LART Project

The LART is a small yet powerful embedded computer capable of running Linux. Its performance is around 250 MIPS while consuming less than 1 Watt of power. In a standard configuration it holds 32MB DRAM and 4MB Flash ROM, which is sufficient for a Linux kernel and a sizeable ramdisk image.

Design summary

In 1998, the researchers of the MMC project found they had a need for a small, powerful computer board that could be used in experiments with wireless multimedia. The board would have to be low-power and inexpensive, as the project would need several of them. As no off-the-shelf solution that offered an acceptable compromise could be found, a new design was made. What's on the mainboard?

Here are the LART mainboard specs in short:

* 220 MHz Digital SA-1100 StrongARM CPU * 32 Mbyte EDO RAM * 4 MB Intel Fast boot block Flash memory * Power usage < 1 W   * Performance > 200 MIPS

The board can run standalone, booting an OS from Flash. The 4 MB Flash is sufficient for a bootloader, a compressed kernel and a compressed ramdisk. The LART accepts an input voltage between 3.5 and 16 V; the on-board DC-DC converters have an efficiency between 90 and 95%.

LART Project Page