[U-Boot] Any good __LOW COST__ MIPS SBC suggestion please

[Jerry Van Baren]

Hi Balaji,

Balaji Ravindran wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm hunting for a __LOW COST__ MIPS/PPC SBC, something like TS-7200(but it
> is for ARM). Could anyone please suggest me a good one, that you guys have
> come across.
> My purpose is only for general driver development, and developing some MIPS
> / PPC porting skills.
> 
> Also another true intension is, i have couple of 2600$$ BDI3000 JTAG
> debuggers for PPC and MIPS, lying idle in my office, and want to make some
> good use out of it :).

Lucky dude.  :-)

> I was looking in the "Boards" directory to hunt for any MIPS based SBC
> boards, but found it hard to search.
> 
> It will be nice, if its an SBC, and it has atleast 64/128 MB SDRAM, and
> 16/32 MB flash, USB support, (i can;t expect a super fast processor, but a
> decent one like 166/200 Mhz should be ok)

Two off-the-wall thoughts would be to use QEMU (the ultimate in low 
cost) or a MIPS-based wireless/firewall/router.  A fair number of the 
cheap ones use versions of the Realtek SoC processor, which is MIPS 
architecture:
   <http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Realtek_SOC>

As another possibility, you may be able to pick up a Lemote computer 
which uses the Loongson processor:
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson>
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemote>

> Thanks
> Balaji R

Have fun,
gvb