[Arm-netbook] Marvell Armada and Other ARM Open hardware Software News

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 1:49 AM, Bari Ari <bari at onelabs.com> wrote:

>>   but the fact that there's a GPLv3 library for the stm32f really clinches it.
>>
>>
> What is it about this device that makes it stand out to you?
>
> It lacks keyboard scan for a netbook. Are you thinking about its use in
> a tablet with a separate dedicated touch panel controller?

 ok, little bit more comprehensive reply, i was somewhat pushed for
time yesterday.

 i'll start out by saying that:

 a) i don't know this field very well, so if you know of better
hardware that fulfils the requirements, please do tell me!
 b) i'd like to get something developed that can "cover all the bases"
comprehensively for a wide range of products
 c) i really like stuff that's open hardware, free software based etc.

so, in favour of the STM32F *so far* is both this:
http://olimex.com/dev/stm32-h103.html

as well as this:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/libopenstm32/

the devboard above i'm sure it's the one that i saw announced only a
few months ago, and i thought it was compatible with arduino extension
boards, looks like it is:
http://olimex.com/dev/pricelist.html

but i am getting ahead of myself, because the technical requirements
are (covering tablets, laptops, PVRs, Internet TVs etc.):

PWMs:
* PWM for backlight
* PWM for Class D speaker driving (longer pulse, louder volume)

ADCs:
* ADCs for resistive touchpanel (4-wire, 5-wire?)
* ADCs for battery monitor
* ADCs for stereo mic

GPIO:
* IRQ-driven GPIO for 8x8 keyboard matrix
* GPIO for mouse (touchpad)?
* IRQ-driven GPIO for individual keys (power, lid switch etc.)
* GPIO for battery charging
* GPIO for power-up of devices.

Interfaces:
* I2C as a minimum for communication
* preferably USB to get the bandwidth for Audio Data
* really nice to have: SDIO (for an extra SD/MMC card)

i think... i _think_ it's safe to leave off capacitive touchpanel
control on that :)  but to be honest i don't know enough about how
capacitive touchpanels work, in order to be able to say one way or the
other.

also, it maayyy just be simpler to get a mouse touchpad and/or
keyboard that has an integrated USB IC on a thin-film circuit with one
of those floppy-looking dubiously thin connectors.  although it's
standard practice in embedded ARM systems, keyboard matrix GPIO
scanning is a bit of a pain :)  been there, done that :)  although,
for mouse - apparently someone's already written a mouse controller
for the STM32F!

the other requirement is: the IC must be under $2.50 - it's no good
having one that's $5 to $8!  i *think* the STM32F103C8 48-pin IC
qualifies.. err.. :)  looking on e.g. taobao.com, that IC looks
seriously, seriously low-cost.

personally i think the prospect of writing GPL software to do all of
the above is actually really exciting.  _and_ it'd save on the cost of
the hardware, ultimately.  by quite a lot.

l.

(link to taobao search, going via google translate, shows RMB 16,00
which is about $1.50 for the same STM32F103RBT6 as in the olimex
device)

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://s8.taobao.com/search%3Fq%3Dstm32f103rbt6%26cat%3D0%26commend%3D1%252C2%26tab%3Dcoefp%26mode%3D23%26pid%3Dmm_27963266_0_0&ei=21ViTs2DBYmo8QPC9fyECg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DSTM32F103RBT6%2Bsite:taobao.com%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1208%26bih%3D906%26prmd%3Divns