Re: [oc] Re: Need a little direction

["Devesh Kothari" <dkothari@protosys.com>]

Hello Damjan,

Yes we would be very interested to get in touch with Flextronics. We can
talk but before that it would be nice to decide on what we would be talking
(the agenda). As I stated on the newsgroup about our intention to create a
flexible platform for headless devices, a cheap and affordable solution to
take distributed intelligence to the masses. Looking at some of the
responses on the newsgroup, what i believe I would do over the day or two is

1. provide a short description of our project.
2. application areas we are targetting
3. consolidation of pointers and information from various people together so
it starts to shape the device, in terms of features and requirements.

I appreciate all gurus on the newsgroup and would like to participate with
all of you in creation of such a platform with all possible contributions
from my side. I am of the firm belief of wonderful contribution open cores
and OpenIP is doing at helping affordable hardware. But at the same time I
also have a strong belief, that efforts should not just stop there, but the
efforts should lead a complete workable system, with maybe reference or
production quality designs using as much OpenIP work as possible.

If flextronic is already working on that, then that is wonderful news.


Best Regards,
Devesh Kothari
Chief Technology Officer
ProtoSys Technologies Pvt Ltd
Phone: +91-80-2998859
Mobile: +91-9844054325
Email : dkothari@protosys.com
Web: www.protosys.com



----- Original Message -----
From: "Damjan Lampret" <damjan.lampret@flextronicssemi.com>
To: <dkothari@protosys.com>
Cc: "Damjan Lampret" <lampret@opencores.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 4:18 AM
Subject: Re: [oc] Re: Need a little direction


