[9fans] hardware idea

[9fans] hardware idea

[erik quanstrom]

i think this marvell media vault soc has quite a bit of
promise.  this product seems to be an arm core + a mashup
of other marvell parts.  the sata controller appears to have
the same register interfaces as the one driven by sdmv50xx.c.
the ethernet controller is not currently supported, but there
appears to be enough documentation to support it.  (as
an added bonus, though i haven't had a chance to check in
detail, i would guess this would help support x86 marvell lom
parts (mv643xx) as well!)
	http://www.marvell.com/products/media/index.jsp
the "User Manual" has all the crunchy register specs.
here's a few products based on this soc:
	http://www.portwell.com.tw/products/NAD-1004_ca.html
	http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165130

it would be so much nicer running a plan 9.

- erik

Re: [9fans] hardware idea

[Alexander Clouter]

erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
>
> i think this marvell media vault soc has quite a bit of
> promise.  this product seems to be an arm core + a mashup
> of other marvell parts.  the sata controller appears to have
> the same register interfaces as the one driven by sdmv50xx.c.
> the ethernet controller is not currently supported, but there
> appears to be enough documentation to support it.  (as
> an added bonus, though i haven't had a chance to check in
> detail, i would guess this would help support x86 marvell lom
> parts (mv643xx) as well!)
>        http://www.marvell.com/products/media/index.jsp
> the "User Manual" has all the crunchy register specs.
> here's a few products based on this soc:
>        http://www.portwell.com.tw/products/NAD-1004_ca.html
>        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165130
>
> it would be so much nicer running a plan 9.
>
Probably easier to develop on:

http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7800

The NAND annoyingly is not via the SoC and there are a few other quirks
however as you can boot off the SD card (making it unbrickable and dead
easy to play with kernel dev work), it has real serial ports where you
do not have to faff with to get them and of course the SATA ports.

It would be as good if not better than the Joe Public devices.

Cheers

--
Alexander Clouter
.sigmonster says: Stupidity got us into this mess -- why can't it get us out?

Re: [9fans] hardware idea

[erik quanstrom]

> Probably easier to develop on:
>
> http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7800
>
> The NAND annoyingly is not via the SoC and there are a few other quirks
> however as you can boot off the SD card (making it unbrickable and dead
> easy to play with kernel dev work), it has real serial ports where you
> do not have to faff with to get them and of course the SATA ports.

nice find.  thanks.  too bad it doesn't expose all 4 sata ports.  and way too
bad that currently 0 < toy budget < $1.

- erik

Re: [9fans] hardware idea

[cinap_lenrek]

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maybe use vlongs for your toy budget too? :)

--
cinap

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From: erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Subject: Re: [9fans] hardware idea
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:04:29 -0400
Message-ID: <7e27b98a05b16ea35fd892381cd5ce12@quanstro.net>

> Probably easier to develop on:
>
> http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7800
>
> The NAND annoyingly is not via the SoC and there are a few other quirks
> however as you can boot off the SD card (making it unbrickable and dead
> easy to play with kernel dev work), it has real serial ports where you
> do not have to faff with to get them and of course the SATA ports.

nice find.  thanks.  too bad it doesn't expose all 4 sata ports.  and way too
bad that currently 0 < toy budget < $1.

- erik

Re: [9fans] hardware idea

[erik quanstrom]

On Mon Mar 23 19:04:28 EDT 2009, cinap_lenrek@gmx.de wrote:

> maybe use vlongs for your toy budget too? :)

vlongs don't spend well. ☺

- erik

Re: [9fans] hardware idea

[Alexander Clouter]

erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
>> Probably easier to develop on:
>>
>> http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7800
>>
>> The NAND annoyingly is not via the SoC and there are a few other quirks
>> however as you can boot off the SD card (making it unbrickable and dead
>> easy to play with kernel dev work), it has real serial ports where you
>> do not have to faff with to get them and of course the SATA ports.
>
> nice find.  thanks.  too bad it doesn't expose all 4 sata ports.  and way too
> bad that currently 0 < toy budget < $1.
>
The Marvell SoC only has the one controller with two ports going out
anway so I am pretty sure it's a SATA port multiplier you would be
playing around with in there, and that's going to be fustrating.

Cheers

--
Alexander Clouter
.sigmonster says: manic-depressive, adj.:
                  	Easy glum, easy glow.

Re: [9fans] hardware idea

[erik quanstrom]

> The Marvell SoC only has the one controller with two ports going out
> anway so I am pretty sure it's a SATA port multiplier you would be
> playing around with in there, and that's going to be fustrating.

it has one controller with 2 edma units (ports).  see p. 70, chp 8 fig.
14 of http://www.marvell.com/files/products/media/88F5182_User_Manual.pdf
for details.  this is similar to ahci which can have up to 32 ports per
controller without a port multiplier.

- erik