T-Engine Hardware
The T-Engine project standardises hardware at the “board level” and not the “processor level”. As a result, the project is well-supported by all Japanese processor manufacturers. It is therefore, no surprise, that you can get a T-Engine based on most Japanese processors, and some non-Japanese processors, too. Currently, you can obtain development kits for the T-Engine and the microT-Engine standards. Kits for the nano- and pico-T-Engine are not available yet.
T-Engine and micro T-Engine kits are available for the following processors:
- SuperH processors from Renesas: SH7751R, SH7760 and SH7727 (T-Engine)
- M32R processors from Renesas: M32104 (micro T-Engine)
- MIPS from NEC: VR5500 (T-Engine) and VR4131 (micro T-Engine)
- ARM Processors from Epson, Oki, Sharp, Fujitsu and YDC: ARM926, ARM922, ARM920, ARM720 (T-Engine)
- TX Processors from Toshiba: TX4956 (T-Engine)
- NIOS-2 from Altera (micro T-Engine)
Since there are more kits in development, the list above is just as an indicative list, not a comprehensive one - as and when I find other supported processors, I shall add them.
Currently, the kits cost between Yen 145,000 - Yen 200,000 (roughly US$1400 - US$1900). They should get cheaper in due course, I expect. The development kit essentially include a processor board based on the selected hardware. Some T-Engine kits may include an LCD Board and a Debug Board. In addition, there is a complete software development kit included - this includes a port of the operating system, drivers for the hardware peripherals on the board, compiler toolchain (GNU based) and T-Kernel Standard Extension (that adds virtual memory, process support, file system, etc.). The software runs on Linux and Windows. The specifics of each package may vary slightly. I would recommend checking the brochure of the kit that you are interested in for complete details.
Buying T-Engine Hardware
The "one-stop" shop for T-Engine hardware is Personal Media Corporation. They commercialise most of the outputs from the TRON Project, and the T-Engine is no exception. They represent all the manufacturers and their after-sales technical support is absolutely excellent. They even have an English page for the T-Engine products they represent - pricing information and brochures for all the kits are available there.
If you are not in Japan, you can contact the T-Engine Applicatlon Development Centre (TEADEC) in Singapore - they can obtain the kits for you and also help with various technical issues.
Of course, if you have a working relationship with any of the processor companies, you could also try to contact them directly for more information.
Other hardware options include:
- LCD Display Board (if the T-Engine kit does not come with one)
- Wired LAN Extension Boards
- FPGA Extension Boards
There are other hardware boards that are available, but I don't have the information and links right now.
Table of Links
Here is a list of links to some of the main people that you can contact if you need to get T-Engine hardware.
If you or your company make and sell hardware that works with the T-Engine, or if you know someone who does, please let me know so that I can update the list.
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