可扩展到Max–MCU和MPU开发，使用相同的许可证

Scalability to the Max – MCU and MPU Development with the Same License

可扩展到Max–MCU和MPU开发，使用相同的许可证

Thursday June 09, 2022 by Peter Schneider | Comments

​2022年6月9日星期四 Peter Schneider 评论

Developing a portfolio of devices cost-effectively can be challenging. It helps when you need only one development tool for any hardware technology.

经济高效地开发设备组合可能是一项挑战。当任何硬件技术只需要一个开发工具时，它会很有帮助。

A Portfolio Example from the Past

过去的投资组合示例

In 2011, I worked in the product management at Nokia when we build the Nokia N9 smartphone running an operating system called MeeGo. When we developed the MeeGo operating system, a Linux-based operating system for smartphones and tablets, we were constantly thinking about scalability. We needed the OS to scale from low-end smartphones to high-performance tablets. The MeeGo OS had to run on anything from high-end Intel to low-end ARM CPU technologies. The UI had to scale from small smartphone resolutions to tablet-size devices.

​2011年，我在诺基亚从事产品管理工作，当时我们生产的诺基亚N9智能手机运行一个名为MeeGo的操作系统。当我们开发MeeGo操作系统（一种基于Linux的智能手机和平板电脑操作系统）时，我们一直在考虑可扩展性。我们需要操作系统从低端智能手机扩展到高性能平板电脑。MeeGo操作系统必须运行在从高端Intel到低端ARM CPU技术的任何设备上。用户界面必须从小型智能手机分辨率扩展到平板电脑大小的设备。

We designed and developed the MeeGo OS and its applications to scale nicely to different display sizes. But we needed to build in-house various hardware adaptations and firmware for the different chipset technologies those days. The costly hardware adaptation to maintain a broad product portfolio was one of the challenges, among many others, Nokia faced in the final years with its smartphone business.

我们设计并开发了MeeGo操作系统及其应用程序，可以很好地扩展到不同的显示尺寸。但当时我们需要为不同的芯片组技术构建内部各种硬件适配和固件。诺基亚在智能手机业务的最后几年面临的诸多挑战之一是，为维持广泛的产品组合而进行的昂贵的硬件调整。

According to contributors at Wikipedia, Nokia attempted to scale their Meego smartphone portfolio to lower price points in a project with the codename Meltemi. The goal of the Meltemi project should have been a lightweight derivative of the MeeGo OS, which was "designed for borderline low-end smartphones." Building a derivative of the MeeGo OS for feature phones with smartphone-like experiences would have meant streamlining the UI framework and the OS middleware to adapt to the lower CPU and memory constraints. Having both a rich smartphone OS and similar experiences on less powerful hardware would have meant maintaining a streamlined version of some of the MeeGo OS components in the Meltemi project. Unfortunately, the MeeGo OS never had a chance to live up to its potential due to the platform strategy change to the Windows Phone OS. Also, the Meltemi project was discontinued in 2012, according to Wikipedia. 

​据维基百科（Wikipedia）的撰稿人介绍，诺基亚试图在一个代号为Meltemi的项目中，将Meego智能手机组合扩大到更低的价位。Meltemi项目的目标应该是MeeGo操作系统的轻量级衍生产品，该操作系统“专为边缘低端智能手机设计”为具有类似智能手机体验的功能手机构建MeeGo操作系统的衍生产品意味着简化UI框架和操作系统中间件，以适应较低的CPU和内存限制。拥有丰富的智能手机操作系统和功能较弱的硬件上的类似体验意味着在Meltemi项目中维护MeeGo操作系统组件的简化版本。不幸的是，由于Windows Phone操作系统的平台策略改变，MeeGo操作系统从未有机会发挥其潜力。此外，据维基百科称，Meltemi项目于2012年中断。 

Scaling A Device Portfolio

扩展设备组合

Nowadays, developing a portfolio of connected devices with displays doesn’t need to be black magic. Challenges such as hardening the firmware are still on every embedded device developer’s mind, but things are a bit easier today. Qt offers an integrated software development platform and reference hardware adaptations from low-end Micro-Controller Units (MCUs) to high-end chipsets with Micro-Processing Units (MPUs). Qt launched the development toolkit for MCU-powered devices at the end of 2019. The Qt for MCU toolkit allows companies to benefit from the integrated software development platform capabilities.

