Crank Storyboard Suite 1.1 is now available for mass consumption!
The enhancements available in Crank Storyboard Suite 1.1 provide functionality that enables R&D teams to accelerate the design cycle resulting in faster times to commercialization. Storyboard 1.1 gives teams extended platform support for new operating systems and architectures delivering unparalleled performance though the use of industry standard graphic APIs.
Storyboard 1.1 adds Linux hosted development allowing development teams even more flexibility in their design cycle by extending their platform support. By adding Linux hosted development your team is free to use their operating system of choice whether it is Windows or Linux. The new Beta Lua debugger makes scripting easier by showing you errors in realtime.
On the target side Storyboard now supports SH4 targets along with Windows CE for x86 and ARM platforms.If you are worried about performance on your target then worry no longer. Storyboard 1.1 includes support for industry standard graphics APIs including DirectFB and OpenVG. This allows Storyboard to give you the best performance available on your target platform.
Download a free 30 day trial of Crank's Storyboard Suite 1.1 today and see how easy it can be to develop a rich user interface for your next embedded product.
Storyboard gives you great development tools for building user interfaces and allows you to get from concept to reality in record time. Animation and screen transitions can make your user interface look great but on some low end systems these things can comsume CPU unnecessarily. Here are some tips on editing your UI assets in order to increase performance.
Image compositing
Many icons and buttons can be made up of multiple images overlayed ontop of each other with transparent sections. If these images are only used to create your particular icon/button look then consider flattening these into a single icon. If your target does not have a high end graphics unit then these overlays can eat CPU cycles.
Image formats
Many images used in a user interface are generated though tools such as photoshop and PNG files. Even if these images don’t have transparent areas the images are sometimes still saved as 32bit and include an alpha channel (transparency information). Consider removing this information it you are using this image for a backdrop area. It will save you memory and CPU time.
Scaling
Many times the image assets used are not the exact size required at deployment time. Storyboard will scale these assets for you and when simulating on your desktop this looks great however on a target system this scaling can cost you time. If an icon is always used scaled then consider having it resized before deploying to the target.
With the growing complexity of embedded devices the software development teams building user interfaces for these systems are also growing more complex. This complexity is due to the size of these teams, the fact they are often spread across multiple locations, and the disparate skill sets of the team members, including embedded software engineers, graphic artists, user experience experts, etc. However, as these teams grow, the return on investment is seldom realized due to the inability to enable the team to work effectively and collaborate.
Many informal tools are used to attempt to solve this issue, including email, instant messaging, wikis, and many others. While these each offer certain advantages, in the end they only assist in sharing information about the project, not with the artifacts and deliverables directly associated with the project itself. That is, they do not enable sharing and collaboration at the user interface design and development level, including screen designs, screen transitions, script and code management, and test suites.
At the other end of the scale, code repositories offer a formal, structured means to capture the base code represented by the project. While code repositories are necessary for any large project to succeed, and have proven to be very successful for software engineering teams in writing code, they are not sufficient to enable the various team members on the projects we’re intending to support to collaborate and work at the appropriate level. As an obvious example, a graphic designer gets no value from a code repository.
Storyboards overall design and focus on a data model allows teams to work effectively together and merge changes. If you would like more information on how we can help you with this problem then give us a call.
We continue to partner with world-class organizations in order to complete the embedded systems ecosystem. We are pleased to announce three new partnerships.
ARM is the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property (IP) supplier. The ARM business model involves the designing and licensing of IP rather than the manufacturing and selling of semiconductor chips. ARM licenses IP to a network of partners who utilize ARM IP designs to create and manufacture system-on-a-chip designs. ARM is at the heart of the development of digital electronic products.
GUIFX is an interface design studio specializing in touch screens and embedded systems. Touch screens should be fun, fast, and intuitive. GUIFX perfects workflow through user-control design, refining every concept with the brand, goals, and user experience in mind.
Renesas Technology is the world’s No.1 supplier of microcontrollers. Renesas is also one of the world’s leading semiconductor system solutions providers for mobile, automotive, and PC/Audio Visual markets. Renesas offers a full lineup of microcontrollers, memories, standard ICs, application-specific ICs, and discrete semiconductors.
See who else is part of the Crank Software Partner ecosystem
Pin-Point is a developer of golf GPS systems. The company provides golf course businesses with high-tech, intuitive GPS systems. Pin-Point chose the Crank Storyboard Suite of embedded graphical user interface (GUI) solutions for a new GPS system.
Technical challenges
Solution
Pin-Point wanted a turnkey solution: embedded development expertise and an embedded UI development solution. Crank™ Software provides both. The team at Crank Software offered Pin-Point the expertise required: a strong background in real-time embedded systems and understanding of memory constraints, CPU constraints, and prioritization of tasks; the tools required; and the approach required for product extensions.
Benefits
Watch the Pin-Point Touch Point demo
Learn more about Embedded Consulting Development Services (consulting services)
Learn more about Crank Storyboard Suite (product)
