Microprocessor Development Environment

RockHopper Development Systems
and Evaluation Boards

Product Overview

NEC Electronics America's RockHopper™ development system is a highly efficient and flexible development environment featuring the capabilities of the latest VR Series™ MIPS® embedded processors. RockHopper systems are modular, with a common baseboard where the separate CPU card connects via an edge connector to the PC board interface. The baseboard has PCI slots for cards and many standard peripheral interfaces.

Application

RockHopper development systems are designed for evaluation of NEC processor and companion chip capabilities and for use as a reference design. The systems also support the full cycle of development and testing for peripheral hardware, device driver, and software applications. The evaluation board comes preloaded with PMON and, by arrangement, with an operating system such as VxWorks®, Windows® CE .NET, and Linux®. In aliition to the preloaded PMON, NEC Electronics America supplies evaluation copies of Windows CE .NET, Linux and other operating systems, as well as GNU tools and other useful software.

Developer Advantages

• One common set of peripherals for multiple microprocessors
• Four PCI slots on baseboard (2-3.3V, 2-3.3V/5V); extra flexibility
• PMON loader included on every CPU board to load Linux, Windows CE, VxWorks and other operating systems
• System controller and wide range of peripherals integrated with CPU environment
• Mini-LCD display
• 64/128 MB DRAM onboard
• 32 MB flash memory onboard (64 MB maximum)
• Ethernet connectivity, serial port, USB ports
• Designed for use "as is" or in an advanced technology extended (ATX) PC case (not supplied)
• Linux, GNU tools, and many other software items included for a quick start
• N-wire/JTAG connections for fast debugging of software and hardware designs
• Platform design that allows use of the CPU board with the baseboard or independently

CPUs Supported

• NEC VR7701™, VR5500™, VR5432™, VR4131™, VR4133™, (available Q3 2003)

Specifications for the baseboard

• Four PCI slots (two switchable between 3.3 and 5 volts; two 3.3-volt only)
• 10/100base-T Ethernet
• Two DB9 serial ports
• Four audio jacks
• LCD display
• Real-time clock
• 32KB battery backed-up SRAM, including storage of board configuration information
• Protective mounting brackets
• Mountable in ATX PC case

Specifications for the CPU cards only (available separately)

VR7701, VR5432, VR5500, VR4131, VR4133 CPU Card

• 64/128 MB SDRAM depending on aliressing mode
• 32MB flash ROM (can be booted from flash)
• Boot ROM with PMON loaded
• Two UART serial ports
• 9-volt adapter port on the CPU board for standalone operation or baseboard-supplied power for system operation
• Two USB ports; one peripheral USB port
• AC97 audio interface
• Timers
• DMA channels
• Two serial I/O channels
• I²C interface
• 100+ MHz SysAd bus connection (except VR4131/VR4133) bus that may be set to match the appropriate speed for the application and processor
• Big and little endian operation
• 32 bit PCI bus; 64-bit PCI on VR7701 CPU cards
• Stand-alone operation or baseboard installation
• One non-maskable and five hardware interrupts on VR5433 and VR413x; one nonmaskable and six hardware interrupts on VR5500

VR4131, VR4133 CPU Card Additional Features



• N-Wire interface using JTAG; full debugging capability for software/hardware development
• 10baseT Ethernet (10/100 when used with baseboard)
• IDE interface
• 48 MHz IrDA® interface
• LCD panel display
• Clocked serial interface
• Power control modes
• Designed for use as a complete development system via connection with a customer's mass storage device or "as is" in a diskless network device