Re: Best low cost uP for full Linux


- Run full Linux with MMU support
- External bus support for more than 256MB of RAM, preferably DDR2
- Support for 64MB+ of NAND FLASH
- Support for 8MB of NOR FLASH
- I2C (2 ports ideal, one is OK)
- SPI
- USB Host x2
- 10/100 Ethernet
- At least two serial ports, four even better
- LCD interface highly desirable
- 16 to 32 available parallel I/O pins
- Expansion bus for external peripherals
- Low cost

Something like the Coldfire MC5329 would be perfect, except that this
chip does not have a MMU and you are forced to use uCLinux, which I
want to avoid due to the lack of memory protection and other
limitations.

I'd appreciate a shove in the right direction.


How large is your FPGA?

With the AT91CAP9 you can have a dedicated
bidirectional interface to an FPGA which then
can be integrated into the built in 500k gate metal
programmable logic block.
Only limitation I can see is that you support 256 MB SDRAM/Mobile DDR.

The 256 MB limitation exist in most AT91 chips, but some
chips like the AT91SAM9263 and the soon to be available
AT91SAM9G40 supports dual buses.
If you plan to have a large LCD (VGA or more), then the dual
bus might be desirable anyway.


--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB


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