[En-Nut-Discussion] Nut OS reliable on AT91SAM7X Evaluation Board?

[Harald Kipp]

Hi Joerg,

Wiegelmann wrote:
> I'm looking for hardwareplattform with a little bit more performance than Ethernut 1-2 but cheaper than 3 or EIR. The At91Sam7x with the integrated network controller seems to ideal for me. Does anyone has experience with the  At91Sam7x- Eval Board and NutOs running? I think that a design with this processor could be a good and cheap replacement for Ethernut1.3 or 2. What do you think?

egnite doesn't offer something in that range and as a good company guy I
should convince you, that Ethernut 3 is the best choice. ;-)

Seriously, the SAM7X is a very good choice, if you are just looking for
a bit more performance and memory space. Nut/OS is running very well on
this platform and our company currently develops a network device based
on this chip (no developer board). We regularly run tests on the
AT91SAM7X-EK as well. I was told, that Nut/OS also works with the SAM7X
board from Olimex.

The bad thing is, that Nut/OS doesn't make use of all the goodies
offered by this chip. For example, PDC (DMA) is almost not implemented
in the drivers.

If calculating your memory requirements, be aware, that Ethernet
transmit and receive buffers are taken from internal RAM.

Harald