Primary design choiced are made: Pinout is kept compatible to little brother Soft Propeller.
Added Features
32MByte LPDDR2
USB PHY and micro-USB Connector
microHDMI Connector
Removed features
Pin headers on the top (3 times 2x5) are removed
Decisions to make:
PCB Technology - target tech is currently 1+6+1 HDI, no stacked via, no via fill, no via in pad. This should be sufficient, but will be finalized during preliminary routing.
DCDC Converters, as there are now many more components in about same area as Soft Propeller v1.0, it may be necessary to change some DCDC converters to smaller footprint ones at the expense of higher cost.
It is open if the si1143 based 2D gesture support can remain, maybe :)
Authors commentary:
I have had some very similar drawn in sketchbook for decades. It has had different names, one I remember was "panncake computer". I think the panncake computer design was targeting about same used PCB area as DIP40 does. Well the list features and possible uses was not comparable to what is possible today.
Arduino compatible Zynq Shield. Those PCB will arrive in a few days, so I can test out the LPDDR2, this is important to have proven working before finalizing the he PCB for this project.
simplified: If SPI flash contains flag "XIP execute in place" then it is mapped as linear 16MByte ROM, and core0 starts executing from flash (eg your code executes). Core1 is in idle loop executing from high OCM (onchip) memory. This is very condensed answer.
the ARM part I replied already, you can also run ARM code in the OCM (256K total), can also extend a bit from FPGA block rams.
for propeller, it depends how the interfacing is done, IF the original prop HDL is not changed then the most easy ways is that the prop common 16K memory is accessible from ARM and prop, that would also allows interfacing.
Hi,
I wanted to ask, if there is any new progress to report?
I am about to replace an old Xula200 on a home made pcb with something bigger and better and was thinking about the dipforty1.
But the dipforty2 sounds even more awesome with the additional ddr memory.
So my question is, if it is reasonable to wait or to just buy the dipforty1 for now.