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

[lkcl luke]

On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 8:14 AM, Jacky Lau <i90091e at gmail.com> wrote:
> With the power of open source community, you can run a fabless company
> by one million U.S. dollars per year.
> For cost down, you can employ mips cpu core, vivante gpu, ceva vpu,
> and I/O controllers from opencores.org.
>
> If you want more open, you can employ openrisc1200 cpu core[1],

> ORSoC gpu[2]. They're full open sourced.

 holy shit.  Created: Mar 22, 2012.  i last checked in january.  i'm
deeply impressed.

> Maybe you can find some useful video codec ip core from opencores.org
> too. All you need to do is integration,
> verification and writing drivers.

 i believe that a large enough SIMD instruction processing unit should
help do the job, there.

> I do not know how the performance of the ORSoC GPU is, but the
> performance of or1200 is arm9 class.

 yehh, that's the issue: unless this stuff has been designed with
extreme care there's a risk of wait-states that simply won't go beyond
a certain speed no matter how small the geometry.  this was the
problem with the original arm7, arm9 and arm11 designs and was why
intel did a total re-implementation of the ARM instruction set for the
PXA series (then sold it to marvell).

> If you
> want a a9 class cpu core, beyond semiconductor provide Beyond BA14 cpu
> core[3]. But it's not open sourced.

 still fascinating that a commercial product has wishbone compliance.

> It's reasonable, because a good micro architecture need many people,
> time and $ to design and implement.

 yes.

> There is another option, license a MVP cpu core from ICube tech[4].

 we're in contact with ICube Tech.  we've advised them on a future SoC
and on the market situation, and they are now considering to do a 28nm
quad-core SoC within 15-18 months that will be future-proof for
several years after the time that it comes out.

 also what's absolutely amazing about this SoC is that it is FULLY
FREE SOFTWARE COMPLIANT.  as in EVERYTHING will be fully
software-programmable.  this is the one where they've ported open64 to
their architecture.

 what's nice is that they're really excited by the possibility of
working with software (libre) developers.

 but - this is at least 18 months out.


> The MVP cpu core is designed for do cpu,
> gpu, vpu job in single core. After license the MVP cpu core, all you
> need to do is integrate the I/O controllers
> and write code. Soc developer is more different to find than software
> developer and Soc development need many
> people, time, & $. If one core can do three cores' job, the power
> consumption and cost will be lower.

 yes.  this is how tensilica have ended up selling 1.5 billion
licenses because their design (and matching compiler) has unrivalled
performance.

> And you
> can do more innovation on the programmable cpu core. They had told me
> that their customer will ship a product
> this month.

 that would be good.  actually, it would be excellent, because it
would be a starting point for a low-cost dev kit for their next
generation CPU.

 thank you jacky!

l.

> [1] http://opencores.org/openrisc,or1200
> [2] http://opencores.org/project,orsoc_graphics_accelerator
> [3] http://www.beyondsemi.com/page/products/processor_cores/beyond_ba14_processor
> [4] http://www.icubetech.com.hk/home.php?lang=en&&
>
>
> 2012/6/26 lkcl luke <luke.leighton at gmail.com>:
>> On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 2:34 AM, Tom Cubie <mr.hipboi at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 2:32 AM, lkcl luke <luke.leighton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 6:27 PM, Alexey Eromenko <al4321 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > Hi All !
>>>> >
>>>> > I have read from other thread, that Freescale iMX 6 provides better
>>>> > access to docs than Allwinner does.
>>>>
>>>>  yes - but so what?  you're not comparing like with like.  imx6 has
>>>> great docs, but no silicon yet.  allwinner has an A10 CPU (Cortex A8)
>>>> that has been shipping in huuuuge volume for over a year.  freescale
>>>> are a U.S.-based corporation that anyone could sue the pants off and
>>>> impound all product _and_ get them in court; allwinner are a PRC-based
>>>> company where compliance with copyright, trademarks and patents are
>>>> pretty meaningless (*1).
>>>
>>> Sigh, this becomes an advantage.
>>
>>  yes.  unfortunately :)  it saves both time and money on the part of
>> the SoC vendor.  i'm still trying to get my head round a strategy to
>> leverage proper (and ultimately full) GPL compliance out of PRC SoC
>> vendors.
>>
>>  l.
>>
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