On Fri, Sep 07, 2007 at 10:23:26AM -0700, Shawn Rutledge wrote: > On 9/6/07, Steve <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > It may be worth talking with ATI again. Since this announcement, I > > don't think it is too far fetched to at least get the same deal you > > currently have with SMedia. I wouldn't be surprised if the people you > > were talking to had no idea this sort of thing was being planned. ATI > > may even allow the release documentation at some point in the future. > > Or just use it for leverage to get more from SMedia.
guys, as I indicated before, we already have the best possible support from Smedia. Not only have we some promises or statements, but we actually have signed a contract with them, binding them to support us to the utmost level. As indicated previously, this agreement includes a statement that OpenMoko will work on to-be-publicized documentation on the SMedia chip, which will be jointly released at some point. So what exactly is not enough? You will get 100% free software drivers, down to the latest bit, no proprietary firmware whatsoever, plus hardware documentation that will be prepared by OpenMoko ? Which part exactly are you missing? That there are no docs now? Well, there is no GTA02 hardware being shipped now either! And if the community rather wants us to finish the documentation first, and then write the driver: Please let us know. Do you really prefer to get a device that does not have any working driver at all, but with a thousand-page manual (rather than the other way around: first have FOSS Drivers, and then get the docs as soon as our incredibly small team finds time to do so)? Wrt: ATI/AMD Imageon: ATI's mobile processor diivsion is completely independent from their desktop graphics. It has totally different architecture, and the recent announcement by their desktop group doesn't have any maning about the mobile group. Also, ATI's mobile graphics are entirely focused on 2d and codec, plus they are 100% firmware based. So that means no 3D acceleration, and even if somebody ever was to write FOSS drivers, lots of code is hidden in the GPU firmware, rather than in those FOSS drivers. What I personally don't understand about this entire debate on our community list: You have very prominent people of the FOSS movement, particularly the Linux community in this project. Notably Werner and myself. Given my track history of clinging to every last word of the GPL, and my stance with regard to binary-only drivers or other abominations of the hardware industry: Why don't you trust us to do proper research and chose the vendor that works best for us, given all the circumstances? Do you think we would be foolish enough not to talk to all vendors of the respective components? I really feel personally very sad that anyone believes that I am in this project for anything else then to provide the highest level of freedom for both hardware and software that is possible. In GTA01, the only freedom related issue that we have is the Global Locate (now Broadcom). Given the start of OpenMoko (alternative software for a Windows smartphone that FIC was building) we didn't have any influence on that one. We have been trying hard to achieve a compromise with GL on the level of freedom that they're willing to provide. Unfortunately that compromise falls short of what many people in the FOSS community, including myself, deem acceptable. For GTA02, we evaluated all different A-GPS solutions on the market, and we took two of those actually in production. The graphics chip we ship will have FOSS drivers. We're working with NXP on publishing an open user manual for the PCF50633 PMU, and we already have their approval for it. We're staying with the publicly documented samsung s3c24xx CPU series. We use accelerometers with publicly available data sheets. We use a bluetooth chip with open data sheet. We use a WiFi module with GPL licensed free software driver. There is no other hardware vendor of devices with similar high level of integration that has taken openness to the degree that we are taking it. Starting with GTA02, we have a very firm openness policy for all our hardware components. Our future designs will follow the same line - and we're trying to continuously to push the borders any further. We make our position at chip manufacturers very clear. And we're having very fruitful discussions and results that I am proud of. -- - Harald Welte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://openmoko.org/ ============================================================================ Software for the world's first truly open Free Software mobile phone _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community