RE: [oc] Re: Need a little direction

[Richard Herveille <richard@asics.ws>]

Well if you're going that direction, I think Altera's Excaliber is a much 
better candidate.

Choice of ARM9 or MIPS cpu (hardcores).
DDRAM/SDRAM interface (hardcores).
APEX core.

Go to altera's website (www.altera.com) for more information about Excaliber.

Richard

>Again, depending on the processing power you need, you could also look at
>Triscend's A7 (ARM7TDMI) www.triscend.com This is an ARM7TDMI core with an
>SDRAM interface and an FPGA core for SoC development on a single chip.
>
>-rob.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Herveille [mailto:richard@asics.ws]
>Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 3:14 AM
>To: cores@opencores.org
>Subject: Re: [oc] Re: Need a little direction
>
>
>
> >
> >We want to create the following platform and we would appreciate all help.
> >We would even try and support the efforts in reasonable financial ways.
> >
> >1. BOM should not cross USD $50.
> >2. Should have wireless (Bluetooth, short range)
> >3. Should have 32MB Flash
> >4. Should have 256 MB SDRAM
> >5. Should have two PC Card slots.
> >6. CPU (could be a SOC)
> >
> >After doing considerable search, there are some of the options
> >1. taking the SA1110 reference design and depopoulate the board
>extensively.
> >2. design from scratch
> >
> >Now biggest thing to be descided is what SOC/CPU to use. The options are
> >(you can suggest more)
> >1. StrongArm from Intel
> >2. DragonBall MX1 from Motorola (would be mass produced in March 2002),
> >having integrated support for bluetooth and cost less than $25, they claim.
> >3. AMD Elan processors (they are x86, and they consume as i am told too
>much
> >power, but they are cheaper)
>
>Depends also on the computation power you need, take a look at these too:
>1) Motorola Coldfire (e.g. MCF5206e)
>2) Intel XScale (next generation StrongArm)
>
>Both are available at the moment. I know for sure that the MCF5206e should
>be available below USD10,=.
>
> >The massive amount of SDRAM (I guess they are faster than flash and lot
> >cheaper too) , is for big enough RAM filesystem, which can then download
> >content from masterstation, like MP3 and MPEG video etc to be streamed on
> >wireless (BT), this content would get lost if power goes off, which we
> >believe is not the most often case.(the unit would be externally powered)
> >and would have battery for maybe 1 hour operation.
>
>Nasty about SDRAMs is the huge amount of power they consume during refresh.
>You could try to look at Micron's (www.micron.com) BatRAMs which are
>special SDRAMs for battery operated devices.
>
>Most SoC processor do not feature a SDRAM interface, but that could be
>easily implemented in an FPGA. You need some glue-logic anyway. Also
>instead of using PC-CARDS look at the Compact-Flash devices. They are much
>smaller, lighter and use less power. But above all, everything memory size
>available for PC-CARD is also available for CompactFlash. IBM's MicroDrive
>is a CompactFlash type-II true harddisk (up to 1GigaByte !!!!!). Also very
>nice about the CompactFlash is that is can be controlled using a simple IDE
>interface, the OCIDEC-1 core available from OpenCores is ideal for this
>purpose.
>
>For an FPGA I would recommend Altera's APEX, or Xilinx's Spartan-II devices.
>
>To be honest sounds almost like a board I developed :-)).
>
>Richard
>
> >What we need is
> >1. freelancers to work on the designboard or any volunteers
> >2. pointers to information and any feedback to help us achieve what we set
> >out to achieve. Any criticism or any sort of feedback is appreciated.
> >3. Component manufacturers/contract manufacturers who can give help us
> >achieve that price.
> >4. any kind of support.
> >
> >We are based in India (Bangalore), and if anyone happens to be in Bangalore
> >and want to drop by our place you are more than welcomed to do that. Any
> >enquires please send it to me
> >
> >Looking forward for more pointers , feedback, answers in search for the
> >perfect solution.
> >
> >Best Regards
> >Devesh Kothari
> >Director
> >ProtoSys Technologies Pvt Ltd
> >www.protosys.com
> >dkothari@protosys.com
> >22/2 Mission Rd, Samson Complex,
> >Bangalore, 27, INDIA
> >
> > >
> > >  > [..] I am complete novice in terms of
> > >  > hardware (please dont suggest to just drop it then).
> > > I will not. I do not know what you are into exactly. Nothing is
> >impossible.
> > >
> > >  > Then I would start the porting on one of Linux variant on the box.
> > > You may know that Linux has already been ported to the Strong Arm
> > > architecture and Debian for example is providing a complete
> > > distribution.
> > >
> > >  > [..] I have
> > >  > all the BOM/Gerber files and schematic diagram from intel, but not
>sure
> >how
> > >  > to proceed.
> > > I guess that you want to use the gEDA tools and other free tools and
> > > that is why you mailed me.
> > >
> > > If so, basically you will have to reenter all the schematics from Intel
> > > into gschem. That mean that you will also have to create a new symbol
> > > for almost all the components, i.e. SA1110, bluetooth module ...
> > > Then you will have to generate a netlist from the schematic - with
> > > gnetlist.
> > > And finally, you will have to route the board. I am not sure that the
>pcb
> > > software from Harry Eaton would be complete enough for this task. In
>fact,
> > > SA1110 is quite a complex component as it is in a BGA - Ball Grid Array
>-
> > > package. At the working frequency you also have to take into account
> > > the way the board is tracked.
> > >
> > > Of course, that was the scheme for the software manageable part. You
>will
> > > have to place an order for this board to a pcb maker.
> > > As the package for SA1110 is a BGA you will not be able to solder it by
> > > yourself and will require external help for that.
> > >
> > >  > It would be quite useful if someone could help us finnish this
> > >  > project. If you can provide us with some direction please.
> > > I would be pleased to help you as much as I can. Let me know how far
> > > in the specification of the device you are, what kind of direction
> > > you need.
> > >
> > >  > Maybe I am just wasting your time. In that case please accept my
> >apologies.
> > >  > Sorry for the trouble
> > > I am not sure to have answered all your questions. If my explanations
> > > were too basic, excuse me.
> > >
> > >
> > > Patrick BERNAUD
> > >
> > >
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