Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Krishna B S]

Hi All,

I have to develop toolchains for various MIPS boards my company
develops. All the boards consist of MIPS 4KC.

I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by
the community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a
clear answer.

But, my intention is to first port my toolchain/kernel for this
popular board so that I can get your support, in case I encounter any
problems. Having confirmed the working of the toolchain for this
board, I would port it to my company's boards.

(The popular board in the community would be my reference board for
development.)

Kindly give your valuable comments.

Regards,
Krishna

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Alexander Voropay]

"Krishna B S" <bskris@gmail.com> wrote:
 
> I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by
> the community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a
> clear answer.

 You could use one of the consumer devices as a development board ;)

I.e. : http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Adm5120 or
http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Broadcom_SOCs

 This devices costs about $50..100 and includes case, power supply,
Ethernet, RS-232, Flash, DRAM (16 to 32Mb), USB an one or two
MiniPCI slots.

 You could use a USB stick or IDE HDD with USB-to-IDE controller 
to mount a root partition.

 There are a lot of MiniPCI peripherial cards: WiFi, sound, IDE,
Serial ATA and seems even SVGA.

--
-=AV=-
 

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Alexander Voropay]

"Krishna B S" <bskris@gmail.com> wrote:
 
> I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by
> the community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a
> clear answer.

 You could use one of the consumer devices as a development board ;)

I.e. : http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Adm5120 or
http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Broadcom_SOCs

 This devices costs about $50..100 and includes case, power supply,
Ethernet, RS-232, Flash, DRAM (16 to 32Mb), USB an one or two
MiniPCI slots.

 You could use a USB stick or IDE HDD with USB-to-IDE controller 
to mount a root partition.

 There are a lot of MiniPCI peripherial cards: WiFi, sound, IDE,
Serial ATA and seems even SVGA.

--
-=AV=-
 

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Ralf Baechle]

On Wed, Jun 29, 2005 at 02:18:40PM +0530, Krishna B S wrote:

> I have to develop toolchains for various MIPS boards my company
> develops. All the boards consist of MIPS 4KC.
> 
> I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by
> the community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a
> clear answer.
> 
> But, my intention is to first port my toolchain/kernel for this
> popular board so that I can get your support, in case I encounter any
> problems. Having confirmed the working of the toolchain for this
> board, I would port it to my company's boards.
> 
> (The popular board in the community would be my reference board for
> development.)

The price tag is juicy but for serious development with a 4Kc I'd
recommend a MIPS Malta.  Forcing consumer hardware into submission may
be a fun project for a spare time hacker but in general isn't a very
productive process for somebody who needs to finish a job soon or needs
to additional hardware such as PCI cards, logic analyzer, additional
memory, other CPU types etc.

  Ralf

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Maxim Osipov]

And if we talk about fan project, are there any MIPS64 based devices on market?

Maxim

On 6/30/05, Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 29, 2005 at 02:18:40PM +0530, Krishna B S wrote:
> 
> > I have to develop toolchains for various MIPS boards my company
> > develops. All the boards consist of MIPS 4KC.
> >
> > I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by
> > the community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a
> > clear answer.
> >
> > But, my intention is to first port my toolchain/kernel for this
> > popular board so that I can get your support, in case I encounter any
> > problems. Having confirmed the working of the toolchain for this
> > board, I would port it to my company's boards.
> >
> > (The popular board in the community would be my reference board for
> > development.)
> 
> The price tag is juicy but for serious development with a 4Kc I'd
> recommend a MIPS Malta.  Forcing consumer hardware into submission may
> be a fun project for a spare time hacker but in general isn't a very
> productive process for somebody who needs to finish a job soon or needs
> to additional hardware such as PCI cards, logic analyzer, additional
> memory, other CPU types etc.
> 
>   Ralf
> 
>

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Ralf Baechle]

On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 02:08:32PM +0400, Maxim Osipov wrote:

> And if we talk about fan project, are there any MIPS64 based devices on market?

The Playstation comes to mind.  It however isn't MIPS64 but 64-bit MIPS ...

  Ralf

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005, Ralf Baechle wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 02:08:32PM +0400, Maxim Osipov wrote:
> > And if we talk about fan project, are there any MIPS64 based devices on market?
> 
> The Playstation comes to mind.  It however isn't MIPS64 but 64-bit MIPS ...

Nah, the PlayStation has an R3000 :-)
I guess you meant the PlayStation 2...

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

P.S. Sorry, couldn't resists....
--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Ralf Baechle]

On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 01:11:25PM +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Jun 2005, Ralf Baechle wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 02:08:32PM +0400, Maxim Osipov wrote:
> > > And if we talk about fan project, are there any MIPS64 based devices on market?
> > 
> > The Playstation comes to mind.  It however isn't MIPS64 but 64-bit MIPS ...
> 
> Nah, the PlayStation has an R3000 :-)
> I guess you meant the PlayStation 2...
> 
> Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
> 
> 						Geert
> 
> P.S. Sorry, couldn't resists....

