[Arm-netbook] Price for A10 dev kit

[lkcl luke]

On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 2:05 PM, jonsmirl at gmail.com <jonsmirl at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 2:23 AM, lkcl luke <luke.leighton at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 1:20 AM, jonsmirl at gmail.com <jonsmirl at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 8:14 PM, Tom Cubie <tangliang at allwinnertech.com> wrote:
>>>> On 12/31/2011 08:35 AM, jonsmirl at gmail.com wrote:
>>>>> Does anyone know the price for the A10 dev kit?
>>>>> http://www.wits-tech.com/pages/board.jsp
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm sorry to say that the current price is $1000. It's mainly for
>>>> enterprise. Our market guys said there will be a re-designed dev board
>>>> of A10 at the price of less than 1000RMB soon for diyer.
>>>
>>> Is there a datasheet available for the A10?
>>
>>  yes... but it would be, not being funny or anything, of absolutely no
>> use to you [see discussion last week].  summary is: the source code is
>> of far more use to you than the datasheet, which is more in the form
>> of "note-taking and incomplete reminder to engineers of the existence
>> of feature x y and z".
>>
>>  that having been said, a post was kindly made which has a link to an
>> unauthorised leaked copy of the datasheet [which, i promise you, will
>> be of no use to you, i'm looking at the official RHT copy right now
>> and section 21.2 AC97 Signal Description has a table with the signal
>> names and that's it].
>>
>>> We have an audio application that maybe good for the chip and I need
>>> to know about the I2S channels.
>>
>>  in shorthand, the datasheet says "they exist".
>>
>>  section 20.1 it's the usual stuff - PCM, 8-bit u-law or A-law, I2S or
>> PCM, data rate from 8khz to 192, support of 8 channel output and 2
>> channel input, exactly as (i hope!) you'd expect an I2S interface to
>> have.
>>
>>  ok there is an AC97 interface [it's referred to as AC97_MCLK, BCLK,
>> SYNC, DO and DI] shared pins with I2S
>>
>>  but there is also an on-board embedded 24-bit Audio Codec *including*
>> headphone, FM, Line and MIC (all of them stereo).  hm, that's weird,
>> the FM radio, Line and MIC are IN.  section 22.
>>
>>  anyway, again: that just says "these things exist" and so for details
>> of how it works, you really do have to go to the source code.
>>
>>  so, that aside: could you let me know a bit about what it is that you
>> would like to do?  we have about 6 (!) possibly 8 pins spare on the
>> 44-pin expansion header (unless another one is added, or unless it's
>> taken up to 50-pin)
>
> The company I work for builds embedded audio processors. They do a lot
> of math on the audio signals so we are always looking for cost
> effective ways to get more CPU power. They are currently based on the
> TI AM3503. The A10 provides a lot more CPU horsepower. We have enough
> volume that we'd use the A10 directly if we decide that it will work.
>
> For your product I'd put the LINE and MIC signals onto the connector.

 if you mean the 68-pin one: no.  been over this.  if you analyse
dozens of SoCs like i have, you find that there's absolutely no
standard, across the board.

 68 pins is not enough to have audio as well.

 whatever you pick for audio, whether it be LINE and MIC, or PCM, or
Class D, or AC97, or this, or that, it doesn't matter _what_ it is you
"lose".

 the pins on the 68-pin connector are lowest common denominator
interfaces, and, clearly, as far as audio is concerned, the lowest
common denominator across even as few as dozens of SoCs, is "oeugg" -
the empty set.

 we therefore decided "sod it" and to initially say "yep, fine, you'll
just have to put on a USB Audio IC".  however since then i realised
that the STM32F which is very little money in large volumes esp. the
48 or 64 pin one, could be used to do audio and a hell of a lot more
besides, in software.

 so, audio on the standard is out.

 _however_, putting it on the Expansion Header is perfectly acceptable.


> That will allow someone to hook up a mic and speaker by using a simple
> amp.

 ... or, they could plug it into the headphone socket on the CPU card.

> Does the chip support Intel HD Audio? If not, it is complicated
> getting 5.1 out of it. If it does, route that to the edge connector
> too and then use an external CODEC chip.


*     I2S/PCM controller for 8-channel output and 2-channel input
*    AC97 controller compatible with AC97 version 2.3 standard
*    Internal 24-bits Audio Codec for 2 channel headphone, 2 channel
microphone, 2 channel FM
     input and Line input
                                      L

so, apparently, yes.

would it help, therefore, to put the PCM/AC97 pins onto the last
remaining 8 pins of the 44-pin expansion connector?

l.