NVIDIA Tegra Tegra Linux Driver Package
Developers' Guide

June 11, 2012
R15 Release


Glossary
[3] [4] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z]
3
3G
Third generation mobile phone standard/technology, based on standards defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
3G2
A standard for 3GP format for CDMA-based phones (3GPP2) and container format with filename extension (.3gp).
3GP
Simplified version of MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4) container format.
3GPP
3rd Generation Partnership Project. A collaboration among telecommunications associations to define globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specifications. For more information, see http://www.3gpp.org.
3P
Platform Programming Protocol, developed by NVIDIA for client-server communications between PC and device.
4
4CIF
4 x CIF (704 x 576), Common International Format (CIF) for horizontal and vertical resolutions of YCbCr.
A
A2DP
Advanced Audio Distribution Profile. For streaming stereo or mono audio from one device to another over Bluetooth. For more information, see http://www.atheros.com/.
AAC
Advanced Audio Coding. A lossy compression and encoding standard for digital audio.
AAC-LC
Advanced Audio Coding-Low Complexity. A standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio.
AAC+
Advanced Audio Coding Plus, or aacPlus. Same as High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC), which extends the Low Complexity AAC (AAC LC) optimized for low-bit rate applications such as streaming audio.
ABI
Application Binary Interface. A low-level interface between applications and other applications or the operating system.
ADB
Android Debug Bridge. A client-server tool for managing an emulator instance or Android-based device. For more information, see http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html.
ADMA
Advanced Direct Memory Access.
ADPCM
Adaptive DPCM (differential pulse-code modulation).
AE
Auto exposure.
AES
Advanced Encryption Standard.
AF
Auto focus.
AGC
Automatic gain control.
ALSA
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture.
AMR
Adaptive multi-rate. An audio data compression scheme optimized for speech coding.
AMR-NB
Adaptive multi-rate (AMR) narrow band.
AMR-WB
Adaptive multi-rate wide band.
ANR
In Android, “Application Not Responding” error.
In camera, advanced noise reduction.
AP
Application Processor. An application processor is a computer that processes data (as opposed to one that controls data flow, like a database server). The Tegra® series application processors offer low power, high performance ARM® processors that handle 2D, 3D, audio, and high-definition (HD) video data streams. These decoding and encoding functionalities are provided by a set of interfaces including multiple memory, storage, video, audio, and peripheral interfaces.
AVC
Advanced Video Coding.
AVI
Audio Video Interleave. A multimedia container format, special-case Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) file that can contain both audio and video data; this format enables synchronous audio-with-video playback. For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms779631(VS.85).aspx.
AWB
Container format for AMR-WB speech encoding with filename extension (.awb).
B
BCB
Boot Control Block.
BCT
NVIDIA Boot Configuration Table.
bitblt
A graphics operation that combines several bitmap patterns into one, typically using a raster operator.
Bpp
Bytes per pixel, used to specify pixel depth (color depth).
bpp
Bits per pixel, used to specify pixel depth (color depth).
Bluetooth
Wireless standard for data exchange over short distances. For more information, see http://www.bluetooth.com/English/Pages/default.aspx.
BSAC
Bit Sliced Arithmetic Coding. An MPEG-4 standard (ISO/IEC 14496-3 subpart 4) for scalable audio coding.
BusyBox
Utility providing small versions of common UNIX utilities in a single executable. For more information, see http://www.busybox.net.
C
CABAC
Context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding. A type of entropy coding used in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video encoding.
CBR
Constant bit rate.
CDC
USB Communications Device Class.
CDMA
Code division multiple access. Channel access method for radio communication.
CE
NVIDIA customer engineer.
Cg
C for Graphics. A high-level shading language for programming vertex and pixel shaders, created by NVIDIA Corporation.
CIF
Common International Format (352 x 288), standardizes horizontal/vertical resolutions for video.
color space
Specifies how color is represented, such as YUV, RGB, or gray scale.
D
D3DM
Microsoft Direct3D Mobile technologies.
DCC
Debug communications channel.
DCT
Discrete cosine transform. A Fourier-related transform similar to the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), but using only real numbers.
DDI
Device driver interface for Windows CE.
DDK
NVIDIA® Driver Development Kit.
deprecated
This feature is slated to be removed at a later release. Developers should begin to remove dependencies on this feature in preparation for its eventual removal.
development system
Board with NVIDIA® Tegra® processor used to do engineering work, which is typically focused on firmware/software development. Development boards have a user manual but may or may not include detailed documents, like schematics.
