intel Xscale PXA270 or StrongArm: any dev board? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2025, 01:51:14 pm
content: I am developing stuff for the Zaurus SL-C3xxx line, which is based on PXA270.Unfortnately Sharp made a terrible firmware, interfaces written in Japanese, (after 20 years, still) incomprehensible flash partitions, unknown checksum, only 1.2Mbyte for the bootloader, and a lot of other very annoying stuff to develop.Not to mention all the mess they made with the voltage regulators, the part of the circuitry that recharges the battery, and the GPIOsJust to name one: if the microdrive breaks on C3000/C3100/C3200, the firmware won't let you do any updates until you replace the unitWhat?!? does updating the boot partition of the flash have to do with the microdrive? ...Just to name another, if you don't connect the power cable correctly, and it stays on battery, there are circuits that need special setup, to be done with GPIO lines, and if you don't do it correctly, your PDA will suddenly turn off.(with a good chance of filesystem curruption)In short, it's not at all the ideal situation to develop the linux kernel, nor your own bootloader, even working with uboot is very annoying.It would be much more convenient to have a clean development board, without these annoyances introduced by Sharp.What can I search on eBay/similar?

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2025, 01:52:16 pm
content: armv5tel <------- xscalearmv4el <------- StrongArm

author: squadchannel
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2025, 02:14:23 pm
content: it would be quicker to keep the body, display and keyboard and replace them with a RaspberryPi.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2025, 02:41:31 pm
content: Quote from: squadchannel on May 16, 2025, 02:14:23 pmhow about replace all of it?

author: squadchannel
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2025, 02:53:13 pm
content: but

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2025, 02:59:28 pm
content: if I wanted to use an rpi (whose core is >> Arm-v5) I wouldn't have opened the topic about Xscale

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 02:24:49 pm
content: you have or had, some are obsolete ? on some you had schematics of their dev boards, software sideidkhttps://www.toradex.com/computer-on-modules/colibri-arm-family/intel-marvell-xscale-pxa270https://developer.toradex.com/hardware/legacy-products/colibri-som-family/colibri-pxa270/https://www.e-consystems.com/regulus.asphttps://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/beacon-embeddedworks/SDK-PXA270-520-10-6432R/1236364https://www.voipac.com/pxa270-dimm-base-boardi did saw Phytec on some of the boards we hadand some googlefuu reports the same links or pdf docs ??good luck

author: djsb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 02:42:02 pm
content: I have one of those Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100 devices, no dev board though. You might have to design one from scratch, similarly to the way that the Pocket386 and weecee were done (x86 based on industrial modules). More info herehttps://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=99751&hilit=pocket386They also discuss using dosbox with the Zaurus elsewhere on the forum.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 03:26:53 pm
content: Quote from: djsb on July 21, 2025, 02:42:02 pmI know the Zaurus C1K and 3K hw very well, that's the target I am developing for.There's very little interest, I post every now and thenhere.I'm developing a much more flexible bootloader than anything I've seen in the past.One of the things I really miss about the Zaurus is the ability to use a hardware debugger.There seem to be JTAG signals, but I don't know anything about them.That's why I am looking for a dev-board.