Federico Lucifredi wrote: >> I assume the Freescale board is similarly created to show off a >> Freescale CPU. Is their board design open? > > Not to my knowledge, and not to a quick googling pass. i.mx53 > quickstart is the board designation, and the community site is at > http://imxcommunity.org/
Also, board specs at: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=IMX53QSB It's described as an "open source development platform," with no mention of it being open hardware, but if you peruse the downloads page: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=IMX53QSB&fpsp=1&tab=Design_Tools_Tab you'll find the schematics, board layout Gerber files, and just about everything else you'd need to reproduce your own board or a variation of it. So looks like it qualifies as open hardware. (Although conceptually they could release all of this "for reference only" and sue anyone making a clone board. But not likely, seeing as the purpose of the board is to show off the Freescale CPU, and promote CPU sales.) >> Do you know if the SATA port is compatible with port multiplexers? > That's worth looking into… I had the board for too little a time, > sorry I sorry I don't have answers ready on this :( I didn't expect you to know this obscure bit. Just throwing the question out there to do some lazy research. Some quick searching turns up that someone else asked the same question: http://imxcommunity.org/forum/topics/two-sata-drives-with-i-mx53-quick-start-board but received no answer, and someone else posted a message saying that the SATA controller was unrecognized by Linux: http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ports.arm.kernel/155071 and a reply pointing out the kernel patches and enable support. The next step would be to examine the patches to look for clues as to which SATA controller is used, and/or look at the bill of materials (available in the downloads above) to see if it is a separate SATA controller chip or integrated into the CPU. If the latter, it could be a dead end, unless the CPU documentation answer the question, or you can get the attention of an application engineer at Freescale to answer it. At this point, that's more work than my curiosity justifies. -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
