Quote:
Originally Posted by dagero
The ARM11 core has two SD/MMC/SDIO interfaces. It would make sense that either the controller is compatible with all of the protocols and not just eMMC. Besides, the SanDisk iNAND chip doesn't mention anything about eMMC, just SD.
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It is a iMX353 which has 3 MMC/SD/SDIO interfaces.
The Samsung MoviNAND follows the eMMC standard which just gives you MMC. eMMC doesn't do the extra SD features. Whilst the controller supports SD, you don't know how the bootloader is configuring the controller. It might be doing 8 bit mode which MMC supports but SD doesn't.
Also the CPU runs at 1.8V and the MoviNAND chip can be set for 1.8V IO as well. The SD standard states 3.3V for all cards whilst the MMC standard allows optional 1.8V operation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagero
I believe Kindle uses first one for the iNAND and second for the keyboard as an SDIO
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The keyboard is connected to the built in iMX keypad interface not SDIO.
One of the SDIO interfaces is used for the WiFi chip which is built into the main Kindle board. It is an Atheros AR6102G which has a SDIO interface.
The 3G module if you have one is connected via the USB host controller.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagero
Kindle boots -> ARM11 processor boots -> The processor loads the U-boot from it's boot program storage -> U-boot loads linux kernel from SD-card -> Linux-kernel and it's drivers boot. Or maybe the processor has some bootloader X which loads the U-boot from SD-card. But in any case the U-boot configuration is stored somewhere and since the configuration parameters can be saved from within the U-boot, I don't think the U-boot modified the processor's boot program storage data.
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There is a bootstrap ROM inside the CPU but that is fixed by Freescale. The strapping pins on the CPU determine how it boots and one of the options is to boot from a MMC/SD card on a SDIO interface.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagero
The SD-card slot part of the project would be just to keep my mind from worrying about killing the flash with excessive usage. The card isn't meant to be hot-swappable.
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You'd have to do a lot of writes to the whole flash to wear it out as the controller inside the flash package will be doing wear leveling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagero
I've not read about any encryption keys. Would you mind sharing? What little I've studied the Amazon-provided Linux kernel source code, there is a board ID which can be read and written, but something is encrypted as well?
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The Kindle has crypto keys to verify that updates are valid. The current DRM scheme relies on a symmetric cipher but I've not looked it really so there may be more complicated parts of that system.
If you get a 1.8V (maybe) MMC card that is exactly the same size or larger and then do a complete copy from the internal flash to the card preserving everything then you should be able to swap it...