TINI - For a networked future

Created by: mad2000-11-16 11:16:09

TINI - Tiny Internet Interface. Geeky stuff. Get the full story here on netilium.org, now!

The first question might be; "What is the TINI?" The TINI (Tiny Internet Interface) is a powerful yet physically small embedded system with built-in Java runtime engine, 10BaseT Ethernet interface, serial ports, One-Wire bus and more.

Java

What makes the TINI stand out in comparison with other systems is that it has an almost complete implementation of Java 1.1 instead of being limited to (for example) BASIC.
Writing applications for the TINI is no harder than writing normal ones, thanks to the Java environment. You must however convert the compiled Java-classes into TINI-compatible .tbin files before you load them into the TINI, but besides that there's really not much to complain about.

Mandelbrot Fractal

The first application I tested the TINI with was actually a small Mandelbrot-rendering application which output HTML. Since the app. was written for JSP, I only had to change two or three lines to make it run as a servlet under the TiniHttpServer. Rendering the Mandelbrot to the left (120x60 pixels) took 32 minutes by the way! :) All the TINI-specific classes, methods and interfaces are well documented, as well as where the TINI's java implementation differs from the standard one. In addition to the standard Java classes, the TINI offers a couple of specialised classes, namely

com.dalsemi.*

and

com.ibutton.*

. The

com.dalsemi.*

classes contain some really interesting methods and interfaces, for example com.dalemi.tininet.ppp which implements the PPP protocol or com.dalsemi.tininet.dns which enables easy access to DNS-lookups and

com.ibutton.*

for interfaceing with iButton clips.

Pricing

The TINI itself costs $50, but you will probably want some sort of development board, for example the E10 or E20. The E10 is the budget model, without on-board voltage regulator. (It's the one showing on the pictures of this page) The E10 currently costs $20 and the E20 $30. Adding shipment to Sweden, taxes and other costs, it rounded up to a total of around $150 which I think is a fair price for a first complete TINI development system.

[Zoom]

Putting the pieces together

What was left after having received the TINI together with the E10 board in a nice FedEx envelope was to put it together and start using it. I went to the local electronics store and bought myself a straight-serial cable ($5), a power plug ($1) and a couple of meters of low-power cable ($2) and went home. I then took a AT power supply that was just laying around, soldered the power cable to the +5V connector and just for safety measured the output: 5.1V, which is well inside the 5V ±25% requirement of the TINI. I then attached the plug to the cable, connected the serial cable to one of the COM ports of my workstation, unpacked the tini101.tgz(From Dalsemi's FTP site) skimmed the

README.TXT

, downloaded and installed the

javax.comm

package and started the JavaKit. Of course there where some problems with getting the

javax.comm

package to work but after having searched on java.sun.com I found some references to that for some reason, javax.comm had to be put on C: and when I did that everything started working just fine.

Visions

It's easy to see how uncomplicated it is to use the TINI as an enabler for other devices to interact/interface with a network. How often haven't you wished for your coffee brewer to be on-line, just waiting for you to type in that '

make coffee

' command? Or why not let the TINI control the lights in your home, with a good-looking web-interface on top of it? Previously one would probably have been bound to having an expensive, dedicated computer doing this which really limited the possibilities and usefulness. But now with the TINI the possibilities are endless and the only limiting factor is how much `spare' time you have. The TINI is a must have for every geek with interests in electronics, microprocessors, embedded systems, networking or likewise.

Technical

The TINI consists of a DS80C390 processor, 512k NVRAM, 512Kb Flash ROM, Real time clock, JDK1.1 API, Ethernet controller and 4 serial ports. (1 internal RS-232, 1 internal TTL, 2 requiring external UART), Internal and External One-Wire buses.

More information

You can find more information about the TINI in the following locations: