[HH] Freescale i.MX53 Quick Start

[Tom Metro]

Federico Lucifredi wrote:
>> I assume the Freescale board is similarly created to show off a
>> Freescale CPU. Is their board design open?
> 
> Not to my knowledge, and not to a quick googling pass. i.mx53
> quickstart is the board designation, and the community site is at
> http://imxcommunity.org/

Also, board specs at:
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=IMX53QSB

It's described as an "open source development platform," with no mention
of it being open hardware, but if you peruse the downloads page:
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=IMX53QSB&fpsp=1&tab=Design_Tools_Tab

you'll find the schematics, board layout Gerber files, and just about
everything else you'd need to reproduce your own board or a variation of
it. So looks like it qualifies as open hardware. (Although conceptually
they could release all of this "for reference only" and sue anyone
making a clone board. But not likely, seeing as the purpose of the board
is to show off the Freescale CPU, and promote CPU sales.)


>> Do you know if the SATA port is compatible with port multiplexers?
> That's worth looking into… I had the board for too little a time,
> sorry I sorry I don't have answers ready on this :(

I didn't expect you to know this obscure bit. Just throwing the question
out there to do some lazy research.

Some quick searching turns up that someone else asked the same question:
http://imxcommunity.org/forum/topics/two-sata-drives-with-i-mx53-quick-start-board

but received no answer, and someone else posted a message saying that
the SATA controller was unrecognized by Linux:
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ports.arm.kernel/155071

and a reply pointing out the kernel patches and enable support.

The next step would be to examine the patches to look for clues as to
which SATA controller is used, and/or look at the bill of materials
(available in the downloads above) to see if it is a separate SATA
controller chip or integrated into the CPU. If the latter, it could be a
dead end, unless the CPU documentation answer the question, or you can
get the attention of an application engineer at Freescale to answer it.

At this point, that's more work than my curiosity justifies.

 -Tom