DFS
Dynamic frequency scaling.
DIDIM
Dynamic Image-based Display Intensity Modulation, which has been renamed pixel rendering intensity and saturation management (PRISM) since CES 2012.
DivX
Codec by DivX, Inc., that uses lossy MPEG-4 Part 2 compression to compress lengthy video into small sizes with high visual quality and is often used for “ripping”. For more information, see http://www.divx.com.
DMO
Microsoft DirectX Media Object. For more information, see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms783356.aspx.
DPB
In H.264, Decode Picture Buffer.
DRC
Dynamic range compression.
DSI
Display Serial Interface a communication protocol specification by the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance for reducing cost of displays in mobile devices.
DVB-H
Digital video broadcasting—handheld.
DVB-T
Digital video broadcasting—terrestrial.
DVFS
Dynamic voltage frequency scaling.
DVS
Dynamic voltage scaling.
E
eAAC+
Enhanced AAC+. Combines HE-AAC v1 (or AAC+) coupled with Parametric Stereo to 3GPP.
ECI
NVIDIA Embedded Controller Interface. Communication interface between NVIDIA® Tegra® processor and an embedded controller (EC) for netbook/smartbook applications.
EGL
Embedded-Systems Graphics Library. For OpenGL ES.
eMMC
Embedded MMC. Developed by JEDEC and MMCA for embedded flash memory applications.
EQ
Equalizer.
Escape code base + value
Microsoft supports definition of additional driver-specific escape codes, starting at an ESCAPECODEBASE of decimal value 100,000. So an NVIDIA-defined escape code whose value is 7 is actually 100007. (100000 + 7 = 100007)
Exif
Exchangeable image file format. A specification for digital camera image file formats.
Ext2
Second extended file system for the Linux kernel, designed to replace the extended file system (ext).
Ext3
Third extended file system. A journaling file system often used by the Linux kernel, the default file system for some distributions.
Ext4
Fourth extended file system. A journaling file system often used by the Linux kernel. It is the successor to Ext3.
F
Fastboot
Software supporting a protocol for updating flash file systems and unsigned partition images for Android-based devices.
Flash 11
Adobe multimedia platform enabling animation and interactivity on Web pages. For more information, see http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer.
FMO
Flexible macroblock ordering. Technique for restructuring the ordering of the representation of the fundamental regions in pictures, known as macroblocks. FMO is also referred to as slice groups and arbitrary slice ordering (ASO).
FOV
In photography, field of view.
G
GLES
See OpenGL ES.
GLSL
OpenGL Shading Language. A high level, C-language shading language.
GPIO
General purpose input/output. This is a generic pin on a chip whose behavior can be controlled with software.
GPS
Global positioning system.
GPU
Graphics processing unit.
H
H.263
A video codec standard for low-bit rate compressed format videoconferencing, designed by the ITU-T in a project ending in 1995/1996. For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.263.
H.264
A standard for video compression, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). For more information, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC.
HD
High-definition.
HDCP
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. Digital copy protection technology developed by Intel Corporation to protect digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. For more information, see http://www.digital-cp.com.
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface. A compact audio/video connector interface used to connect HDMI-enabled digital audio devices for transmitting uncompressed digital streams. NVIDIA® Tegra® BSP incorporates support for HDMI® technology.
HID
Human interface device. A computer device that receives human input and may deliver output.
HSMMC
High-speed MultiMediaCard (MMC).
HTTP
Hypertext transfer protocol. A client-server communications protocol used for hyperlinked text documents on the Internet.
I
I2C
Inter-Integrated Circuit. A serial computer bus used to attach low-speed peripherals to an embedded system or cell phone.
I2S
Inter-IC Sound (or Integrated Interchip Sound). A serial bus interface standard for connecting to digital audio devices.
ID3
Metadata container typically used with MP3 formatted content.
IIR
Infinite impulse response, a property of signal processing systems.
ISDB-T
Terrestrial Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting.
ISP
File extension for NVIDIA Image Signal Processing pipeline (.isp) configuration files.
ISV
Independent software vendor.
J
JPEG
Method for compressing photographic images. For more information, see http://www.jpeg.org.
JTAG
Joint Test Action Group (JTAG). Common term used for the IEEE 1149.1 standard “Standard Test Access Port and Boundary-Scan Architecture for testing printed circuit boards. In embedded development, in-circuit emulators use JTAG as a transport mechanism to provide a way into the embedded system for debugging.
