[Arm-netbook] updates from eoma68-a20

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

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crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68


On Sat, Jan 27, 2018 at 5:35 PM, zap <calmstorm at posteo.de> wrote:
> I heard you considering only sending 1gb of ram instead of 2gb of ram.
> I just wanted to ask, if it comes down to it, if you would be willing to
> still send 2gb of ram and have uboot preloaded even if it costs a little
> extra... for those of us who really need the 2gb of ram.

 ok, so anything that goes beyond the available budget is just.... not
possible.   a mixture of RAM ICs would require an evaluation and a
quote on exactly how much it would cost to split - and massively
complicate - both the *ordering* of the RAM ICs *and* the production
of the PCBs.

 so it may turn out that consideration of the proposed idea would be
MASSIVELY more expensive even than doing all PCBs @ 2GB of RAM.

 a way to *increase* the budget is therefore the most sensible option
to explore and consider.  translation: someone needs to find more
money.


> 4gb would be
> nice too of course, but 2gb is probably good enough as long as you don't
> use virtualization for any reason. :)

 4gb physical RAM addressing has never been possible with any
Allwinner processor, ever.  bit of an oversight on their part.


> It also dawns on me, that meltdown does not affect the a20 arm
> processor...

 correct.

> heh... :) I am grateful this opportunity even exists.

 appreciated

> Oh and for those on the mailing list who don't know this, A20 is
> apparently immune to meltdown and spectre. Because it is part of armv7.
> So yeah, that really motivates me!
>
> I still hope for better though in the future... Shakti anyone? ;)

 :)