Salve Giovanni, *! Your hint with the Marvell chip 88W8388 from the OLPC project is very interesting.
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Giovanni Corriga wrote: > I took my references from Jim Getty's blog: > http://www.gettysfamily.org/wordpress/?p=27 > > Marvell is not in a position to open their wireless firmware as it is > currently dependent on the third party operating system kernel that they > do not own. A GPL Linux device driver for the Marvell wireless chip, the > Libertas driver, still under development but also fully functional can > be found in ourGIT tree. But the 88W8388 has an own ARM7 CPU and several serial IO so it could be added like the GSM part with a clean interface: USB 2.0, SDIO, and SPI see: http://www.marvell.com/press/pressNewsDisplay.do?releaseID=479 http://www.free60.org/oldwiki/Wifi_Adapter has some information about the 88W8388: Marvell 88W8388-BDK1 88W8388-BDK1 AGW1P .2 0530 A2P TW The 88W8388 is an 802.11a/b/g WLAN SoC from Marvell. Embedded are an ARM946E-S (http://arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM946E-S.html) core (as per the ARM Networking (http://www.arm.com/pdfs/116-4%20Networking.pdf) brochure) and on-chip memory. Together with an integrated TCP/IP stack, this allows for off-loading the host processor of protocol processing. This SoC is targeted at small-footprint devices, eg. cellular/VoIP phones, PDAs, video game consoles, etc. The 88W8388 is 88W88305-derived, as indicated below (table reproduced from http://www.clv.macnica.co.jp/product/marvell/sub1.html): 88W8388 a/b/g Package option: TQFP (No TBGA) 132pin 8x8x1 CLK Type: 19.2, 20, 26, 38.4, 40, 44 COMS & Low swing sine wave Interface: SDIO (SPI) USB 2.0 Feature/Advantage: 8385 + TCP/IP termination NAND Flash I/F Audio Codec I/F On an french page I found an enduser price for a 88W8388 of 20 Euro. Is the 88W8388 on this photo: http://wiki.laptop.org/images/1/10/Proto-a-front.jpg at the right top corner close to the two wifi conerctors, in the electrostatic shield rectangle, so with many pins and solderable with a quiet hand? ;) > We are having open firmware for the Marvell wireless chip developed by > Meraki. I don???t know yet what license that code will be released under, > though would expect it would likely be one or more of the MIT, LGPL or > GPL licenses; but we???ll have to think through the usage cases and needs > of the communities involved before we can make that choice. > > This new firmware will be distributable by anyone to anyone in source or > binary form. The existing closed firmware blob will be similarly > redistributable as soon as we finish working with Marvell???s lawyers to > get the right language on the license for it. That would be great e.g. to optimize powerconsumption of the 88W8388 and to have a more trustable WiFi solution ;) But I see some problem how to connect Wifi to the S3C2410. (Maybe only because I'm not electrical engineer or a hardware hacker...) ### External Wifi for Neo1973 ### By thinking about to connect an external USB Wifi adapter to the NEO1973 I would expect that the protocol overhead of USB will slow Wifi 802.11b 11 Mbit/s netto 50 % brutto USB 1.1 12 Mbit/s netto xy % brutto brutto: USB 1.1 + 802.11b << 5.5 Mbit/s So comparing with USB 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate (EDR): 2,1 Mbit/s brutto not so much more - not the speed, the advantage to use Wifi would be - option to use wifi accesspoints directly - greater range disadvantage: - higher power consumption. ### Internal Wifi for Neo1973 ### The Samsung S3C2410 has no USB 2.0 like the OLPC mainboard end even next generation SoC of the S3C2410 family has only USB 2.0 for a device mode (S3C2443)- not for a host mode - together with the disadvantage of a different pin layout: http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/common/product_list.aspx?family_cd=MSC0102 SPI is to slow - isn't it? To have an additional USB 2.0 controler would be expensive, complicated and power consumpting? SDIO = SD Host/MMC (Multi Media Card) Interface? So upgrade the Flash Memory up to the maximum of 1 GB and give up the SD port for the benefit of FAST Wifi? Other easy posibilities that could used for a dual use ciruit board layout (mass market mobile without and Neo1973 with Wifi)? As I already mentioned - Wlan router with USB 2.0 like the Asus WL-500g deluxe have very disapointing USB transpher rates - not the broadcom System on a chip itself has USB 2.0 - there is an addiotional controler and this is no real USB 2.0. When there is a internal Wi-Fi solution for the Neo1973 IMHO it should be a real fast one and not one with a disapointing bottle neck. I think the potential of the S3C2410 worth a deeper look: http://www.samsung.com/products/semiconductor/MobileSoC/ApplicationProcessor/ARM9Series/S3C2410/S3C2410.htm manual: http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/MobileSoC/ApplicationProcessor/ARM9Series/S3C2410/2410UserManual.pdf So again, I'm (still) no hardware hacker/developer, but I'm shure that an open Linux smartphone becomes more populare and powerfull for hackers and developers when as much interfaces as possible of the SoC S3C2410 get open solderpoints on the Neo1973 board ;) -UART -DMA -10-bit A/D -SPI and connectors for memory upgrade hacks ;) Hope that my thoughts could inspire hardware hackers and the Neo1973 team - and maybe someone with more skills could get more out from the potential of the S3C2410. Just some free lines would avoid to drill the board to get to the great IO ports of the S3C2410 :))) Or when no additional connectors would be possible, when the ciruit board would be leave free of lines over interesting connection balls of the S3C2410 - hardcore hacks could drill the board to get to this interesting connection... :))) Remember the power, the potential of the S3C2410, smartphone = mobile PC + GSM/GPRS it would be realy a pitty to leave so much communication power of the S3C2410 unused - because of a traditional phone board design Greetings, rob _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community