K
Kconfig
Linux kernel configuration files, which are present in almost each directory. Kconfig syntax is documented in the Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt file.
L
LBR
Low bit rate.
LCD
Liquid crystal display.
LP
Low power, or low power filter bank.
M
M4A
Multimedia MPEG-4 container format file extension (.m4a), first popluarized by Apple to assure presence of audio/video content as distinguished from .mp4 files which may or may not have video content.
M4B
Multimedia MPEG-4 container format file extension (.m4b) for audio book and podcast files. Typically contain metadata for chapters, images, and hyperlinks.
Meebo
An instant messaging program based on Ajax and libpurple free/open source library. For more information, see http://www.meebo.com and http://www.pidgin.im.
MIDI
Musical instrument digital interface. For synchronization of electronic musical instrument and computer communications of digital data events (such as for pitch and volume) in realtime.
MIO
Modular input/output. Enables adding peripheral cards to laser printers. For more information, see http://www.hp.com/.
MJPEG
Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) are video formats where video frames/ interlaced fields in digital video is compressed separately as a JPEG image.
MLC
Multilevel cell. Flash memory that stores more than one bit per cell by using voltage levels.
MMC
MultiMediaCard. Removable solid-state memory card for use in mobile devices.
MOV
File format for QuickTime that functions as a multimedia container file containing one or multiple tracks that stores audio, video, effects, or text.
moviNAND
High-density MLC NAND Flash combined with MMC controller.
MP
Megapixel.
MP3
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3. Also the container format or filename extension (.mp3) for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 files.
MP4
Container format or filename extension (.mp4) for MPEG-4 Part 14 files.
MPEG-2
Generic coding standard for movies, which specifies a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio compression (audio data compression).
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 Part 2 video compression technology. A DCT compression standard belonging to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standard (ISO/IEC 14496-2). For more information, see http://www.mpeg.org.
MPIO
Multi-purpose input output. This is a type of pin-mux pad that can be configured as GPIO or SFIO.
MSC
Mass storage device class. USB Implementers Forum computing communications protocols for the Universal Serial Bus (USB). For more information, see http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/usb_msc_overview_1.2.pdf.
MSD
Mass storage device.
MSDN
Microsoft Developer Network. For more information, see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx.
MTD
Memory technology device, used by Linux to interact with flash memory.
MVC
Multiview Video Coding (MVC), amends H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard to enable encoding simultaneously from multiple cameras using a single video stream.
N
NAND
Type of flash memory, typically used in USB devices and memory cards.
NB
Narrow band.
NDK
Android toolset enabling embedded components to use native code in Android applications. For more information, see http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/overview.html.
Netflix
Provides rental-by-mail of digital video content as well as Internet streaming on demand. For more information, see https://www.netflix.com.
NFS
Network File System, an open standard protocol.
Nv3P
NVIDIA platform programming protocol (includes 3P server and 3P client).
NvBL
NVIDIA Boot Library.
NvBlob
A Python script for producing blob files for updating hidden partitions, like for boot loader or microboot. OTA or Fastboot uses these blobs to perform the updates.
NvDDK
NVIDIA Driver Development Kit.
NVIDIA production mode
This is the mode in which Tegra chips are provided from NVIDIA. In this mode, fuses can still be programmed via recovery mode. Boot configuration tables (BCTs) and boot loaders are signed with a key of all 0's, but are not encrypted.
NvFlash
NVIDIA application for flashing devices over USB connections.
NvRM
NVIDIA Resource Manager.
NvSBK tool
NVIDIA application for producing blob objects for flashing ODM secure mode devices. The NvFlash tool uses these blobs to flash devices.
O
OAL
OEM adaptation layer for Windows CE.
ODM
Original design or device manufacturer.
ODM non-secure mode
This is the mode in which ODMs ship products without stringent security mechanisms; however, in this mode, fuses can no longer be programmed. As in NVIDIA production mode, boot configuration tables (BCTs) and boot loaders are signed with a key of all 0's and not encrypted. This mode is sometimes called ODM production mode.
ODM secure mode
This is the mode in which ODMs ship products with strict security measures in force. Fuses cannot be programmed, and all boot configuration tables (BCTs), boot loaders, and microboots must be signed and encrypted with the secure boot key (SBK).
OEM
Original equipment manufacturer.
