Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[Bob Cochran]

Hello All,

Most of you are probably aware that Freescale has announced an ARM-based 
QorIQ device built around an ARM (dual) Cortex-A7.

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=LS1021A

We're interested in moving forward with this SoC, but we first want to 
benchmark in hardware some relevant applications to see if the dual 
Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz will have enough processing power to do what we need.

Can you please reply with what you think would be the best evaluation 
board to bring in house that provides a fair representation of the 
Cortex-A7's performance? BTW, each core has 32KB data & instruction L1 
caches, and it shares a 512KB L2 cache.

I'm thinking it will probably be an i.MX solution (maybe i.MX53 QS or 
i.MX6 Sabre Lite?).  However, I would like to hear from the developers 
working with these boards on a regular basis about the stability and 
level of support for the particular board they're working with.

We'll also need to work out which HW debugger to bring in, so I would 
love to hear any recommendations for this.

Also, I suppose we should be looking at non Freescale ARM eval boards, 
too.


Thanks,

Bob

Re: Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[Otavio Salvador]

Hello Bob,

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Bob Cochran <yocto@mindchasers.com> wrote:
> Most of you are probably aware that Freescale has announced an ARM-based
> QorIQ device built around an ARM (dual) Cortex-A7.
>
> http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=LS1021A
>
> We're interested in moving forward with this SoC, but we first want to
> benchmark in hardware some relevant applications to see if the dual
> Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz will have enough processing power to do what we need.

Yes; the BSP for this platform is not yet released as far as I know.

> Can you please reply with what you think would be the best evaluation board
> to bring in house that provides a fair representation of the Cortex-A7's
> performance? BTW, each core has 32KB data & instruction L1 caches, and it
> shares a 512KB L2 cache.

At this moment I think your best bet is the Freescale evaluation board.

> I'm thinking it will probably be an i.MX solution (maybe i.MX53 QS or i.MX6
> Sabre Lite?).  However, I would like to hear from the developers working
> with these boards on a regular basis about the stability and level of
> support for the particular board they're working with.
>
> We'll also need to work out which HW debugger to bring in, so I would love
> to hear any recommendations for this.
>
> Also, I suppose we should be looking at non Freescale ARM eval boards, too.

For i.MX we have many supported boards; you can see the full list at
our Release Notes[1].

1. http://freescale.github.io/doc/release-notes/1.5/

The right SoC is very project specific so it is hard to give a good
advise; regarding possible evaluation boards you have many available
and I'd say for you to try to choose one with support on this BSP so
it easy your initial development.

I hope this gives you some pointers where to start.

Regards,

-- 
Otavio Salvador                             O.S. Systems
http://www.ossystems.com.br        http://code.ossystems.com.br
Mobile: +55 (53) 9981-7854            Mobile: +1 (347) 903-9750

Re: Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[Bob Cochran]

>
> For i.MX we have many supported boards; you can see the full list at
> our Release Notes[1].
>
> 1. http://freescale.github.io/doc/release-notes/1.5/

Thanks Otavio.  I'm leaning towards the sabre-lite design.  Could 
someone please clarify whether there are any notable differences / 
advantages when comparing the Boundary and Element14 boards?

I see from the jpegs of the two boards that they are very similar and 
are both built from a Freescale sabre lite reference.  Are the only 
differences the connectors and silkscreen?

Bob


>
> The right SoC is very project specific so it is hard to give a good
> advise; regarding possible evaluation boards you have many available
> and I'd say for you to try to choose one with support on this BSP so
> it easy your initial development.
>
> I hope this gives you some pointers where to start.
>
> Regards,
>

Re: Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[Otavio Salvador]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 12:34 AM, Bob Cochran <yocto@mindchasers.com> wrote:
>>
>> For i.MX we have many supported boards; you can see the full list at
>> our Release Notes[1].
>>
>> 1. http://freescale.github.io/doc/release-notes/1.5/
>
>
> Thanks Otavio.  I'm leaning towards the sabre-lite design.  Could someone
> please clarify whether there are any notable differences / advantages when
> comparing the Boundary and Element14 boards?
>
> I see from the jpegs of the two boards that they are very similar and are
> both built from a Freescale sabre lite reference.  Are the only differences
> the connectors and silkscreen?

