Does anyone know of a good basic Cortex-A9 design? Something with just enough to run with power and ethernet? I'm looking for something as a starting point and maybe with eagle files.
edit: While this isn't my first time designing something. I do think I'm in way over my head still. I'm looking for something with a lot of horsepower, +1GHz. I really like the Panda board, and this would be my first choice. The only problem with it is the extras, the video, sound just use extra power and won't be used. The M3 is close in design, ie loadable via USB (SD card would be nice too). I really just looking for horsepower. I also didn't have a chip picked out, I wanted to leave that open, but was looking at the OMAP4430.
Thanks for all the input. I will likely just use a panda board unless some knows of a better design. I think the cost of eagle (full version) will put this project out of my range to prototype.
Best Answer
Are you sure you need an A9? These are not "minimalist" or "basic" chips in any way.
The PandaBoard uses an OMAP4430 Cortex-A9 chip from TI, which has 547 balls and 216 pads on a 0.4mm pitch. Can you solder this chip, and/or create a layout for it? No, the 2-layer freeware version of Eagle won't cut it, no matter how hard you try.
I don't want to discourage you on your first question, but it looks like you've jumped in over your head. I'd suggest that you do one of the following: