Development Contest Using STM32MP1 MPU Ends
Developing applications with OpenSTLinux and Qt GUI
ST Korea is planning to hold events once or twice a year in the future STMicroelectronics Korea held the 'STM32MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge' contest from April 13 to June 14 at
e4ds make .
The competition, which aimed to develop original applications using the STM32MP157C-DK2 Discovery Kit featuring the STM32MP1, consisted of a total of seven quests, one of which was conducted each week.
You can only challenge the next quest if you pass the previous quest, and participants who complete all the final quests can receive prizes such as the Galaxy S20 (1 person), Galaxy Watch (4 people), and Galaxy Buds (12 people) based on ST's evaluation.
▲ ST Korea MCU Director Kyung-Hwa Choi [Photo = Reporter Su-Min Lee]
With the final rankings just around the corner, we met with Kyung-Hwa Choi, Director of MCU Division at STMicroelectronics Korea, to ask how the STM32MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge was planned and what its purpose is.
Q. ST Korea MCU team held the 'TouchGFX Quest Event' at the Electronic Workshop Cafe last year. What kind of competition is the STM32MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge held this year?
A. This time, the STM32MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge hosted by e4ds make is a competition held to meet a new user base different from the user base we met at the TouchGFX Quest event held at the Electronic Craft Cafe last year. In addition, we wanted to introduce the STM32MP1 microprocessor (MPU) family, a new addition to the STM32 lineup.
Last year’s event was a competition to utilize TouchGFX, an easily accessible GUI solution for STM32 MCUs. This year’s challenge is to graft Qt’s graphical solution onto the STM32MP1 MPU, which can implement various Linux-based functions.
▲ STM32MP157C-DK2 Discovery Kit used in the challenge
[Photo = ST Microelectronics]
ST Korea was able to provide Qt to participants in this challenge with the support of Qt Korea. Qt is a graphics solution that can be found in Linux-based mobile phones and home appliances based on MPU.
Q. The 7 challenge quests consist of setting up a development environment and Yocto environment, demonstrating A7/M4 example demos, building images, and running examples in a Qt environment. What kind of capabilities are tested on engineers with this configuration?
A. The challenge is not intended to test the engineering skills of the participants. The primary purpose is to allow all participants to communicate with each other while solving the quest, and to have fun and feel a sense of accomplishment in the process.
In addition, while existing MPUs only perform performance-oriented processing, STM32MP1 combines Arm Cortex-A7 (for MPU) and Cortex-M4 (for MCU) cores. So the second goal is to provide an opportunity to create good applications by grafting these two elements.
Q. What kind of MPU is STM32MP1 and what applications is it suitable for? In particular, I am curious as to why it provides an open source Linux distribution, OpenSTLinux.
A. STM32MP1 has both Cortex A7 and M4 cores. So it can perform two functions in a single chip, and the power consumption is lower than that of conventional application processors. So engineers can create high-performance solutions that can cover industrial, consumer, smart home, and IoT sensing.
In the case of MCU, Linux cannot be used, but STM32MP1 can use Linux. ST provides the OpenSTLinux distribution to make it faster and easier to apply Linux to MPUs.
The STM32MP1 series of general-purpose MPUs is based on the Arm Cortex-A7 and Cortex-M4 core architectures, supporting a wide range of application development. The dual Cortex-A7 cores running at 800MHz run open-source OSs such as Linux and Android, while the Cortex-M4 core running at 209MHz performs real-time and low-power tasks.
Q. Do you plan to hold events like this in the future?
A. ST had good results last year when it held the Electronic Craft Cafe and Quest. We got a lot of feedback and were able to collaborate with Qt Korea. ST plans to hold such competitions once or twice a year.
This year, offline events have been particularly limited due to COVID-19. So we are preparing to reach out to customers through competitions like this one.
Q. Is there anything you would like to say to the challenge participants?
A. I would like to thank everyone who participated. I hope to see you again in other events or quests in the future.
A total of 238 people took on the STM32MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge, and only 14 people completed all the quests. The final rankings will be announced on June 22.
좋은 기회를 제공해 주셔서 많은 도움이 되었던 것 같습니다. 배움이 기회는 항상 힘들지만 성취감은 큰 듯 합니다.