[U-Boot] Seeking PPC BDM resources for MPC860, docs for old MPC860 Eval Board

[U-Boot] Seeking PPC BDM resources for MPC860, docs for old MPC860 Eval Board

[Alex Perez]

Hi folks! I've recently acquired two MPC860-based eval boards made by  
EST Corp (now part of Wind River Systems for the last handful of  
years), and I'm looking to get it booting Linux via u-boot.

Additionally, I'm also looking for MPC860 BDM hardware I can make on  
my own. Does anyone have any suggestions? I got these boards sans ANY  
documentation, and they have a boatload of DIP switches as well as a  
dozen or so jumpers scattered across the board. If someone would like  
a photo of the board, I'll reply with a URL.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[U-Boot] Seeking PPC BDM resources for MPC860, docs for old MPC860 Eval Board

[Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD]

On 22:30 Sat 03 Jan     , Alex Perez wrote:
> Hi folks! I've recently acquired two MPC860-based eval boards made by  
> EST Corp (now part of Wind River Systems for the last handful of years), 
> and I'm looking to get it booting Linux via u-boot.
>
> Additionally, I'm also looking for MPC860 BDM hardware I can make on my 
> own. Does anyone have any suggestions?

For BDM I'll suggest you a BDI2000 or 3000

> I got these boards sans ANY  
s/sans/without/ :)
> documentation, and they have a boatload of DIP switches as well as a  
> dozen or so jumpers scattered across the board. If someone would like a 
> photo of the board, I'll reply with a URL.
Maybe you can take try to cantact them

Best Regards,
J.

[U-Boot] Seeking PPC BDM resources for MPC860, docs for old MPC860 Eval Board

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Alex Perez,

In message <DB05811D-49A2-48E9-BA71-EF45C615F792@alexperez.com> you wrote:
> 
> Hi folks! I've recently acquired two MPC860-based eval boards made by  
> EST Corp (now part of Wind River Systems for the last handful of  
> years), and I'm looking to get it booting Linux via u-boot.

You can speculate that (probably very old) ports might exist, but  in
any  case  you  have to exactly identify these boards first. What are
the exact names / types of these boards?

> Additionally, I'm also looking for MPC860 BDM hardware I can make on  

For BDM hardware you might look into the (old) MPC4BDM project, see
http://www.vas-gmbh.de/software/mpcbdm/ ; we still support this BDM
adapter in the GDB that is inclided with the ELDK. If you have any
other hardware, look into the UrJTAG project at http://www.urjtag.org/

> my own. Does anyone have any suggestions? I got these boards sans ANY  
> documentation, and they have a boatload of DIP switches as well as a  
> dozen or so jumpers scattered across the board. If someone would like  
> a photo of the board, I'll reply with a URL.

He. Without any documentation you cannot do anything. You will need
detailed hardware specs, ideally including the schematics before you
can attempt to port U-Boot or Linux to such hardware.

Without documentation these boards are only usable as doorstops.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a  correct
one.

[U-Boot] Seeking PPC BDM resources for MPC860, docs for old MPC860 Eval Board

[Alex Perez]

Hi Wolfgang,

On Jan 4, 2009, at 12:28 AM, Wolfgang Denk wrote:

> Dear Alex Perez,
>
> In message <DB05811D-49A2-48E9-BA71-EF45C615F792@alexperez.com> you  
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi folks! I've recently acquired two MPC860-based eval boards made by
>> EST Corp (now part of Wind River Systems for the last handful of
>> years), and I'm looking to get it booting Linux via u-boot.
>
> You can speculate that (probably very old) ports might exist, but  in
> any  case  you  have to exactly identify these boards first. What are
> the exact names / types of these boards?

Yes, I know for a fact that very old ports exist, and running them for  
the time being would be fine, as a starting-point. The boards  
themselves contain, unbelievably, no model/part numbers. The boards  
simply have EST Corp silk-screened on them, with one American and one  
European phone number which both ring to Wind River sales offices.  
I've seen the board referred to as the SBC860 on-line in a couple of  
places. I am nearly positive this is the board in question.
>
>
>> Additionally, I'm also looking for MPC860 BDM hardware I can make on
>
> For BDM hardware you might look into the (old) MPC4BDM project, see
> http://www.vas-gmbh.de/software/mpcbdm/ ; we still support this BDM
> adapter in the GDB that is inclided with the ELDK. If you have any
> other hardware, look into the UrJTAG project at http://www.urjtag.org/

Thanks, I also discovered this page earlier today. I've got a wiggler- 
compatible JTAG adapter, but I guess I'll have to build this BDM  
module as well.
>
>
>> my own. Does anyone have any suggestions? I got these boards sans ANY
>> documentation, and they have a boatload of DIP switches as well as a
>> dozen or so jumpers scattered across the board. If someone would like
>> a photo of the board, I'll reply with a URL.
>
> He. Without any documentation you cannot do anything. You will need
> detailed hardware specs, ideally including the schematics before you
> can attempt to port U-Boot or Linux to such hardware.

