AMD Geode: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 09:40, 12 February 2022

Since November 2021 I've been working on a video production where I fix a board with an AMD Geode CPU. This page documents my notes about the board

See Geode Repair/Troubleshooting for details on the troubleshooting process.

See Geode Repair/Video for details on the video production.

TODO: Include some photos of the board.

Motivation

For a while I've been searching for a small computer with these requirements:

  • Runs real mode DOS programs
  • Has a somewhat antiquated CPU
  • Has an Ethernet card and DOS packet driver
  • Doesn't consume too much power

The use case here is to run my Twitch DOS Bot I've been developing over the years.

After the searching I found that there were a few systems that could approximate this:

  1. A Raspberry Pi running DOSBox-X
  2. Thin client machines that used VIA CPUs
  3. Expensive single-board computers using a Vortex86 chip
  4. Cheaper 86Duino boards
  5. An old Eee PC 1000HA I had

I eventually decided to go with option 1, a Raspberry Pi emulating DOS.

At least, until I saw an offer on eBay: a used Advantech PCM-9375F for only $50 AUD, which is over $400 less than new.

Why such a huge discount? Video output is broken. Which means you can't really do much with this machine.

I bought it on Nov 07 2021 and received it on Nov 12.

Board specifications

The PCM-9375 A3 specifications shows these points that interest me:

  • AMD Geode LX800 500 MHz CPU (see the AMD Geode LX Processors Data Book for more information)
  • AMD Geode CS5536 chipset (see the AMD Geode CS5536 Companion Device Data Book for more information)
  • Dual RTL8139 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet (second requires breakout board that I have)
  • 5V power supply (12V needed for optional LCD)
  • CompactFlash storage
  • 3 RS-232 serial interfaces (only the main serial interface is given a port)
  • 8 GPIO pins

This at minimum would let me run by Internet-connected DOS bot and talk to DOS over a serial port.

I've also not had an x86 board with GPIO before, so that seems like something fun to play with.

Note that the IDE connector on the board is 2.0mm pitch, not the standard 2.54mm pitch most IDE cables use.

TODO: Look at board again and validate and clarify these specifications.

Setup

TODO: rename this maybe?

- USB power

- CompactFlash

- Null Modem Cable

- move troubleshooting to its own page