Ultibo core 2.0, now with OpenGL ES, OpenVG, OpenMAX...

[Ultibo]

We've just released Ultibo core 2.0 and the major new feature is full support for the VideoCore IV GPU in all models of the Raspberry Pi, that means Ultibo can now take advantage of hardware accelerated graphics including OpenGL ES for 3D, OpenVG for 2D, OpenMAX IL for multimedia audio and video as well as the Broadcom specific Multimedia Abstraction Layer (MMAL) which gives full access to the official Raspberry Pi camera.

The new Ultibo core 2.0 installer is now available for download from https://ultibo.org and includes more than 20 new examples showing what can be done with all the new features, if you're just curious and want a very quick look we've posted a couple of 30 second videos on our Facebook and Twitter pages so you can see the results. Or if you have a Raspberry Pi we've also made one of the OpenGL ES examples available to download as a zip file so you can just extract it to an SD card and see for yourself.

This is the first time we know of that full hardware accelerated graphics has been made available on an embedded platform without the overhead of a full operating system, now you can create complex 2D or 3D applications that require as litte as 2MB of disk and boot in just a few seconds.

Of course all of the existing features are still available as well so you can access the full power of all 4 CPUs on Raspberry Pi 2 and 3, interface easily with I2C and SPI devices, communicate over serial devices, create network connections using TCP and UDP and read or write files on FAT, NTFS and CDFS filesystems. All from the familiar Lazarus interface and with a complete Free Pascal RTL that includes classes, exceptions, memory management, threading and much more.

For those who haven't heard, Ultibo is a unikernel development platform written 100% in Free Pascal and released under the same modified LGPL license as the FPC and Lazarus run time libraries. It includes a huge range of features which are constantly expanding and improving, things like pre-emptive threading, multicore support, USB, MMC/SD as well as most of the built in peripherals like UART, I2C and SPI. Right now the focus is on the Raspberry Pi but support is also included for the QEMU emulator and more platforms are planned for the future.

You can find more information and the Windows installer download on the Ultibo website, the wiki contains lots of information including how to build the source for various Linux distributions or if you have questions please feel free to ask at our forum.

Thanks,

[Thaddy]

WOW! Something to play with this weekend. Thanks for the RPi specific stuff! I will definitely have some fun with it! (Again)
I fully recommend ULTIBO if you have a Raspberry pi and want to try out (or learn about) embedded applications. Use it for dedicated software.... no overhead (well, little), safe and fast.
All built with Freepascal! Even beginners should try it. Couple of cards - yes, count on that - and you're off.
Good examples too... Did you know it is the ONLY out-of-the-box dedicated complete environment for embedded on RPi ?
(and the hardcore hackers do not believe it..... Suckers won't even try, sometimes, because it's Pascal, whine...     can't do it there.....)
Everything else (including some lowlevel C stuff) takes ages to learn. ULTIBO is modular and very easy to understand if you know Pascal. (Still steep if you are a beginner, but best in class)

You can use that quote...

Thaddy

P.s: Anyone can now write hello, world as a dedicated system that does nothing else. In a few lines of code!  If you try it, you will get hooked.

[tudi_x]

hi,
do you guys have a white paper on your website i could post on my LinkedIn?
i am not using it yet but it looks very appealing from an energy perspective.

would you be considering a (mini) containers solution for the future?
because with some Linux distro's you can use around 80 Mb RAM and with bare metal sound nice.

[Ultibo]

You can use that quote...

Thaddy

Thanks Thaddy,

We have big plans for Ultibo and really appreciate your ongoing support.

[Ultibo]

do you guys have a white paper on your website i could post on my LinkedIn?

Not yet but it would certainly be a good idea.

would you be considering a (mini) containers solution for the future?

We are very aware of the container idea and the concept of running hundreds (or even thousands) of mini virtual machines on a physical host.

It seems like another thing Ultibo could be really good for so it probably just needs some time for all the elements to fall into place.

[Leledumbo]

SUPER! Not even Raspbian have full access to the GPU until recently (no idea if it's already stable or still experimental), but you do it in a much less time!

[fcu]

incredible , this is an amazing progression , you guys rocks
we could make a game console now

keep it up

[pik33]

we could make a game console now

We also have a native Pascal 6502 emulator   and C64 SID emulator (this I wrote in asm, pascal was way too slow on RPi). I also ported Amiga module player library  called XMP to Ultibo DispmanX can make a very efficient sprite machine, so we have all parts needed to program 8/16-bit type games on bare metal RPi

[avra]

Deeply impressed 

I wish MagPi and Raspberry foundation become aware of it and make a review for broader audience.   

I will write to them this minute. Who knows... 

[BlueIcaro]

 
I can't wait to weekend to test it.
And it's made in free Pasca and lazarus. How said freepascal is dead?
/Blueicaro

[hnb]

Ultibo is the reason why I bought Pi Zero !