Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 00:40:31 +1000 (EST) From: Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> To: Bruce M Simpson <bms@incunabulum.net> Cc: freebsd-embedded@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Low cost ARM9 SoC board - NSD100/NCB3AST Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.1080607231457.18133E-100000@gaia.nimnet.asn.au> In-Reply-To: <484A679E.7010106@incunabulum.net>
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On Sat, 7 Jun 2008, Bruce M Simpson wrote: > Hi, > > I have just made a speculative purchase of an ARM9 based device, the > Emprex NSD-100 (pictures of inside case): > > http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/04/29/emprex-nsd-100-p2p-download-engine/1 > > The UK cost ex vat is ~35 UKP retail per unit. 8MB flash, 64MB DRAM, 2x > USB2 ports and 1x 10/100 PHY. Cute, and certainly affordable. > In other markets (eg. Australia) the AgeStar NCB3AST may be available, > which has SATA (!), and 1 of the two USB2 ports on the SoC is configured > as a device port. Though it's a bit more expensive: After hunting, only found one vendor mentioned here so far: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=XC4677&CATID=&keywords=bittorrent&SPECIAL=&form=KEYWORD&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID= Jaycar have shops all 'round, and only punt on volume stuff usually. A$150 is about U$140, likely the usual 'double it for oz' pricing :) And it's fanful, has apparently both 5 and 12V supplies, unspecified wattage. Fans spell eventual grief, and I'd rather single rail power. So yours looks more interesting, to me anyway .. > A friend and I popped the top off the NSD100 as soon as it came in. > There is some RF shielding which needs removed to get full access. There > is a single 6-pin header for the UART, and apparently no JTAG, although > there are pads for several resistors on the bottom. > > The box definitely runs Linux of some description although the serial > lines seem very noisy. > > A pinout which gives me the least amount of garbled text is: > > VCC 1 2 > 3 4 > TX 5 6 GND > > ...but TX appears to be connected to the +3.3V line. My MAX232 wants 5V, > but only 3.3V is available. I didn't bother checking this with a scope... Is VCC +5V, single supply, with 3.3V chopped from that? If you get a chance to measure DC mA on it at some stage running doing something, at whatever V its brick supplies, I'd be interested to know (750Ah 12V solar/battery here, so totally obsessive about real power drawn) > It seems to be 38400 8-N-1, same as the tinyhack guy says for the > NCB3AST. Drops into BusyBox on boot, and we can just make out the > messages from their Linux about it being the "FA526" CPU. > > Both the NSD100 and NCB3AST use the Star Semiconductor Corp STR9104 > system-on-chip. The NSD100 allegedly uses U-Boot firmware. > > Star on their website claim that the STR91xx has been purchased for use > in various vendor designs: > http://www.starsemi.com/vEng/index1.html > > ...their product line appears to be positioned competitively with Intel > XScale IXP. Hope their quality control's up to the comparison .. > The STR91xx appears to incorporate a licensed FA526 ARM9 IP core from > Faraday Tech. Corp. I believe the on-chip network controllers are > implemented in a similar way. > > I don't see any download links for the code which Emprex must provide, > as they ship Linux in their product, to conform with the GPLv2 license. > This guy claims to be working on opening up the Linux port: > http://tinyhack.com/2008/05/18/hacking-ncb3ast-day-1/ > > There is a patch set for Linux 2.4 which adds STAR_STR9100 SoC support, > and might serve as a jumping off point for starting to port FreeBSD to > this device: > http://tinyhack.com/files/patch-from-kernel-2.4.36.4-to-star.bz2 > > dmesg for a similar device is here: > http://svn.openfoundry.org/usert2500/star/star_log.txt You're not keeping up :) Linux 2.6 startup with a dmesg / session: http://tinyhack.com/2008/06/05/porting-linux-kernel-26254-to-star-str9100-agestar/ Interesting if only gratuitously, Thanks, Ian
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