[Arm-netbook] Allwinner VPU kernel driver crowdfunding campaign

[Erik Auerswald]

On 02/03/2018 11:26 PM, Forest Crossman wrote:
> I'm suprised this hasn't been posted here yet, considering its
> relevance to this project:
> https://bootlin.com/blog/allwinner-vpu-crowdfunding/

Thanks for this info.

> The engineers at Bootlin (formerly Free Electrons) are running a
> crowdfunding campaign to complete the upstream kernel support for the
> CedarX Video Processing Unit (Allwinner hardware video
> decoder/encoder). If you're not familiar with Bootlin, they're the
> ones responsible for a lot of the other mainlining work that's already
> been done for Alwinner SoCs, so they have experience getting patches
> integrated upstream and with kernel development in general.
> 
> They've already reached their funding goal--which includes support for
> MPEG-2, MPEG-4 part 2/H.263, and MPEG-4 part 10/H.264/AVC decoding on
> the A20 SoC--but they have a few stretch goals that include support
> for newer Allwinner SoCs, HEVC/H.265 decoding, and H.264 encoding.
> 
> Anyways, if any of you want to help fund the development of Free
> Software, this looks like a pretty good opportunity to do so!

I think that work is really important for the goal of using the 
EOMA68-A20 in the years to come, instead of throwing it away. Upstream 
Linux kernel support is important for this, as is high quality library work.

Proper free software VPU support might enable the use of EOMA68-A20 as a 
media center system, even after it is too slow for e.g. web browsing.

> For more information, see the Kickstarter campaign here:
> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bootlin/allwinner-vpu-support-in-the-official-linux-kernel

I have just backed that campaign.

Thanks,
Erik