Novena PVT / Senoko DVT

This post is coming to you from Novena PVT, running off of Senoko PVT on battery.

In engineering, there are several different versions of pre-release hardware. Novena itself has gone through three: EVT (engineering verification test), DVT (design verification test), and PVT (production verification test).

The first revision was very rough, and required several modifications to fix various problems. We weren't sure what we wanted to do with it, so it had a few unusual features. For example, we had a Raspberry Pi-compatible header on the board, and we weren't sure what to do with the LCD connector.

The next revision was EVT. This was the first release with the current high-speed FPGA connector, which we used to do our SD card work. We also finalized the LCD connector. We still had a few more bugs to suss out, for example USB boot didn't quite work, and the realtime clock needed a hardware patch.

Now we're on PVT. We're starting to use it extensively. Changes include a redesigned battery board connector, which allows the power management peripherals to be directly available to the main board.

Along with Novena PVT, we've done a spin on the battery board, codenamed Senoko. It's now on DVT, and has been redesigned quite a bit. It's now more stable, and presents the battery charger and gas gauge directly to the mainboard. As a result, we can measure the battery runtime and capacity without writing any drivers.

There's still a lot to do. We still need to work on video, suspend/resume, and several other areas of interest. Overall, the board is coming along nicely. Well enough that we're using it in our day-to-day activities. With the changes that PVT and DTV bring, we have even more reason to use this platform more often.