Re: [NTLK] It is the Fix

From: Andrei Chichak <newton_at_chichak.ca>
Date: Sat Jan 03 2009 - 17:29:20 EST

At 12:39 PM 1/3/2009, you wrote:
>Is Freescale the "inheritor" of the ARM chip used in the Newton? If
>so, is it possible that this same bug exists on our Newons? Is it also
>possible that it took the fix to "find" it?

The ARM processor in the Newton 2100 was made by The Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC). Digital sold off the StrongARM processor
to Intel, not Freescale. Recently, Intel flushed away their final ARM
processor, the xScale line, to concentrate on x86 the for embedded
processing. Freescale is the semiconductor arm of Motorola.

The real time clock (RTC) function is not, typically, a part of the
microprocessor, it is handled by some dort of RTC chip. The StrongARM
contained a section that dealt with the clock, but this was to
synchronize the various subsections of the processor. It doesn't know
anything about days and months, it knows about leading edges and
trailing edges.

The chip that microsoft used is a Freescale MC13783. This beast is
one hell of a lot more than a typical RTC chip. It's a battery
charger, audio in and out, touch screen, USB (OTG), LED driver,
backlight driver, buck/boost regulator, and vibrator driver.

Nothing to be learned here, move along.

Andrei

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Received on Sat Jan 3 17:31:31 2009

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