In Partial Fulfillment for the Award of Degree Of

A TECHNICAL SEMINAR

SIMPUTER

In partial fulfillment for the award of degree of

Bachelor of Technology

Computer Science and Engineering

Submitted by

SANTOSH RAO CHANNAMANENI

07E71A0539

Under the guidance of

MR.P.V.S.RAM PRASAD

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

VATHSALYA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(AFFILIATED TO JNT UNIVERSITY, HYDERABAD)

ANANTHARAM, BHONGIR, NALGONDA.

2010-2011

VATHSALYA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(Affiliated to JNT University, Hyderabad)

Anantharam, Bhongir.

Department of COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

2010-2011

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the technical seminar entitled “SIMPUTER”that is being submitted bySANTOSH RAO CHANNAMANENI (07E71A0539) in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Award of the degree of Bachelor Of Technology inCOMPUTERSCIENCE AND ENGINEERINGto the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University is a record of bonafide work carried out by them under my guidance and supervision.

The results embodied in this technical seminar have not been submitted to any other University or Institute for the Award of any Degree.

Head of the DepartmentProject Coordinator

(Mr. P.V.S.RAM PRASAD)(Mr. K.HARI)

Principal

(Prof.Sri.Dr. BRAVEENDRANATHSINGH)

Acknowledgement

It gives us immense pleasure to acknowledge with gratitude, the help and support extended throughout the technical seminar from the following:

We will be very much grateful to almighty our parents who have made us capable of carrying out our job.

We express our profound gratitude to our principal Prof.Sri.Dr. BRAVEENDRANATHSINGH , of Vathsalya Institute of Science and Technology, who has encouraged in completing our technical seminar successfully.

We are grateful to Mr. P.V.S. RAM PRASAD who is our Head of the Department, CSE, for his amiable ingenious and adept suggestions and pioneering guidance during the technical seminar.

We express our deep sense of gratitude and thanks to coordinator MR.K.HARI for his support during the technical seminar.

We are also very thankful to our Management, staff members and all our friends for their valuable suggestions and timely guidance without which we would not have been successful in completion of the technical seminar.

SANTOSH RAO CHANNAMANENI

(07E71A0539)

INDEX

INTRODUCTION 4

SYSTEM OVERVIEW 6

SIMPUTER LICENSING 10

SIMPUTER SPECIFICATION 11

APPLICATION SOFTWARE 13

ILMI 14

APPLICATIONS 19

INTERFACES 21

FEATURES 22

CONCLUSION 30

FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS 32

BIBILOGRAPHY 33

PPT

INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVE

Even the poorest of the poor will pay for the service, if that service improves in some way their quality of life.Several corporates are now addressing rural markets and they have the need for information and communication infrastructure in remote rural locations.

For achieving this the Simputer project was conceived during the organization of Global Village, an International Seminar on Information Technology for developing countries, conducted during Banglore IT.com event in October 2001.

If the right service is made accessible in the right way information technology can impact the lives of people all over the world.The Simputer is a low cost portable alternative to PCs, by which the benefits of IT can reach the common man.It has a special role in the third world because it ensures that knowledge of English in no longer barrier to handling a computer.

The Simputer is a self-contained, open hardware hand held computer, designed in environments where computing devices such as personal computers are deemed inappropriate.

It's simple, it's portable. At about Rs. 9,000 per piece, it's highlyaffordable. It is compatible with your everyday PC, helps you check e-mail, browsethe Net, keep accounts, and get information.When the invention of the Simputer(Simple Computer) was announced in 2001, it instantly captured the imagination ofthe world. The venerable New York Times called it the most important inventionof 2001 ahead of Apples G4 and Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. Herewas a computer that was rewriting every rule associated with computers.

The goal of the Simputer project is to harness the potential ofInformation and Communication Technology (ICT) for the benefit of the weakestsections of society. The software developed by the Simputer Trust will be underGNU GPL and the hardware developed will be under Simputer General PublicLicense (SGPL).

The Simputer is also known as a Simple Inexpensive MultilingualComputer, is important in surveying its projected uses. The Simputer was originallyplanned to be a stand-alone computing device with a simple user interface, andfeatures like speech synthesis that made it work for very low-attainment users.Various usage models were considered, but the key to the ‘Inexpensive’ aspect wasthe shared model.

The device was to enable large groups of users to share one device,possibly purchased communally. Individual users were expected to own smartcards that enabled them to store their information offline. A potential owner for aSimputer would thus be a village council, or a cooperative, or any group of peoplewilling to share it. Public funds could potentially be applied towards suchpurchases.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

ABOUT SIMPUTER:

The Simputer which is a SIMple compUTER, is known as, Simple Inexpensive MultilingualComputer Simputer, in terms of screen size (320x240), memory capabilities(32MB RAM) and the OS (GNU/Linux). It runs on an Intel strong-arm chip. Thechip is known for its low power consumption. The Simputer runs on three AAAbatteries or off the mains. It can also use rechargeable batteries, but the charger isnot built in. Thus, the Simputer is basically a low-cost computer with multipleconnectivity options. It will be modular and based entirely on free software fromthe Open Source Initiative. Its primary input will be a touch-sensitive overlay onthe LCD display panel.

