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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
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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)
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 STÂNGACIU Gabriel CÂRSTOIU Lucian UNGUREAN Coaches: Mihai V. MICEA Răzvan CIOARGĂ Contact: "Politehnica" University of Timisoara 2, Vasile Parvan Bv., 300223 – Timisoara, Romania Tel: +40 256 403271, Fax: +40 256 403214 E-mail: mihai.micea@cs.upt.ro, Web: dsplabs.cs.upt.ro