Digi is delighted to unveil the details of the latest version of Digi Embedded Yocto (DEY) 4.0-r1 LTS (Long-term Support). Our customers require a product lifecycle management policy that maintains a stable version of the software for years to avoid compromising the stability or compatibility of applications running on the LTS version. Our renowned and reliable operating system shaped for our feature-rich and secure shielded Digi ConnectCore® system-on-modules (SOM), fully meets these customer needs. Additionally, the enhancements and functionality in this new release will enable the development of robust new device designs for business, industrial, transportation, government, and medical use cases.
In this blog post we will highlight the latest updates and improvements in DEY 4.0-r1 LTS. We invite you to discover the most relevant aspects of the latest additions and changes to our outstanding embedded operating system.
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What Is DEY?
First things first. DEY is an open source and freely available Yocto Project™-based embedded Linux distribution. It is the reference distribution for the Digi ConnectCore family of embedded system-on-modules, single board computers (SBCs) and development kits, and it is based on Poky, the reference Yocto Project Linux distribution. Digi Embedded Yocto includes customizations for Digi hardware as well as out-of-the-box software extensions not part of the standard Yocto Project that help your products get to market faster.
Digi Embedded Yocto is used to perform comprehensive board support package (BSP) validation on Digi’s SOMs and single-board-computers. You can further customize it by creating your own Digi Embedded Yocto-based distribution. Digi's Yocto instance, Digi Embedded Yocto, provides a wide range of support libraries and documentation to assist you in developing your next project and getting to market on your timeline.
- Software development kit (SDK): Digi Embedded Yocto includes a precompiled C/C++ toolchain. You can use it to cross-compile applications to run on Digi embedded platforms.
- Precompiled images: Digi Embedded Yocto includes pre-built reference images to accelerate your development process.
- Documentation: Digi Embedded Yocto comes with comprehensive documentation covering all the development and technical aspects of Digi ConnectCore products.
- Software extensions: Digi Embedded Yocto is designed to improve your time to market with common and simple to use software features that work out of the box.
What’s New in Release 4.0-r1?
The latest release of Digi Embedded Yocto, DEY 4.0-r1, is based on the Yocto Project™ 4.0 (kirkstone) release.
The following is what is included in the new release 4.0-r1.
- Based on Yocto 4.0 (kirkstone) the release includes the following package updates:
- New toolchain based on GLIBC-2.35. The GNU C Library project provides the core libraries for the Linux kernel.
- Updated Qt 5.15.3. Qt is cross-platform software for creating graphical user interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various software and hardware platforms such as embedded systems, with little or no change in the underlying codebase while still being a native application with native capabilities and speed.
- Updated bluez5 to v5.64. BlueZ is the official Linux Bluetooth stack.
- Updated gstreamer1.0 to v1.20.1. GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows.
- Updated OpenSSL to v3.0.2. OpenSSL is a software library for applications that provide secure communications over networks that prevents eavesdropping and the need to identify the party at the other end.
- Updated BusyBox to v1.35.0. BusyBox is a software suite that provides several Unix utilities in a single executable file. Many of the tools it provides are designed to work with interfaces provided by the Linux kernel.
- Updated NetworkManager to v1.36.2. Standard Linux networking tool.
- Package upgrades and security fixes.
- Updated mca-tool to v1.26. A Digi command line tool that makes it easy to set internal variables of the Micro Controller Assist (MCA) and update its firmware, which assists processors with advanced operations related to power management, security, and system reliability.
- Updated QCA65x4 Wi-Fi firmware and driver to include Cisco Extensions support (qcacld-2.0).
Additional included features:
- Dual boot support integrated in the meta-digi layer. Upgrading the firmware of an embedded device often means updating the full system rather than just substituting files. A full system update does risk leaving the system unable to boot if, for example, power is lost during the update process. A dual boot mechanism — which duplicates system partitions and performs the update over the unused partition — ensures that the device is always able to boot. In the case of the Digi ConnectCore MP15, this functionality is pre-configured out of the box making implementation of this critical mechanism simpler and more straightforward.
- Support for our new and powerful family of MP1 SOMs based on the STM32MP1 MPU family from STMicroelectronics.
- Images with Crank graphic demos (dey-image-crank) and first-class documentation. As you well know, user interface innovation is critical and going to market with a mediocre touchscreen UX is not acceptable. TheCrank software framework, called Storyboard, helps improve UX with ease, resulting in sophisticated awe-inspiring graphical user interfaces that provide exceptional user experiences. We believe this will help your product stand out from the crowd!
- Added cloud support demo for CC6UL and CCMP15, including reference implementation on how to configure Ethernet and Wi-Fi interfaces from the cloud. That's so cool!
- For the new member of the Digi ConnectCore family, Digi ConnectCore MP1, we have added functionality focused on reinforcing security of our products and yours:
- Trusted Firmware ARM (TF-A)
- Trusted Execution Environment (OP-TEE), an area on the main processor that is separated from the main embedded operating system (OS). It ensures that data is stored, processed, and protected in a secure environment.
- And of course, we have rolled up our sleeves to continue delivering the best documentation to guide you through every step to successfully launch your new product designs.
Supported Platforms
Software for the following hardware platforms is already available. Other platforms will be supported in the next release. Please stay tuned!
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Digi ConnectCore MP15
- Digi ConnectCore MP15 (SOM)
- Digi ConnectCore MP15 Development Kit
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Digi ConnectCore 6UL
- Digi ConnectCore 6UL System-on-Module (SOM)
- CC-WMX-JN58-NE
- CC-MX-JN58-Z1
- CC-WMX-JN7A-NE
- CC-WMX-JN7A-CBX
- CC-WMX-JN68-NN
- CC-WMX-JN69-NN
- CC-MX-JN69-ZN
- Digi ConnectCore 6UL SBC Express
- CC-WMX6UL-START
- CC-SBE-WMX-JN58
- Digi ConnectCore 6UL SBC Pro
- CC-WMX6UL-KIT
- CC-SBP-WMX-JN58
Download the Software
To access the software download, start at our documentation portal, where you will be guided where to go to access the software. There you will find a rich set of resources to help you learn more about working with the Digi ConnectCore family of system-on-modules.
Optimize Your Design and Deployment with Digi ConnectCore Services
Digi is continually enhancing the value of our ecosystem of system-on-modules to support OEMs in achieving rapid time-to-market, with secure, full-featured wireless products. What's more, we know your work does not stop there. Now, you can support your end customers more fully with integrated security monitoring, ongoing management, regular firmware updates and more. See the press release announcing the launch of our new services.
Here's a sneak peek about our new ConnectCore Services at a glance:
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Digi ConnectCore Cloud Services empower OEMs to develop smart connected devices and maintain them after release with secure over-the-air (OTA) updates.
Our services integrate programming software and a feature-rich cloud platform with complete application programming interfaces (API), enabling remote management and service contract opportunities for devices based on ConnectCore SOMs. Services available for Digi ConnectCore 6, 8 and MP1 SOM families.
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Digi ConnectCore Security Services include services and tools that enable you to maintain the security of your connected products during their entire lifecycle.
The services analyze and monitor a custom software bill of materials (SBOM) and binary images running on Digi ConnectCore SOMs to identify security risks and vulnerabilities and help remediate issues. Services are available for Digi ConnectCore 6UL and MP1 SOM families running Digi Embedded Yocto 4.0 (LTS) releases. Our latest release!
Next Steps