The primary application interface would be a browser that can renderthe Information Markup Language. IML is a new XML application being designedspecifically for handheld devices like the Simputer. The use of XML-basedlanguage is in line with the philosophy of utilizing global Internet standards. To therural Indian poor, and even to most city dwellers, a computer is probably as remotean option as a trip to the moon. But things are about to change.

The Brains Behind The Concept

A small group of scientists of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and some engineering professionals from the firm Encore Software have designed this simple device, and set up a trust to take it to the world.

This device, called a Simputer, will be launched formally on April 25 in Bangalore.This gadget is not a PC. It is a simplified device more like a pocket computer. What distinguishes it from other hand-held devices is its smart cardreader. Besides, it also has an Information Markup Language that is, amongst otherthing, smart card aware. It will also have the use of extensive audio in the form oftext-to-speech and audio snippets.

An important feature of the Simputer is the SmartCard Reader/Writer.The smart card is emerging as a credible delivery vehicle for financial transactionson the Internet and has become an important tool for electronic commerce. Theincorporation of a smart card reader/writer in the Simputer will, therefore, increasethe functionality of the mobile device for deployment of a richer set of value-addedservices, including services such as home banking through personal ATMs andhome shopping.

A user's individual profile can be stored on a smart card, which he cancarry around with him. Once inserted into the smart card interface, the Simputerwill read the profile from the smart card and also update changes if any, during thecurrent transaction cycle.

AFFORDABLE COMPUTING

The projected cost of the Simputer is about Rs 9000 at large volumes.But even this is beyond the means of most citizens. The Smart Card feature that theSimputer provides enables the Simputer to be shared by a community.

A local community such as the village panchayat, the village school, akiosk, a village postman, or even a shopkeeper should be able to loan the device toindividuals for some length of time and then pass it on to others in the community.The Simputer, through its Smart Card feature allows for personal informationmanagement at the individual level for an unlimited number of users.

The impact of this feature coupled with the rich connectivity of theSimputer can be dramatic. Applications in diverse sectors such as micro banking,large data collection, agricultural information and as a school laboratory is nowmade possible at an affordable price.

What makes the Simputer special?

One needs to understand the Simputer’s main features text-to-speechsynthesis in Indian languages, pen-based input (called tap-a-tap), portable palmtop-sized footprint, Linux-powered, open hardware licensing, and the smart-cardinterface, among others.

The intended use of these features (and hence the Simputer) is forrural areas. The text-to-speech features, portable size and low power requirementsare meant to be of immense use to people in these areas. Some of the applicationsthat have been suggested are micro-banking applications, rural commerce, andmicro-credit applications.

Simputer has an edge over any palmtop. Palmtops can’t compute inIndian languages and don’t have text-to-speech interfaces for Indian languages.They are also not aimed for the mass market that the Simputer is targeting, and stillhave a more elitist user community.

The business applications of Simputer in Micro-banking or sales forceautomation is useful. Insurance companies in India are looking at using this foreach of their insurance agents who go around. Now, they don't have to carry allthese huge books that they used to carry, with details of all the policies. They justcarry the Simputer with all the information already fed into that.

It's not only that it costs less than $200 (Rs. 9,306) but also what theSimputer will be able to do. Put together by several academics and engineers – intheir spare time -- this Internet device will have the potential to help even non-literate users to surf the Net and e-mail.

Once commercialized and put out in the market -- its designs will befreely released to companies for reproduction -- the Simputer can not only be usedas a device for individuals to access the Net, but also by communitiesSthroughkiosks. A smart-card interface is being worked on to facilitate micro banking.

The non-profit Simputer Trust, a group of academics andtechnologists from India’s computing industry, is creating the multi-purposedevice. Their vision is to create not only a computer, but also an "evolvingplatform for social change" throughout the world by bridging the digital divide.They wanted a device that could be used by literate people in Third World nationswho lack computer skills, as well as by illiterate people. The Simputer Trust iscreated basically to develop technology that will help take information technologyto rural areas.

Its initial target is India. And if it is applicable in India, it will also beapplicable in the rest of the third world.

The Simputer had a tremendous response from all over the world -from South America to Australia and every other country in between, includingsome of the developed countries. Even the developed countries are interested inseeing how they could use it; not just for applications for the poor, but alsoapplications for the urban elite, the urban affluent.

The Simputer is the result of coming together of scientists form theIndian Institute of Science, Bangalore and technologists of a software companywith a broad imperative to harness its potential for the benefit of all sections ofsociety. The Simputer is not a projection of an end product but of an evolvingplatform for social change.

“The Simputer a cheap, pocket-sized computing device designed foruse by rural populations in India has been hailed as a breakthrough inbringing the world of computing to the poor”.

SIMPUTER LICENSING

The system software of the Simputer, since it is Linux based is underGPL. We have been working on a license similar to the GPL, but applicable tohardware. We realized, after considerable discussions, that hardware has asignificant difference that precludes the possibility of using a simple extension ofthe software GPL. We now have the first draft of the Simputer General PublicLicense (SGPL) that we believe to be a practicable license which at the same timefacilitates the rapid spread of Simputers.

