Embedded Software

USB-embedded Software



Introduction



Embedded software is typically software written for special purpose hardware, not, necessarily, computer hardware. The principal purpose of embedded software is not the transformation of data, but interaction with the physical world. It may seem odd to associate USB, or "Universal Serial Bus", technology - which, after all, is most commonly associated with personal and laptop computers - with embedded systems, but every USB device is, in fact, an embedded system. USB is a serial protocol and physical link, which transmits data differentially on a single pair of copper wires at speeds up to 480Mbps ("Megabits per second"), according to the USB 2.0 standard. A USB 3.0 standard, using fibre optic cable and offering speeds of to 4.8Gbps ("Gigabits per second"), was released in 2008 and the first USB 3.0 devices are just starting to appear.



Embedded USB Software



The main advantage of USB, whatever the specification, is that it offers simple connectivity. This means, for example, that VoIP, or "Voice over Internet Protocol", users can carry so-called "softphone" software - software that allows telephone calls to be made directly from a computer - on a USB memory stick, plug it into any available USB port, say, in an Internet café and make calls for free (or, at least, at a cheap rate), without needing to install the software.



There are numerous free software products that are small enough to be run from a USB memory stick. Express Talk, for example, can be downloaded, free of charge, from the Internet, is straightforward to configure and use and occupies under 500Kb. It uses the open standard SIP protocol and is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista and most of the major VoIP SIP providers, so can be used make telephone calls between computers or between a computer and a standard `phone handset via a gateway.



MizuPhone is a larger product, at 95Mb, but is, once again, free for non-commercial purposes. Also based on the SIP protocol, Mizuphone allows users to connect to any SIP server on the Internet, or a LAN ("Local Area Network"). The free version is based on the same engine as the professional version, but the latter - which retails for $50, at the time of writing - includes additional features, such as G.729 and wideband codecs, file transfer over SIP, etc..



Indeed, some manufacturers actually produce USB internet modems, or "dongles", which not only afford wireless broadband Internet access, but also include embedded softphone software that allows telephone calls to be made between one IP ("Internet Protocol") address and another, or between an IP address and the PSTN ("Public Switched Telephone Network") or GSM ("Groupe Spécial Mobile) mobile networks.

iCall SIP Software

Hello to everyone who comes visiting here! It's been quite some time since I've updated this blog (yes, yes, it's an understatement ;-), but iCall Anywhere has been pre-occupied with other endeavors in the past year or so. Some of which yours truly will hopefully share to you one of these days. However, we still have some gadgets that might interest SIP users which you can view at our recently revived website: http://www.icallanywhere.net. As you might observe, there are some webpages that needs to be updated (in particular the download section, as such I hope to temporarily share some of our documents, software and update files here from time to time:

Available Software:

USB Customization Applications [3 files]


http://rapidshare.com/users/Z665R4/2 Installers

iCall's Customized Open SIP Softphone

Shown below are screenshots of iCall's Open SIP Softphone that is embedded in T2Free's USB dongles which was customized for Talk24 use several months ago.

Customization will be done by Astarte.com / T2Free.com while support services will be provided by iCall Anywhere Wi-Phil Corporation.