RomPlug Toolkits Overview

Allegro’s range of UPnP toolkits address some of the most complex and comprehensive requirements of device and network self configuration in home and commercial networks. With support for core UPnP device and control protocols, and specific support in the application level toolkits for UPnP Gateway and UPnP AV profiles of these protocols, the RomPlug toolkits allow device vendors to add proven UPnP/DLNA support to meet these emerging requirements with a minimum of effort. The standards in these markets are fresh and full industry wide interoperability requires a precise and pragmatic approach to implementation coupled with an active participation in the forums and events that drive the necessary refinements. Allegro’s commitment to this process, thorough engineering methodology and solid technical foundations have made it a leading vendor with a solid set of OEM design wins.

RomPlug Product Family

Allegro Software offers three UPnP™ technology toolkits as part of the extensive family of RomPager embedded Internet and Web technology, RomPlug Basic, RomPlug Advanced and RomPlug Control is further committed to a growing family of more complex application level toolkits that provide combinations of protocols support and address specific profiles of UPnP services such as Integrated Gateway Devices and Media Servers.

The RomPlug toolkits provide a simple development model for the engineer. The RomPlug runtime routines are driven by compact tables created by the PlugBuilder compiler. Although full source is provided, the SSDP, GENA, HTTP, SOAP and XML functions operate in a layer below the application calling routines, so that the developer can concentrate on building the application specific functions rather than worrying about SOAP syntax or GENA subscriber lists. The application programming interface (API) calls to control the RomPlug toolkits provide a simple way to build powerful UPnP architecture devices and control points without getting involved with the complexities of the UPnP technology internal protocols. Sophisticated compiler option flags allow maximum code-sharing to provide the smallest possible code footprint. Since Allegro is a UPnP Forum member and participates in the UPnP Plug Fests to insure interoperability with other UPnP architecture devices and control points, vendors can focus their energies on the unique capabilities of their device, and rely on the field-proven Allegro implementations of the UPnP technology.

RomPlug Basic - Intended for simple devices, this toolkit enables discovery of a device by Control Points such as Windows Millennium and Windows XP. On Windows systems with UPnP architecture Control capabilities, a device icon will automatically appear in "My Network Places". When the user clicks on the icon, the browser is launched to view the embedded Web server HTML pages.

The RomPlug Basic toolkit provides embedded devices the ability to interoperate with UPnP architecture Control Points, by implementing the Discovery and Description components of the UPnP architecture. The toolkit is a small-memory ANSI-C implementation that works with any OS and TCP stack. It adds less than 10 Kbytes to the RomPager Web Server that is used for Presentation. RomPlug Basic includes fully compliant support of the UPnP Working Committee definition of the Basic Device.

RomPlug Advanced – this toolkit provides source code and tools to accelerate the development of UPnP certified devices. The toolkit includes all the capabilities of the RomPlug Basic toolkit and adds Control and Eventing capabilities of the UPnP architecture. It includes XML parsing and framing support, SOAP protocol support and support for the GENA protocol. It builds onto the capabilities of other products in the RomPager family and includes fully licensed versions of RomPager Advanced Web Server, RomWebClient and RomXML. The RomPlug Advanced toolkit includes a series of sample templates and HTML control pages including support for the UPnP Basic Device. With the samples and the PlugBuilder template compiler, the RomPlug Advanced toolkit can save months of development time in the process of building a UPnP certified device.

RomPlug Control – this toolkit provides a full implementation of all the capabilities necessary to build a fully interoperable UPnP architecture Control Point that works with any OS and TCP stack. It includes XML parsing and framing support, SOAP protocol support and support for the GENA protocol. It builds onto the capabilities of other products in the RomPager family and includes fully licensed versions of RomPager Advanced Web Server, RomWebClient and RomXML. The RomPlug Control toolkit provides implementations of the Discovery, Description, Control and Eventing layers of the UPnP architecture. The RomPlug Control toolkit provides a comprehensive solution for devices that need to discover and control UPnP devices in any embedded target environment.

All RomPlug toolkits include the PlugBuilder compiler, which speeds product development by simplifying the SOAP parsing and framing process. PlugBuilder processes the device and service templates defined by a UPnP Forum Working Group to create application stub functions as well as SOAP parsing and framing control data. At run-time, RomPlug automatically parses incoming SOAP messages, delivering data structures to the application functions. This tool allows the application developers to focus their development time on their device-specific functions rather than the details of SOAP message parsing and framing.

Allegro also offers pre-integration of UPnP and other key technologies in its growing suite of application level toolkits, including RomPlug IGD, RomPlug MediaRender, RomPlug MediaServe and RomPlug MediaControl. These toolkits provide specific implementations of the UPnP services for Internet Gateway Device (IGD), MediaRenderer and MediaServer as specified by the UPnP Forum Device Control Protocol (DCP) specifications. By providing comprehensive profile support, application oriented APIs and design examples, along with the underlying RomPlug core UPnP support, the RomPlug application toolkits can enable device vendors to deliver quality products to the market months sooner than by using more basic technology offerings. As an example of application toolkit integration, the Allegro Media Server, an application that sends iTunes songs to networked media players, is built using the RomPlug MediaServe toolkit.

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