如今，开发一系列带有显示器的连接设备并不一定是魔术。每个嵌入式设备开发人员都在考虑诸如固件加固之类的挑战，但今天的事情要容易一些。Qt提供了一个集成的软件开发平台和参考硬件，从低端微控制器单元（MCU）到带有微处理单元（MPU）的高端芯片组。2019年底，Qt推出了MCU驱动设备的开发工具包。Qt for MCU工具包允许公司从集成软件开发平台功能中获益。

 

Image: Qt for MCU toolkit assets such as Qt Creator IDE

图：Qt for MCU工具包资产，如Qt Creator IDE

Qt for MCU Benefits

Qt对MCU的好处

Front-end developers can import UI designs from Figma or Adobe XD and convert them to functional UI code running on both MCUs and MPUs. Full-stack developers can add the application logic to the UI in the Qt Creator IDE. The streamlined out-of-the-box UI controls accelerate the development process. The reference device images speed up the first boot on the target device. Since February 2022, customers no longer need a dedicated license to benefit from the MCU development toolkits. All the Qt capabilities for MCU and MPU-powered device development are available with any Qt Device Creation license package.

​前端开发人员可以从Figma或Adobe XD导入UI设计，并将其转换为在MCU和MPU上运行的功能性UI代码。全栈开发人员可以将应用程序逻辑添加到Qt Creator IDE的UI中。简化的现成UI控件加快了开发过程。参考设备映像加快了目标设备上的首次引导。自2022年2月起，客户不再需要专用许可证才能从MCU开发工具包中受益。所有用于MCU和MPU驱动设备开发的Qt功能都可以与任何Qt设备创建许可证包一起使用。

Overall, the Qt for MCU capabilities are a streamlined version of the UI enablers in the Qt framework bundled in dedicated software libraries. The lightweight graphics engine delivers a smooth, smartphone-like user experience. The entire application can then be compiled in different ways to optimize the performance for the available processing, caching, and memory configurations. While these capabilities were initially licensed separately, Qt for MCU is now available for all hardware device developers under the same license.

总的来说，Qt for MCU功能是Qt框架中UI使能器的简化版本，捆绑在专用软件库中。轻量级图形引擎提供流畅的、类似智能手机的用户体验。然后可以以不同的方式编译整个应用程序，以优化可用处理、缓存和内存配置的性能。虽然这些功能最初是单独许可的，但Qt for MCU现在可供所有硬件设备开发人员在同一许可下使用。

Summing it Up

总结一下

 While the MeeGo OS is a story from my career that is not directly related to the Qt for MCU evolution, it shows that companies have tried different approaches to effectively build a homogeneous customer experience across various price points of the portfolio. Qt for MCU is Qt’s proven way to scale customer experiences from MPU- to MCU-powered devices. The Qt for MCU technology is now in release 2.1 and has been adopted by many customers successfully. If you want to know more about Qt for MCU, please check out the Qt for the MCU web page. If you are already a customer with a Qt for Device Creation license, then you can immediately re-use your existing Qt-based User Interfaces and scale them to lower price points and higher product volumes on MCU-powered devices.

​虽然MeeGo操作系统是我职业生涯中的一个故事，与Qt for MCU的发展没有直接关系，但它表明，公司已经尝试了不同的方法，以有效地跨组合的不同价位构建同质的客户体验。Qt for MCU是Qt经验证的将客户体验从MPU扩展到MCU驱动设备的方法。Qt for MCU技术现已发布2.1版，并已被许多客户成功采用。如果您想了解有关Qt for MCU的更多信息，请查看Qt for MCU网页。如果您已经是拥有Qt for Device Creation许可证的客户，那么您可以立即重用现有的基于Qt的用户界面，并在MCU驱动的设备上将其扩展到更低的价位和更高的产品容量。