[Arm-netbook] JZ4775

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

http://www.ingenic.cn/en/en/android.php?pid=96&fid=799

oo! oo! ingenic have a 1ghz dual-core MIPS that has X-Burst at 1ghz,
which could be FSF-Endorseable! they left out all the proprietary
Vivante USA-based 3D hard macros (at last). it has GbE, USB-OTG,
USB1.1 Host and is basically minimalistically-compliant with EOMA68
without needing extra components. i like it.

[Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross]

Post by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
http://www.ingenic.cn/en/en/android.php?pid=96&fid=799
oo! oo! ingenic have a 1ghz dual-core MIPS that has X-Burst at 1ghz,
which could be FSF-Endorseable! they left out all the proprietary
Vivante USA-based 3D hard macros (at last).

thats great. :)

looks like 2gb ram too?

Post by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
it has GbE, USB-OTG,
USB1.1 Host and is basically minimalistically-compliant with EOMA68
without needing extra components. i like it.

shame about usb 1.1 arr well, yee have to make do. good enough for a usb
audio interface = eoma-68 pro audio recorder.

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 10:41 PM, Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross

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Post by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
http://www.ingenic.cn/en/en/android.php?pid=96&fid=799
oo! oo! ingenic have a 1ghz dual-core MIPS that has X-Burst at 1ghz,
which could be FSF-Endorseable! they left out all the proprietary
Vivante USA-based 3D hard macros (at last).

thats great. :)
looks like 2gb ram too?

i've asked - will find out soon enough

Post by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
it has GbE, USB-OTG,
USB1.1 Host and is basically minimalistically-compliant with EOMA68
without needing extra components. i like it.

shame about usb 1.1 arr well, yee have to make do. good enough for a usb
audio interface = eoma-68 pro audio recorder.

or keyboard/mouse/bluetooth, yeah.

[Stefan Monnier]

Post by Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross
shame about usb 1.1 arr well, yee have to make do.

Indeed, looks like a very odd choice. Wonder what's the story behind
that one.


Stefan

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Sat, May 31, 2014 at 2:50 AM, Stefan Monnier

Post by Stefan Monnier

Post by Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross
shame about usb 1.1 arr well, yee have to make do.

Indeed, looks like a very odd choice. Wonder what's the story behind
that one.

best guess - and this is pure speculation - is that they developed it
themselves rather than pay license fees for someone else's hard macros
and test vectors. the test vectors are what makes these hard macros
very expensive to license. you saw that report on slashdot recently
that patent licensing is now approximately *doubling* the cost of
smartphones?

l.

[Paul Sokolovsky]

Hello,

On Fri, 30 May 2014 21:50:34 -0400

Post by Stefan Monnier

Post by Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross
shame about usb 1.1 arr well, yee have to make do.

Indeed, looks like a very odd choice. Wonder what's the story behind
that one.

Choice is obvious - it's so last-century for a USB2 to be *only* host
*or* device, because the latest USB2 standard supports dynamic role
switching, commonly known as OTG. That's exactly what JZ4775 has. As
for "dedicated 1.1 host" story, it's surely to help lazy bastards
for whom USB 2.0 is too complicated to write (steal) drivers.

The chip is cute though, and people have been wearing it on wrists for
as long as Gear crap:
http://en.smartdevice.com.cn/Products/Z-Watch/201309/26-238.html . I
doubt FSF would endorse Ingenic business model much though, like this
announcement [1] hints ("Since they will only provide source code to
“customers”..."). One can of course go and dig in
http://www.ingenic.cn/en/en/download.php?pid=857&fid=795 to see if
there's actually source, not blob, drivers for their 2d accel and video
decoder.

[1]
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/04/02/ingenic-newton-platform-for-wearables-is-powered-by-mips-based-jz4775-soc/

Post by Stefan Monnier
Stefan

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

Post by Paul Sokolovsky
Hello,
On Fri, 30 May 2014 21:50:34 -0400

Post by Stefan Monnier

Post by Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross
shame about usb 1.1 arr well, yee have to make do.

Indeed, looks like a very odd choice. Wonder what's the story behind
that one.

Choice is obvious - it's so last-century for a USB2 to be *only* host
*or* device, because the latest USB2 standard supports dynamic role
switching, commonly known as OTG. That's exactly what JZ4775 has. As
for "dedicated 1.1 host" story, it's surely to help lazy bastards
for whom USB 2.0 is too complicated to write (steal) drivers.
The chip is cute though, and people have been wearing it on wrists for
http://en.smartdevice.com.cn/Products/Z-Watch/201309/26-238.html . I
doubt FSF would endorse Ingenic business model much though, like this
announcement [1] hints ("Since they will only provide source code to
“customers”..."). One can of course go and dig in
http://www.ingenic.cn/en/en/download.php?pid=857&fid=795 to see if
there's actually source, not blob, drivers for their 2d accel and video
decoder.

i've been keeping an eye on them for some time (since they came out
with the chip that went into the ben nanonote and the incredible GBP
99 8in laptop back in 2008 what was it... achh it's pretty famous,
sold under over 30 different brands... somethingsomething 400... got
it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skytone_Alpha_400 aaawesome machine)

if i recall correctly the source code tends to make its way onto
their ftp server as a matter of course, including the 2d video
acceleration. video decoding and any acceleration is done through
X-Burst is done *shudder* as some awk scripts that parse standard
software libre c source code, converting sections to assembler by hand
(!!!) hey if it works... :)

l.