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Release 1 of the NUON SDK
by Marss
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It's been a couple of times since i've been torturing you to get into the
Nuon world. Even St Survivor doubts the matter interesting but i try harder to
provide information as Nuon-based machines are the most innovative in their
fields.
The 29th of October, VMLABS decided to give his development kit for free. So
i browsed the net to dowload it. 27 MB after, this is the result. The pack is
self-extracting and install wherever you want the content. Let see it together.
1. Introduction
Welcome to the first release of the NUON SDK. This SDK will allow you to
write NUON programs on your PC, burn them onto CD-R's or DVD-R's, and run
them on your NUON DVD player.
This is the first public release of the NUON SDK. We wanted to release it
as quickly as possible, so we have not yet had time to smooth out all the
rough spots in the SDK. We intend to update and upgrade this SDK
regularly, and look forward to receiving your comments about it.
2. Overview and directory structure
The NUON SDK contains sample code, libraries, header files, tools, and
documentation. This SDK allows you to write NUON applications in C, C++,
and NUON assembler. The SDK contains the following directories:
bin - A variety of tools (compiler, assembler, linker,...)
doc - Documentation, in a mixture of formats; HTML, PDF, text, and Windows
help. You need to have a PDF viewer such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader
installed in order to view the PDF files. If you do not have a PDF viewer,
you can download the Adobe Acrobat Reader from:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
fonts - Fonts used in the SDK.
include - Header files for NUON programming.
lib - A variety of libraries for sound, 2-D graphics, 3-D graphics, image
processing, and utility functions. Documentation for the libraries is in
the docs directory. Source code is provided for some of the libraries.
Library source code is in the lib\src directory.
media - Images used in samples.
sample - Source code for a number of sample applications. The samples
illustrate various aspects of NUON programming (2-D graphics, 3-D
graphics, sound, games). Documentation for each sample is in the same
directory as the sample's source code, while the doc directory contains an
overview of all categories of samples.
util - Standard NUON makefile definitions.
3. Configuring the SDK
The NUON SDK is self-configuring. You should not need to do any manual
configuration after installing it. Nevertheless, if you encounter
problems, it is useful to know what configuration the SDK requires:
* The value of the vmlabs environment variable is set to the location
of the SDK's root directory. If you install your SDK in the default
location (c:\vmlabs), the value is "vmlabs=c:\vmlabs"
* The SDK's bin directory is added to your path. If you install your
SDK in the default location (c:\vmlabs), "c:\vmlabs\bin" is added to
your path.
4. Supported development platforms
Windows 2000 is the only officially supported development platform for
this SDK. We only build the code samples and test the tools under Windows
2000. We do not guarantee that this SDK can be used successfully on
anything except Windows 2000. Nevertheless, it should be possible to
develop on Windows NT 4 and Windows 98, but you might have to make changes
to the sample code (e.g., modify makefiles).
5. Supported DVD players and firmware versions
This SDK supports only the Samsung DVD-N501. In addition, you must be
running firmware version 51 or higher on your Samsung DVD-N501. To
determine the firmware version you currently have, and to download a newer
version if necessary, please visit Samsung's website at:
http://samsungelectronics.com/dvdp/nuon/n501.html
6. A historical note on terminology
Prior to the announcement of the NUON name in October 1998, VM Labs used
the name "Merlin" to refer to the underlying technology. We have mostly
switched over to "NUON", but you will probably still find references to
"Merlin" in sample programs, source code, and other documentation. Please
keep in mind that "NUON" and "Merlin" refer to the same thing.
7. Overview of the development process
1. Write source code on the PC using your favorite text editor
2. Compile source code using mgcc (for C and C++) or llama (for NUON
assembler)
3. Link the application using collect2
4. Strip symbols from the application using coffpack
5. Convert the executable to a runnable format using the CreateNuonCD
tool
6. Burn a CD-R (or DVD-R) with the file produced in the previous step at
the root level of the CD-R (DVD-R)
7. Run the program on your NUON DVD player by inserting the CD-R into it
8. Limitations
There are several limitations regarding applications developed using this
SDK:
1. The total size of your application plus its data cannot exceed 4.5 MB
when you use CD-R (or CD-RW) as your media. This limitation does not
exist if you are using DVD-R. We are working to remove this
limitation in the future. Please note that if you exceed
approximately 3.5 MB, the SAMSUNG screen may become a little
corrupted before loading your application -- this is harmless, and
can be ignored.
2. The only way to debug your application on a DVD-N501 is to use
printf's to the screen. Currently, the only way to get better
debugging support is by using a NUON Development System, which is
available only to members of VM Labs' developers' program (See "Where
to go for help" for further information). We are working on a way to
provide somewhat better debugging on a DVD-N501, but we cannot
promise when and if this solution will become available.
3. All applications developed using this SDK will display a warning
message each time they are run. Developers who wish to eliminate this
warning for their application should contact VM Labs for information
and pricing on our Certification and Licensing programs. After your
program has passed certification it is authenticated. Only
authenticated applications bypass the warning message.
4. We support only single session discs. Multi-session discs are
currently unreliable.
5. Empirically, CD-RW discs are much less reliable than CD-R discs.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that different brands or colors of CD-RW
discs differ greatly in their reliability.
9. Where to go for help
Although we do not provide direct one-to-one support for this SDK, we are
hosting a discussion list for SDK users, and an FAQ for this SDK and NUON
programming. Please visit VM Labs' developers website at http//dev.nuon.tv.
Commercial developers who require a higher level of support, or wish to
obtain a NUON development system in order to do more debugging, should
contact VM Labs at DeveloperPrograms@dev.nuon.tv to get more information,
and pricing, for our developers' program.
Developers who are interested in VM Labs' marketing programs (program
certification, NUON logo licensing, etc.) should contact VM Labs at
Licensing@dev.nuon.tv.
Comments on this SDK, and requests for enhancements to it, are welcomed at
sdkcomments@dev.nuon.tv.
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