Re: The idea of making the MOKO tab
Hello! On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:19:23 +0530 RANJAN infi...@gmail.com wrote: 25$ Linux computer at the size of a USB Flash stick http://www.raspberrypi.org/ http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/pcb1.jpg I am worried about the openness of this hardware. They say the following on their wiki[1]: * GPU core: [...] Raspberry Pi team are looking at how they can make some of the proprietary features available to application programmers * DSP core: There is a DSP, but there isn't currently a public API So it is not quite a fully open platform. Sounds similar to the Freerunner's Glamo chip features. [1] http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard#Components ___ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: The idea of making the MOKO tab
On Thursday 10 November 2011, SZENTE Balint wrote: Hello! On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:19:23 +0530 RANJAN infi...@gmail.com wrote: 25$ Linux computer at the size of a USB Flash stick http://www.raspberrypi.org/ http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/pcb1.jpg I am worried about the openness of this hardware. They say the following on their wiki[1]: * GPU core: [...] Raspberry Pi team are looking at how they can make some of the proprietary features available to application programmers * DSP core: There is a DSP, but there isn't currently a public API So it is not quite a fully open platform. Sounds similar to the Freerunner's Glamo chip features. [1] http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard#Components That's about all you can expect with the current state of openness on embedded GPUs. If you want acceleration you get a binary blob if you're lucky. Mostly you're just SOL. There are hints that things are moving slowly towards more openness, but that's about it. It's not much better with embedded DSPs, though Ti seem to have a reasonably open interface. Do you know of a better alternative? ___ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: The idea of making the MOKO tab
On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:44:00 + Al Johnson openm...@mazikeen.demon.co.uk wrote: That's about all you can expect with the current state of openness on embedded GPUs. If you want acceleration you get a binary blob if you're lucky. Mostly you're just SOL. There are hints that things are moving slowly towards more openness, but that's about it. It's not much better with embedded DSPs, though Ti seem to have a reasonably open interface. Do you know of a better alternative? To be honest, I was not aware about this. I thought, the lack of specifications of Glamo chip is only a special case of the available embedded GPUs. However, a possible (but more complex) alternative would be to avoid completely the existing proprietary GPU/DSP chips and make an FPGA based phone instead. Then we could use various open source hardware IP cores for CPU, GPU and whatever else is needed, similar to Milkymist, Open Graphics Project or Project VGA. That would be really cool. From my point of view a GPU is completely useless without drivers / specifications, thus practically it is not better at all from a basic VGA 2D accelerator IP core. At least an FPGA based open source IP core design *could be* improved in time without changing the PCB. Just think the possibilities. On the other hand, a closed unsupported GPU is dead from the start. ___ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
