013 bug makes them non-deterministic if you really need RT

I see that i.mx8 is next on the roadmap for Torizon. Will T30 be on the roadmap at some point? I’ll have to commit to either our Poky-tiny plan vs Torizon in the next couple months.

Hi @kswain,

As of right now our Nvidia modules are not on the official roadmap for Torizon. There maybe some unofficial support for these modules but not up to the level of the i.MX modules. Also there is no guarantee on when or if this unofficial support will come.

Best Regards,
Jeremias