Build Your Own StrongARM Linux Computer

krp writes: "From the LART FAQ page: 'The LART is a small yet powerful embedded computer capable of running Linux. Its performance is around 250 MIPS while consuming less than 1 Watt of power. In a standard configuration it holds 32MB DRAM and 4MB Flash ROM, which is sufficient for a Linux kernel and a sizeable ramdisk image.' Full schematics and CAD files for the main board, kitchen sink board, the boot loader (BLOB) and patches for the Linux kernel are available for download as well as various software tools. This tiny machine could be ideal for embedded / portable / wearable applications -- there are some pictures (including a LART running off a small battery!) in l'ART gallery. "

Chalice CATS

There's another, perhaps more accessible ARM based Unix computer out there for experimenters.

It's call the Chalice CATS, a ATX-form factor board, with a StrongARM processor (at 233 MHz,
IIRC), and most of the other features of a relatively modern PC (3 PCI/4 ISA, parallel,
serial, USB ports, SDRAM DIMM memory, UDMA/33 IDE port).

It ships with NetBSD, but if there has been some porting effort for Linux.

Have a look-see:

www.chaltech.com/products.html [chaltech.com]

Let's not forget..

..an easy way to make an embedded-ish system is with Boot ROM's on your ethernet card! NFS your root FS, get your kernel over the network.

Read up on the Linux Terminal Server Project [ltsp.org]. It's good stuff.

Doh! Wrong acronym!

And here I thought a LART was a Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool. Doh!

Skippy

FART?!

If Linux powers LARTs, does FreeBSD power FARTs?

Y.

StrongArm is easy to embed

I had to build an embedded system about three years back. Our only constaints were 3" by 4", components on 1 side only, and very low power. The low power contraint killed everyone but the StrongArm. At 200MHz it didn't need a heatsink and didn't even get warm to the touch. It's core runs at 1.5 volts. It's very easy to hook peripherals up. It has serial ports (and I think USB), general purpose I/O ports, LCD port, and could take either static or dynamic ram. You had to load 3 or so registers to configure the memory waitstates, etc.

I had been dreaming of building a new Linux-based version myself, but never had the time. For those of you thinking about building your own, think again. The StrongArm's pins are .05" pitch apart. I was able to do it, but it's very hard and we had a $3000 solder station. Hint: you can't help but put too much solder on and bridge pins. Just heat them all up with the iron and suck off the excess with solder wick. Use lots of flux too.

Oh, debugging the thing is a bitch. It has a nice JTAG port, but sometimes you just have to use a logic analyzer. haahahaha - with a cache, out-of-sequence execution, and jump instructions embedded in the machine code, it's a nightmare. Luckily the thing is so easy to configure you shouldn't have to resort to that too much. Pray you don't.

Now I write Java code. Sigh - I want to build hardware again...

-tim

Slim peripherals

I submitted a story to Slashdot yesterday (declined) about Sony's announcement of peripherals tacked on to the end of Memory Sticks like thin Pez heads. On TV in Tokyo they showed last night a teeny little GPS antenna the size of your pinky fingernail, clock, ccd camera, and microphone, all in the same form factor. Apparently this Memory Stick Duo series is going to provide a common serial interface across widely different consumer items, from an Aibo to a camera, to headphones, to your wristwatch, they said. Maybe a firewire or infrared connection will make networking easier..

Really Impressive,

I found this to be really impressive, with bulk purchasing the potential cost of this type of circuit is very low. I'm really hoping that hack's like this will show the potential for cheap processors like the strongArm and open source software like Linux to be a serious contentedness for embedded applications where a little more beef is required.

I'm seriously considering having a crack at building one of these although I haven't done a whole lot of surface mount soldering, perhaps someone will start selling these babys.

From the developers

As the developers of the LART board we are impressed with your intrest, thanx.

MP3, Quake, LCD are ALL planned for the LART future. Here at the university we have permission to build the ultimate Linux wearable and get paid with a Ph.D. for it.
Within 1 month we hope to have MP3s playing to the speakers. We estimate that with advanced techniques such as voltage scaling (I wrote the driver and will release it soon) the power consumption will be about 300 mW. With some good bateries you will get a few hours of music out of a LART.

Quake is a different story, as said 3D stuff is heavy on the processor, but more importantly a good color LCD is very expernsive in terms of power. We have a 6 W color LCD...

We estimate that a single LART can be equiped with a wireless link of 5 Mbps using advanced stuff like OFDM software radio. We are building a radio frontend for it now.

If you want to build your own LART, read the mailinglist. Building is possible, but getting the parts is next to impossible.

Just my 5 eurocents, Johan.

I want one of these, or a StrongArm notebook!

I sure they were manufacturing these themselves and selling them. I'd buy one.

What I'd like even more, is a StrongArm based notebook. I mean, when people get so excited about the Transmeta chip, not for it's code morphing, but for it's ultra-low power features. I got excited about it too -- I'd love to have a laptop which ran for 8 hours+. But why doesn't someone make a StrongArm based notebook? I mean, it consumes even less power -- and it could probably go for even longer than 8 hours.

You could run Linux on it. X, GNOME/KDE, the whole bag -- all in a package which is cheaper and more energy effecient than a conventional x86 laptop, and even a Transmeta-based notebook.

Even better, Intel just demoed (I think) 1 GHz StrongArm chips. How incredible would one of those in a notebook be? Wouldn't be as fast as a 1GHz Athlon/PIII, but it'd sure be fast, and with phenomonal battery life.

Please, someone make a StrongArm based notebook!