[LinuxBIOS] LPC SuperIO "add-in card"

Indrek Kruusa indrek.kruusa at artecdesign.ee
Fri Dec 1 14:02:26 CET 2006


Peter Stuge wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 01, 2006 at 01:26:31PM +0200, Indrek Kruusa wrote:
>   
>> For current Thincan (artecgroup/dbe61) development we are using our
>> own designed dongles:
>>     
>
> http://208.109.65.208/products/hardware-products/programmable-lpc-dongle.html
>
> Very nice!
>   

Hm, there is even a web page. Nice to know :)

>
>   
>> - LPC connector (the cable shouldn't be longer than 5cm/2 inch)
>> - Altera Cyclone FPGA as the control part
>> - 16 MB flash: 4x separate 4MB banks; chosen by jumpers (I can have 4 
>> separate booting configs( LB/kernel/initrd) in one dongle)
>> - chosen flash bank is seen as 1MB at boot, switched to 4MB mode by 
>> LinuxBIOS. After that you can address that 4MB by FILO as mem at 0x....
>> - 4 digit LED display (POST code display + selftest)
>> - miniUSB (by ftdi chip) for the programming flash banks
>> - python script as programming tool
>>     
>
> That's a serial emulation, right? How long does it take to program
> one bank?
>
>
>   

Yes, it is emulation. It takes ca. 20 s to flash the 256K LinuxBIOS. 
Flashing a bigger binary takes proportionally more time. Usually I 
change one thing at a time (e.g. only kernel) so the need to flash the 
whole 4MB is quite rare.

>> PCB is 8cm x 6cm, i have seen the case for that unit too :)
>>
>> As much as I know this dongle were made available with initial price
>> ca. ?90 (in small quantities). I'd expect that such a thing (with
>> somewhat different design) can't be much cheaper.
>>     
>
> Is that EUR90 or USD90? Either way I agree - it's a good price!
>   

EUR90.

> I want one. :)
>   

You are welcome! :) Guys from info at artecgroup.com can give you more 
information about that.

> Do you also have a PLCC adapter?

Nope.



thanks,
Indrek



>  I looked into the product sold by
> Segor (that Carl-Daniel linked to) and found that it's made by cab
> GmbH:
>
> http://www.cabgmbh.com/englisch/index.cfm?fuseaction=elektronik&rubrik=Special%20sockets&produkte=159
>
>
> //Peter
>
>   





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