[Arm-netbook] ingenic jz4760 (600mhz, MIPS, X-Burst, 720p), FSF Hardware-Endorseable

[lkcl luke]

On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 1:42 PM, Gordan Bobic <gordan at bobich.net> wrote:


>  Can you elaborate how this VPU relates to the graphics subsystem on the
>  JZ4760?

 there isn't one [a graphics subsystem].  ok, there is - it has some
2D primitives.

> What about the GPU itself? Is it little more than a dumb frame
>  buffer and fully open?

 it's fully open.  and has some basic 2D stuff.  but effectively it's
a framebuffer.

> I guess what I really want to know is whether it
>  is possible to maintain the standard separation of functionality, e.g. a
>  xorg driver with xv and gl acceleration? Is there such a driver already?

 don't know.  probably not.  the potential of the jz4760 seems to have
completely escaped the free software community: it's not hard to see
why - the CPU's pretty much only exclusively available in the PRC.

 but, then again, the jz4740 i think it was ended up in the ben
nanonote, so it's not all bad.

 the opengl library... ahh, that's a hilarious one.  the tools to do
the X-Burst acceleration assembly-instructions are basically ... get
this: an awk script!  so it goes hunting through c code
(pre-processor) and substitutes hard-coded assembly instructions in
the place of core blocks of c code!

 unbelievable :)

 so, in this way, it's using the _standard_ mesa gl source code...
just put through a pre-processor "wringer" which gives a little bit of
extra oomph.  hilarious, but it works.


>  How does this compare to the Allwinner A10 on cost

 well it has to be less.  if you look on taobao.com at qty 1 pricing
you can find the CPU from random suppliers for 46RMB (£4.60) - but
that's one-off quantities!

 what that means is that we could actually buy all the parts *without*
having to go to Ingenic, design the board *without* having to go to
Ingenic (because they've already released all required information).

> and openness?

 jz4760 beats the allwinner because allwinner haven't got everything
online already available and even if they did, there's still the MALI
400MP to contend with.

>  What boards/devices are available with JZ4769?

 4760 not 4769.

 you can get MIDs on taobao.com for 300RMB (£30).

l.