LBOX
October 20, 2004
- What is the processor used in the LBOX?
- Is it a Motorola 68K?
- What speed does the processor run?
- How much memory is there?
To answer your questions:
Motorola Coldfire MCF5272. Coldfire is the "next generation" after the 68K. The instruction set and software architecture is essentially the same, but Motorola removed some op-codes(microcode) in order to optimize the design. Internally it's completely different and on a much more advanced Silicon Fab. Process. It should be noted however that in uClinux this architecture is supported under the "m68k" toolchain, and referred to as such.
We run the board at 48Mhz. The processor technically can run up to 66Mhz, but this would require a crystal change, and software (bootloader) changes. We chose 48Mhz Because it was the best balance between low power, design, and code performance.
There is 4 Meg of flash and 8 Meg of SDRAM.
The Bootloader, compressed Linux plus filesystem image take up about 0.5Meg of flash. At boot time the bootloader runs in Flash to de-compressed and copy the Linux image on the fly from Flash to SDRAM. When done, the bootloard jumps to SDRAM, and execution of the Linux takes place from SDRAM.
The present uCLinux image we use then installs a MTD driver, and mounts 2 meg of the remaining flash as a JFFS2 filesystem. This basically means you have a "mini-harddrive" in flash. the MTD driver is also used by netflash to allow you to reprogram any of the flash partitions over ethernet.
Posted by Iain at October 20, 2004 12:24 PMTrackBack URL for this entry: