Re: [Arm-netbook] Single-Core Cortex A9 1ghz, ECC DDR3 RAM available soon
On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 5:49 PM, Lennart Sorensen
<lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 12:33:58PM +0100, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
>> interesting.
>>
>> so.
>>
>> with that in mind, why has the marvell CPU been chosen as the
>> "flagship product" for the freedombox foundation to honour its
>> obligations to its kickstarter sponsors?
>>
>> so i'll ask again: with for example freescale's long-standing
>> honourable respect of the GPL, community-driven efforts based around
>> the MX53QSB, and the reasonable price _and_ the offer of discount
>> vouchers (which steve mentioned, which is what fired off this thread
>> in the first place), why has the MX53QSB not been chosen as the board
>> for the freedombox foundation to honour its obligations to its
>> kickstarter sponsors?
>
> Is there specs and source for the video engine in the MX53?
no. there isn't a single ARM SoC which has a FSF-compliant 3D engine
or video decode engine. the only low-cost SoC in the world i've been
able to find which has reasonable performance and is a generic
pipelined architecture (X-Burst) instead of a proprietary engine is
the Ingenic jz4760 (700mhz and it can only do 720p). unfortunately
the much better 1ghz jz4770 has a bloody proprietary GPU, but at least
it still uses X-Burst for video decode.
really annoying, but for video and 3D you just have to suck it up and
accept that these CPUs come with "system libraries" which are
proprietary and, as they are "system libraries", qualify for an
exemption (translation: they're "acceptable"), under the GPL.
no, i don't like it, either.
anyway, let's have a look....
corr, bloody hell this was hard to find. it should be right up there
on the overview specs, and it isn't. _eventually_ i found this:
www.freescale.com/files/ftf_2010/.../WBNR_FTF10_CON_F0702.pdf
page 19, OpenGL ES 2.0 3D accelerator (AMD Z430), OpenVG 1.1 graphics
accelerator (AMD Z160).
given AMD's ongoing policy to release free software drivers, you
might get lucky. but that doesn't mean that the _next_ CPU from
Freescale (iMX6) will use AMD's engines! if you recall, samsung
actually changed 3D engine on a minor release! the S5PC100 800mhz had
one engine, and the S5PC110 1ghz had another. complete madness.
l.
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