For SoC Vendors

RDK License

Product Specifications

The first step to get a fully functional product is to define the product features and see if they meet the standard requirements. A list of expected features from an IP based Set-top box are listed at Product Specifications.  SoC can use this as a guide while engineering the RDK SoC platform.

RDKM On-boarding

Product Engineering

SoC Platform Firmware

SoC can make use of the details available at SoC Platform Firmware to start developing a Yocto build to engineer the device firmware builds based on RDK Yocto build setup.

RDK Certification Suite Package

RDKM offers an in-house Test & certification suite that facilitates SoCs to get their IP Set-top product certified as RDK Compliant device.

Certification program includes testing which validates the RDK stack on the device with defined test suite called as RDK Certification Test Suite. It is mandatory to go through this program in order to brand user's platform as RDK compliant product.

SDK Releases

Once the RDK bring-up in SoC is completed, the vendor needs to plan on the delivery of the software to OEM vendors. This usually happens in 2 ways:

HAL + SDK binary

In this approach will make use of the RDK Artifactory server. Artifactory server is a Repository Manager that functions as a single access point organizing all the binary resources including proprietary libraries, remote artifacts and other 3rd party resources. It is a secure and restricted server, only collaboration members will have access to this server. SOC secure information like secure components such as PlayReady, widevine and Dolby libraries etc. can be hosted in Artifactory server.

SoC vendor can define a HAL layer, share the source of HAL & yocto meta layer that can be stored in RDK CMF Git repository (which will be shared only  to authorized OEM vendors who will work in collaboration with the SoC vendor), share the SDK binary that can be stored in RDK Artifactory (which will be shared only to authorized OEM vendors who will work in collaboration with the SoC vendor) and then publish necessary documentation on how to build the SoC SDK. SoC vendor can use the git/ Artifactory for periodic updated (for releases) or for bug fixes. All the source code, binary and documentation will be strictly access restricted and access will be allowed only for authorized personnel by SoC vendor.

Artifactory server can be accessed by adding the Artifactory details and login credentials in the .netrc file, just like it is done for normal git repositories. A sample is given below:

machine your.artifactory.host
login YOUR_ARTIFACTORY_USERNAME
password YOUR_PASSWORD_OR_KEY_OR_TOKEN

Complete source code

In this approach, SoC vendor can define a HAL layer, share the source of HAL , yocto meta layer and SDK source code that can be stored in RDK CMF Git repository( which will be shared only  to authorized OEM vendors who will work in collaboration with the SoC vendor )  and then publish necessary documentation on how to build the SoC SDK. SoC vendor can use the git for periodic updated ( for releases ) or for bug fixes. All the source code and documentation will be strictly access restricted and access will be allowed only for authorized personnel by SoC vendor.

For both approaches, the RDKM collaboration zone will be used with strict access restrictions.

Collaboration with OEMs

After a successful bring up of RDK on SoC platform, the next step will be to allow OEMs to work with SoCs to get a device based on the SoC platform. RDKM offers collaboration space for SoCs which would help SoCs to collaborate with OEM and RDK teams (as well as any 3rd party) in their journey to engineer a successful RDK product. RDKM collaboration zone includes features like (but not limited to) CMF facility to maintain build manifests as well as SoC/OEM specific code, SoC SDK artifact storage facility, JIRA & RDK Wiki spaces, integration with Test & Certification suites, monthly & release tagging etc.

Please refer RDKM On-boarding for more details on facilities available for SoCs and OEMs as part of collaboration zone . In short, it will include:

• Access restricted Git repositories and Artifactory servers
• Access restricted Confluence and JIRA spaces for Management and Documentation
• Access to RDKM support as well as extended documentation
• Access to test & certification support 

Porting RDK to SoC

1. Get a board with Linux and drivers
2. Move the build to Yocto, compare it to supported Yocto version of RDK
3. Compare and verify the compiler flags used in RDK and in platform to avoid issues
4. Compare the open source versions used in platform as different versions will cause problems
5. Move the RDK recipes to platform Yocto build
6. Get a successful build

• Once porting is done, SoC needs to do some SoC specific provisioning; For instance generating new DRM keys as per SoC specifications.
• Interface SoC layer with RDK, then SoC have to interface SoC Specific things that is not in RDK (but SoC needs to run something in board so that board itself will come up)