As we stated in a previous log, we have already contracted ACube Systems and the PCB design work has started. This post is a first report about the work in progress in relation to the PCB design.

These days, the designer is analyzing the Pericom Switch with the direct support of Pericom personnel.

The Pericom PI7C9X2G608GP is a PCIE Gen 2 Switch that provides one upstream port supporting x4 or x1, and 4 or 5 downstream ports that support x1 operation. This chip has a Power Dissipation of 1.2 W.

In our mobo the PI7C9X2G608GP is essential as it allows to connect one 4x PCIe 2.0 controller of the NXP T2080 CPU with four 1x PCIe chips/cards: M.2 3G/LTE card , M.2 WiFi card, 1x Renesas USB3 Controller and 1x C-Media Audio chipset.

The NXP T2080 CPU has four PCI Express controllers (two of them supporting PCIe 2.0 with maximum lane width off x8 and the other two supporting PCIe 3.0 with maximum lane width of x4).

The NXP T2080 processor allows Resource Partitioning and has a Datapath Acceleration Architecture (DPAA) with many capabilities, few of them listed below:

• SEC 5.2 full protocol processing for security protocols 
• DEC 1.0 Decompression and Compression Engine
• PME 2.1 Pattern Matching Engine

Slides with more information on NXP T2080 Processor

Open to multi OS

The selection of our mobo components was performed having in mind to support a large number of Free Software OSs and even Amiga-like OSs.

ACube Systems is in close contact with the amiga community regarding the support of Amiga-like OSs. In addition, ACube is working on the  audio driver for our C-Media Audio Chip to support amiga-like OSs.

Components list and Pin Out

Below, you can see an updated components list of our motherboard schematics, which is an improved version of the older components list.

In version 0.2 of our electrical schematics,  the pinout of the Slimbook Eclipse Notebook has been integrated as can be shown in the gallery.

Components in our Schematics version 0.2

• CPU: NXP T2080: Datasheet ( login needed )
• Sata3 Controller: Marvell  88SE9235
• USB3 Controller: Renesas μPD720201 Datasheet  (login required from 2020) 
• PCIE Pericom Switch: Diodes Pericom PI7C9X2G608GP (6-port, 8-lane, PCIe2 Packet Switch with GreenPacket Technology) – Schematics Page 24
• Audio Chip: C- Media CM8828 and CM9882A – Schematics Page 31
• CPLD WRAPPER AND IO EXPANDER – Schematics Page 14
  • Lattice FPGA MatchXO LCMXO640C-3TN100C datasheet
  • TI 2C and SMBus I/O Expander TCA6424ARGJR datasheet

• HDMI Transmitter: ON Semiconductor CM2020-01TR datasheet
• Power Convertor: LTM8064EY#PBF datasheet
• Smart Battery Charger Controller: LTC 4100 datasheet
• Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver with RGMII Support: Microchip KSZ9031RNX datasheet
• MXM3.0 Compatible Connector: JAE MM70-314-310B1-2-R300  datasheet

Others:

• Clock Generator: IDT 9FGV0641 datasheet – Schematic page 34
• Frequency Synthesizer : DT9FGV0641 datasheet
• 100V UV/OV and Reverse Protection Controller with Bidirectional Circuit Breaker: LTC4368 datasheet – Schematic page 40

More Info