arm-netbook June 2014

arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk

24 participants
19 discussions

Regarding Improv, EOMA68, Free Software and Open Hardware.
by Henrik Nordström 30 Jun '14

30 Jun '14

This is a response letter to the notice just received that the Improv project is being warpped up. Only trivially editied to fit the context of the mailinglist. (inital reply was sent privately) I am sorry to see the Improv project being wrapped up but fully understand and do not come as a surprise given the discussions over last months. Just not sure I agree on the conclusions expressed in this letter however, claiming that "The Free software community does not seem ready at this point to make a concerted stand on the pressing issue of hardware freedom". The issues that have dragged this project down has very little to do with free software as such, or even the community at large. EOMA68 have been dragged down mostly by lack of resources, being founded as a garage project run on pocket money and begging, resulting in endless delays and unfavorable compromises, plus numerous issues in people relations. And in addition starting at the wrong end of the table trying to make a standard for hardware without first being familiar with hardware designs and considerations. Resulting in a project trying to make a leap before it knew how to crawl or even less walk, with a very high level of uncertainty as result. It will probably get there in the end, but getting there takes a lot of time and experience. As for Improv, by the time it entered (the hardware) it provided nothing unique that developers could not find elsewhere. Also most people in my humble opinion already had given up on EOMA68 as a serious initiative due to the numerous problems that project had already seen. I still back the basic ideas of EOMA68, but not sure about the current realization of it, aiming purely at low end market in interface specifications. Also, it has to be realized that any such specification do have a fairly limited lifespan and needs to be revised regularly, which somewhat nullifies the benefits. A project like EOMA68 trying to break many new grounds needs early adopters willing to spend both money and time on getting things finalized, and I am fully convinced that early adopters are not the ones looking for the low-end range specifications. And with such project having a lifespan covering several years (not months like average Tablet project) interface specifications need to be such that it can be suitable for wide adoption in a two to three years time when enought is in place and tested, not yesterday. For the sake of software development Improv isn't really needed, and was not needed at the time of launch. There is and was fully OSHW solutions available that covers the hardware functionality of Improv (minus the exchangeable "CPU module" part). In particular I am thinking of Olimex Olinuxino A20 MICRO (and it's related cousins), giving the same performance specifications as the selected EOMA68-A20 module, but with much richer hardware interfacing capabilities and of course 100% OSHW, by a established manufacturer who works with believes in OSHW. I have much more to say on the subject, but enough for tonight. Feel free to contact me if you want me to elaborate further. Regarding refund of my Improv "investment". Don't sweat over it. I'd rather see you focus on moving forward than how to cover the refunds. Failures are all natural path of moving forward and learning. Regards Henrik

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eoma68-a20 litkconn 68-pin pcmcia connector
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 28 Jun '14

28 Jun '14

joe: litkconn P/N is 68F, drawing DWG-PCMCIA-052, MI209. stand-off is 0.3mm (standard for the 68F P/N). l.

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DTB for eoma-a20 pc?
by Wookey 27 Jun '14

27 Jun '14

I don't see a DTB file for the eoma-pc a20 (what is the correct name for this board BTW?) in http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/device-tree/ Now that mainline kernels should work fine on this board we need a DTB. I want to try this but am just wondering if someone has already sorted a DTB before I dive in a try to make one. It's presumably pretty close to the sun7i-a20-cubietruck.dtb or sun7i-a20-olinuxino-micro.dtb or sun7i-a20-cubieboard2.dtb dtbs? Given a DTB we expect debian-installer to 'just work' already, but that needs testing. Wookey -- Principal hats: Linaro, Emdebian, Wookware, Balloonboard, ARM http://wookware.org/

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eoma and qimod
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 26 Jun '14

26 Jun '14

well, i must apologise to everyone, the effect that the situation with aaron has had on my associate is more severe than i thought, and that is actually a *good* thing rather than a bad one. the original goal - which is at the very top of the rhombus tech web site - is the one that i wish to see happen. my associates it turns out wish to make money as the absolute sole exclusive top priority and they are prepared to sacrifice all and everything - principles, ethics, relationships and more - in the pursuit of that absolute pathological goal. so the first thing that happened was that the rhombus CIC was shut down without my being informed. the second was that i was signed up as a Director of QiMod Ltd without my signature, then removed when the situation with aaron occurred. in between, the idea (suggested by aaron) was floated to use trademarking to protect the EOMA concept (and more importantly the end-users from being harmed) by mis-implementation. i've now received demands for cash up-front license fees for the EOMA concept that *i designed*, when i was planning to work profitably *with* the very people demanding those fees. this basically means that the very principles that i founded the original goal on [to bring together software libre developers with mass-volume hardware manufacturers at every stage of the product process in a mutually beneficial way] are being _completely_ violated by the associates i thought i could trust to help make them happen. so, aaron, thank you for helping to create a situation in which i found that out now, rather than later. so i'm now at a major decision point... but let me be absolutely clear: i *will not* be sacrificing any principles or ethics, and i *will* be carrying on the goal. i will be making one last attempt to make this clear to my associates over the next few days, but if they cannot understand how important those principles and ethics are then i will be forced to carry on without them. last but most important thing to say for now: to the people who have donated money over the past couple of weeks, if you would like it refunded now, please let me know. l.

