On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 8:48 PM, Jordan Crouse <jor...@cosmicpenguin.net> wrote: > Edward Cherlin wrote: > >> National Semiconductor, which bought the line from Cyrix. I edited >> several of the pin- and register-level manuals for various chips for >> them more than ten years ago, and updates of my work are still online >> on the AMD Web site. OLPC has educated AMD on how to use the >> power-management registers to do things that nobody previously knew >> were possible. > > AMD may have made some odd decisions over the years, but they don't deserve > the kicking they are getting. AMD gave OLPC unprecedented access to the > combined software and hardware expertise for the Geode - AMD didn't have to > be so open and OLPC didn't ask for it. The AMD engineers (and there were > many, many more than I) worked hand in hand with the OLPC designers from the > beginning, long before virtually everybody on this mailing list or in the > IRC room had jumped on the bandwagon. I was fortunate to be working with > brilliant developers such as Mark and Mitch who were able to read datasheets > and ask interesting qeustions, and they were fortunate to be able to have a > nearly direct connection to the silicon designers that designed the part. > > AMD and OLPC educated each other
My point. I took it as obvious that AMD had to teach OLPC about the Geode processors, and commented that OLPC also found some other things in addition to what they were taught. > - and the result was arguably the most open > processor in history on one side, and a little green machine on the other. > So I take exception to the idea that AMD was the bumbling fool in this > partnership - Which is not what I said. I know something about combinatory mathematics, and a good deal about the definitions of the Geode registers, and I think it would have been astounding if OLPC had not found combinations and sequences with new uses. I am also well aware that AMD contributed greatly to the design of the XO, as did Red Hat and Quanta. I am also aware that power management design and implementation is nowhere near finished. > that is an unfair characterization, and an insult to the AMD > engineers that spent a lot of hours reviewing schematics, looking at USB > debug traces and writing code - much of which is still running on the system > to this day. > > Jordan -- Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name And Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai (Ed Cherlin) _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel