Into the Mobile Embedded World

So this weekend I started hashing out the plans for spinning a ARM Coretex A8 embedded system for a project I will announce at a later time. I have done some work with a ARM 11 S3C6410 by Samsung on a development board made by a small Chinese company. A mixture of lack of documentation by Samsung that is not under NDA, the forking of the Linux kernel by Samsung to support the board their way, and the fact that a flaw in the power supply design resulted in the display voltage regulator to fry during a power cycle (nice hole in it) last Friday has left me setting this board aside for now.

I am looking to be using a TI OMAP processor 35xx or 37xx. These processors are very well documented, including numerous application notes on layout techniques which will be one of the more complex parts of this whole project. I have never taken on BGA design, especially ones with 500+ balls.

In an attempt to reduce headaches later and as I don’t see IC footprints getting bigger any time soon. I am investing in a used IR BGA rework station (bidding on it right now).

I have also been looking at potential PCB prototyping houses, unfortunately most of them are wanting quantities larger then I am interested in. The Advanced Circuits $66 4 layer special is nice, but the maximum drills per sq in may be an issue, when it comes to getting signals out of the middle of the BGA package, I am looking at close to 100 vias, 70 drills over what they allow. Standard Spec order would run around $400 for first prototypes. BatchPCB looks interesting, and would be a cheap solution, but would have a 3 week order to door lead time. http://batchpcb.com/index.php/Products

I have also been looking at JTAG programmers for this chip set. I am not all that interested in the “recommended” xds560 from TI for 3k.

Brennan Ashton on the Universe.