On Fri, 4 Aug 2006, Raphael Langerhorst wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking into lowering the power consumption, noise and size of my computer
> network infrastructure (that is, replace a couple of fat PCs with small arm
> boards).
>
> I have one server that acts as an X11 Terminal Server and a few other PCs that
> connect to this server as X11 Terminals (XDMCP). I would like to use
> low-power, low-noise arm boards as thin clients instead. They only need to be
> able to run an X11 server, either from an PXE boot image or an on-board (CF
> or MMC card) installation. The main requirement is probably a graphics
> adapter that is capable of 1024x768 with 16 or (if possible) 24 bit colours.
> This naturally means memory requirements of more than 1 MB (1MB is typical
> for PC 104 or similar graphics adapters, AFAIK).
>
> http://www.embeddedarm.com
> What about the TS-7300? Is it already supported by NetBSD?
> The TS-7200 has no graphics adapter on-board, but has PC104 interface.

I'm working on a port to the TS-7300.  Remaining is a wscons for the 
video and support for the 2nd ethernet on the FPGA.  (the 10 serial ports 
plus the 2 SD card slots are currently working)  The TS-7KV PC104 video 
card is pretty much identical to whats on the TS-7300 and could run on the 
TS-7200.

>
> The armadillo has 8 bits in 1024x768, and AFAIK the TODO file even says that
> X11 isn't working on that board yet.

The TS-7300 could do 1024x768 with a different FPGA load.  The FPGA is 
configured from the CPU each boot so its very easy to change.  The 
problem with 1024x768 16bpp is that it requires 108 megabytes/sec SDRAM 
bandwidth just for frame refresh.  Currently, the TS-7300 has a single 
16-bit wide 8Mbyte SDRAM currently running at 75Mhz.  The max bandwidth 
from this chip is about 147 megabytes/sec minus about 10% for overhead 
(refresh, precharge, ras/cas, etc..).

//Jesse Off