Reference boards support 64bit development

A new range of reference boards will speed the design and testing of digital consumer electronics and networking applications based on the TX49 family of 64bit MIPS-based RISC embedded processors.

A new range of reference boards will speed the design and testing of digital consumer electronics and networking applications based on the TX49 family of 64bit MIPS-based RISC embedded microprocessors.

The RBHMA4300 reference platform for the TX4925 embedded microprocessor, the RBHMA4400 for the TX4937, and the RBHMA4500 reference platform for the TX4938 combine, on a single board, the relevant TX49 device with key components such as LAN controllers, LEDs, CPLDs and passive devices.

Onboard memory includes system and boot ROM (Flash), SDRAM, EEPROM and NAND Flash, and each board also offers a wide variety of connectivity options.

These include PCMCIA connectors, PCI card connectors, Ethernet interfaces, high-speed serial I/Os, an EJTAG interface, an A/C-Link interface and connections for in circuit emulators.

Furthermore, each of these platforms can be further enhanced through the addition of Toshiba's "Goku-S" companion chip.

This chip adds USB, IDE and I2C functionality and is supported by its own PCI-based reference board (RBHPE4300).

In addition to the hardware, developers have access to a variety of real-time operating system (RTOS) supported by the TX49 processor family.

RTOS options include VxWorks from Wind River Systems, ThreadX and Integrity from Green Hills Software and OSEK from Vector Informatik.

The MontaVista Linux operating system is also supported and the Linux Support Package (LSP) for the processors provides all of the commonly used device drivers including USB (host and device), PCI, Ethernet, PCMCIA and ATA/IDE.

MontaVista offers a free download option for the Toshiba TX49 reference board LSPs.

In terms of application development, the Toshiba TX49 reference boards can be used with Toshiba's development software and third party tools including the Multi2000 development toolchain from Green Hills Software, RedHat's GNUPro toolchain, as well as EJTAG emulator and debugger tools from Yokogawa Digital Computer.

Toshiba's TX4925, TX4937 and TX4938 embedded microprocessors are ideally suited to high-speed processing requirements in applications such as digital consumer electronics and data networking.

Each device features a comprehensive range of built-in interface controllers including PCI and DMA controllers, as well as an integrated NAND Flash controller for NAND Flash memory support.

The microprocessors are based around Toshiba's TX49H2 core.

This core offers optimised five-stage pipeline processing and a 64bit data path, and incorporates a memory management unit (MMU).

A hardware multiply accumulator (MAC) and an IEEE754-compliant single/double-precision floating point unit (FPU) are also provided.

The core's instruction set supports MIPS I, II and III instructions as well as MIPS IV prefetch, multiply/add and debug instructions.

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