This development kit is no longer available. However, the associated IP is still available from Actel's IP partner, Palmchip.
| "As the first company to create a storage interface daughter board for the Marvell PXA270 processor, we needed to leverage a low power, programmable solution to handle the HDD Storage Sub-system for ATA and CE Hard Drives. Actel meets these requirements with its flash-based IGLOO family of devices. We are committed to supporting Actel's customers with AcurX SoC Platform, IP Cores, Software drivers and Application Software for complete system solutions to enable them to develop portable storage applications for handheld and mobile devices." |
| |
Jauher Zaidi
Chief Executive Officer
Palmchip |
The storage interface demo board is designed, in collaboration with Palmchip, to plug on the PXA270 development kit from BSQUARE Corporation. The board contains Actel's ProASIC3 device, replaceable by an IGLOO flash-based FPGA that can embed the controllers for multiple storage devices such as ATA, CE-ATA, CF, and SD/MMC, in addition to PCMCIA and Mini-PCI connectors. The development kit comes with the Windows CE operating system. Any of the featured interfaces can be demonstrated with the proper design programmed into the FPGA. Any other motherboard can be used, employing the two motherboard connectors and a custom flex cable connector. The daughter board can also be used standalone if no processor is required, or if the processor is programmed into the FPGA. RS-232 and JTAG ICE connectors facilitate CPU programming and debug. Generous code and data spaces are available with 4 MB of bootable flash and 16 MB of SDRAM.
The ProASIC3 FPGA interfaces directly to all connectors and devices (except USB and RS-232, which include Phy/driver chips). The IDE connectors and CompactFlash connectors share pins, as do the CE-ATA and the second SDIO connector. The FPGA interfaces to the PXA270 processor through the Variable IO (VLIO) bus. There is a standard 10-pin JTAG header for programming the FPGA. The demo has a pre-programmed FPGA loaded with an IDE controller from Palmchip Corporation. The IDE controller IP is compatible with the ATA-6 standard and supports flow-through DMA, Programmable FIFO size, and Single Interrupt data transfer. This solution, for example, can demonstrate a movie running on the IDE hard drive and displayed onto the on-board LCD.
- Storage interface development kit with multiple I/O interface connectors and receptacles
- USB 2.0 host connector
- FPC IDE connector
- 2.5" HDD IDE connector
- 2M x 16-bit NOR flash
- Mini-PCI host connector
- DB9 RS-232
- CE-ATA FPC connector
- SDIO receptacle
- CompactFlash receptacle
- 16-bit GPIO header
- Uses Actel's ProASIC3E (A3PE600-FG484) FPGA replaceable by IGLOO (AGL600-FG484)
- Motherboard connectors
- Debug and expansion features
- Powered from motherboard or power jack
- CoreMP7 processor support
- 3 user DIP switches
- CoreMP7 JTAG header
- 2 oscillators for greater clock flexibility
Available IP Cores from Palmchip
