The embedded controller is a small microcontroller typically used in laptops for various purposes.
Supported by coreboot
Renesas M3885/M3886
These ECs are supported by coreboot. There are several versions, with flash and with mask ROMs. Only the flash versions are update-able. These ECs are Family 740 based. A development environment including compiler and simulator is available from Renesas.
Other ECs
ECs are supportable if you either have
- interface docs for the vendor supplied closed source EC firmware or
- complete docs for the EC, and docs for the hardware it should control (backlight, battery charging, power sequencing of the mainboard)
- open source EC firmware
Some of the info (interface docs) can be reverse engineered to some degree, but that is very tedious.
Embedded controller table
| Vendor | Model | Type | Architecture | Datasheet(s) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENE | KB910 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| ENE | KB926C | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| ENE | KB926D | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| ENE | KB3310 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| ENE | KB3700 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | [1] | — |
| ENE | KB3910 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| ENE | KB3920 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| ENE | KB3925 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| ENE | KB3926 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| Fujitsu | MB90378 | EC | 16bit, F2MC-16LX family | [2] | — |
| ITE | IT8500 | EC & Super I/O | ? | ? | Source: [3] |
| ITE | IT8502E | EC & Super I/O | 8bit, 8032 core (8051 compatible) | on request | Source: [4] [5] |
| ITE | IT8510E/TE/G | EC & Super I/O | 8bit, 8032 core (8051 compatible) | on request | — |
| ITE | IT8511E/TE/G | EC & Super I/O | 8bit, 8032 core (8051 compatible) | on request | — |
| ITE | IT8512E/F/G | EC & Super I/O | 8bit, 8032 core (8051 compatible) | on request | — |
| ITE | IT8513E/F/G | EC & Super I/O | 8bit, 8032 core (8051 compatible) | ? | — |
| ITE | IT8516 | EC & Super I/O | ? | ? | Source: [6] |
| ITE | IT8301E | External GPIO chip | ? | ? | — |
| Nuvoton | 87541V | EC | 16 bit, CR16B core | ? | — |
| Nuvoton | PC975513 | EC | 16 bit, CR16B core | ? | — |
| Nuvoton | W83L951DG/FG4 | EC | 8 bit, 8051 core | on request | — |
| Nuvoton | W83L951ADG/AFG4 | EC | 8 bit, 8051 core | on request | — |
| Nuvoton | WPC8765L/WPC8769L4 | EC | 16 bit, ? core | ? | — |
| Nuvoton | WPC8763L4 | EC | 16 bit, CR16CPlus core | ? | — |
| Nuvoton | WPCE775x4 | EC | 16 bit, CR16CPlus core | ? | — |
| Nuvoton | NPCE78nx | EC | ? | ? | — |
| Renesas | M388591 | EC | 8bit, 740 family | [7] | — |
| Renesas | M38867M8A1 | EC | 8bit, 740 family | [8] | — |
| Renesas | H8S/2117R2 | EC | 16 bit, H8S family | ? | Source: [9] |
| Renesas | H8S/2161B2 | EC | 16 bit, H8S family | ? | Source: [10], [11], [12], [13] |
| Renesas | H8S/2169AV 2 | EC | 16 bit, H8S family | ? | Source: [14], [15], [16] |
| Renesas | H8S/64F3169ATE102 | EC | 16 bit, H8S family | ? | — |
| NSC | PC87570 | EC & Super I/O | ? | ? | — |
| SMSC | FDC37N958FR | EC & Super I/O | ? | ? | — |
| SMSC | LPC47N252 | EC & Super I/O | ? | ? | — |
| SMSC | MEC1308 | EC | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| SMSC | KBC1122/KBC1122P | EC & Super I/O | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
| SST | SST79LF008 | EC & Super I/O & BIOS flash | 8bit, 8051 core | ? | — |
1 Previously Mitsubishi, now Renesas.
2 Previously Hitachi, now Renesas.
3 Previously National (NSC), then Winbond, now Nuvoton.
4 Previously Winbond, now Nuvoton.
Resources
Chromebooks
- The chromebooks EC firmware project
- Building the Chrome EC outside of the Chromium chroot
ENE KB3310/KB3910/KB3920
Very common ECs in netbooks are the KB3310, KB3910 and KB3920 from ENE Technology. The ENE ECs are 8051 based.
The Quanta IL1 reference design seems to use ENE3310 controller. The q1d25i.rom was examined. The EC code is on 0xFFF00000 on One Mini A110. Its 64KB big HOLE0.ROM.
More discussion and info on the ENE ECs:
- ENE KB3700 datasheet.
- eeeUser Discussion
- Memory map of ENE KB3310
- 8051 simulator
- OpenEC Firmware
- OpenEC Project
- Example code that makes use of the KB3310's "Index IO" access functions.
Renesas H8
Some ECs are H8 based.
Toolchains
TODO
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