I knew that when I hit the return key :-)

  Ralf

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Jun Sun]

On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 02:08:32PM +0400, Maxim Osipov wrote:
> And if we talk about fan project, are there any MIPS64 based devices on market?
> 

Another 64bit MIPS CPU based device is Tivo series 2.  So I heard.

Jun

> On 6/30/05, Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org> wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 29, 2005 at 02:18:40PM +0530, Krishna B S wrote:
> > 
> > > I have to develop toolchains for various MIPS boards my company
> > > develops. All the boards consist of MIPS 4KC.
> > >
> > > I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by
> > > the community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a
> > > clear answer.
> > >
> > > But, my intention is to first port my toolchain/kernel for this
> > > popular board so that I can get your support, in case I encounter any
> > > problems. Having confirmed the working of the toolchain for this
> > > board, I would port it to my company's boards.
> > >
> > > (The popular board in the community would be my reference board for
> > > development.)
> > 
> > The price tag is juicy but for serious development with a 4Kc I'd
> > recommend a MIPS Malta.  Forcing consumer hardware into submission may
> > be a fun project for a spare time hacker but in general isn't a very
> > productive process for somebody who needs to finish a job soon or needs
> > to additional hardware such as PCI cards, logic analyzer, additional
> > memory, other CPU types etc.
> > 
> >   Ralf
> > 
> >

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[jrc]

maxim.osipov@gmail.com wrote:
> And if we talk about fan project, are there any MIPS64 based devices
> on market?

A possibility for a MIPS64 based device might be the recently announced
Broadcom BCM97398 IPTV set-top box reference design platform:

    http://tinyurl.com/bm44b

This contains a BCM7038 with a 300 MHz R5Kf together with enough
peripherals to make it interesting: 2 x UART; 2 x SATA; 2 x USB 2.0;
10/100 Ethernet.  If produced in quantity and available it would
probably be more affordable than low volume evaluation boards.

What I would like to see is a multicore (multithreading?) MIPS64 chip
attached by HyperTransport to a PC chipset (eg. Via KN800A) on a small
form factor board (mini-itx; micro-atx; micro-btx).  An ideal plaything
for the kernel hacker and a useful resource for academic teaching and
research - a modern version of the UNSW U4600 ...

Re: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Ralf Baechle]

On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 08:16:42PM +0100, jrc@skylon.demon.co.uk wrote:

> A possibility for a MIPS64 based device might be the recently announced
> Broadcom BCM97398 IPTV set-top box reference design platform:
> 
>     http://tinyurl.com/bm44b
> 
> This contains a BCM7038 with a 300 MHz R5Kf together with enough
> peripherals to make it interesting: 2 x UART; 2 x SATA; 2 x USB 2.0;
> 10/100 Ethernet.  If produced in quantity and available it would
> probably be more affordable than low volume evaluation boards.
> 
> What I would like to see is a multicore (multithreading?) MIPS64 chip
> attached by HyperTransport to a PC chipset (eg. Via KN800A) on a small
> form factor board (mini-itx; micro-atx; micro-btx).  An ideal plaything
> for the kernel hacker and a useful resource for academic teaching and
> research - a modern version of the UNSW U4600 ...

There's a wild difference between the 5Kf, a relativly simple 64-bit core
and one of the current 32-bit & 64-bit multithreading cores coming out.
For the latter ones you'll probably still have to hold the breath for little.

  Ralf

RE: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Singh, Ajay]

You can probably download toolchain from
http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Toolchains and try them first.
Later you can try compiling toolchain from buidroot. 

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-mips-bounce@linux-mips.org
[mailto:linux-mips-bounce@linux-mips.org] On Behalf Of Krishna B S
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 2:19 PM
To: linux-mips@linux-mips.org
Subject: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

Hi All,

I have to develop toolchains for various MIPS boards my company
develops. All the boards consist of MIPS 4KC.

I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by the
community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a clear
answer.

But, my intention is to first port my toolchain/kernel for this popular
board so that I can get your support, in case I encounter any problems.
Having confirmed the working of the toolchain for this board, I would
port it to my company's boards.

(The popular board in the community would be my reference board for
development.)

Kindly give your valuable comments.

Regards,
Krishna

RE: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

[Singh, Ajay]

You can probably download toolchain from
http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Toolchains and try them first.
Later you can try compiling toolchain from buidroot. 

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-mips-bounce@linux-mips.org
[mailto:linux-mips-bounce@linux-mips.org] On Behalf Of Krishna B S
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 2:19 PM
To: linux-mips@linux-mips.org
Subject: Popular MIPS4Kc boards?

Hi All,

I have to develop toolchains for various MIPS boards my company
develops. All the boards consist of MIPS 4KC.

I would like to know from you what is the most popular board used by the
community with this kind of processor. I know, its tough to get a clear
answer.

But, my intention is to first port my toolchain/kernel for this popular
board so that I can get your support, in case I encounter any problems.
Having confirmed the working of the toolchain for this board, I would
port it to my company's boards.

(The popular board in the community would be my reference board for
development.)

Kindly give your valuable comments.

Regards,
Krishna