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New Micro Breakout Board? How To Quick & Dirty Expose Interfaces?
by Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross 23 Jun '14

23 Jun '14

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 while I wait for the micro desktop, I wonder howto connect to the rest of the interfaces on the board. stuff wires in the pin holes? hehe The err micro breakout board will need sata replacing with usb, so there might be a new batch? I wonder how hard it would be for me to make a ultra compact breakout board for my self, a quick and dirty one off.....? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJTqHfbAAoJEOk7fWIzE1KNCNQIANlGwxjUp5dYapUsCSN5u3tU 5HegLe+vl1rwDFRdq1cpC1OtWoPzshuaHbKxcfceOLywXUAnRwBJsWKvAUaSOVNF 0ft5B7ywLk5Gy4wnolJ971QLoLV7XTmpomL/HmN4247kikUKYRpPu+0A/4ZAuDMN BGzviOZ+niM1uOAJlFnn7XoF/FriHXPWvSvxCR2zHUZ23i1WSUhh+8isB/XOylXd F8LyR1sbEVDgsCwzXfHx3xkzf7T4GQQv+9xd4++kgtXKj6UU/MQvTN/B1nm7zn0b 0Beq2cll4j9kKZbvXeURs3K7K1reDfoDgyc3I3rTc/V8Gmjl9XNSFOFzMqjIpEY= =tXfT -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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[status] EOMA68-jz4775 CPU Card
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 21 Jun '14

21 Jun '14

third one: in cooperation with ingenic we will be doing a JZ4775-based CPU Card, i have received the schematics and PCB EVB files just today, this is a dual-core 1ghz MIPS SoC with a dual 1Ghz X-Burst Vector Processor that can do i believe it's 720p video decode and 3D graphics. it's entirely software-based - no proprietary GPU or VPU - which means it will also be FSF Endorseable (hooray!). again we will follow their progress into next year's products, i would expect them to have a quad-core out that can do 1080p video decode which would be awesome if they did. power consumption is really low on the ingenic SoCs. i will put this one with 1gb of RAM. the layout of the EVB is quite spread out, but i have made some measurements and it is *just* (barely) possible to leave the DDR3 RAM layout untouched, the SoC will almost be hard up against one edge and the RAM against the other: it is going to be very tight, so there will be no extra interfaces except for an SD/MMC Card. it does however have GbE which is fantastic, and there are two USBs (one USB 480mbit/sec and one 11mbit/sec) - i will route these both to the EOMA68 interface just out of sheer peversity. more later as it happens. l.

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ARM device - compiling linux software
by Michael Howard 21 Jun '14

21 Jun '14

Looking for another ARM device to assist in software builds, has anybody got any recommendations for a capable board/device available in the UK? I have some softwares/packages (not mine) that are just not cross-friendly. Cheers, Mike. --

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status 16jun14
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 16 Jun '14

16 Jun '14

jz4775 cpu card progressing, ddr3 crammed in, gigabit ethernet 80% done, about 25 components to still place, nand routing 95% done, PMIC 95% done, RGB/TTL routing 100% done, SD/MMC 98% done, planes/power lines 5% done. eoma68-a20, process initiated to get PCBs printed (handed over to someone else), likewise micro-desktop ic1 cpu card haven't looked at it in a week (busy with the jz4775), stands at about 60% done, needs a conversation with icubecorp. l.

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micro desktop
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 15 Jun '14

15 Jun '14

http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/micro_desktop/news/ as promised the micro desktop is being developed, news and features on the page. l.

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Re: [Arm-netbook] ARM device - compiling linux software
by Erix 14 Jun '14

14 Jun '14

> > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 20:13:57 +0100 > From: Michael Howard <mike(a)dewberryfields.co.uk> > To: arm-netbook(a)lists.phcomp.co.uk > Subject: Re: [Arm-netbook] ARM device - compiling linux software > Message-ID: <539212F5.7070608(a)dewberryfields.co.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > > On 06/06/2014 12:27, peter green wrote: > > Michael Howard wrote: > >> Looking for another ARM device to assist in software builds, has > >> anybody got any recommendations for a capable board/device available > >> in the UK? > > I like the wandboard quad myself, able to run debian armmp kernels, > > seems to be reasonablly stable (i've been running the autobuilders for > > raspbian jessie on them for a while with only occasional crashes which > > I half suspect are due to my use of btrfs), has an a9 quad core > > processor, 2GB ram, SATA and serial console (full RS232 levels too so > > no need to mess arround with level shifters). I'm not aware of any UK > > stockists but mouser ship quickly and handle all the VAT/customs BS > > from their end so there are no nasty financial surprises on delivery. > > > > > http://uk.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Wandboard/WBQUAD/?qs=cF9QIdCP5siVNjY/ywr… > > > > > Hi Mike, First of all, I don't have your experience & skill, but there is something I don't understand. If you previsouly used Axx Allwinner platforms in the past for making your packages I presume you're mainly using this platform as "production" platform. So if you are turning now to a Wandboard that has a FreeScale processor how will you manage? Are you going to use cross-compiling technic? If so, how/what do you think of the Radxa mini board on thes matters? What is your opinion? It looks cheaper than the Wandboard? http://radxa.com/specification/ Sorry in advance if I'm "out of subject". Thanks in advance for your comments. Regards Erix

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arm-netbook June 2014