OGA
Container for Vorbis audio-only files. For more information, see http://xiph.org.
Ogg
Container for Vorbis codec. For more information, see http://xiph.org.
Ogg Vorbis
A free/open source, lossy audio codec (Vorbis) and its container (Ogg). For more information, see http://xiph.org.
OGM
Early file format for embedding video into Ogg. Use of this format is currently discouraged by Xiph. For more information, see http://xiph.org.
ONFI
Open NAND Flash Interface, an industry workgroup that build, design-in, or enable NAND Flash memory.
OpenAL
Free cross-platform audio API (resembling OpenGL API style) for efficient rendering of multichannel three dimensional positional audio.
OpenGL ES
A subset of OpenGL 3D graphics API designed for embedded systems, defined by the Khronos Group. For more information, see http://www.khronos.org.
OpenKODE
A set of APIs for handheld games and media applications providing a cross-platform abstraction layer for other “open” media technologies. For more information, see http://www.khronos.org.
OpenSL ES
Open Sound Library for Embedded Systems. A royalty-free, cross-platform, hardware-accelerated audio API for 2D and 3D audio. For more information, see http://www.khronos.org.
OpenMAX
An application programming interface that provides abstractions for routines especially useful for computer graphics, video, and sound, defined by the Khronos Group. For more information, see http://www.khronos.org.
OpenMAX IL
OpenMAX Integration Layer. Provides an abstraction layer API between a media framework, such as DirectShow, and a set of multimedia components, such as audio and video codecs. For more information, see http://www.khronos.org.
OpenVG
A standard API for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics, defined by the Khronos Group. For more information, see http://www.khronos.org.
OTA
Over-the-air or wireless.
OTG
USB On-The-Go.
P
platform
The code-name of an NVIDIA® Tegra® development system, such as kai, cardhu and, enterprise for a Tegra 3 family device, or ventana or whistler for Tegra 2 family.
PAN
Personal area networking. A Bluetooth profile. For more information, see http://www.atheros.com/.
PCM
Pulse-code modulation.
PIP
Picture-in-picture.
PMU
Power Management Unit.
pixel depth
Number of bits per pixel (bpp).
PRISM
NVIDIA Pixel Rendering Intensity and Saturation Management (PRISM) display technology (formerly known as DIDIM). To save battery life, PRISM separates color and backlight intensity while preserving fidelity, so the amount of backlighting needed is reduced without making images appear dim.
PS
Parametric stereo.
Q
QCELP
Qualcomm Code Excited Linear Prediction, also known as Qualcomm PureVoice. Speech codec that increases the speech quality of the IS-96A codec used in CDMA. For more information, see http://www.qualcomm.com/qct.
QP
Quantization Parameter.
QuickTime
Apple multimedia framework for digital multimedia, text, animation, etc., playback/streaming. For more information, see http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download.
R
RCK
Recovery kernel.
RCM
Recovery mode messages.
RFC
Request for Comments.
RIL
Radio Interface Layer.
RNDIS
Remote NDIS. A specification for network devices on buses such as USB. For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/network/NDIS/rmNDIS.mspx.
ROP
Raster operator.
RTC
Real-time clock.
RTP
Real-time transport protocol for delivering A/V content over the Internet.
RTSP
Real time streaming protocol allowing clients to issue transport commands and control a streaming media server remotely.
S
SBC
Sub-band codec. For breaking signals into different frequency bands to encode them independently.
SBK
Secure boot key.
SBR
Spectral band replication.
scan code
The physical key on the keypad.
SCO
Synchronous Connection Oriented link. For a mono, PCM audio channel.
SD
Secure Digital card. Non-volatile memory card. For more information, see http://www.sdcard.org/home.
SDHC
Secure Digital High Capacity. For more information, see http://www.sdcard.org/home.
SDHCI
Secure Digital Host Controller Interface.
SDIO
Secure Digital Input Output. SD card combined with an I/O device. For more information, see http://www.sdcard.org/home.
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory.
SDP
Session Description Protocol, an IETF Proposed Standard that describes streaming communication sessions to announce and invite the session and to negotiate parameters.
secure boot
A common term used to refer to a boot loader that uses enhanced security, such as asymmetric encryption (public key encryption). For more information, see the Windows CE 6.0 Technical Article “Secure Download Boot Loader in Windows Embedded CE” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb643805.aspx.
SFIO
Special function input output. This term is a category of roles that MPIO pads can be configured with.