The SGPL has been reviewed further and the new version is nowready. The Simputer General Public License

The hardware specifications of the Simputer can be downloaded onlyunder SGPL. The SGPL permits anyone to build devices out of the downloadedspecification. However, once a product is ready for commercialization, one of twopossible licenses needs to be obtained from the Simputer Trust. These are

•The Simputer Device Manufacturing License.

The Simputer manufacturing License refers to a Core SimputerSpecification, a functional description of the Simputer to be specified by theSimputer Trust and which evolves with the development of the Simputer. The firstversion of the Core Simputer Specification will be posted here soon.

SIMPUTER SPECIFICATIONHARDWARE

CPU

Intel StrongArm SA-1110 CPU

Memory

16–64 MB of SDRAM

08-32 MB Flash for non-volatile storage

Display Options

240x320 LCD Color or Monochrome Display Panel with backlight

Input Device

Touch-panel Overlay on LCD Display with a plastic stylus (Pen)

Direction and Selection Keys

Audio Interface

Audio Codec

Support for external head-set

SmartCard Interface

SmartCard Reader/Writer

USB Interface

USBPort

Connectivity

Data Modem

IrDA Interface

Connectors in Basic Unit

SmartCard Connector
IrDA Transceiver
RJ-11 Telephone Jack
USB Type-A Connector
AC Adapter Input

Power Supply

2xAA-sized Ni-MH batteries
Internal charge management
Operates with external AC Adapter

ACCESSORIES

Expansion Docking Cradle

Compact Flash [CF-II] Slot, USB Slave and SerialPort

SYSTEMSOFTWARE

Operating System

Linux Kernel 2.4.18

Network Protocols

TCP/IP, FTP, Telnet, PPP, HTTP etc.

Application Libraries

GTK+, glibc

APPLICATIONSOFTWARE

Internet Access

Browser, Email, File-Transfer

Music

MP3 Player / MPEG4 Player

PIM Applications

Notepad, Address Book, Calculator

The new Simputer range from Encore thus attempts to meet therequirements of various market segments. The entry-level Simputer will, atproduction volumes, be priced at about $210, and has a monochrome LCD, 16MBof DRAM and 8MB of flash memory, IrDA and USB interfaces and audioconnectors, but no modem. Some of the enhancements include a built-in batterycharger, a real-time clock, and support for J2ME.

The top-end Simputer, priced at about $480, has a color display,32MB of flash memory and 64MB of DRAM, a built-in modem, and a pocket-sized cradle with a CompactFlash expansion slot for memory cards and wireless connectivity.In addition to the cradle which ships with the high-end model, Encoreis also designing specialized cradles with built-in functions such as a micro printer,keyboard, and support for GSM and 802.11 wireless connectivity. The company isopening up to designers the interface between the Simputer and the cradle toencourage others to design their own specialty cradles.

IMLI: The IML browser

IMLI is an abbreviation for IML interface. The purpose of IMLIis to provide a simple and consistent interface for displayinginformation and developing applications that are simple, user friendly.

IMLI supports display of Indian languages, and is also integrated with aspeech-synthesis system, that is capable of synthesizing voice in Indianlanguages. The speech synthesis system is distributed separately. It

uses a protocol called ITP, IML transport protocol. The novelty of the Information Markup language (IML) browser(user-interface of the simputer) is:

uniformity across diverse applications

 ease of use

 support for multilingual text and speech output

 support for smart card usage.

IML Syntax

IML syntax is governed by the rules of XML syntax and itsgrammar is specified by a Document Type Definition (DTD): thedetails of using tags, attributes, entity references

and so on are defined in the XML language specification and the details about IML element, attribute names and their nesting etc. are specified in the IML DTD.

Tap-a-tap: cool character composition

Tap-a-tap is a method for generating keystrokes to be sent to otherapplications, for devices, where a keyboard is absent. Tap-a-tap uses a3x3 grid for recognizing characters. For example, each character of the

Kannada alphabet can be generated by "tapping" on the cells of the 3x3grid in a particular sequence. The figure generated by connecting the"tapped" points, roughly resembles the way the character is written.

Tap-a-tap starts of in "letter" mode; it can be changed to go into"number" mode by clicking on the button at the bottom. This brings upthe numeric telephone style keypad, for number entry. Clicking again

on the button at the bottom, brings it back to the "letter" mode.

DHVANI: The Simputer Text-to-Speech Software

DHVANI gives resources needed to set up text-to-speechsynthesis in Indian languages. Using images in conjunction with voiceoutput in local languages makes the Simputer accessible to a largerfraction of the Indian population. Currently, Dhvani has a Phoneticsto-Speech engine which is capable of generating intelligible speechfrom a suitable phonetic description in any Indian Language. Inaddition, it is capable of converting UTF-8 text in Hindi or Kannadato this phonetic description, and then speaking it out using thePhonetics-to-Speech engine.

Text entering

There are two options on the simputer for entering text:

1. one is a soft keyboard, that can be brought up on the touchscreen and you poke at it to enter one character at a time.