Dell Laptop for Embedded Work

Hi:

I'm considering to buy a Dell Precision M90 laptop to replace a regular PC on a cart that was used to wheel around and program various embedded devices.

The new laptops of course don't offer old-fashioned ports like parallel and RS-232. Well, some have serial, but the M90 doesn't.

I will be getting the docking station which *does* have a parallel and serial port though, so it should be just fine. There is also the option of USB->RS-232 converters. But the dock's parallel port will be critically important to work correctly.

I will need to connect to the following devices:

Atmel STK500 (RS-232) and JTAG-ICE (USB/RS-232)

Spectrum Digital eZdsp 'F2812 (parallel)

Xilinx Parallel Cable IV (parallel)

In the future there will likely be a USB JTAG Emulator for the 'F2812, and perhaps I'll upgrade to a better Xilinx cable. Also will probably get into some Xilinx FPGAs and 3rd party development boards, but just need to be sure I can work my present tools.

Anyone have any serious problems with Dell laptops for these or other tools?

Thanks for input.

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Reply to
Chris Carlen
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Hello Chris,

I don't know how their docking stations work but I'd be suspicious. Programmers often bit-bang the parallel port directly and that typically doesn't work if they chose to simply convert USB-parallel in the dock station.

My suggestion would be to pay a little more and get a laptop with a genuine parallel port.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

Coincidentally only today I was discussing using a Spectrum Digital XDS510PP on a Dell with someone. They were unsuccessful with three different PCMCIA card parallel ports, and they did not have a 'proper' port replicator. By 'proper' I mean a real hardware parallel port appearing at 0x378 on IRQ7.

I suggested some workarounds that I have used very successfully on Toshiba laptops for the SD JTAG PP emulator and await the reply. These include moving the phantom internal parallel port to somewhere else (eg, 0x278 or

0x3BC) and sometimes having to hack the .inf file that comes with PCMCIA parallel port adaptors.

If the port replicator is a Dell unit designed specifically for the laptop and does _not_ simply replicate parallel ports via a USB port, then you will probably be OK. Forget it if it's a USB-type replicator.

Good luck, Howard

Reply to
Howard Long

PCMCIA Cards might be another option...

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Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
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Reply to
Uwe Bonnes

Hello Uwe,

Yes. Although I was cautioned by TI that the MSP430 JTAG programmer might show some quirks if I did that. In the end I switched all tools to USB.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

You can get an IBM Thinkpad (I have a P3 1.13Ghz T23, very happy with it). These laptops have very good reputations. The newer models (T60) seems to have dropped the parallel port for the extra vent. But if you don't mind a used/slightly older model you can pick up the Thinkpad T42 which has a parallel port. Also considering that my ol' T23 was released in like 2001 and is still working without any defects is amazing! Built like tanks these laptops are.

-Isaac

Reply to
Isaac Bosompem

I use a dell with docking station for Parallel Cable IV. It works but for some reason you can't undock when the parallel port is used for anything. I had to manual diasble the parallel port in the bios to get a clean undock. So I pitched PC4 and went with a USB cable.

-Clark

tools?

Reply to
Anonymous

I use "the world's most expensive parallel port" (TM) - a Quatech SPP-100 in my Dell Laptop. Paying $200 for a PCMCIA interface + voltage drivers is painful, but the thing works just fine with the Xilinx tools. You do need to override the ECP base address, there's an environment variable you can set. Google comp.arch.fpga's history for this topic, you'll find it discussed at length over the years.

Regards,

John

Reply to
John Williams

I've currently got a Dell D400 which although it has a serial port, does not have a parallel port. The docking station does have the parallel port and I have used without any issues for the entire 3 years I've had it. When I'm away from my docking station I've used a Quatech PCMCIA card to get the parallel port interface and that worked pretty well for the most part, though not as seamlessly as the docking station since it took a little bit of monkeying around to get the right driver.

A co-worker of mine has the M90 (or maybe M70?) and I know he does work through the comm port on the docking station and I haven't heard him make any complaints. In fact, he's been quite happy with the performance of his laptop. It runs Linux through VMware faster than his old desktop could run it natively!

By the way, USB JTAG emulators for TI DSPs have been out for quite a while. A good low-cost emulator for c2000 DSPs is JTAGjet from Signum. Spectrum Digital also now sells newer versions of the eZdsp with a USB interface rather than the parallel port interface.

Brad

Reply to
Brad Griffis

The dock stations I've seen are generally adapters to buffer the super I/O chip in the laptop.

