How to connect and control an external device at wandboard/other i.mx6q board

[matthiasheise]

Hello,

as stated above I would like to connect an external communication chip with 8bit interface to the i.mx6q.

1. Is it correct that the EIM interface would be the choice for this task ?

2. I have a wandboard-quad where at least a few EIM pins are routed to the board-to-board connector so possibly this could be done with a new interface board, but maybe there's a board which allows easier access, do you have a suggestion to that ?

3. there shall be running a linux on the board, so for that external device a new custom device and drivers have to be added to linux, where could I start reading about this, or is there maybe some example for such a task?

Thank you very much

Cheers,

Mat

[matthiasheise]

this is now rather hardware related :

on a closer look the wandboard seems not to be suitable for the intended purpose as not all needed EIM pins are connected to the board-to-board connector and are therefore not accessible in an easy way. I looked at the SABRE AI and the SABRE SDB board, which one would be better ? I would like to have Ethernet, 4 Uarts, CAN, 8 GPIOs and the mentioned EIM interface to connect an additional interface chip.

On long term an own platform will be created which as an additional requirement should boot from Flash, do I HAVE to connect it to the EIM or is there some other suitable interface ?

Or do I need to make dual use of the EIM with different chip selects to first boot and then use the interface for my custom peripheral ? Is that possible ?

thanks in advance again,

Mat

[igorpadykov]

Hi Matthias

for EIM better option is Sabre-AI, it has parallel NOR, it is supported

by BSPs (yocto too)

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=RDIMX6SABREAUTO&fpsp=1&tab=Design_Too...

for booting from parallel NOR flash one will have to use EIM.

For dual use of the EIM one can use different chip selects.

Best regards

igor

[igorpadykov]

Hi Matthias

yes EIM interface can be used for such task.

For example please refer to Sabre AI link (it has linux BSPs supporting parallel

NOR connected to EIM).

i.MX6_SABRE_AI_DESIGNFILES : Design files, including hardware schematics, layout files and BOM.

SABRE|Automotive-Infotainment|i.MX6|Freescale

Best regards

igor

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[matthiasheise]

Hi Igor,

thanks for your reply, after browsing through the material you pointed me to I wasn't able yet to find the interesting spot about that "custom" interface driver, sorry. Would you please be so kind and give me another push in the right direction. I imagine one needs a custom device node in linux, and then has to access the regarding controller hardware in the driver ? Quite comfortable of course would be a yocto-style structure...

thanks again,

best regards

Mat 

[igorpadykov]

Hi Matthias

please look at L3.10.17_1.0.0_LINUX_DOCS

Linux 3.10.17 BSP & MM Bundle

~igor