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Property:AR7RD
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Term
Term: | AR7RD | Wiki | Freetz | IPPF | whmf | AVM | Web |
Short for: | AR7 Reference Design | ||||||
Location: | Lexicon >> Hardware-Terms | ||||||
Weblinks: | |||||||
Description: | AR7 router reference design by TI |
Goto: Hardware - SDK - Bootloader - Kernel - Webinterface - Modding - FRITZ!OS - SMW-Browser
Details
See also the explanation in german language I wrote in the passed Wehavemorefun Wiki.
The AR7RD is the original Reference Design by TI to build an AR7 based DSL router.
The WLAN variant adding the ACX-111 Reference Design by Radia is the AR7WRD.
These 2 IDs were the original values of the ProductID variable, to identify the board a firmware is running on.
Hardware
There are hundreds of routers based on the AR7RD design, their hardware mostly is the same.
The main thing where they differ is the selection of a possible switch chip for routers with 4 LAN ports.
- 150 MHz AR7 Sangam SoC
- 2 or 4 MB NOR-Flash
- 8 or 16 MB SDRAM
- 35.328 MHz XTAL for the ADSL-AFE
- 25 MHz XTAL oscillator for the system PLL
- 1 or 2 Ethernet Transformers
- Optional USB-Slave port
Note that the AR7 was the first single-chip DSL router of the world.
SDK
The SDK for the AR7 was a ready-to-use router OS named PSP (Platform Support Package) or NSP (Network Support Package).
Bootloader
TI provided the ADAM2 bootloader, or its successor PSPboot
.
The Bootloader-Environment originally was accessible at /proc/ticfg/env
or at /proc/avalanche/env
.
It contains many variables we all know, including the TIATM-Environment. Some variables have differung names in PSPboot
.
Some vendors added custom variables or removed some variables.
Example from a CastleNET AR801
which uses PSPboot
. The comments show ADAM2 variable names:
# cat /proc/ticfg/env bootloaderVersion 1.2.1.5 ProductID AR7RD HWRevision Unknown SerialNumber none IPA 192.168.1.1 MODETTY0 38400,n,8,1,hw # ADAM2: modetty0 MODETTY1 38400,n,8,1,hw # ADAM2: modetty1 BOOTCFG m:f:"mtd1" mtd0 0x900a0000,0x90200000 # Filesystem (1408 kB) mtd1 0x90020000,0x900a0000 # Kernel (512 kB) mtd2 0x90000000,0x90010000 # Bootloadder (64 kB) mtd3 0x90010000,0x90020000 # Config (64 kB) mtd4 0x90020000,0x90200000 # Kernel + Filesystem (1920 kB) StaticBuffer 120 MAC_PORT 0 MEMSZ 0x00800000 # ADAM2: memsize FLASHSZ 0x00200000 # ADAM2: flashsize CPUFREQ 150000000 # ADAM2: cpufrequency SYSFREQ 125000000 # ADAM2: sysfrequency PROMPT (psbl) # ADAM2: prompt vcc_encaps0 0.0 vcc_encaps1 0.0 vcc_encaps2 0.0 vcc_encaps3 0.0 vcc_encaps4 0.0 vcc_encaps5 0.0 vcc_encaps6 0.0 vcc_encaps7 0.0 HWA_0 00:30:54:98:58:68 # ADAM2: maca HWA_3 00:30:54:98:58:69 # ADAM2: macdsl HWA_HRNDIS 00:30:54:98:58:6A # ADAM2: usb_rndis_mac autopvc_enable 1 DSL_BIT_TMODE 1 DSL_UPG_DONE 1 DSL_FEATURE_CNTL_0 0x02004000 DSL_FEATURE_CNTL_1 0x00000000 DSL_PHY_CNTL_0 0x00000400
Kernel
It contained a MontaVista Linux with Kernel 2.4, typically 2.4.17_mvl21-malta-mips_fp_le
.
This kernel is still used for early Box-Models which did not have the ressources for an upgrade to Kernel 2.6.
Besides this TI provided a bunch of proprietary Kernel-Modules as binary blobs:
- tiatm.ko + ar0700xx.bin - DSL driver and firmware
- avalanche_cpmac.ko - Ethernet LAN driver
- avalanche_usb.ko - USB LAN driver
- avalanche_led.ko - LED driver
- avalanche-flash.ko - Flash driver
Like all TI modules these have a Proc-Filesystem interface at /proc/avalanche
.
Example from a Sphairon Turbolink AR860
:
# ls -1 /proc/avalanche psp_version developers led_drv_cfg led_drv_ver led_drv_input qos eth0_rfc2665_stats cpmac_stats cpmac_link cpmac_ver cpmac_config wan_bridge avsar_ver avsar_channels avsar_sarhal_stats avsar_oam_ping avsar_pvc_table avsar_rxsnr0 avsar_rxsnr1 avsar_rxsnr2 clear_eoc_stats avsar_bit_allocation_table avsar_dsl_modulation_schemes avsar_SNRpsds avsar_QLNpsds avsar_PMDTestus avsar_private avsar_modem_training avsar_modem_stats avsar_qos_enable
Webinterface
The following screenshots come from a Sphairon Turbolink AR860
, an AR7RD router with one LAN port, a DSL port and
a connector for the Power-Supply. Its hardware equals the smallest of all Box-Models, the FRITZ!Box SL.
Design und colour of the Webinterface equal the original from the TI SDK, all Branding is just replacing the TI logo top left.
Modding