arm-netbook August 2014

arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk

19 participants
13 discussions

discussion of operating systems on cpu cards
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 28 Aug '14

28 Aug '14

after manuel asked if it was ok to have a specific CPU Card only support one OS, i had a bit of a think about that, and wanted to run an idea by everyone. the discussion is basically "should all CPU Cards work with all base units with all OSes?" meaning that we have a *three-way* (3D) matrix of options: a) CPU Cards b) base units c) OSes previously we had discussed the idea of OSes being able to auto-download (in some fashion) such that CPU Cards could adapt to the base unit. i have an alternative idea which i think may turn out to be more workable... at least slightly simpler. the idea is quite simple: * tie the OS to the CPU Card * have the OS adapt (as best as possible) to the base unit *without* needing OS updates (as best as practical) the implications are that, for example (manuel?) the Gaming OS should adapt so that if the CPU Card is plugged into a laptop base, it should go "oh, i am in a laptop base, i have no touch screen but that's ok i have a mouse, and oh look i have a joystick rather than a set of analog track-pads". given that most games have some form of in-game configuration options for keys/mouse/joystick etc. would this be workable at all? l.

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eoma68-ic1t cpu card and microdesktop
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 28 Aug '14

28 Aug '14

ok so i sent off the funds yesterday to a company that is happy to make 5 of each, i will get acknowledgement soon and will find out their expected timescales for completion. l.

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eoma68-jz4775 cpu card
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 28 Aug '14

28 Aug '14

ok so i contacted the people on linux-mips and the planned prototype cpu card was very well received, which was really nice. they pointed out however that creating 4 cpu cards is a leeetle ambitious :) well, it can't be helped, i've been waiting for some time to earn enough money to pay for them so there is quite a backlog! l.

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microdesktop and eoma68-ic1t boards
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 25 Aug '14

25 Aug '14

ok i've received a quote from a company that is recommended by ICubeCorp, it is only $750 for 5 micro-desktop PCBs and 5 eoma68-ic1t PCBs, which is very very good. probably something to do with them being tiny boards and only 4-layer. anyway i will send them the money at the beginning of september, will keep people posted. if they are good i will use them to do the eoma68-jz4770 boards as well. l.

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[status] qimod ltd
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 17 Aug '14

17 Aug '14

i thought i'd give people a summary of the situation so far. 1) i looked up the advice on trademark invalidation: it says that you have to make the attempt (continously) to enter into negotiations. 2) the directors of qimod ltd are making absolutely no effort *whatsoever* to my efforts at negotiation. 3) the reason why not seem to be one of revenge, pure and simple. 4) due to the revenge-seeking the settlement offers received have matched the director's desires to marginalise (effectively terminate) the goals of this project. 5) the reasons for the revenge-seeking are down, sadly, to miscommunications. this is partly a knock-on effect of my working sustained and continuous 14 hour days for months at a time: pure exhaustion meant that i had to take a break. this was when the mis-communications accumulated. 6) one of the miscommunications is in the handling of the kde project. 7) the directors (myself included) made a joint - as it turned out risky - decision to let aaron handle the first critical product release, instead of going with a MEBv2. 8) as the delays turned to months, resulting in embarrassment for qimod with its suppliers, the directors made a joint decision to cancel the supply of product to makeplaylive.com and ordered them to remove all mention of qimod and eoma68 from all web sites. 9) aaron claims never to have received that message. 10) the key director (majority shareholder) of qimod FORGOT that he had ever sent that message! 11) aaron and the majority shareholder then had a conversation in which they decided that i was the sole exclusive source of all problems. 12) the directors of qimod then met and these mis-apprehensions were used as the basis of a decision to no longer trust me. so it is a rather unfortunate story involving, pure and simple, mis-communication. i am taking a multi-pronged approach to deal with this: 1) as the copyright holder of something like 95% of the material involved, including the entire text of the EOMA68 standard (with a few minor contributors), and pretty much all of the PCB designs, i am in a strong position to be able to continue the project 2) as the copyright holder of the EOMA68 standard's text, and as the only person who has been promoting the EOMA standards publicly, and *especially* as there has quite literally been no effort on the part of the qimod directors to engage in negotiations, i am in a strong position to have the qimod registered trademark invalidated. trademark tribunals take a very dim view of parties that do not engage in negotiations. 3) i am continuing to attempt to communicate with the directors of qimod, to get to the bottom of the mis-communications, and to enter into reasonable and rational negotiations as best i can. one of the (minor) directors is a lawyer who specialises in settlements: he has actually *already* given up hope as he is overwhelmed by the vehemence and venom behind the majority shareholder's words - especially i think he cannot quite believe that a friend of such long-standing should seek revenge in such a way. 4) i am also seeking advice on how a more "powerful" individual may overwhelm someone by not *explicitly* seeking their consent to become a Director of a Ltd Company... and then, based on *verbal assumption*, sign that individual up for the legally-binding responsibility as a Director of a Limited Company.... using *online web sites only*. in the background of all of this i am continuing to talk to SoC companies, develop future PCBs, find suppliers to make prototypes and talk with a reputable crowd-funding company to get the first CPU Card and first base-board out the door. the EOMA68-A20 CPU Card is paid-for and on its way (don't ask me to give timescales! :) and the other PCBs (micro-desktop, EOMA68-A33, EOMA68-jz4775) i am seeking companies to get them made. i am expecting to hear from a company on monday about the IC1t CPU Card and the micro-desktop PCB samples. so, lots going on. l.

