[U-Boot] Seeking ARM development platform suggestions

[Jorgen Lundman <lundman@lundman.net>]

Graeme Russ wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> Now that I _finally_ have an ARM toolchain up and running (ELDK 5.2),
> it's time to play, and for that, I need something to play with :)
>
> I have a HP TouchPad which I've been compiling CyangenMod for (it has
> it's own toolchain) and a Raspberry Pi which I have built U-Boot for
> (using ELDK), but I don't have the necessary hardware for serial
> console yet.
>
> I'm looking for something:
>   a) I can purchase locally (Australia)
>   b) Is reasonably priced
>   c) Has a mainline port of U-Boot already
>   d) Is 'useful' (media player, NAS, firewall, machine that goes 'ping')
>   e) Has lots of 'things' to play with (network, USB, video, SD/MMC,
> SATA, LEDs, GPIO, Alphanumeric LCD) - Not all have to be currently
> supported (actually, it would be great if some aren't so I can work on
> adding them)

1)
I have a Cubox (http://www.solid-run.com/products/cubox) which is quite 
decent for development, I don't know about support from the Company itself, 
as we don't hear from them often. Great for Linux work and similar 
development, but Android support is poor. Not ready to be a full mediaplayer.

I used this to do the ZFS port to ARM, and eventually uboot. Alas, not 
mainline port of u-boot. Ships with USB serial console.


2)
I have a Mele A2000 
(http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/04/04/mele-a2000-android-2-3-media-player-powered-by-allwinner-a10/) 
which fancier in the Android department (JB4.1 available) and have Linux 
images, but needs extra dongle for serial. Could "just about" be a 
mediaplayer for locally attached media (maybe) but once you add network 
play and a greater selection of codecs, it moves into "not ready to be a 
full mediaplayer".

Also not in mainline u-boot, but the u-boot available is less hacky.

Neither run XBMC enough to be useful.

The general "mood" of the embedded dev community seems to be, to me, to 
move away from these Companies, as the promised source releases has not 
been sufficient. The current interest seems to be AM.logic's dualcore 
board. 
(http://ao2.it/en/blog/2012/08/10/amlogic-aml8726-mx-linux-kernel-code-released)

The last paragraph is just my take on things. All coloured from the 
"mediaplayer" point of view, as that is currently what I am fiddling with.

Lund





-- 
Jorgen Lundman       | <lundman@lundman.net>
Unix Administrator   | +81 (0)3 -5456-2687 ext 1017 (work)
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo    | +81 (0)90-5578-8500          (cell)
Japan                | +81 (0)3 -3375-1767          (home)