Re: question about interface..

What I meant was this....  Find a compatable rom/flash/whatever chip to 
replace the ones on our boards...  have it point to the CF so we can boot 
whatever we want from it....

On 22 Dec 2006 at 15:28, Mark Gollahon wrote:

Hey!  Sorry for the delay in my reply - My family is getting ready for Christmas.

In any case, no, the Jornada 720/728 is not capable of booting from CF - at least, not with the WinCE bootstrapper.  Plus the ROM and RAM are all on the same daughterboard.  Take the daughterboard out, all the ram and rom is gone.  That's why it is important to put RAM and FLASH back on....

And, no, you're not being stupid  :)  Just a little uninformed in the details - no biggie.

And, yes, the StrongARM processor *could*in*theory* support more than 64Megs of RAM, but it is not clear how to do that from just the board schematics that I have.  Anyway, I was hoping to do 128/128 - but I need a bit more information to make that happen.  At this point the maximum that I *know* I can do is 64/64.  I might be able to do 64Megs RAM / 128Megs Flash (and I will lay the traces on the board down for that), but I won't really know until I actually test it.  So many unknowns - so little time....  :D

BTW, I am about 1/4 done designing the new circuit board based on HP's earlier flashboard design.  (However, I've been distracted with "putting food on the table" as it were.) Once done with it, I will need to design and build a programmer.  The programmer will be a bit harder as I don't have a reference design like I do with the flashboard.

And, no, the J720/728 cannot do its own *initial* programming as it is a "blank slate" until I have a bootloader like uboot or redboot initially flashed.  Once the bootloader is in place, then the J720/728 can do its own programming....

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!
-Mark Gollahon


[email protected] wrote ..
> Just wondering....  Is the 720/728 capable of booting from the CF?
> 
> If it is, couldn't you design a smaller flashboard with more ram?
> 
> Fnd the smallest size Flash chip, put a bootloader or something on
> it to point to the CF -- and we could use a Microdrive or a regular
> CF card for the drive.  That would have to be easier than trying
> the whole enchalada of adding more ram PLUS getting flash.
> 
> Am I being stupid?
> 
> Can we get 128 ram in it?  (I assume we'd have to do some commands to 
> make it recognize above 32)
> 
> I see that CE.net 4.2 supports the CPU in the jornada -- so It might be
> possible to put a newer OS in it too...
> 
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