Super I/Os still have legacy ports in them.

Reply to
larwe

The STK500 is very well-behaved and works well over USB-to-RS232 adapters.

I have a JTAG-ICE mkII and although I can barely get it to work once in a blue moon, it should be equally "easy" to use on your Dell :)

Upgrade to the DLC9 Platform Cable to work with Xilinx FPGAs.

I use two laptops for all my non-day-job embedded work: an Averatec AV3715 (used exclusively for the Xilinx stuff as it has USB 2.0; the laptop is extremely low quality and should be considered a disposable machine) and an HP ZE4805WM. I mainly use MSP430, PowerPC (inside Virtex-4 and also on remote Linux boxes), ARM (I use serial debugging with gdb stubs on the target, though I do own a Macraigor Wiggler) and AVR (via an Olimex USB-to-serial-to-JTAG adapter that looks like a JTAG-ICE mkI).

Reply to
larwe

Howard Long wrote:[edit]

The tough part is finding out what it has before I buy it.

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Reply to
Chris Carlen

Isaac Bosompem wrote:[edit]

Unfortunately, my company has a "permitted" set of laptop models. There are some IBMs and HPs though, so I might take a closer look at those.

I have to do some re-thinking about whether I really want to pay for a large screen and do any real work on it, or if it will be just for transferring hex files from my real desktop PC to targets in various labs in my building. If I forego the intention of doing real work on the laptop, then I can consider all 3 makers' products. Hopefully one has a parallel port, but in 2006 I doubt it.

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Reply to
Chris Carlen

Which Dell model?

That's strange. What if you just "turn it off?"

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Reply to
Chris Carlen

... snip ...

I agree. When everyone caves in and buys these emasculated machines, they just encourage the manufacturers to save the few pennies it takes to make a real system. Same goes for desktops and for ECC memory.

Please don't remove attributions for material you quote.

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Reply to
CBFalconer

Brad Griffis wrote:[edit]

Any chance you could ask your coworker if he's used the parallel port, and what for?

Hmm, I didn't see that yet. I have about 3 of the parallel port ones :-(.

But I could order some new ones if they have USB.

It seems the cheap $345 one is still parallel.

formatting link

Need to spend $1800 to get a JTAG emulator. I'll likely do this at some point anyway, but I'd still like a working parallel port.

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Reply to
Chris Carlen

Hello Chris,

And the "permitted" ones aren't always the best deal for the job. Most folks in the corporate world spend north of $1500 on laptops, just by default. In my lab I am using a low end Inspiron for the same purpose you are planning. Ok, no parallel port (the one in the office does have it) but it was only around $500. Works fine. I am also using it for the occasional email from there, take in pictures, do audio FFTs and other stuff. I believe they offered a docking station for it with a (real) parallel port but I decided to forego that and switch my programming tools to USB so I'd be able to use them on the road.

The only downside with low end laptops is that their enclosures are often on the flimsy side.

Don't count on it :-(

Cart mounting: I found it advantageous to have a desktop bolted into the bottom. Two reasons: It made the cart heavy and lowered the CG so there is less chance of tipping. Then, they are pretty modular and sturdy. Lots of things can go wrong in labs. If the parallel port gets fried you can (on older models) just plop in a new card and be back in business.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

I use a Dell M70 for just this kind of thing - I often need a genuine parallel port for a development tool that bit bangs the port. The docking station for the M90 is exactly the same as for the M70. Some notebook docking stations use USB between the computer and the docking station. Dell doesn't. The parallel port is the genuine article. Some notebooks with genuine parallel ports have rather low drive capability (a lot of Thinkpads are like this) and some tools won't work reliably plugged into them. The Dells never give this kind of problem.

It would be great to get a genuine parallel port in a modern machine - especially a big one like the M90 with plenty of space for the socket. However, they seem to have gone completely from the market. Whether you like or hate the Dells, the reliability of the parallel port on their docking station is a major selling point for a number of engineering users.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Underwood

As a notebook computer, the Thinkpads are head and shoulders above anything else in the market. As a parallel port device they have major problems. They seem to use a weak driver for the port. A lot of embedded and industrial stuff which works fine on any desktop machine, and most older notebooks, will not work with a Thinkpad.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Underwood

Interesting. I've never had that with my M70. I just sleep, hibernate or undock the machine, and all is well. The only thing to watch out for is that things have completed before you pop the docking station off the computer. Things go horribly wrong if you don't.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Underwood

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