Arabella Software announced a free Linux reference design for the Motorola PowerQUICC II microprocessor. The free Linux package supports Motorola's PQ2FADS-ZU evaluation board (and also the earlier 8260FADS boards). The Arabella Linux CD-ROM is included with Motorola's evaluation boards, and is also available directly from Arabella on request, the company said.

“This is a complete functional application that includes a full Linux Distribution, PC/Linux host development tools, boot loader, and a vastly improved 82XX driver that was written from the ground up by Arabella to take advantage of the Power QUICC II functionality in a real application,” explained Bruce Donadt, vice president of sales at Arabella.

“The reference design supports [the] SIU, Ethernet, and UART. Customers can subscribe to a commercial Arabella Linux for 82XX distribution to get support for ATM, QoS, PCI, and many chip-level options, Donadt added. “The software is provided under a GPL license and may be used in any way — including in customer products, if so desired.”

Motorola's PQ2FADS-ZU evaluation boards support their PowerQUICC II family processors including the MPC8250, MPC8260, MPC8264, MPC8265, MPC8266, MPC8270 and MPC8280. The evaluation board includes 32MB of SDRAM and provides onboard interfaces that include: JTAG/COP, dual UART, USB 1.1, two 100/10-Base-T Fast Ethernets, and a 155 Mbps ATM UNI with optical interface.

 
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