the same kernel and file system works on another evaluation board, but not this redesigned board,

Q1: attempt to access beyond end of device,
is this an real error

Q2: mtdblock5: rw=0, want=5898330, limit=131072
Buffer I/O error on device mtdblock5, logical block 2949164
is this SW or HW error ?

here's the message output ----------------

atmel_mci atmel_mci.0: Atmel MCI controller at 0xfff80000 irq 11, 1 slots
atmel_mci atmel_mci.1: Atmel MCI controller at 0xfffd0000 irq 29, 1 slots
md: Waiting for all devices to be available before autodetect
md: If you don't use raid, use raid=noautodetect
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: Scanned 0 and added 0 devices.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
EXT3-fs: barriers not enabled
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs (mtdblock5): using internal journal
EXT3-fs (mtdblock5): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) on device 31:5.
Freeing init memory: 152K
attempt to access beyond end of device
mtdblock5: rw=0, want=5636098, limit=131072
Buffer I/O error on device mtdblock5, logical block 2818048
attempt to access beyond end of device
mtdblock5: rw=0, want=5898330, limit=131072
Buffer I/O error on device mtdblock5, logical block 2949164
attempt to access beyond end of device
mtdblock5: rw=0, want=6422626, limit=131072
Buffer I/O error on device mtdblock5, logical block 3211312
Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/init.txt for guidance.
[<c0039d78>] (unwind_backtrace+0x0/0xec) from [<c033f668>] (panic+0x54/0x178)
[<c033f668>] (panic+0x54/0x178) from [<c002e5cc>] (init_post+0xa0/0xc4)
[<c002e5cc>] (init_post+0xa0/0xc4) from [<c0008444>] (kernel_init+0x10c/0x148)
[<c0008444>] (kernel_init+0x10c/0x148) from [<c00355f8>] (kernel_thread_exit+0x0/0x8)

A1: Yes, this is a real error.

A2: It seems like a software problem. For some reason, the file system on your device has references to non-existing blocks (past the end of the device).

Either the file system or partition table is corrupt, or the kernel mistakenly believes that the device is much smaller than it really is. As you can tell from the error message ("mtdblock5: rw=0, want=5898330, limit=131072"), there is a file system reference to block 5898330, while the kernel believes the last valid block to be 131072.