Post by r***@Safe-mail.net-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Arm-netbook] sifive sells a riscv cpu mainboard
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2018 18:49:36 +0100
Post by Jonathan NeuschäferPost by r***@Safe-mail.netSifive has a mainboard for sale with a running riscv cpu. Many
of the devices on the mainboard require non libre software.
http://youtu.be/LAA1B5QNbO8
What do you mean exactly?
I do not know exactly what I mean. Go to 31.20 in the video
to hear what sifive means.
"As I told you, the Freedom Unleashed 540 chip is based on the Freedom
platform, but unfortunately, there are things that we can't open-source,
for example the IPs that we got from the third-parties, such as the
standard cells, the pads, the PLLs, the OTPs, the mask ROMs, the DDR
controller PHY, the gigabit MAC."
This is all hardware, not software.
Post by r***@Safe-mail.netCan you tell if the mainboard is free software foundation
compliant?
As far as I understand, yes.
Post by r***@Safe-mail.netIf that is the case, I understood the video wrongly. I got
the impression the mainboard requires non libre software
to run. Software which makes the mainboard not free
software foundation compliant.
At 43.39 in the video they say, they are using an
external non libre software graphics card. If we got
all of the source code for one of the mali gpu's,
could the aforementioned gpu then be used on
a riscv mainboard?
This was a regular desktop graphics card, connected over PCIe.
Post by r***@Safe-mail.netOr in general, can you place a mali gpu on a riscv mainboard?
No, MALI is (AFAIK) not available as a separate chip, so you can't put
it on a board if the SoC doesn't already have it.
And since it's ARM MALI, I don't think ARM will license it for use in
RISC-V SoCs…
Jonathan Neuschäfer
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