[Arm-netbook] 9nov11: progress on allwinner A10

[lkcl luke]

On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 12:05 PM, wilsonjonathan
<piercing_male at hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-11-09 at 20:44 +0000, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
>
> <big snip>
>
> Not sure if this is the best thread to use, please advise if another is
> more appropriate.

 probably arm-netbooks is best, we'll live with it for now, please do subscribe.

> I've just read the first and last page of the ITWire article and it made
> me think about something related to my particular TV/Monitor.
>
> Its an LG Flatron 22" and it has a PCMCIA slot in it which is used to
> de-cript UK "top up" channels; (Digital over TV, not satellite.) via a
> CI+CAM adapter.

 ... which is PCMCIA, thus it is obsolete as PCMCIA but is still
mass-produced. (hence the reason why we chose and patented re-use of
industry-standard connectors with one of the most convoluted
clauses/claims you've ever seen in your life _and_ it's a recursive
patent to boot :)

> It made me wonder if it were possible to use a combination of your
> proprosed design and said monitor to create a computer TV.

 funny you should mention that...
 http://www.elinux.org/Embedded_Open_Modular_Architecture/PCMCIA/LCD-TV
 http://www.elinux.org/Embedded_Open_Modular_Architecture/PCMCIA/Passthrough

 since then i realised that huh, actually, you could do an
EOMA-compliant card with nothing more than an HDMI input on it!  it
would basically have the gubbins of the monitor's electronics
(brightness control, HDCP decode etc.) and would spew forth 24-pin
RGB/TTL... funnily enough that's exactly what's on the EOMA interface.

 so, taking this logically one step further, you could now plug those
"dumb monitor" cards... into a laptop chassis, or a tablet chassis...
and you've just turned the laptop into a "monitor with a keyboard",
and the tablet into a "monitor with a touchscreen".

> I'm guessing
> the TV would need a firmware update of some kind to be able to stream
> output from the pcmcia to its display although if its current design
> transfers the digital signal to it, it decodes, and then re-transmits it
> back to the TV it wouldn't be much of a change.

 yes: the logical step is to have a $3 DVB-T tuner on-board the CPU
card.  there are however a couple of problems to overcome:

 a) having encrypted video be output as 24-pin RGB/TTL pisses off the
media companies, right royally.  the solution here is: just don't
bother asking them, nor even get involved in that market.  problem
solved.

 b) getting a coax connector (external diameter appx 11mm) onto the
end of a PCMCIA-sized card is a bit... yeah, you can see it might be a
bit too large, but it's doable.  no, those tiny ones aren't
acceptable: you have to think in terms of grandma or a 5-year-old
trying to jam these in, bounce them around.  removable flying leads
aren't ok either: people lose them and/or rip them off.

> One advantage would be that its power could be drawn from the TV and
> with all the on-board connections would be rather eligant solution such
> that it may be worth contacting LG and other manufacturers for their
> take on it.

 already on it.  can't say more about it at this stage, but yes, i
have a contact who is in discussions.  they like the idea a lot,
because they are looking at getting R&D Grants, but as an LCD monitor
company they are not allowed to enter other markets...

 ... this would be a way for them to bypass that *grin* :)


>  Also it would be another line of sales, one which could be
> quite large so further reducing costs or if marketed correctly could be
> used to subsidise further developments or the standalone devices.

 nooow you're getting it :)

> Anyway, just an off the cuff thought.

 already on it jon - please do subscribe to arm-netbooks and continue
this discussion there, because we could do with lots more "how about
if..." ideas for products.

 i keep going over this and it's tricky.  do we advise them to do a
monitor that can be converted?  or, do we advise them to do a monitor
that always has an HDMI and a VGA input, if so, where do you do the
switching (RGB/TTL? LVDS?) and is it low-cost enough?

 much of this stuff we don't know because LCD Monitor chipsets, esp.
the HDMI ones, are pretty hard-core and closed.  and the ones i can
actually find are relatively expensive, making TI's TFP401a look cheap
by comparison.

 l.