Hard&Soft Contest, Suceava 2008 - Timisoara ONE recycling team 2HandyDokcTOr: 2-nd Hand computer system Diagnostic and monitoring kit created by the 'Timisoara

Hard&Soft Contest, Suceava 2008 - Timisoara ONE recycling team

2HandyDokcTOr: 2-nd Hand computer system Diagnostic and monitoring kit created by the 'Timisoara One' recycling team23.05.2008 Slide 1



General System Architecture



System Information from Windows

• Custom Windows Service called "PC Watchdog", written in C#: discovers the system configuration using Event Log, Windows Registry

and WMI classes monitors the CPU usage and Memory usage and sends it to the PC

WatchDog hardware module communicates with the PC WatchDog hardware module via a dedicated

Serial Interface



System Information from UNIX

• Unix systems gather a great quantity of system information and store it in text files

• Information considered to be important in deciding the quality of a used computer:

CPU (model name, frequency, vendor id, usage)

Memory (total size, used memory, free memory)

Hard Disk Drives (total storage, devices, total space, free space, used space)

Graphics (video graphics adapter, VGA controller, display)

Other Devices (network adapters list, IDE controllers list, PCI bridges list, USB controllers list)



WatchDog Hardware Module

• A hardware device designed for gathering information from the system

• Communicates with the corresponding Windows service, through a serial link

• Stores the current PC hardware configuration

• Logs any hardware changes along with a set of relevant operating parameters (for example, system on/off time, temperature, case open)

• System current configuration and operation history (logs) are stored on a Flash or EEPROM memory chip, which can later on be removed by the OEM for further data processing

• Displays basic system information on a front panel mountable LCD: CPU usage

Memory usage

Case temperature



WatchDog Hardware Module (cont'd)

• The module consists of the following main parts: Main processor (Atmel AtMega16 microcontroller) EEPROM memory (Microchip 25AA640) LCD Serial interface

• The main development tools used are: JTAG programmer, also built with an Atmel AtMega16 microcontroller Programming environment: AVR Studio



Web Application

• 2HandyDokcTOr is a very user-friendly application designed to suit the needs for both the simple user and the expert user

• The main components of the application are: Automatic tests page (CPU test, Memory test, HDD test) Application Main page content (General system information tab, CPU

Report tab) Additional features buttons Advanced Information page (System device information Tabs, Watchdog

Tab, CPU usage graphs, Memory usage graphs) Additional Tests page (User Tests: keyboard, display)

Application Main pageApplication Main page

Advanced Information pageAdvanced Information page Additional Tests pageAdditional Tests page

Application Main pageApplication Main page

Advanced Information pageAdvanced Information page Additional Tests pageAdditional Tests page



Web Application (cont'd)

• At its startup, 2HandyDokcTOr is able to: detect automatically if the WatchDog module is present, and if yes,

additional information provided by the device is displayed in a separate tab

perform essential system tests (CPU, memory and HDD), using the UNIX "md5" and "sha1" utilities to compute and verify the checksum generated for a large test file

• Several Web-based technologies were used: PHP for getting system information

Ajax for refreshing pages

JavaScript(Dojo) for graphical interface

Basic html for layout



Ubuntu Live CD

• A special LIVE CD from the Ubuntu distribution has been created for this project

• The vanilla distribution ISO was downloaded from the Ubuntu web site and that distribution of Linux was installed on one of the computers provided

• A set of special packages needed by the project have been installed (apache2, php5, xulrunner, libgd2, php5-gd2, etc.)

• The Web PHP-based application was installed on the live environment and customized for live CD use

• A squashfs image of the live system was constructed on the local disc; also the new ISO file containing the customized live CD distribution was created from the squashfs image



Prospects

Some further developments:

• 2-nd Hand PCs online warehouse

• WatchDog improvement (extending its connections with the host hardware)

• Security informations



Timisoara One recycling team:

Team:Cristina CERTEJAN

Valentin STÂNGACIUGabriel CÂRSTOIULucian UNGUREAN

Coaches:Mihai V. MICEA

Răzvan CIOARGĂ

Contact:"Politehnica" University of Timisoara

2, Vasile Parvan Bv., 300223 – Timisoara, RomaniaTel: +40 256 403271, Fax: +40 256 403214

E-mail: [email protected], Web: dsplabs.cs.upt.ro

Documents

Hard&Soft Contest, Suceava 2008 - Timisoara ONE recycling team 2HandyDokcTOr: 2-nd Hand computer system Diagnostic and monitoring kit created by the 'Timisoara