Platform supports consumer Linux development

Renesas Technology Europe has released an SH-4 based prototype development platform to support the specifications proposed by the CE Linux Forum (CELF).

Renesas Technology Europe has released an SH-4 based prototype development platform to support the specifications proposed by the CE Linux Forum (CELF).

This prototype platform is optimised for a version of the Linux OS aimed at consumer electronics (CE) products such as digital home appliances.

CELF was established in July 2003 with the aim of enhancing and promoting the Linux OS for use in CE products.

Renesas Technology has been an active participant in CELF and the prototype development platform is the first result of the company's activities.

The organisation is working on the provision of a development environment for Renesas Technology products.

The CELF specification compatible Linux OS is based on Linux Source Tree code with patches developed for the SH-4 architecture by Lineo Solutions.

The platform incorporates a real-time scheduler, enabling moving images to be displayed within two seconds after powering on, and user key input to be accepted within four seconds.

Seven independent frame buffers and an AC97 interface sound playback function are also supported.

"We have seen a strong trend towards digitalisation among home electronic appliances which has been driven by the availability of highly integrated embedded processor solutions, combined with reliable and flexible operating systems such as Linux", said Carsten Wild, Product Marketing Engineer, SuperH Systems Group at Renesas Technology.

"Since the Linux OS was not originally intended for embedded applications and there have been a number of technical concerns relating to its use in CE products, further development is needed to make Linux the OS of choice for CE products".

Renesas Technology will continue to work on the provision of software and hardware compatible with CELF specifications as an environment for the use of Linux in CE products and other digital home appliances, and will promote further enhancement of a user environment compatible with next-generation Linux kernel 2.6.

"We view this development as part of a long-term support strategy for the Linux OS for the SuperH processor family, as part of our offering of innovative and complete system solutions to our customers", added Wild.

The prototype platform comprises a Renesas Technology RTS7751R2D development board featuring an SH7751R microprocessor.

The SH7751R incorporates a SuperH 32bit RISC SH-4R CPU core, a MMU (memory management unit), FPU (floating-point processing unit), PCI controller, and PCMCIA controller.

An SM501 manufactured by Silicon Motion is mounted on the development board and implements various functions in combination with the SH7751R, including video overlay display, alpha blending, ZV port video input, an LCD/CRT display controller, and a USB (host).

Back to top