SHOUTcast
Cross-platform media-streaming server (freeware), developed by Nullsoft, which enables Internet radio network creation. For more information, see http://www.shoutcast.com.
SIP
Session Initiation Protocol. Signaling protocol from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) used to control multimedia communication sessions for voice and video over Internet protocol (VoIP).
S-LINK
Simple link interface. A high-performance data acquisition standard where data will be collected and stored by computers at both ends of the link. For more information, see http://hsi.web.cern.ch/HSI/s-link.
SLC
Single-level cell. Flash memory that stores one bit per cell.
SMP
Symmetric multiprocessing.
SMS
Short Message Service. Allows sending short text messages between mobile telephone devices.
SNR
Signal-to-noise ratio.
Sorenson
Sorenson codec used in Apple's QuickTime and in Adobe Flash. For more information, see http://www.sorensonmedia.com.
SOC
System-on-chip, which integrates computer components and other electronics into a single integrated circuit or chip. Also SoC.
S/PDIF
Sony/Philips Digital Interface.
SPI
Serial Peripheral Interface bus. A full-duplex mode, synchronous serial data link.
SPI flash
Small, low-power flash memory that uses a serial interface (usually SPI) for sequential data access.
SRC
Sample rate conversion.
SSK
Unique, per-chip Secure Storage Key used to protect customer-defined data. Typically a 128-bit key computed from the following fuse settings:
128-bit customer-programmed SBK.
32-bit customer-programmed Device Key (DK).
64-bit NVIDIA-programmed Unique ID (UID), which is different for every chip.
Stagefright
Media framework new in Android 2.2. For more information see http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.2-highlights.html#PlatformTechnologies.
T
Tegra
The world’s first mobile super chip. The families of Tegra chipsets for mobile devices include:
Tegra 3
Tegra 2
Tegra APX
THD
Total harmonic distortion.
TVO
Television output.
U
UART
Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter. Computer hardware that translates data between parallel and serial forms, usually used for computer or peripheral device serial communications over a serial port.
U-Boot
Das U-Boot, a free (GNU GPL software) bootstrap loader for embedded systems. For more information, see http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot.
Ubuntu
Supported Linux operating system by certain Tegra-based development products. For the specific Ubuntu version supported, see your Release Notes. For more information about Ubuntu, see http://www.ubuntu.com.
UIP
Update Image Partition.
ULP
Ultra low power.
USB
Universal serial bus. A standard that allows connections of many peripherals via a standardized interface socket. For more information, see http://www.usb.org.
USBNET
Linux usbnet driver. For more information, see http://www.linux-usb.org/usbnet/.
USP
Update Staging Partition.
V
VAD
Voice activation detection.
VBO
An OpenGL extension for faster rendering of triangles.
VBR
Variable bit rate.
VC-1
Common name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard from Microsoft. For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/vc1techoverview.aspx.
VoIP
Voice-over-Internet protocol. Transmits voice through the Internet or other packet-switched networks.
Vorbis
A free/open source, lossy audio codec (Vorbis). For more information, see http://xiph.org.
VP6
TrueMotion VP6 video codec developed by On2 Technologies used in broadcasting, as well as by Adobe Flash and Flash Video files. For more information, see http://www.on2.com.
W
WAV
Microsoft and IBM waveform audio format for storing audio bitstreams.
WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy. Secures IEEE 802.11 wireless networks.
WMA
Microsoft Windows Media Audio technologies. Also the compressed audio file format (.wma).
WMA Lossless
Microsoft Window Media Audio lossless audio codec, provides duplication of original audio so that no data are lost.
WMA Pro
Microsoft Windows Media Audio Professional technologies.
WMA Pro LBR
Low bit rate mode of Microsoft Windows Media Audio Professional technologies.
WMV
Microsoft Windows Media Video technologies. Also the compressed video file format (.wmv).
WPA
Wi-Fi Protected Access. Certified security for wireless computer networks.
X
Xvid
Free video codec library based on the MPEG-4 standard. Xvid uses MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP) compression with video encoded with MPEG-4 ASP video, and so can be decoded by all MPEG-4 ASP-based decoders. For more information, see http://www.xvid.org.
Y
YAFFS
Yet Another Flash File System. The first file system designed for NAND flash.
Z
zImage
Conventional (but not required) name for the uncompressed kernel boot image file in Linux. bzImage is the compressed or “big” zImage file for systems requiring the kernel image to be under a certain size.