Terminal MIPS-board

Terminal MIPS-board

The terminal MIPS-board is intended for use in economical radioelectronic devices with display of the information on color or b/w graphic LCD display (TFT/STN 800x600), high-speed data exchange (10/100 Ethernet, USB) and with the advanced periphery (UART, I2S, AC’97, SD/MMC, IrDA).

Range of application is terminals and devices with ultralow consumption and the expanded set of standard computer interfaces.

Brief specification

· 32‑bits MIPS core 300, 400 или 500MHz;

· 10/100 Ethernet MAC;

· USB Device and Host controller;

· UART0, UART1, UART3 (full);

· IrDA controller;

· AC’97 controller;

· I2S controller;

· SSI0 and SSI1 controller;

· Secure Digital SD0 and SD1;

· LCD TFT/STN controller 800x600;

· SDRAM controller;

· SRAM/Flash controller;

· LED indicator of modes.

Functionality

· full-scale support of OS Linux, Windows CE, VxWorks. The presence of the big number of ready libraries and drivers of I/O devices, information storage and view, fonts, etc.;

· the optimum price/productivity relationship is provided with hardware scalability of the board – a wide range of Flash volumes (8MB…256MB), SDRAM (16MB…256MB) и CPU speed (266MHz…500MHz);

· hardware support of video, network and system interfaces by peripherals controllers integrated in CPU.

Embedded software

Embedded software of a board include:

· monitor YAMON (standard MIPS monitor):

o provides command line interface through RS-232;

o provides connection with the central computer through Ethernet (TFTP);

o supports work with FLASH, including operations of erasing, record and verification of any sections, including YAMON part;

o operates a configuration of OS start process, including automatic,

· Linux 2.4.20 kernel with support of all processor hardware interfaces;

· the file system JFFS2 operating in Flash. Includes:

o set of standart Linux utilities for supply of full functionality from a command line;

o graphic QT3 libraries for a usual mode and with multithreading support, including language support by means of UNICODE.

Structure of the processor module of the terminal board

The processor module is executed on 8-layer MPCB with the dimensions 60mm x 76mm. It has two slots: 100-pins communication slot of integrated peripherals and secondary 20-pins for energization. All signals of internal peripherals controllers are outputed from the processor on the peripheral slot.

The processor module possesses a wide range of hardware scaling. If necessary the user can determine Flash/SDRAM volume and CPU operating frequency in the range:

· Flash – from 8MB (2xS29GL32, Spansion) to 256MB(2xS29GL01, Spansion);

· SDRAM – from 16MB (2xK4S641632, Samsung) to 256MB (2xK4S1G0632, Samsung);

· FCPU – 333MHz, 400MHz or 500MHz.

The main advantages of use of the AMD Alchemyä in comparison with existing solutions on the basis of ARM architecture(Intel, Samsung, Cyrrus Logic), SHx (Toshiba), PowerPC (Motorola, AMCC) is:

· wo completely separate buses to addresses, the data and control signals for dynamic and static memory. The operating system (Linux, VxWorks or Windows CE) and external high-speed streams of the data function independently from each other. Throughput of both buses (100MHz) is completely used unnecessary to divide their potential between system and embedded tasks;

· the separate topology of high-speed lines of the board with the minimal number of connected chips allows to receive conductors of the least length with the simplified requirements to their impedances;

· support of peripherals by the controllers integrated in CPU does not demand almost any tie except for protection against an overvoltage. All available CPU interfaces (except for PCMCA and external LCD controller) are outputed on the 100-pins external peripherals slot.

Supply

The board has DC-DC converters from a power +9V … +24V. For increase of functionality the power supply system is distributed on both modules included in a board. Interface module provides:

· +3.3V - basic digital supply;

· +5V - USB and DC‑DC supply with galvanic separation for RS‑232;

· +12V - supply of LCD panel backlights inverter.

The processor module has two own DC-DC converters:

· +1.2V - voltage of CPU core supply (for independent work of the module);

· +3.3V - voltage of CPU, Flash, SDRAM supply (for independent work of the module).

If necessary own DC-DC converters of the processor module can be switched - off, and supply is sent through the user slot from the interface module

To provide functions of supply division of digital/analog parts of devices there is an add-in separate slot of a network connection +9V … +24V on the processor module.

Power consumption of the processor module depending on CPU speed and SDRAM makes from 1,0W up to 2,5W.

Cost

Cost of the componentry of an individual unit does not exceed a mark 90$ in the minimal configuration – CPU 330MHz, Flash 8MB, SDRAM 16MB. At the use of external power supplies +1.2V and +3.3V the price of componentry can be reduced up to 70$.