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IC for analog and digital buttons (EOMA-68)
by Miguel Garcia 15 Aug '14

15 Aug '14

We are designing a handheld-game console (based on EOMA-68). The problem is that EOMA-68 has very few GPIO. We have 17 digital buttons, 2 analog joystick ( http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/254TA103B50B/254TA103B50B-ND/17559… ) and 2 analog triggers ( http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/EVA-W7NR04B34/P13569-ND/1135944 ). Luke will use on the tablet the next IC: PCA9536. However, this component does not meet our requirements. Does anyone know a IC that meets these requirements (at least 17 digital buttons and at least 4 ADCs)? Thanks.

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LowRISC : a CPU open-sourced down to the silicon level, based on RISC-V architecture
by Guillaume FORTAINE 15 Aug '14

15 Aug '14

http://www.lowrisc.org

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Laptop idea
by Vincent B. 12 Aug '14

12 Aug '14

Hi, What about start from a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop, that usually comes with the full user guide and parts available, design a custom PCB to host the EOMA-68 card and be compatible with the rest of the Thinkpad hardware (screen, keyboard, etc…). This would produce an EOMA based laptop, it is even maybe possible to reuse PCMCIA ports from the Thinkpad (mine has two such slots). I would be very interested because I like Thinkpads, but I'd like a system that consume much less power, and this just doesn't exist on the market yet. Cheers, Vincent

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[status] eoma68-a20 revision 2.2 prototypes paid for
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 11 Aug '14

11 Aug '14

ok so i paid for 5 prototype revision 2.2 cpu cards, wire transfer completes in a couple of days, they'll start then. am still tracking down someone to do the microdesktop pcb. l.

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Card Power Classes
by Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross 11 Aug '14

11 Aug '14

what about a standard for categorising the different cards based on there computer resources/speed. like sd cards classes. so speed class 1 if no use 2 only usb 1.* speed class 2 usb 2 less than 1ghz & less than 1gb ram speed class 3 usb 2 more than 1ghz & 1gb ram speed class 3 usb 2 more than 1ghz & 1gb ram gb ehternet ...etc multimedia class SD only capable of sd video multimedia class HD (720) only capable of HD video multimedia class Full HD (1080) only capable of Full HD video gaming class 1 old games upto games form mid 2000's etc for the question what class for video editing multimedia class full hd and speed class 5 Or what about making it only 1 class to worry about?: gaming g1 old games g2 newer games g3 lastest games multimedia mm 1 = music playback mm 2 = basic audio editing mm 3 = advanced audio editing mm 4 = sd video playback mm 5 = hd (720) video playback mm 6 = full hd (1080) video playback mm 7 = sd video editing mm 8 = hd (720) video editing mm 9 = full hd (1080) video editing generic g1 upto 6webpages at a time minamul multi tasking text documents g2 upto 30 web pages at a time g4 upto 80 webpages at a time etc This is just a suggestion on of what it might look like. What would you suggest?

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arm-netbook August 2014