Samsung Launches Exynos-Based Origen Dev Board 79
siliconbits writes "You may recall a little group of Linux-loving chums called Linaro, which was formed almost a year ago in the hopes of speeding up Linux development. Today at Computex, the company's taking it one step further with the announcement of the Origen development board. Based on Samsung's beefy Exynos 4210 dual core chipset, the kit packs all the essential ports — including HDMI, USB 2.0 host, SD slot, etc. — for keen developers to get their hands dirty on, and its base board is also removable to accommodate future chipsets. Potential buyers are told to keep an eye on Insignal, which will soon be offering the basic Origen package for $199, along with optional parts at an extra cost."
Trustzone lockdown? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've bought about 5 different ARM-based development boards over the past 2 years.
One big issue is ARM CPUs have a security feature called TrustZone which can run an OS with privileged code, but still restrict some hardware to only "secure" software (basically, a hypervisor above the OS). Unfortunately, for example, TI in its OMAP platforms has decided to force Linux to run non-secure always in the cheap development platforms. This is a problem for me since I want to be able to change those registers, and in some cases ARM CPUs have a variety of bugs which require setting workaround bits in CPU registers which cannot be changed by non-secure code. And of course those bits aren't set.
This problem affects the PandaBoard, Beagleboard, and a Zoom board I got from LogicPD with an OMAP chip. All use TI OMAP chips, all boot Linux in non-secure mode. I've been happy with a board I got from Freescale, the MX.51, which lets me run secure code just fine. Unfortunately, Freescale development boards are around $1000, and these TI-based boards are around $200.
So, does anyone know how Samsung is going to handle TrustZone--will Linux be able to run in secure mode?