Palm is being coy about identifying the processor in the Foleo. The Atmel AP7000 family of microcontrollers is a rational candidate.
What do we know about the CPU in Foleo? Not much. But it’s enough to make a decent guess.
– low power consumption
– low system cost
– no video codec drivers, yet
– runs with Linux
The Atmel AVR32 AP7000 meets Foleo design constraints. It’s a pretty cool device.
A few details from Embedded-System.net:
[tease]
Key features:
* Multi-layer, high-speed bus architecture, parallel multiple operations.
* Vectored multiplier co-processor.
* Memory Management Unit.
* DMA controller designed for high-speed data transfer between peripherals and memories.
* Two peripheral bus bridges, allow different clock frequencies to be set for high- and low-speed peripherals.
* Optimized clock usage to increase throughput and reduce power consumption.
* Fully-supported Linux 2.6 kernel, for Embedded Linux application
* 32 KB on-chip SRAM, 16 KB instruction and 16 KB data caches,
Peripherals:
* 16-bit stereo audio DAC.
* 2048×2048 pixel TFT/STN LCD controllers.
* 480 Mbps USB 2.0 with on-chip transceivers (PHY).
* Two 10/100 Ethernet MACs.
* Serial interfaces: RS232, USART, I2S, AC97, TWI/I2C, SPI, PS/2 and several SSC Synchronous Serial Modules).
Development:
AP7000 family uses a single development environment for straightforward debugging. The AVR32 Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is specifically designed for high-level programming languages like C, C++ and Java. Compilers with C and C++ support include GNU GCC and IAR Systems’ Embedded Workbench. The compilers are able to utilize the AVR32 architecture’s SIMD- and DSP instructions from within the C/C++ programming environment. Both compilers support access to in-line assembly for tight-loop / inner-loop algorithmic optimizations.
There you have it. The Atmel AVR700 is a reasonable choice for the Foleo.
We can eliminate a few other obvious CPU possibilities, because of the lack of video codecs Palm has revealed. That eliminates the ARM and Intel family of products, including the cheap Via processor that the ASUS small laptop is using.
Comments welcome!
