Sony NW-A808 Port

Sony NW-A808 Port

This is a pre-development, no code is actually written and it is not certain if it is even possible to port the player to Rockbox.

Player Overview

Info about the player can be found here:

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProductCategory.action?site=odw_en_GB&category=NWS+A+Series

The player is running a modded Linux kernel (2.6.10) on a NEC MP201 Processor, which has an ARM processor in it.

Manuals

User manual:

https://www.rockbox.org/realwiki/pub/Main/SonyNWA808Port/2896040141.pdf

Service manual:

https://www.rockbox.org/realwiki/pub/Main/SonyNWA808Port/NW-A808.pdf

As seen in the service manual, there are wiring diagrams and description of all components. It also reveals that NWZ and NW series uses the same hardware.

Software overview

The player is running a modified linux kernel (2.6.10) running on a FAT filesystem. Sony has released the development tools they have used and a kernel, which is modified to be used with the MP201. The boot loader is U-boot v1.1.1, which is also modified with code for the MP201.

http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/NW-A808_NW-A808_S_NW-A806_NW-A805_20070829.html

Hardware overview

From the service manual the following is found:

SYSTEM CONTROLLER, POWER CONTROL, LCD DRIVER, NAND FLASH INTERFACE, MS INTERFACE, SD-RAM INTERFACE IC601

This is the MP201 from NEC, packaging says MC-10051F1.

http://www2.renesas.com/mobile/en/emma_mobile/mp201.html

No public documentation on this, except what is found in source code on Sony's website.

USB CONTROLLER IC501

This usb controller is the Seiko Epson USB2.0 device/host controller S1R72V17

http://www.epson.jp/device/semicon_e/product/interface/index.htm#ac03

https://www.rockbox.org/realwiki/pub/Main/SonyNWA808Port/S1R72V17_DB.pdf

Little public documentation on this.