[Arm-netbook] AMD APU's in EOMA and ARM SOC's with PCIe

[lkcl luke]

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 12:32 AM, lkcl luke <luke.leighton at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Some overview:
>>
>> http://www.amd.com/us/products/embedded/processors/Pages/g-series.aspx
>>
>> http://www.amd.com/us/Documents/49282_G-Series_platform_brief.pdf
>>
>> I have no plans for anything Intel since they won't share docs and have
>> their own closed EFI agenda vs coreboot.
>
>  that works for me.

 right.  had a little bit of a think about this, created the following page:
 http://rhombus-tech.net/amd_g_series/

 evaluating all the options, i'd say it's still perfectly acceptable
to have the AMD T40E (just to pick one) in a standard EOMA-68 format
(as it stands, now).  reasons, going over each of the interfaces

 * HDMI: on the front.
 * HD audio: on the front
 * USB-2: on the front, potentially x2 (stacked) if there's room
 * analog audio: debatable as to whether you'd need it (probably) if
there's HD audio
 * SATA-III: goes via the EOMA-68 connector
 * SPI: goes to the on-board boot PROM (openbios of course).
 * 2nd display port: DVI is chosen, converted to 24-pin RGB/TTL with a
TI TFP401a, goes via the EOMA-68 connector
 * 16 pins GPIO: out the EOMA-68 connector
 * I2C, where the hell's I2C??  oh fer goodness sake, they call it
"SMBus" - that's out the EOMA-68 connector
 * one of the remaining 10 USB-2 interfaces: out the EOMA-68 connector.
 * anything spare (1 of the SATA-III interfaces, remaining GPIOs,
PCI-e): expansion header
 * gigabit ethernet MAC (on the A55E controller hub) - out the EOMA-68
connector now i've added gigabit ethernet.

now, i really can't think of any good reason why it should be any
different from that.  exactly which peripherals and cards are so
vitally vitally utterly important and imperative that there is no USB
alternative, for the following products:

 * laptop.
 * micro-desktop pc
 * tablet
 * LCD
 * all-in-one keyboard computer
 * panel pc

i really _really_ can't think of anything that isn't covered, above.
HD audio: covered.  network: covered.  SATA: covered.

if you want 3 or more screens (i.e. the HDMI and the RGB-TTL converted
to VGA or DVI on the motherboard isn't enough), there's always
DisplayLink USB devices.  if you want WIFI, that's USB.  3G? USB.
printers? USB.

i think... if people truly wanted to be able to put in PCI-e cards,
they'd go buy a dell.  but, for those companies that want to use this
Type III EOMA-68 card as a factory-installed module, i think putting
PCIe (and the extra SATA) on the expansion header is probably the
sensible thing.

thoughts?

l.