I'm looking for some help understanding the current USB Host capabilities of the latest Android smartphones versus an embedded processor running a standard Linux build. I've done quite a bit of driver-level Linux development, but I'm totally new to Android.
My current target system has a portable x86 ComExpress board with quite a few custom USB slave devices that already have firmware and Linux drivers written. I would like to replace the x86 computer with a commercial Android smartphone. Originally, I had planned on using an existing docking station (which already runs Linux) as the central USB host for all devices including the smartphone. The phone would be a slave device and communicate with the devices through messages sent through the dock. Now, I'm wondering if the phone itself could serve as the USB host without needing the docking station. If I go the phone-only route, I would want a fairly proven solution that would support multiple USB devices as well as standard Linux USB drivers like usbserial. (I know FTDI already has an Android version of the USB driver.) I don't mind building my own kernel and integrating drivers, but I don't want to be in completely uncharted territory as far as kernel hacking goes. This is something that would need to work fairly quickly. What would be the limitations of the USB host capability of the latest greatest Android phone versus a docking station running a standard Linux USB stack? Much thanks in advance, Dave . -- unsubscribe: android-kernel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com website: http://groups.google.com/group/android-kernel