If you plan to use a SoM, my advice is to choose a vendor which
provides SoMs with the right feature-set you need.

I am not aware of any differences between both. Eric are you aware of any?

-- 
Otavio Salvador                             O.S. Systems
http://www.ossystems.com.br        http://code.ossystems.com.br
Mobile: +55 (53) 9981-7854            Mobile: +1 (347) 903-9750

Re: Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[Eric Nelson]

On 10/22/2013 07:51 PM, Otavio Salvador wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 12:34 AM, Bob Cochran <yocto@mindchasers.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> For i.MX we have many supported boards; you can see the full list at
>>> our Release Notes[1].
>>>
>>> 1. http://freescale.github.io/doc/release-notes/1.5/
>>
>>
>> Thanks Otavio.  I'm leaning towards the sabre-lite design.  Could someone
>> please clarify whether there are any notable differences / advantages when
>> comparing the Boundary and Element14 boards?
>>
>> I see from the jpegs of the two boards that they are very similar and are
>> both built from a Freescale sabre lite reference.  Are the only differences
>> the connectors and silkscreen?
>
> If you plan to use a SoM, my advice is to choose a vendor which
> provides SoMs with the right feature-set you need.
>
> I am not aware of any differences between both. Eric are you aware of any?
>

As much as I'd like to sell boards, I can only comment on ours (which I
tend to like ;)).

I also feel fairly comfortable in saying that we're a lot more active
with support in the community (since I've never seen a post or code from
anyone at Element14).

Regards,


Eric

Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[ad me]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 203 bytes --]

Just wanted to support Eric and Boundary Devices on their
excellent support, on their website and their quick email responses :)
So, go with them, you will be happy!

Ad.
.........................

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 701 bytes --]

Re: Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[Bob Cochran]

On 10/22/2013 11:34 PM, Eric Nelson wrote:
>>>  Could someone
>>> please clarify whether there are any notable differences / advantages
>>> when
>>> comparing the Boundary and Element14 boards?
>>>
>>> I see from the jpegs of the two boards that they are very similar and
>>> are
>>> both built from a Freescale sabre lite reference.  Are the only
>>> differences
>>> the connectors and silkscreen?
>>
>> If you plan to use a SoM, my advice is to choose a vendor which
>> provides SoMs with the right feature-set you need.
>>
>> I am not aware of any differences between both. Eric are you aware of
>> any?
>>
>
> As much as I'd like to sell boards, I can only comment on ours (which I
> tend to like ;)).

Hi Eric,

I'm happy to support those that support me.

I see that the sabre-lite has been renamed.  Are there multiple 
revisions of the board out?  If so, what is the latest?  I want to make 
sure a distributor doesn't sell me a stale revision.

Bob

>
> I also feel fairly comfortable in saying that we're a lot more active
> with support in the community (since I've never seen a post or code from
> anyone at Element14).
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Eric
>

Re: Looking for recommendations to help evaluate Freescale LS1021A...

[Eric Nelson]

Hi Bob,

On 10/23/2013 10:46 AM, Bob Cochran wrote:
> On 10/22/2013 11:34 PM, Eric Nelson wrote:
>>>>  Could someone
>>>> please clarify whether there are any notable differences / advantages
>>>> when
>>>> comparing the Boundary and Element14 boards?
>>>>
>>>> I see from the jpegs of the two boards that they are very similar and
>>>> are
>>>> both built from a Freescale sabre lite reference.  Are the only
>>>> differences
>>>> the connectors and silkscreen?
>>>
>>> If you plan to use a SoM, my advice is to choose a vendor which
>>> provides SoMs with the right feature-set you need.
>>>
>>> I am not aware of any differences between both. Eric are you aware of
>>> any?
>>>
>>
>> As much as I'd like to sell boards, I can only comment on ours (which I
>> tend to like ;)).
>
> Hi Eric,
>
> I'm happy to support those that support me.
>
> I see that the sabre-lite has been renamed.  Are there multiple
> revisions of the board out?  If so, what is the latest?  I want to make
> sure a distributor doesn't sell me a stale revision.
>

The only revisions of the board itself are long gone (>1 year ago).
There was also a change in silicon revision of the CPU (from 1.0
to 1.2) around February, but boards were back-ordered shortly
after that, so I'm certain there's no stale inventory.

Regards,


Eric