Hello All--

I'm working on an embedded application, and after looking high and low,
I have not found a single board computer that fits my needs. So, I'm
looking at open hardware, and considering making my own SBC based on
the XScale.

I'm happy to consider the OpenRISC or any of the other cores in the
opencores project, but I need some guidance to pick the right product
for my needs, if I don't go with XScale. The features of XScale that
appeal to me are: High performance at low power, highly integrated, and
linux is already ported.

There's nothing inherently proprietary about what I want to make,
hardware wise. Some of the software will stay closed source and be
sold, but if I have to make custom hardware anyway, I figure I should
enlist the help of open hardware people, and in turn can supply them
with boards that would be useful to their projects, as well as a design
that people who follow in our footsteps could use. My background is as
a software developer, though many years ago I did build hardware from
scratch. (I laid out the PCBs using black tape on clear velum!) This
project will have significant funding if it gets approved.

So, I'm looking for anyone who's willing to help with an XScale or
OpenCore based SBC. My needs are basic, so modifications that make
the board more useful for other's projects are amenable to me. I
just want to get working hardware with as few board revisions as
possible.

It occurs to me that using a very large programmable logic device,
maybe some open cores and basic peripherals could be integrated into a
single chip doing most of what I want all at once.

So, here are my requirements:
-- Runs Linux
-- Low power modes... sleep around 50mW, full power around 500mW
-- About 200-400Mips. I don't know the requirements of the software
yet, but it could be divided into a DSP core and a general CPU core of
about 100-200 MIPS each. In theory the low end of this range should
work, but I have not verified it yet. (Have an xscale reference design
on the way to check.)
-- Ability to interface with off the shelf WiFi hardware and mass
storage. Could be compact flash, or USB host, or SDIO.
-- About 64MB of DRAM
-- A boot flash, or whatever to load linux off the storage device
-- Some serial ports (if there's no USB)
-- Possibly and audio codec (if there's no USB)
-- Demo this summer, but not shipping until 1H2005.
-- small formfactor

That's it.

Has anyone implemented something like this as a Wishbone based SOC?
Or would anyone be interested in doing so? Since we're not shipping
til next year, we could do a prototype in a FPGA, and reduce it to an
ASIC later. I know there are a lot of linux hobbyists who would like
a small, flexible SBC for their robotics projects, webservers in their
car, etc.

I'm working full time on getting this hardware going-- currently
finishing up an XScale based schematic. If going with Open Cores isn't
appropriate for what I want to do, I could use some help checking the
XScale schematic and PCB layout when I finish, and debugging getting
Linux running on it... and then the schematic and PCB can be released
as an open hardware design. This is a skunkworks kinda project, so I
don't have electrical engineers handy to get help from.

Also, if there's a board level open hardware community out on the net,
I'd appreciate a pointer, as I've not found one yet in my searches.

Thanks, and all advice appreciated!