The Oregon State Wireless Active Learning Device (OSWALD) is an open source learning platform developed by students of the

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

to allow undergraduate students of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

to obtain first experiences through direct technical contribution. The device is capable of common tasks such as browsing through the internet, instant messaging and playback of multimedia content. It can also support

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

and

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

Software

Operating system

The kernel of the system is linux based. Any software needs to be built by the students themselves through a compilation of BitBake recipes which are managed by

OpenEmbedded OpenEmbedded (OE) is a build automation framework and cross-compile environment used to create Linux distributions for embedded devices. The framework is developed by the OpenEmbedded community, which was formally established in 2003. OpenEmbed ...

. The installation requires a correctly formatted SD card containing the bootable build.

Java

OSWALD is capable of running Java code. Java files can be compiled on the device or delivered as compiled .class files. A network access can be established through standard Sockets and ServerSockets, since the wireless interface supports IP.

Hardware

The systems main processor is the

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

OMAP3530 running with 500 MHz. The graphics processor is the SGX530 for 2D and 3D graphics. Physical space is limited by 128 Mbyte DDR-SDRAM with a clock speed of 266 MHz. There is also a 256 Mbyte NAND flash memory. The display is a resistive touchscreen having a DVI out with a resolution of 1024x768 (HD). Speakers are the Texas Instruments TLV320AIC33 stereo. The touch screen, buttons and a built in accelerometer are handled via microcontrollers that contain software. The Cypress CY8C24794 handles the controls of the touchpad and button inputs. The Atmel ATMega48 monitors the accelerometer. A Texas Instruments cc2431 is used as a wireless interface (802.15.4 wireless supported).

References

{{Reflist Oregon State University Linux-based devices