Specifications

decisions that were significant for finishing the product on schedule. The decision to
implement a server program on a PC, instead of implementing an SMB layer on the
Ethernut, was very important for time management. It also made the development a lot
easier. However, it was disappointing overall, because it meant that the player would no
longer be as flexible due to the proximity to a PC that the user would need to be. The
actions of the player were easily controlled from the server and having all the play list
decoding interfacing with the windows file system, were much easier to decode from
the server program. Also, having all the song name and file path decoding being
performed on the server greatly sped up the performance; if the player had to do these
tasks it would have to retrieve the data first across the network. After testing the player,
and finding that it cannot play files greater that 250kbbs, it is apparent that the Ethernut
would not have had the resources to be able to handle the extra load, as the range of bit
rates available to play would decrease.
The greatest challenge of the project was to design within the limited confinements of
the Ethernut. The main difficulty came with the lack of CPU speed and the overhead
caused by switching between threads. The big advantage of the Ethernut is that it now
allows for very cheap production of the product - the main objective of the thesis - to
provide the functionality of existing solutions but at a fraction of the cost.
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