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Hackaday Supercon badge boots Linux using SDRAM cartridge

oshparkoshpark wrote 12/20/2019 at 17:16 • 3 min read • Like
UPDATE: Here is my presentation from Berlin Hack 'n Tell on how support for the Hackaday badge was added to LiteX including a look at the Python source code in the pull requests:

UPDATE: This is a recording of Linux booting on the badge:

https://asciinema.org/a/293450


Jacob Creedon designed an a cartridge board that adds 32MB of SDRAM to the Hackaday Supercon badge.  Michael Welling just assembled a version of the PCB made with the OSH Park “After Dark” black FR-4 service:

The addition of SDRAM provides enough memory to boot Linux on a RISC-V soft-core in the ECP5 FPGA on the badge.  Here’s a screenshot of Linux running:

Read more about “Team Linux on Badge” in this Hackaday post:

A Fantastic Frontier Of FPGA Flexibility Found In The 2019 Supercon Badge

And finally, receiving the biggest applause was Linux-on-Badge: this team used all the badge hacking tricks in the book. The hardware component was a 32 MiB SDRAM cartridge by [Jacob Creedon]. The default badge SOC FPGA bitstream was entirely replaced in order to support a minimalist Linux. Much of the development was done on [Michael Welling]’s computer, guided by the precedence of a LiteX project putting Linux on the Radiona ULX3S. This is a true success story of Supercon collaboration as the team (including [Drew Fustini], [Tim Ansell], [Sean Cross], and many others) came together and worked late into nights, drawing from the massive body of collective expertise of the community.

Watch the demo during the Badge Hacking ceremony (jump to 17m 35s):

Resources:

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oshpark wrote 01/29/2020 at 18:14 point

Here is a presentation on how support for the Hackaday badge was added to LiteX including a look at the Python source code in the pull requests: https://github.com/pdp7/talks/blob/master/berlin-riscv.pdf

This is a recording of Linux booting on the badge:

https://asciinema.org/a/293450

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morgan wrote 12/20/2019 at 23:38 point

Pretty amazing feat, nice work

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