Platform speeds latest SuperH development

The SDK7780 is a system development kit for the recently announced SH-4A-based SuperH microprocessor SH7780.

The SDK7780 is a system development kit for the recently announced SH-4A-based SuperH microprocessor SH7780.

With this new platform, third party companies can rapidly port applications to, and demonstrate their software on the new processor.

Furthermore, it enables manufacturers to develop their end product applications prior to production of the hardware.

With three times the PCI performance (due to the advanced bus structure) and the larger memory window (up to 512Mbyte), this platform provides a powerful, flexible and scaleable structure for development systems, such as high-end navigation applications in cars, or multimedia applications for consumers such as game machines and digital home electronics products.

There are two versions of the new platform: a base version (SDK7780) for application development and a demonstration version (SDK7780-Demo) which comprises a complete package for both system development and demonstrations.

The basic platform includes a baseboard and CPU card, 128Mbyte of DDR-SDRAM (upgradeable to 256Mbyte), 128Mbyte of Spansion MirrorBit Flash and various interfaces including PCI, Ethernet, ATAPI, MMC, NAND and AC97.

The demonstration version comes in a Perspex box and travel case and also includes DVD-ROM, LCD, 80Gbyte HDD, Fujitsu Coral-P graphics card and built-in 10W speakers.

Both platforms include: PSU, embedded software, User Manual, Quick Start Guide and platform schematics.

The platform features an embedded test suite (ETS) for diagnostic test in the field, the mechanism for external Flash Programming, SDK7780 component testing, Boot sequence configuration and FPGA code upgrading.

It also has an integrated TFTP Boot loader.

Images can be downloaded to Flash or alternatively DDR-SDRAM and, to enable rapid application switching, booting is possible from MMC.

BSPs are available from QSSL (QNX v6.3) and WindRiver (VxWorks v5.5).

User designed modules can be connected to the local bus, buffered bus and I/O bus of the SH7780 via expansion connectors and there are four standard 3.3V PCI slots available for PCI expansion.

The SH7780 microprocessor incorporates a PCIbus controller, which supports the PCI Rev 2.2, allowing connections with LSI devices incorporating a PCI interface and operating at either 66 or 33MHz.

This makes it easy to connect with graphics chipsets or low-cost external devices such as PC peripherals.

The SH7780 also features a dedicated three-bus architecture where the buses can be operated simultaneously and an on-chip floating point unit (FPU) with a maximum operating speed of 400MHz.

The FPU supports both single-precision and double-precision arithmetic operations and delivers a maximum processing performance of 2.8GFLOPS when operating in single-precision mode.

Hardware support for sine/cosine arithmetic operations also contributes to high-speed rendering of 3D graphics and DSP calculations.

The device also has a DMA controller (DMAC), which has 12 independent channels.

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