Re: [MiNT] MiNT Coldfire

[Mark Duckworth <mduckworth@atari-source.com>]

On Fri, 2006-04-14 at 09:34 +0200, Odd Skancke wrote:
> tor, 13,.04.2006 kl. 20.07 -0400, skrev Mark Duckworth:
> > Hey guys,
> > 
> > Some progress, I got linux with a romfs file system image running on the
> > evaluation board.  I've still got to get the toolchain and cross
> > compiler working properly for coldfire.  Once I do and I get my own
> > linux kernel build running that will be something to sing about.  
> 
>  You got the EVB already? How many others have one, and who if you dont
> mind sharing? Do you know if there are any plans to build a CF machine
> by anyone?
> 
> 
>  Best Regards,
> Odd Skancke

Odd,

We received 5 Coldfire M5484LITE evaluation boards.  They came extremely
fast, as the folks at Freescale are wonderful.  The boards have
capability of memory mode compact flash access, 2 100mbit ethernet
ports, PCI, and USB (device only :-( ).  64MB of DDR and blazingly fast
from what I can tell thus far.  At least the BUS is quite fast as it can
pull 1MB off the ethernet in less than the blink of an eye.

After the little audition I had only 5 responses of interest - including
your apprehension/lack of interest.  One board will be kept by me for
education and helping to port MiNT to the best of my ability, and
thereafter as a sparemint build farm machine.  Another machine will go
to Didier Mequignon whom I am for sure most excited about getting one.
The next one will go to Alan Hourihane who expressed good interest but
but mostly in terms of making the (nonexistent) video hardware work in
linux.  I'm curious what results we will see with him ;)  Nicholas
Steele is also getting one and promises to devote his substantial
programming credentials and a generous amount of time to the project.
The final board was left between the only 2 other responders, Philipp
Donze and Olivier Landemarre.  Both expressed what I felt to be a
passing interest and are currently discussing between each other who
will receive this final board.

I think it's highly likely that since these are donated boards, there's
a good chance it will be passed around amongst community members as
Norman Feske's board was passed to you.  I'm also happy with how the
number of boards I requested from freescale seems to have worked out
pretty well.

My current idea is to build a hardware platform based on this machine
using a spiffy but small Mini ITX case.  The board will sit inside an
use an active 2X PCI Riser card.  One of the PCI slots will house a fast
3d video card, the other a USB 2.0 high speed card which will plug in an
external hard drive, keyboard and mouse.  

The whole thing will be pretty and will sell to Atarians for around
$450.  It will be minimal, small and cheap... quite similar to the Mac
Mini.  It's functionality will be quite limited by the expansion of the
USB bus on the device and by driver support.  

Of course the very first step is to get MiNT running on it, which I am
well on my way to doing thanks to Norman's work.  I basically just have
to do different HW initialization and then poof,it should boot.

A request has been put in to logicpd to get the CPLD code for the fire
engine.  This will allow us to use the memory mode CF, so some users
perhaps might be able to opt to use a 4GB CF card as their main system
disk.

Another idea is to develop a board based on the laughably cheap $25
fireengine module.  I do like that idea and I think it would go to
market faster that way.  Most important is MiNT on coldfire and I think
we'll do it.

I would like to ask you guys which PCI video card and PCI USB 2.0 card
would be easiest to develop for, as I plan to buy these cards as well as
an active PCI riser card (the EVB has just one PCI slot).  I'm curious
how much the etherNAT USB driver is a proper ohci/uhci/ehci layer such
that the code might be reusable for this.  I will get this all working
under Linux and then begin attempting MiNT support.  This will be my
first foray into driver development, but I develop more confidence in
myself daily and it's all looking easier and easier the more I look at
kernel source code.

I know selling an EVB as a full computer seems stupid but I'm tired of
waiting and would like to think practically now.  Freescale provides
these and designs new ones for future, so we have an upgrade path backed
by a large company.  Ideally we can blaze a path that will reignite the
Atari fire that seems dead.  Over a year with no ACP updates.  No
updates on any effort to PPC port.  So screw it, someone has to do
something... No supervidel.. where's my etherNAT?  How much more can I
bitch? ;)

We could also sell high end computer based on M5485EVB.  That board has
onboard video, 2 PCI slots, 4 USB host slots, IDE, etc...   It's a full
motherboard!  Also 100mips faster than what I have as well as the
encryption engine.

Thanks,
Mark