[Arm-netbook] Any ARM SoC has Open-Source access to hardware video decoder ?

[lkcl luke]

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 3:03 PM, Iain Bullard <iain.bullard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2 July 2012 14:00, lkcl luke <luke.leighton at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 5:21 AM, Michael Zucchi <notzed at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 02/07/12 00:34, Alexey Eromenko wrote:
>>>> While I agree that 3D is nice, the use-cases for it are limited.
>>>> Much more needed is the VPU stuff (hardware video decoder), more than GPU (3D).
>>>> Once any SoC will do VPU, it will become so much more useful...
>>>
>>> What's this obsession with video decoding?
>>
>>  given that ARM SoCs are not powerful enough to do this level of
>> processing on its own, you can't sell a mass-volume product that
>> doesn't have acceleration.
>>
>>  btw - there are companies in taiwan that use 300mhz MIPS-based CPUs
>> with decoders that scream along.  their OS?  GNU/Linux.  have these
>> companies taken legal advice on tivoisation? yes.  do they even want
>> you to *KNOW* that they are using GPL source code? no.  do they
>> consider it a failure that you even find out? yes.
>>
>>  these products are sold in volumes of hundreds of millions of units.
>> they're called TVs.  they run GNU/Linux.  you didn't even know that
>> they're running GNU/Linux, and the companies that manufacture the TVs
>> *DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT*.
>>
>
> You know my LG TV (that I bought a month or so ago) came with a
> booklet that contained a list of the free software sources which it
> makes use of, the list was quite long and definitely included Linux.

 superb.  so the Software Freedom Law Centre's quiet work of the past
18 months has paid off.  that's really really good to hear.

 ... actually, tell you what: does it say which CPU is in there?  it
should be evaluated for use in an EOMA product.  *especially* if full
sources are available.

 also can you either photocopy, OCR-scan or just type out the list of
software sources?  they should be evaluated properly.  the critical
one is going to be the boot-up system, the kernel and if it's a weird
CPU the toolchain.

 if they're still doing tivoisation then of course it's all moot: that
also needs to be evaluated.

 many many thanks,

 l.