Computer Engineering Commons^™

Oversubscribing Inotify On Embedded Platforms, Donald Percivalle, Scott Vanderlind

Computer Engineering

For most computers running the popular Linux operating system, the inte- grated kernel component inotify provides adequate functionality for monitor- ing changes to files present on the filesystem. However, for certain embedded platforms where resources are very limited and filesystems are very populated (like network attached storage (NAS) devices), inotify may not have enough resources to provide watchers for every file. This results in applications missing change notifications for files they have watched. This paper explores methods for using inotify most effectively on embedded systems by leveraging more la- tent storage. Benefits of this include a reduction in dropped notifications …

Reliable Software Updates For On-Orbit Cubesat Satellites, Sean Fitzsimmons

Master's Theses

CubeSat satellites have redefined the standard solution for conducting missions in space due to their unique form factor and cost. The harsh environment of space necessitates examining features that improve satellite robustness and ultimately extend lifetime, which is typical and vital for mission success. The CubeSat development team at Cal Poly, PolySat, has recently redefined its standard avionics platform to support more complex mission capabilities with this robustness in mind. A significant addition was the integration of the Linux operating system, which provides the flexibility to develop much more elaborate protection mechanisms within software, such as support for remote on-orbit …

Lottery Scheduling In The Linux Kernel: A Closer Look, David Zepp

Master's Theses

This paper presents an implementation of a lottery scheduler, presented from design through debugging to performance testing. Desirable characteristics of a general purpose scheduler include low overhead, good overall system performance for a variety of process types, and fair scheduling behavior. Testing is performed, along with an analysis of the results measuring the lottery scheduler against these characteristics. Lottery scheduling is found to provide better than average control over the relative execution rates of processes. The results show that lottery scheduling functions as a good mechanism for sharing the CPU fairly between users that are competing for the resource. While …

Cplop - Cal Poly's Library Of Pyroprints, Kevin Webb

Computer Engineering

California Polytechnic Library of Pyroprints, CPLOP, is a web driven data-base application that stores data from the biology’s departments E. coli Pyrosequencing project. Some of this data was stored in Excel datasheets, while data from the pyrosequencing machines was stored as just a list of random .xml files. There was no useful way to organize and store the massive amounts of data from multiple file sources in one location, nor to perform the complicated searches and comparisons that the project requires. CPLOP’s primary goal is to store such data in three organized tables that relate to one another. It was …

Fault Tolerant And Flexible Cubesat Software Architecture, Greg D. Manyak

Master's Theses

The CubeSat pico-satellite is gaining popularity in both the educational and aerospace industries. Due to a lack of experience and constrained hardware capabilities, most of the university missions have been educational in nature. Cal Poly's project, PolySat, has gained significant experience from the launch of five CubeSats and has designed an entirely new hardware platform based on the knowledge gained from these missions. This hardware is a significant upgrade from what the previous missions used and has greatly increased the capabilities of the software, including supporting the use of the open source operating system Linux.

Leveraging the previous PolySat experience, …

Rfid Asset Tracking And Digital Check-Out System, Jeffrey (Jeff) Migliore

Computer Engineering

An asset tracking and digital check-out system was developed using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and a Single Board Computer (SBC). A RFID reader was used as a check point to process transactions. The RFID reader was attached to the SBC via USB. The SBC is integrated into a network via Ethernet and hosts a web graphical user interface (GUI) frontend for users to view transactions and query availability of assets. A MYSQL database was used for the backend storage of data.

Specifically, this system was designed to track tool assets. Many modern companies have employees sharing limited resources. The common …

A Low Power Touch Screen Document Viewer, Chris Perfetto

Computer Engineering

This document will cover the requirements, design, implementation and testing of a low power touch screen document viewer to serve as a replacement bulletin board. It was Implemented using a BeagleBoard development board, a 4.3” touchscreen LCD and a SD card with a Ubuntu Linux OS installed. The testing of this device is primarily testing the power consumption. The device is not yet complete and will require further development for it to completely satisfy the requirements.

Bluetooth "Clicker": Response Pads For Large Classes, Using Bluetooth Devices, Dana Goyette

Computer Engineering

When teaching classes with many students, many teachers opt to use “Clicker” devices to electronically poll students. This project aims to replace these “Clicker” devices with standard Bluetooth devices. The overall goal of this project is to create a framework for two-way communications between a base station and multiple remote devices.

Redesigning Src2pkg, A Linux Package Creation Toolkit, Timothy Goya

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Package managers ease installation and removal of applications. However, as the name indicates, in order for a package manager to be useful, they need packages created from upstream sources to manage. This is the purpose of src2pkg, a toolkit written in Bash shell script which automates many package creation tasks. src2pkg, however, suffers from major design flaws that cripple its ability to package some exotic upstream sources. src2pkg-ng is a prototype redesign of src2pkg that eliminates these flaws. src2pkg-ng fully supports creating packages for Slackware and Slackware-compatible variants for at least 21 upstream sources with various levels of complexity. Debian …