Linuxstamp

Description

The Linuxstamp is designed to be a general purpose processor module. It is designed to work as a stand alone module (SD card, ethernet and USB/Serial converter are all on the module). This allows all initial development to be done without a motherboard, but for integration into a specific project a motherboard with specific features could be designed.

Features

• Atmel AT91RM9200 processor (Arm9 processor with MMU)
• 32MB SDRAM (Only limited by 1x 54-TSOP SDRAM chip)
• 8MB SPI Dataflash
• 1x 10/100 Ethernet
• 1x USB host port
• 1x SD card slot
• Serial debug port access through FTDI USB/Serial converter
• JTAG port
• 2-Layer PCB design
• USB host port will allow wifi adapters, flash drives and other USB devices to be used

Licence

All files for this project are licensed under the GNU GPL V2

Project files

• PCB Top view (pdf)
• PCB Bottom view (pdf)
• Schematic (pdf)
• Project zip file

Booting

The AT91RM9200 has several features the faciliate easy booting. There is a good description of the booting order here. Atmel provides a tiny program that lives in the Dataflash and loads u-boot.

• Configuring and building u-boot
  

First we need the u-boot source found here. If you have not yet built a cross compilier now would be a good time to do so (See the cross compilier section below). Now you can do a test for the Atmel AT91RM9200 DK board.

• run "make at91rm9200dk_config"
• run "make"

This should give you a "u-boot.bin" file. We will have to write a board specific configuration file for the Linuxstamp. We should be able to base it off the the Atmel DK board. If you look at "/u-boot-1.1.6/include/configs/at91rm9200dk.h" you can see the configuration for the DK board.

Cross Compilier

In order to compile for the AT91RM9200 we need to build a cross compilier. Dan Kegel has created a very useful tool for building a cross compiliers. I am using Fedora 6 (x86_64) as my host system. After downloading and extracting crosstool I made two small changes. In the "demo-arm.sh" file I changed the eval line to

• "eval 'cat arm.dat gcc-4.1.1-glibc-2.3.2.dat' sh all.sh --notest"
  

In the "arm.dat" file I changed the TARGET to "arm-linux" (By default u-boot looks for arm-linux-* tools). Now if you run "demo-arm.sh" you should get a cross compilier.

Links

• Atmel: AT91RM9200 info on Atmel's site
• [1]: Up to date kernel patch for the AT91RM9200
• Cadsoft.de: Free (as in beer) tools for schematic and PCB design
• openhardware.wordpress.com: Here is my openhardware blog
• App notes: for Atmel arm processors

Pricing

The parts cost for qty 1 is $75 from digikey, and $55 for qty 100
I'm sure this can be greatly reduced with higher quantity
We will make a small run soon, and I will let you know when these are available

Discussion

Can I plug a USB peripheral into the Linuxstamp, such as a USB Wifi adapter? --DavidCary 22:02, 17 April 2007 (PDT)
Yes, any USB device that is supported by the kernel should work with the Linuxstamp. --Linuxvolts 23:15, 18 April 2007 (PDT)

Contact

For further questions or comments please contact Paul (pthomas8589 _at_ gmail _dot_ com)