So with this the CPU is a card that can be constantly upgraded? If that's the case, is it only the CPU, or are other parts (RAM, storage, etc) able to be replaced too? Basically, is it a CPU in the traditional sense, or an SoC card? Either way, I'm excited. On Aug 29, 2014 10:58 AM, "Paul Boddie" <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Friday 29. August 2014 15.34.38 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighon wrote: > > > > i think it was only very very recently that ingenic licensed mips! they > > have a completely independent implementation (MIPS-compliant) and > > i cannot see a chinese company taking orders from a US-based > > corporation any time soon :) > > Or even a UK-based one. As long as the PowerVR stuff isn't stuffed into > what > they're producing, they might still have some interesting products. > > > i've been speaking on and off with ingenic and they seem to have learned > > the lesson not to use proprietary non-chinese software libraries and > > hard macros (e.g. the vivante VPU / GPU), which is great. > > Indeed. > > [...] > > > um, yes it would :) and, if you look hard enough, you can find GPL'd > > schematics to create your own CPU Card later, i will be happy to > > issue a royalty-free license for Open Hardware designs (yeees it > > does have to be licensed, and yeees, it does have to be verified > > as compliant because there is the risk of incorrect implementations > > causing actual physical harm if there are short-circuits for example) > > My advice would be to try and adopt an existing licence and to be as > transparent and, at the same time, as non-threatening as possible. I think > people have seen various scary statements made over the years and have thus > probably steered clear of the initiative until now, but if you could put > everyone at ease about the licensing, I think people would be a bit more > eager > to get involved. > > I know that the initiative has produced working hardware - or that's my > impression from various mailing list messages - but I don't think many > people > are aware of that, and they maybe don't hang around for long enough to > discover it, either. Getting people to go with what you're doing rather > than > some random (and potentially non-delivering) Kickstarter is fairly > important, > but I doubt you need me to tell you that. :-) > > > so, you could start with a 2 or 4 layer PCB doing a redesign to the > > ben - very simple - and then never have to redesign the base, or > > the casework, ever again [unless components go EOL]... > > > > ... just do a new CPU card and the new Ben will always be "current". > > individuals may also choose, instead of throwing the old CPU card > > away as e-waste, to recycle it downstream. > > > > lots of benefits to EOMA68. > > I agree with all this. Given that I have yet to get into PCB design, "you" > in > the above will have to mean "people". ;-) > > > > what happened > > > > > > to those people who wanted to use the EOMA68 stuff in a portable games > > > console? Did they get beyond the CAD models for the casing? > > > > yes. their PCB designer quit so they found another couple of people. > > manuel is, amazingly, despite the delays, patiently committed to making > an > > EOMA68 games console. > > > > i even offered to do the PCB for him but he wants to encourage people to > > do it using KiCAD. > > Well, I think there are virtues in using freely available tools. I pay some > attention to various retrocomputing communities, and KiCAD appears to be > taken > more seriously in those communities now, amongst people who would otherwise > just use whatever proprietary stuff they happen to have access to. When > people > need to collaborate, they quickly find that using proprietary tools > excludes > or burdens potential collaborators, and there's a wider appreciation of > such > issues now. > > [...] > > > yes. pay day soon so i will negotiate with a prototyping company, find > > out pricing for 5 samples and get them started probably.... within 2 > > weeks. > > It's nice to see things progressing again. And I admire your perseverance > and > continued enthusiasm for the initiative. :-) > > Paul > > _______________________________________________ > Qi Hardware Discussion List > Mail to list (members only): [email protected] > Subscribe or Unsubscribe: > http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion >
_______________________________________________ Qi Hardware Discussion List Mail to list (members only): [email protected] Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion
