Test is what you do after you know everything is absolutely the way it has to be. Test is what you do to determine what makes your board "break."

Take another look at that board to which I referred. It has everything that you'd need for nearly any task, aside from very task-specific hardware, which you'd have to provide no matter which ARM/AVR/805x chip you choose. That board has the following.

CPU
o Samsung S3C2440A 400MHz, Max freq. 533Mhz
SDRAM
o 64MB SDRAM
o 32bit Data Bus width
o 100MHz Clock
Flash
o 64MB Nand Flash
o 2MB Nor Flash, BIOS installed
LCD
o 4 wire resistive touch screen interface
o Up to 4096 color STN, 3.5 inches to12.1 inches, up to 1024x768 pixels
o Up to 64K color TFT, 3.5 inches to 12.1 inches, up to1024x768 pixels
o In box 256K color 320x240/3.5 inches TFT screen, with touch screen

Interface and Resource

o 1 x 10/100M Ethernet RJ-45(DM9000)
o 3 x Serial Ports(1 RS232 with CTS and RTS)
o 1 x USB Host
o 1 x USB Slave Type B
o 1 x SD Card Interface
o 1 x Stereo audio out, 1 Microphone In
o 1 x 10-Pin JTAG
o 4 x USER LEDs
o 4 x USER buttons
o 1 x PWM Beeper
o 1 x POT can be used for A/D converter adjust
o 1 x AT24C02 for I2C test
o 1 x 20-Pin Camera Interface
o 1 x Battery for RTC
o 1 x Power In(5V), with switch and lamp

Oscillator Freq.
o 12MHz
RTC
o Internal

Expansion Interface
o 1 x 40-Pin 2.0mm GPIO Interface
o 1 x 40-Pin 2.0mm System Bus

Dimension
o 128 x 105(mm)
OS Support
o Linux 2.6.29
o Windows CE.Net 5.0

Now I ask you, "What AVR/805x board can provide all that for comparable cost?" or, "What board that anyone has described on this forum can provide even the required pieces for their task for that price per board?" You might want to deduct the cost of the GLCD if it's not needed, but, after all, this board has lots of features folks have asked how to devise. Now, I don't sell these, nor do I even hold stock in the company, but it looks like a pretty inexpensive way to "get something out the door." You have to be operating at pretty high volume to be able to present a board with this much capability for less money. Just look at what 805x development boards cost when even not so generously equipped.

I don't like the "Expansion Interface" connectors, since compatible IDC cable connectors aren't very easily found, but that will change.

How many times have you seen queries for dataloggers that can use SD? How many times have you seen queries have you seen for USB host or, for that matter, slave? What about the touch screen interface? or a GLCD, or SEEPROM, or Ethernet? Linux supports all that stuff and it's adequately documented how they do it. You, or any one else, can look it up and adapt the LINUX low-level drivers to whatever application you like.

I doubt any of this is dirt-simple, but it is readily do-able, hence using LINUX/GCC to "get there" on this board, and then simply emulating the hardware for whatever target is needed would not be a "big job."

I'd certainly like to see an 805x board that can provide all these features at anywhere near this price, particularly on a 4" x 5" (nominal) board.

Now, while this CPU is capable of much higher speed, it's operating at 100 MHz. I wonder what it would take to get it to operate at >500 MHz, of which the CPU is purportedly capable.

RE