[Arm-netbook] SATA and IDE memory-addressable ICs

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 6:52 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
<luke.leighton at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 6:24 PM, Michelle Konzack
> <linux4michelle at tamay-dogan.net> wrote:
>>> could be done... but if going for PCI-e then might as well just have
>>> that alone, and let people put in a micro PCI-e SSD rather than use
>>> SATA.
>>
>> No, useing a microcontroller wir PCIe port included.
>
>  ohh, yeh.  hmm... e.g. http://www.rdc.com.tw IAD-100HV or their next
> version hmmm...
>
>> The Maxim DS80C411 (75MHz) has enough speed and IO-Pins to support  even
>> 2 PATA channels with up to 4 drives.  OK, not ATA6, but a software  raid
>> could be implemented too...  inside the 8051 microcontroller.

 http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tms320c28341.html

 what about this, instead?   it's 200mhz, it's actually a whopping-big
DSP, has 192kb of on-board RAM, has 88 GPIO pins, a timer _and_ DMA.
 oh - and 1k quantities are $USD 8.95

 ohhh... wait, wait.... :)
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/am1808.html

 $USD 8.95 - that's a 375mhz ARM9 CPU - the AM1809.  it has SATA (1.5
and 3.0gbps), 128k of on-board RAM, 64k ROM, it has an HPI (Host
Parallel Interface - 16 bit - i bet that connects directly to the
S5PC100's 16-bit port...) and it has yet _another_ USB-OTG interface,
and two MMC/SD card ports.  oh - and 10/100 ethernet.  and, darn, the
features keep popping out the woodwork: a Video port, what the heck's
_that_ about.

 i reckon... i reckon... it'd be worthwhile considering using that,
just for its extra peripherals.

 writing the linux drivers for any machine using it is going to freak
people out, somewhat.  "ohh, yes - we're juuust going to access
absolutely everything on a 2nd cpu, and transfer all data _including_
stuff from a hard disk, a USB port, a couple of SD cards and an
ethernet network aaalll at once, over a 16-bit 375mhz parallel port".
i can see _that_ going down well :)

 ... yeah... hmm...