AR7

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AR5

The early AR5 was a multi-chip ADSL solution.

  • TNET4310 MIPS32 4Kc
  • TNET4320 MIPS32 4Kc
  • TNET4400 MIPS32 4Kc
  • TNETD5301 MIPS32 4Kc
  • TNETD5310 MIPS32 4Kc
  • TNETD5320 MIPS32 4Kc

Devices:

  • SpeedStream 5200 modem/router

AR5 ADSL Router, Integrated Access Device And Residential Gateway Chipsets

AR7

The Texas Instrument AR7 is the fully integrated single-chip ADSL CPE access router solution. The AR7 combines a MIPS32 processor, a DSP-based digital transceiver, and an ADSL analog front end.

Features:

  • Integrated high performance MIPS 4KEc 32-Bit RISC processor
  • ADSL PHY subsystem based on TI C62x DSP, with integrated transceiver, codec, line driver, and line receiver
  • Hardware accelerated ATM SAR
  • Integrated IEEE 802.3 PHY
  • Two IEEE 802.3 MACs with integrated Media Independent Interface (MII) and Quality of Service (QoS)
  • Integrated USB 1.1 compliant transceiver (slave only?)
  • Two VLYNQ interfaces for compatible high-speed expansion devices
  • Two 16c550 compatible UARTs
  • EJTAG, GPIO and FSER interfaces
  • 4Kb PROM (0xBFC00000) and 4Kb RAM (0x80000000) on the chip for boot purposes
  • 324 BGA with 1.0-mm ball pitch

Options:

  • AR7DB
  • AR7RD
  • AR7WRD (TNETD7300GDU) is an AR7 option with a interface for WiFi card.
  • AR7VWI : DSL + VoIP + Wireless
  • AR7VW
  • AR7WI
  • AR7V : DSL + VoIP

TI does not provide detailed technical documentation for this SoC. Some details are known from the GPL-ed Linux sources.

Another source is a TI OMAP and DaVinci documentation. It seems, AR7 SoC peripherials is very close to the OMAP16xx and OMAP730 application processors , but MIPS instead ARM9-based.

Ownership

History

In 2007, TI sold its DSL business to Infineon.[1][2]

In 2009, Infineon spins off its wireline division to Lantiq.[3]

On November 6, 2009, Lantiq annouced that it became a standalone company.[4]

AMAZON was effectively the AR8, and is referred to as such in one product brochure[5].

Source code

The "GPL source code" as provided by the various vendors of TI AR7 (with linux) devices is incomplete, since TI apparently refuses to publish the source code to some of their core kernel modifications, such as LZMA (de)compression of the zImage. The gpl-violations.org project is actively trying to resolve this issue.

If you go through the GPL releases for AR7 devices by different vendors, you can find all the sources for the AR7 board. Here's a list:

Network driver In almost every vendor GPL release
DSL driver Netgear DG834(G) V1.0.5 Hidden in patch-knl file
Wifi driver Linksys WAG54G v2 1.00.19-UK src/router/ti_ap/AP-DK5.7.0.4.tar.gz
USB driver Netgear DG834(G) V1.0.5 Hidden in patch-knl file
Unknown status Actiontec GPL source code http://opensource.actiontec.com/

IRC

There is a specifically targeted #ar7 irc channel on Freenode where those devoted to hacking ar7 based architecture go to hang out.

Memory map

AR7 family deploys unusual memory map. The AR7 chip has a small memory banks on the chip : 4Kb PROM (@0xBFC00000) and 4Kb RAM (@0x80000000) and memory block for the DSP (@unknown). The rest of the external memory banks are selectable with CS0..4. The FLASH is located at 0x90000000 (CS0) and RAM is located at 0x94000000 (CS1). Linux should define a non-contiguous memory and install an IRQ trampolines at the MIPS interrupt vectors.

C62x DSP

TI TMS320C62x is a fixed-point Digital Signal Processor core. C62x is based on the VelociTI VLIW architecture developed by TI. C62x is a member of the TI C6000 family.

VLYNQ

TI's VLYNQ is a low power, low pin-count serial communication interface that enables the extension of an internal bus segment to one or more external physical devices. The external devices are mapped into local, physical address space and appears as if they are on the internal bus. The external device must have a VLYNQ interface. The VLYNQ module serializes bus transactions in one device, transfers the serialized data via a VLYNQ port, and de-serializes the transaction in the external device. The VLYNQ interface is described in the following TI documents:

  • SPRU768 - OMAP5912 Multimedia processor VLYNQ Serial Communications Interface Reference Guide
  • SPRUE36 - TMS320DM644x DMSoC VLYNQ Port. User's guide.

Emulation

QEMU with additional patches supports emulation of AR7 and some of its most important devices (serial ports, ethernet). It also includes a flash emulation and can run firmware of typical AR7 based DSL routers.

UR8

UR8 is integrated DSL/VoIP chipset. It combines MIPS 4KEc, C62x DSP (for DSL functions) and C55x DSP (for VoIP). MIPS CPU and C62x DSP operates at 360MHz and the C55x DSP at 180MHz.

Devices based on the Texas Instruments AR7

... and many more.

Mainline integration

Starting with 2.6.31-rc1, AR7 (which also supports UR8) has been merged into Linux-MIPS and has mainline support for the:

  • VLYNQ bus
  • CPMAC integrated Ethernet MACs

OpenWrt has source support for the ACX111 Wi-Fi (sta only) and DSL driver (sangam-atm) and maintains it to work with upstream kernels.

References

  1. ↑ "Infineon Technologies#Acquisitions and divestitures". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infineon_Technologies#Acquisitions_and_divestitures. 
  2. ↑ "Infineon buys TI's DSL business". http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4072908/Infineon-buys-TI-s-DSL-business. 
  3. ↑ "Infineon�s Wireline Division Will Become LANTIQ". http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/corporate/press/news/releases/2009/INFWLC200908-077.html. 
  4. ↑ "Infineon completes the sale of Wireline business; Lantiq becomes a stand alone company". http://www.lantiq.com/news/press/121-infineon-completes-the-sale-of-wireline-business-lantiq-becomes-a-stand-alone-company/. 
  5. ↑ "Infineon CPE brochure". http://www.infineon.com/dgdl/IFX_CPE_Brochure_final.pdf?folderId=db3a304312dc768d0112e132874e0280&fileId=db3a30431add1d95011ae886288656aeone. 

External links

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