Google Summer Of Code

[jadon]

In Google Summer of Code, students get paid $5,000 to work on open source projects. Applications are accepted March 29-April 9. See http://code.google.com/soc for details.

BeagleBoard.org is an open hardware project that has guts similar to the OpenPandora. If students want to do development on the OpenPandora and the BeagleBoard at the same time, the BeagleBoard.org GSoC mentors are likely to still be interested in supporting the project. The ideas page is at http://tinyurl.com/bbgsoc.

 

[Bosbeetle]

I hope they will make this

Network based mp3 player. The Beagle will be programmed using a custom, protocol for transferring files from a network based server (x86 pc) to a Beagle. Speakers will be attached to the Beagle, where the file will be played back. Possible extensions are a LCD for displaying id3 tag information, and buttons for user interaction (next track, previous track, etc.) on the GPIO interface.

http://elinux.org/ECE597_Project_Ideas

 

[Squidge]

Why? So it can be thrown in with all the other network MP3 players? It's not new and it's not innovative.

 

[Tempel]

Yeah, there are definitely easier ways to do that than writing a custom protocol. Easiest, I think, would just be any old network filesystem combined with any old audio player. Or have the Beagle be a PulseAudio sink and mpd client. Or use SSH + cat.

But the point is moot anyways. The project page says that it's "part of the ECE597 32-bit Embedded Linux class at Rose-Hulman Institute". So, it's going to happen independently of the Summer of Code, and it's not necessarily going to be the best solution since it's for learning purposes.

 

[neko]

The ideas page is at http://tinyurl.com/bbgsoc.

Well, there's an opportunity for someone to work on a certain often requested feature: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas#x86_instruction_emulation

 

[Zotty]

Haven't searched if it already exists, but how about a physics engine (that can be used in games), perhaps using the DSP?

 

[Username]

So you get paid to code open source shit? What if what I code is retarded? Do I still get paid? I want me some arab money.

 

[Exophase]

So you get paid to code open source shit? What if what I code is retarded? Do I still get paid? I want me some arab money.

You have to actually be selected by a sponsored team. Basically, you have to be hired. And the positions are very competitive. Even if you're very qualified for the task the group could find that they can't actually afford to spend one of their slots on the task you applied for. I should know, it happened to me a few years ago.

Also, you do have to be a student of some sort.

 

[Creature XL]

The ideas page is at http://tinyurl.com/bbgsoc.

Well, there's an opportunity for someone to work on a certain often requested feature: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas#x86_instruction_emulation

Can't imagine how a DSP could help in emulating x86 code. Maybe advanced stuff like some SSE instructions, however, I think that its more up to NEON and further, I don't think an 800MHz ARM would ever be able to emulate software that relies on SSE

I find this more interesting (however, I am not sure if I understood the short description to its full extend):

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas#Compile_POSIX_applications_on_a_slave_DSP

 

[Bosbeetle]

Why? So it can be thrown in with all the other network MP3 players? It's not new and it's not innovative.

and again I show my n00bness

 

[ldesnogu]

Well, there's an opportunity for someone to work on a certain often requested feature: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas#x86_instruction_emulation

Can't imagine how a DSP could help in emulating x86 code. Maybe advanced stuff like some SSE instructions, however, I think that its more up to NEON and further, I don't think an 800MHz ARM would ever be able to emulate software that relies on SSE

The DSP could be used to offload sound generation (e.g. Q3 sound on an Android phone reduces speed by 20%; see here) and perhaps some 2D tasks. Emulating any x86 instruction on it would certainly be inefficient

As far as SSE goes, you're right an A8 probably wouldn't be fast enough (and SSE2 would surely be too slow due to NEON not supporting double precission FP). SSE appeared in Pentium III which lowest frequency was 400 MHz, and this means any x86 game requiring that performance would anyway not run at an acceptable speed on an A8.

 

[Orkie]

And the positions are very competitive.

Which is silly, because they aren't even very well paid. You can get more on minimum wage, and most summer jobs will pay above that.

 

[ldesnogu]

Which is silly, because they aren't even very well paid. You can get more on minimum wage, and most summer jobs will pay above that.

More than $5000 for a 2-month long job? Minimum wage in France is less than $1300 a month and student internship is often much less than that.

Anyway I don't think the wage is the incentive, demonstrating ability to deliver looks much more important to me.

 

[Zotty]

Which is silly, because they aren't even very well paid. You can get more on minimum wage, and most summer jobs will pay above that.

More than $5000 for a 2-month long job? Minimum wage in France is less than $1300 a month and student internship is often much less than that.

Anyway I don't think the wage is the incentive, demonstrating ability to deliver looks much more important to me.

It's the same in The Netherlands. Internships are often not well paid. $5000 for a student is extremely well paid. Once you've done your thesis your salary goes up pretty fast, but before that you're basically screwed.

 

[quadomatic]

And the positions are very competitive.

Which is silly, because they aren't even very well paid. You can get more on minimum wage, and most summer jobs will pay above that.

Um, I'm not sure what summer jobs pay in other countries, but in the US, $5k for 2 months of work as a student is damn good money. Plus, GSoC is quite a resume builder.