Re: [ECOS] Development board advice please

[Hugo 'NOx' Tyson <hmtx at redxhatx dot com>]

"Nixon, Roger" <Roger.Nixon@quantumbeam.com> writes:

> I hope that this isn't too general a query for the list. I haven't had any
> luck finding this information in the archive.
> 
> We're just about to start development work for a prototype. We need to pick
> a development board to use in our prototype, so I'd like to ask for some
> advice based on your experience.
> 
> We must have 2 PCI slots and 2 serial ports (gdb + serial console). We don't
> need much processing power (a few tens of MIPS would be ample), or memory
> and no networking is required. The board will be doing a lot of I/O via two
> PCI digital I/O cards. The priorities are then (starting with the most
> important):
> 
> 1. Time to get a running system i.e. quick to obtain (UK), set-up and run
> with as few potential problems as possible.
> 2. Size. Smaller would be better, but anything from ATX down is possible.
> 3. Price. We'll be needing 8+ eventually and want to spend as little as
> possible as we may change processor before production. This is the least
> important consideration though.
> 
> Is eCos stable enough to meet 1?

Possibly the EBSA285 - it's a PCI bus card itself, you can get it with a
minicabinet with 4 PCI slots free.  It's an Intel StrongARM SA110 @ 218MHz.
NB that's SA110 *not* the more uptodate SA1110.  It's from Intel, so it may
fail on (3).  I think it has a 2nd serial somewhere, not sure.  Hmmm, after
a quick look, maybe not. ;-(

> On which boards that meet our requirements is eCos the most stable?

It's stable on EBSA285 for sure.

> Are there any to avoid?!

Intel SA1110/SA1111 Assabet.  Horrid thing.

The two PCI cards are your own specials, I take it, rather than ethernets?
(Yeah, I saw "no networking required") If you just wanted two i82559
ethernets I'd recommend the commEngine from Bright Star Engineering; SA1110
CPU.  Maybe BSE could help anyway, their nanoBridge is a PCI controller, I
dunno if they make a card with real physical slots though.

HTH,
	- Huge