> Hi Patrick,
>
> very interesting ideas. What if I tell you that major contracting
> manufacturer (the biggest?) that has a lot of experience also with
handhelds
> is supporting opencores to create a platform that you just described - to
> run Linux on it. Name of the EMS is Flextronics, manufacturer of Palm
> Pilot's, Handsprings etc.
>
> If you need a contact to Flextronics, I work for them. Yes, I also run
> OpenCores. If you are interested to talk about your ideas, I can give you
a
> call.
>
> One of the projects that Flextronics completed for a customer is a PDA
> device with StrongARM running Linux. Now I'm working in a team to create
an
> SOC specifically for PDAs, GSM phones and other handheld and internet
> appliances. Many parts ofthis SOC are already being developed under
> OpenCores, such as OpenRISC 1200, UART, memory controller, USB, Ethernet,
> IrDA etc.
>
> regards,
> Damjan
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Devesh Kothari" <dkothari@protosys.com>
> To: "Patrick Bernaud" <b-patrick@wanadoo.fr>; <cores@opencores.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 5:36 AM
> Subject: [oc] Re: Need a little direction
>
>
> > Hello Patrick,
> >
> > The platform which we are developing, we dont have much hardware design
> > capabilities. do you know someone or could get me in touch with
> freelancers
> > who can design this hardware board for us. We would definitely keep all
> the
> > boards and designs and everything as GPL'ed so people could just take
> > it/modify it.
> >
> > Well Linus gave us Linux, and I of the opinion that we should take that
to
> > every device and to the people, what i see standing in the way is the
> > affordable hardware.
> >
> > We want to concentrate on headless devices, as these are what i
personally
> > believe would provide the distributed intelligence to the masses, the
> things
> > they do and interact day in and out. I dont want the displays because of
> the
> > simple reason, a)they are expensive b)they consume power c)they are
> fragile
> > d)they can not be shared. I believe as more and more mobile phone and
> mobile
> > terminals (whatever shape and size) would be owned by the masses and
they
> > would interact with these headless devices, and the headless devices
over
> > wireless (bluetooth or ...) would provide services using the mobile
> terminal
> > display. these displays could be as small as display in a watch, mobile
> > phone, PDA or webpads.
> >
> > We want to create the following platform and we would appreciate all
help.
> > We would even try and support the efforts in reasonable financial ways.
> >
> > 1. BOM should not cross USD $50.
> > 2. Should have wireless (Bluetooth, short range)
> > 3. Should have 32MB Flash
> > 4. Should have 256 MB SDRAM
> > 5. Should have two PC Card slots.
> > 6. CPU (could be a SOC)
> >
> > After doing considerable search, there are some of the options
> > 1. taking the SA1110 reference design and depopoulate the board
> extensively.
> > 2. design from scratch
> >
> > Now biggest thing to be descided is what SOC/CPU to use. The options are
> > (you can suggest more)
> > 1. StrongArm from Intel
> > 2. DragonBall MX1 from Motorola (would be mass produced in March 2002),
> > having integrated support for bluetooth and cost less than $25, they
> claim.
> > 3. AMD Elan processors (they are x86, and they consume as i am told too
> much
> > power, but they are cheaper)
> >
> > The massive amount of SDRAM (I guess they are faster than flash and lot
> > cheaper too) , is for big enough RAM filesystem, which can then download
> > content from masterstation, like MP3 and MPEG video etc to be streamed
on
> > wireless (BT), this content would get lost if power goes off, which we
> > believe is not the most often case.(the unit would be externally
powered)
> > and would have battery for maybe 1 hour operation.
> >
> > What we need is
> > 1. freelancers to work on the designboard or any volunteers
> > 2. pointers to information and any feedback to help us achieve what we
set
> > out to achieve. Any criticism or any sort of feedback is appreciated.
> > 3. Component manufacturers/contract manufacturers who can give help us
> > achieve that price.
> > 4. any kind of support.
> >
> > We are based in India (Bangalore), and if anyone happens to be in
> Bangalore
> > and want to drop by our place you are more than welcomed to do that. Any
> > enquires please send it to me
> >
> > Looking forward for more pointers , feedback, answers in search for the
> > perfect solution.
> >
> > Best Regards
> > Devesh Kothari
> > Director
> > ProtoSys Technologies Pvt Ltd
> > www.protosys.com
> > dkothari@protosys.com
> > 22/2 Mission Rd, Samson Complex,
> > Bangalore, 27, INDIA
> >
> > >
> > >  > [..] I am complete novice in terms of
> > >  > hardware (please dont suggest to just drop it then).
> > > I will not. I do not know what you are into exactly. Nothing is
> > impossible.
> > >
> > >  > Then I would start the porting on one of Linux variant on the box.
> > > You may know that Linux has already been ported to the Strong Arm
> > > architecture and Debian for example is providing a complete
> > > distribution.
> > >
> > >  > [..] I have
> > >  > all the BOM/Gerber files and schematic diagram from intel, but not
> sure
> > how
> > >  > to proceed.
> > > I guess that you want to use the gEDA tools and other free tools and
> > > that is why you mailed me.
> > >
> > > If so, basically you will have to reenter all the schematics from
Intel
> > > into gschem. That mean that you will also have to create a new symbol
> > > for almost all the components, i.e. SA1110, bluetooth module ...
> > > Then you will have to generate a netlist from the schematic - with
> > > gnetlist.
> > > And finally, you will have to route the board. I am not sure that the
> pcb
> > > software from Harry Eaton would be complete enough for this task. In
> fact,
> > > SA1110 is quite a complex component as it is in a BGA - Ball Grid
> Array -
> > > package. At the working frequency you also have to take into account
> > > the way the board is tracked.
> > >
> > > Of course, that was the scheme for the software manageable part. You
> will
> > > have to place an order for this board to a pcb maker.
> > > As the package for SA1110 is a BGA you will not be able to solder it
by
> > > yourself and will require external help for that.
> > >
> > >  > It would be quite useful if someone could help us finnish this
> > >  > project. If you can provide us with some direction please.
> > > I would be pleased to help you as much as I can. Let me know how far
> > > in the specification of the device you are, what kind of direction
> > > you need.
> > >
> > >  > Maybe I am just wasting your time. In that case please accept my
> > apologies.
> > >  > Sorry for the trouble
> > > I am not sure to have answered all your questions. If my explanations
> > > were too basic, excuse me.
> > >
> > >
> > > Patrick BERNAUD
> > >
> > >
> > --
> > To unsubscribe from cores mailing list please visit
> http://www.opencores.org/mailinglists.shtml
> >
>
>
--
To unsubscribe from cores mailing list please visit http://www.opencores.org/mailinglists.shtml