Greetings!

The latest QuickLogic press release detailing our new MDDO (Mobile Device Display Optimizer) software for Android just crossed the wire.   I wanted to take a couple of seconds to explain what MDDO does in a little more detail.

A bit of background: the Android mobile OS communicates with on-board devices (Bluetooth, displays, cameras, etc…) in standard ways defined within the Android framework.  Of particular interest to QuickLogic are the Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) and the display backlight control, as both of these are essential to correct operation of VEE and DPO.  In order for the CSSP containing VEE and DPO to correctly operate, it needs to be able to ‘talk’ to the ALS and display.   Following me so far?

MDDO provides our customers a leg up in the design process.  What I mean by that is that a system designer can take MDDO (along with a kernel-level Android driver for the CSSP, which we also provide), drop it into their Android system, and immediately have VEE and DPO operational because the communication paths with the processor, display, and ALS are established, verified, and working via MDDO.  This may seem trivial…but in the design process, it can often take days or even weeks to get components communicating correctly with the host system.  MDDO takes that days or weeks and turns it into seconds.   This frees up the customer’s design resources, and makes our customers development costs cheaper and quickens time-to-market for their products–a winning proposition for everyone.

MDDO also has a number of other functions–after integration, it functions as a calibration tool, allowing system designers and QuickLogic to optimize VEE and DPO parameters for the system–things such as VEE strength in different lighting conditions, backlight levels, etc… (For more information, see my earlier blog about Auto Brightness and Android) At the user-level, MDDO can replace the standard Android display brightness window, allowing user’s control over VEE strength.  That, of course, is optional, but does bring another element of openness into the wonderfully open Android system.

Questions?