Ok, I get your point, but the Iwlwifi is quite open IMHO. I don't really trust Intel, as they may pull the documentation for future products but take a look at this:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=984&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=850&num=1 They seem quite happy, well, at least the graphics division. I think it would be profitable to talk to companies like http://www.jwele.com/ which are emerging players in the market, to whom coreboot might interest. I can try to do this, but it isn't usually easy to get the right contacts. Best regards, Tiago Marques On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 3:58 PM, Cristi Magherusan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Mon, 2008-06-23 at 13:56 +0100, Tiago Marques wrote: >> I've seen my fair share of open-source adoption, or not. As such, >> seeing the recent developments with open-source drivers in the Intel >> camp, I can say they are pretty happy with the result, everyone is. > > >From my experience, Intel only cares about the big OEM companies. > When they do give something to the community they usually give > poorly-written sourcecode that only they can further maintain instead > of proper documentation. The best example are the the ipw3945/iwlwifi > drivers for their wireless adapters. > http://kerneltrap.org/node/6650 > http://www.openbsd.org/papers/brhard2007 > >> Has it already been attempted to contact chipset manufacturers to >> release information without NDA, much like what AMD has already done >> with graphics cards? > > Yes it was, and they always give evasive answers about Intelectual > Property and external regulations that they must follow in order to > assure the robustness or security of their products. Pure bull$%!#. > >> I say this because, if they realize that by allowing open-source >> replacements for the BIOS would allow for new industry players to have >> a lower cost of entry to the motherboard manufacturing. This, I see, >> would drive chipset sales up, which is good for them IMHO. Emerging >> markets like Chine, which will start doing it anyway, would benefit, >> like the manufacturer would also. > > AMD and VIA are doing this, among others to reduce costs. Intel is just > too big for this small starting players. > >> This is something I think Coreboot should be attempting to "lobby", so >> NDAs could become a thing of the past. >> >> Anyone has any idea of how much are the costs for using Pheonix or AMI's >> BIOS? > > A few dollars per unit, i guess. I think their strong point is that they > offer support for them and make them work on new board models. > > Cristi > > -- > Cristi Magherusan, > Universitatea Tehnica din Cluj - Napoca > Centrul de Comunicatii "Pusztai Kalman" > Tel. 0264/401247 http://cc.utcluj.ro > > -- coreboot mailing list [email protected] http://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