I realize this. The board itself is quite well built, and in all  
likelihood,  it has some sort of integrated ROM monitor. The serial  
ports are strangely on RJ11 connectors, and I don't know what their  
pinouts are. I have a call in to Wind River systems, but
>
> Without documentation these boards are only usable as doorstops.

Understood, which is why I was appealing for help here. It's quite  
likely that someone subscribed to this list has used this eval board  
somewhere along the line. The MPC8xx was essentially superseded by the  
Freescale MPC8xxx, but the MPC860 is still manufactured by Motorola's  
spawn, Freescale.

There's a photo of the board in very high res available at http://flickr.com/photos/liberalex/3164024448/sizes/o/

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my e-mail, Wolfgang. It's most  
appreciated. From examining the mailing list archives, I see that  
there is only light MPC860 related traffic over the last couple of  
years.  The most recent, pertinent patch related to MPC860 is at http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.boot-loaders.u-boot/29065/match=mpc860

Regards,
Alex

[U-Boot] Seeking PPC BDM resources for MPC860, docs for old MPC860 Eval Board

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Alex Perez,

In message <8585CA02-AED9-4E4F-AE85-F45533BC5514@alexperez.com> you wrote:
> 
> Yes, I know for a fact that very old ports exist, and running them for  
> the time being would be fine, as a starting-point. The boards  
> themselves contain, unbelievably, no model/part numbers. The boards  

Um... on your photo I can clearly read a  "MDPPRA-0207"  tag.  Search
for   terms   like   "MDPPRA-ALL-X  modular  development  board"  and
"ICM86B-860-X MPC860T CPU module".

> Thanks for taking the time to reply to my e-mail, Wolfgang. It's most  
> appreciated. From examining the mailing list archives, I see that  
> there is only light MPC860 related traffic over the last couple of  
> years.  The most recent, pertinent patch related to MPC860 is at http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.boot-loaders.u-boot/29065/match=mpc860

The MPC860 is the vary starting point of this whoile project. It  was
my  development platform when I started working on a boot loader, and
MPC8xx was the single target we had in mind in all the initial steps.
Only some time later we decided to call this  project  PPCBoot,  long
long before it was renamed into U-Boot.

The fact that you don't see 8xx related patches any more  lately  has
two  reasons:  1) the processor family is more or less obsolete and I
haven't seen it used in any new design for a long, long time (but  it
is  still used in many, many projects, some of them selling in really
high volume). 2) as it was the  reference  platform  right  from  the
beginning,  it  is still one of the best supported architectures, and
the code for it can be consered more or less BugFree (TM) :-)


Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
Alan Turing thought about criteria to settle the question of  whether
machines  can think, a question of which we now know that it is about
as relevant as the question of whether submarines can swim.
                                                   -- Edsger Dijkstra

[U-Boot] Seeking PPC BDM resources for MPC860, docs for old MPC860 Eval Board

[Jerry Van Baren]

Alex Perez wrote:
> Hi Wolfgang,
> 
> On Jan 4, 2009, at 12:28 AM, Wolfgang Denk wrote:

[snip]

> I realize this. The board itself is quite well built, and in all  
> likelihood,  it has some sort of integrated ROM monitor. The serial  
> ports are strangely on RJ11 connectors, and I don't know what their  
> pinouts are. I have a call in to Wind River systems, but
>> Without documentation these boards are only usable as doorstops.


I have a EST/SBC8260 board (also made by EST before they were bought by 
WR, many years ago) that also uses RJ-11s for serial I/O.  Odds are good 
they have the same pinout:

1 MAX-232 Rin
2 MAX-232 Tout
3 n/c
4 Ground

If you ohm-out the pins to find ground and then use a scope as you power 
on the board to look at the pins to find Tx, you have most of the puzzle 
solved.

[snip]

> Regards,
> Alex

Nothing like a Quixote quest.  :-)
gvb