retrodev.info
Proudly wasting this domain name since 2001!Archive for blackfin
MakeLDR v1.0
Hello there!
Here you have a .LDR creation tool, meanwhile I code a quick minimal SDK for the Blackfin PMPs.
MakeLDR creates a valid JXD301 firmware from a given plain binary file (homebrew). The given binary is injected into a known previous firmware at a known address (0×80000). This is a workaround while we find a better way to do our own firmware.
Big thanks go to Orkie, Mithris and RobBrown for his previous work.
Got another different Blacking based PMP…
and I’m almost ready to start messing with Blackfin family finally. This PMP (also known as BlackHawk, IPad, or “Portable Media Player”) is hardware compatible with Gemei X720 PMP if I’m right, and features:
- BF531 @ 400 MHz (ADI BF531 SBST 400)
- 16 MB SDRAM (ESMT M12L128168A-LZV1P51HQ)
- 1.3 mpixel CMOS camera (crap quality! like a webcam xD)
- 3.6″ LTPS TFT (same brightness than 301’s LCD but worse contrast maybe)
- 1 GB flash (Hynix HY27UUD88G5M 727A)
- SD support (SDHC not likely to work with the default old 6.2.80 firmware)
- 2 speakers (higher quality than 301’s speaker)
- Nice d-pad and button layout (including crap L/R buttons)
- Gizmondo alike case skin.
- Other parts include PHILIPS FD1USBD12 (USB controller), XILINX XC2C32A VQ44AMS0545, and a 28-pins sanded mini-chip 
Price was slighty cheaper than 301’s: 89 eur including shipping and VAT.
A few photographs:
And the link to the firmware.
More JXD301 news…
It has been a few weeks since my last JXD301 dev report. Mithris managed to get his JTAG working, added BF support to it, disassembled the FW upgrader, and managed to get some graphics on screen through JTAG. Pretty amazing if you ask me. By the other hand, LiraNuna just pointed us to a very interesting development page. Stay tuned.
JXD301 development report
The JXD301 dev scene is moving slowly, but pointing to the right direction.
Mithris has managed to disassemble the firmware, and found that Block9 seems to being loaded to 0xffa00000, and thus gets booted first, then it inits some stacks and appears to play around with the MMU a bit. He also found block 2 etc, are loaded into RAM, so the initial bootloader must have an initblock that sets that stuff up, so probably that little program at 0xffa00000 is the one responsible for switching applications, etc.
Meanwhile, RobBrown has received his JXD301 and took some very high detailed inner photographs #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 (warning: each photo is 2.5 mbytes sized!). Interestingly there are a few unsoldered points in photograph #6, which might lead to a communication interface.
JXD301 runs at 500 MHz
The JXD guys have confirmed me in an e-mail that the 301 is using a 500 MHz Blackfin CPU, so we lose 100 MHz ! Doh ! :S
Blackfin crazyness!
Ok got my JXD 301 ordered through mp4nation.net guys. The whole joke was 92 eur (a little more expensive than expected, even using the discount coupon).
Mithris and me are finding the Blackfin DSP series very interesting: division stuff, hardware loops, address generators, etc.
I have to say that I love that ASM syntax! [SP--] = R0 makes me wet!
Meanwhile, time to wait a few days… sigh T_T
A nice new toy
I came across a new handheld/PMP yesterday while surfing the net: the JXD301, featuring a 600 MHz (!) BF533 CPU, probably 64 Mb RAM, 2 GB flash, SD support, 3.0” awesomely bright TFT, rechargeable battery, 2 headphone jacks, DIVX/FLAC/APE/WMA/MP3/OGG player and 90 eur shipping and VAT included. Yes, a 90 eur bargain. It seems a good candidate for my xmas present to me, isn’t it?.
!
(images from google images 
Meanwhile I’ve found some links of (dev)interest:
Last firmware:
Latest JXD-301 firmware
LDR hex-editing:
LDR viewer 1.2
Compilers:
Several gcc toolchains (linux)
GCC toolchain (win32)
VisualDSP++ 5.0
Benchmark tests:
BF533 @ 600 benchmark results
Documentation:
Programming Techniques for DSPs
BF533 PRM 1.1 (pdf)
LDR boot rom
uclinux:
Website
FB sample code
Welcome to my homepage! This website contains the open source software applications that I have developed over the years. The list includes emulators, games, programming libraries, tools and a cross-compiling toolset among other bits. Now enjoy the visit and have fun with the downloads!
