Storage Solution for Marvell's PXA 300/310 Handheld Platform

Features & Benefits Related Information Demo / Purchase

This development kit is no longer available. However, the associated IP is still available from Actel's IP partner, iWave Systems Technology.

"Actel's IGLOO family brings an unprecedented low power solution to portable applications. As part of our collaboration, iWave Systems Technologies has optimized its low-power USB, SD/SDIO and the world's first MIPI IP Cores for the IGLOO family and also productized an extremely small form factor HDK that enables designers to quickly develop smart phones, GPS devices or PDAs products. With support of multiple interfaces, Actel's IGLOO acts as a bridge function to Marvell's PXA 300/310 processors, allowing designers to create differentiated products and further maximize the Marvell 'Littleton' PXA 300/310 Handheld Platform."

	Zafeer Feroz Project Manager, Hardware iWave Systems Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Storage interfaces such as SD, SDIO, microSD, MMC, and CE-ATA have become increasingly popular in a variety of devices in the handheld market. These devices typically use a combination of these interfaces so they can support applications that require multiple interfaces. The present generation application processors used in handheld devices, from companies such as Marvell, TI, Freescale, and others, support a limited number of such interfaces. Actel's IGLOO device can help in expanding processor capabilities by providing the interface functionality for these applications. To demonstrate this capability, Actel has collaborated with iWave Systems Technologies in developing a daughter board with an IGLOO ultra-low power FPGA, expanding the storage interface capabilities of Marvell's PXA300/310 processors. As shown in the picture above, the daughter card plugs into the expansion connector of the PXA300/310 handheld development platform from Marvell. It supports SD, SDIO, MMC, microSD, and CE-ATA interfaces for the demanding requirements of today's handheld devices.

PXA300/310 Daughter Card The block diagram shows the daughter card with Actel FPGA interfacing to the storage devices. The Data Flash Interface (DFI) bus is supported by Marvell's PXA3XX processors through iWave's Integrated SD/SDIO/MMC/CE-ATA Controller. The IP core is also designed to support SDIO. The iWave CE-ATA 2 IP core is fully compliant with the SD Host specification version 2.0 with Advanced-DMA support, MMC specification version 4.2, and CE-ATA Digital Protocol revision 1.1RC. It supports SPI, SD 1-bit, SD 4-bit, and MMC 8-bit modes. The CE-ATA 2 Host IP core is designed to support high-speed and full-speed SD data transfers.