Thursday, June 18, 2009

Start my own project - port linux to AT91SAM9261-EK

I have bought this board for several months. Just burned some images and tried some device functions. The purpuse of buy this board is to study and practise. Because the board in my office is too complex and hard to learn everything. This board is much more simple and everything is open to me. It is a good platform for study. Now, It's the time for playing it.

Hardware:

at91sam9261-ek    arm926ej  v5 instruction
USB2.0 : host/device
SD/MMC
Ethernet: DM9000a
Uart
Codec:

Sowftware:
u-boot + linux

Plan:
=========
Phase 1.
------------
Aim to build firmware from scratch.
Firstly, need to set up arm tool-chain for AT91.
Secondly, build u-boot for this board. need add some driver and pay attention to initial sequence of this SoC. There is already some working code for reference.
Thirdly, build linux image from scratch.
Fourthly, focus on devices on board, make them work correctly. Including USB host/device, SD/MMC, Ethernet and LCD. I have no experience in USB and LCD. Good chance to study.
Fifthly, accelerate it ... Adjust hardware's working clock by programming. Try to change it in linux kernel. U-boot can work in low frequency, but linux need to speed up it while booting. (how to ?...)
Sixthly, Add some software service ... such as, httpd, DMS, nfs, samba.

Phase 2.
--------------
Build a whole system for board using OpenEmbedded .
A totally strange thing to me. Need to study how to make it work.

Phase 3.
-------------
Port Andriod to this board -- my final fantasy.  As i know, andriod support ARM5 instruction set by default. So just need to learn how to port andriod to other arm5 platform. There may be some implementation for SAM9261 already. :)

If I can do all of these within 6 months during my free time, I will buy me a D90 and ... (can not tell) . 

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