On Sun, 2007-09-30 at 12:56 -0700, Christian Seberino wrote: > Anyone ever played with ARM microcontroller development boards? > > I saw some online for about $100. They seem to load code into the > > flash ROM with JTAG and/or serial if I'm not mistaken. > > > Anyone have any recommendations or experience with this? > > > I don't want to buy a board and that turns into a paper weight because > > I don't know what I'm doing. > >
There are many people on the uCLinux mailing list that have used/are using many different types of ARM development boards and JTAG. We do ARM development here, but we have our own ARM/OAK ASIC and we also use a Sony GPS chip that has an ARM processor in it. For our ASIC, we originally used an ARM ICE JTAG development system from ARM (not cheap at all). We no longer require JTAG for our ASIC based systems as we can quickly replace the flash if we screw them up that bad. For the Sony chip we use another JTAG unit (I'd have to hunt down the right engineer to tell me exactly which one) which has a price around $1500 IIRC. The main thing is, if you buy a dev. board for any given processor, make sure you get a JTAG that works with it BEFORE you change any code in the flash. If you load code into the flash, and it doesn't work (if you nuke the boot loader), then the only way you're gonna fix it is to load it through the JTAG with the original image (unless you have the skills to solder a new, already loaded flash part on it). The problem with using JTAG with Linux is the drivers. Most JTAG dev. systems are Windows based and you end up paying out the nose for the software (the hardware is actually cheap and can be built with OTS parts). PGA -- The information contained in this e-mail message is confidential, intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Paul G. Allen Software Engineer BSIT/SE Quake Global, Inc. 858-277-7290 x285 -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
