RE: GP2X hardware platform

["John Willis" <John.Willis@Distant-earth.com>]

Hi Lennert,

> Let's ask a different question: are there public docs for the chip?

The docs for the some of the chips hardware is commonly in the public domain
but these are not supposed to be 'public'. They have been leaked at various
points and MagicEyes (chip maker) have taken a 'Genie out of the bottle'
approach.

Open2x as a project has this documentation 'with permission' on the proviso
we do not pass it outside the project.

>From your other mail, I understand that there are binary-only
>components.  Is that because there aren't enough docs to reimplement
>the functionality, or is it because there are docs but noone bothered
>to reimplement the functionality yet?

These binary only components are for aspects of the hardware (Such as the
hardware/ARM940 video decoder) that is not covered by any 'public'
documentation. 

MagicEyes do not even provide this documentation to board integrators under
NDA. Considering what we know of the chip and interfaces to the 940 this
could be 'clean' engineered with a lot of effort but there has been little
desire in the community to undertake such work (it is something the open
source purest in me would love to do but I just don't have the time).

That also largely covers the reasoning behind Open2x sticking with a 2.4
base and not jumping to 2.6.

Regards,

John Willis