Hardware documentation
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[edit] Overview
Both the GP2X Wiz, and Caanoo, are based around a MagicEyes Pollux SoC (system-on-a-chip). This integrates most of the required processing hardware into one convenient package, including CPU, NAND/SD interface, USB and video signal generation.
[edit] Pollux
The main chip in the Wiz is the Pollux, also known as the LF1000 used in the Leapfrog Leapster machine. Full hardware documentation has been leaked by various individuals since the Wiz release.
[edit] CPU
The only CPU in the Wiz is the ARM926TEJ-S (ARMv5) found within the Pollux. This is by default clocked at 533MHz, though altering the clock speed is possible in software to under-or-overclock with little risk.
[edit] MLC
The MLC, or Multi Layer Controller, is the part of the Pollux which assembles image data into the final stream sent to the display via the DPC. There are two MLCs, which allows for TV-out displaying a different image to the built-in display.
It provides two RGB layers (supporting a wide variety of colour formats, including indexed ones), and a single YUV 420 video layer. The layers can be resized, and moved around the screen freely, and the video layer can be placed either above, between, or below the RGB layers. Hardware alpha blending is supported between the layers, and on the RGB layers, colour-key-masking can be utilised to give transparency or inversion. The video layer can scale its source image, and optionally apply a bilinear filter.
[edit] 3D
3D hardware is provided, and can be accessed through the closed-source OpenGL ES 1.1 Lite implementation provided by MagicEyes, or directly (the basics of the hardware have been reverse engineered, and it is now known how to render transformed, textured polygons, but this is a work in progress).
- See 3D Hardware
[edit] RAM
64MB RAM in the Wiz, 16MB of which is reserved for framebuffers, sound buffers, and the 3D hardware. See: memory map. 128MB RAM in the Caanoo.
[edit] Screen
The Wiz uses a Taiwanese C0283QGLC-T 2.8", 320x240 AMOLED module. This is driven by a Samsung S6E63D6 display driver, which in turn receives data from the Wiz. The screen has a resistive touch overlay, which is connected directly to the Pollux. Display backlight is connected to PWM0 on the Pollux: setting the timings for this will alter the brightness.
The Caanoo is rumoured to use a 3.5" LCD, which may be the same or similar to that of the GP2X F200.
[edit] Controls
The Wiz controls are connected to GPIO lines on the Pollux. To access the data, you need to read from the appropriate GPIO port, and apply a mask to check each individual button.
[edit] EXT
The EXT port is the same on the Caanoo and Wiz. It uses a Samsung phone connector, and is used to charge and connect the devices to a PC in order to use USB networking, or to transfer files. It also provides two UART ports, JTAG, TV-out, and USB host. A full, confirmed pinout is not yet available though most of the pins have been identified.
