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Chapter 2

Hardware System

2.1 CPU

2.1.1 Instroduction to CPU

The AM335x microprocessors, based on the ARM Cortex-A8, are enhanced with image, graphics processing, peripherals and industrial interface options such as EtherCAT and

PROFIBUS. The device supports the following high-level operating systems (HLOSs) such as Linux, WinCE and Android.

The AM335x microprocessor contains these subsystems:

 Microprocessor unit (MPU) subsystem based on the ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessor.

 POWERVR SGX™ Graphics Accelerator subsystem for 3D graphics acceleration to support display and gaming effects.

 The Programmable Real-Time Unit and Industrial Communication

Subsystem (PRU-ICSS) is separate from the ARM core, allowing independent operation and clocking for greater efficiency and flexibility.

2.1.2 CPU Features

Clock

AM3359 has two clock inputs, OSC1 and OCC0, and two clock outputs, LCKOUT1 and

LCKOUT2.

OSC1 provides RTC with a 32.768KHz reference clock. And it is used to connect

RTC_XTALIN terminal to RTC_XTALOUT terminal.

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OSC0 provides reference clocks such as 19.2-MHz, 24-MHz, 25-MHz or 26-MHz for the clocks without RT function. It is also used to connect XTALIN terminal and XTALOUT terminal.

Reset

Reseting is controlled by PWRONRSTn signals from CPU. The device is reset when it is a low level signal.

General-Purpose Interfaces

There are 4 GPIO banks, each of which has 32 I/O pins, and therefore the total pin number of GPIO would be 128 (4x32).

Programmable Real-Time Unit Subsystem

The PRUSS of AM3359 consists of 2 programmable real-time units, a 12KB shared RAM with single-error detection (parity), tree 120B register bank that can be accessed by each

PRU, an interrupt controller module used to process input events of the system, and the following peripherals:

 An UART with data flow control and maximum rate of 12Mbps

 Two MII Ethernet interface with support to industrial Ethernet such as

EtherCAT™

 A MDIO interface

 An enhanced capture module (eCAP)

3D Graphics Engine

POWERVR® SGX graphics acceleration subsystem is used to improve 3D image processing, as well as provide regular display and gaming effect. The subsystem features:

 Tile-Based Architecture Delivering Up to 20 MPloy/sec

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