Re:Linux on an 8-Bit Micro? (2012)
by joezydeco on Saturday April 27, 2019 @09:43AM
(#19765457)
On a recent project I played around with some SoCs that could do something like this.
I wound up using a Renesas RZ/A1L, it's an ARM-A9 core with 3MB of SRAM on the die. You attach it to an inexpensive quad-lane SPI NOR flash part and it will boot Linux with just those two parts. The flash serves as a filesystem and I believe you can also XIP the kernel off the NOR part if you choose.
We even ran Qt on it with an XGA LCD and it was poky but it worked. It could probably do what you're looking to do.
That's probably the lowest-end part I'd say would work for something like this. You can run Linux off a cheaper Cortex-M with some amount of work, but it's not pleasant. The iMXRT1050 does look interesting, though.
I wound up using a Renesas RZ/A1L, it's an ARM-A9 core with 3MB of SRAM on the die. You attach it to an inexpensive quad-lane SPI NOR flash part and it will boot Linux with just those two parts. The flash serves as a filesystem and I believe you can also XIP the kernel off the NOR part if you choose.
We even ran Qt on it with an XGA LCD and it was poky but it worked. It could probably do what you're looking to do.
https://www.renesas.com/us/en/doc/products/mpumcu/doc/rz/r01...
That's probably the lowest-end part I'd say would work for something like this. You can run Linux off a cheaper Cortex-M with some amount of work, but it's not pleasant. The iMXRT1050 does look interesting, though.
https://www.emcraft.com/imxrt1050-evk-board