From tona_kosmicznego_smiecia at interia.pl  Fri Sep 18 00:40:28 2020
From: tona_kosmicznego_smiecia at interia.pl (Jan Wielkiewicz)
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2020 01:40:28 +0200
Subject: [Arm-netbook] Any progress?
Message-ID: <20200918014028.4c77a81a@interia.pl>

Hello Luke and others!

Are there any news about the cards?
We're slowly reaching the next estimated shipping date (30 September),
so let us know if there's anything new (I know the answer for the
shipping date is the same as always).

I also have a stupid question: would it be possible to combine the
power of several computer cards, so that all GPUs together would be
capable of running real time 3D graphics?

Also good job with Libre SoC, I look forward to see it ready and
working! Thank you for your commitment to libre hardware.
Proprietary hardware is really annoying and often unusable, especially
on free operating systems, making their adoption harder. Your work is
crucial.


Jan Wielkiewicz


From lkcl at lkcl.net  Fri Sep 18 14:08:29 2020
From: lkcl at lkcl.net (Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton)
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:08:29 +0100
Subject: [Arm-netbook] Any progress?
In-Reply-To: <20200918014028.4c77a81a@interia.pl>
References: <20200918014028.4c77a81a@interia.pl>
Message-ID: <CAPweEDx506zBEZMN_8-vgZiMSNNQi5fQ5Ub_SMnUQwDnDkAApQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 12:41 AM Jan Wielkiewicz
<tona_kosmicznego_smiecia at interia.pl> wrote:
>
> Hello Luke and others!

hi jan

> Are there any news about the cards?
> We're slowly reaching the next estimated shipping date (30 September),
> so let us know if there's anything new (I know the answer for the
> shipping date is the same as always).

i'm pinging mike to find out where he's at.  will let you know.

>
> I also have a stupid question: would it be possible to combine the
> power of several computer cards, so that all GPUs together would be
> capable of running real time 3D graphics?

as a beowulf style cluster? of course :)

> Also good job with Libre SoC, I look forward to see it ready and
> working! Thank you for your commitment to libre hardware.
> Proprietary hardware is really annoying and often unusable, especially
> on free operating systems, making their adoption harder. Your work is
> crucial.

appreciated, jan.  i got up and running on an FPGA a couple weeks ago
(Versa ECP5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QmWro9BSE

l.


From jbn at forestfield.org  Sat Sep 19 01:38:54 2020
From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson)
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2020 19:38:54 -0500
Subject: [Arm-netbook] Reminder to let us know how to help with important
	issues to you
In-Reply-To: <CAPweEDx506zBEZMN_8-vgZiMSNNQi5fQ5Ub_SMnUQwDnDkAApQ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <20200918014028.4c77a81a@interia.pl>
	<CAPweEDx506zBEZMN_8-vgZiMSNNQi5fQ5Ub_SMnUQwDnDkAApQ@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1005f228-578a-ab5d-9f0f-8df0cabdcfc2@forestfield.org>

Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> i'm pinging mike to find out where he's at.  will let you know.

I appreciate the update Luke, thanks.

As a friendly reminder: please let us know what we can do to help both with technical 
issues, time on some work that differently technical people can help with, or money.

If there's already a document listing this which I need to read, please give me the 
URL and I'll read that.

Thanks again.


From lkcl at lkcl.net  Sat Sep 19 11:06:42 2020
From: lkcl at lkcl.net (Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton)
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2020 11:06:42 +0100
Subject: [Arm-netbook] Reminder to let us know how to help with
 important issues to you
In-Reply-To: <1005f228-578a-ab5d-9f0f-8df0cabdcfc2@forestfield.org>
References: <20200918014028.4c77a81a@interia.pl>
	<CAPweEDx506zBEZMN_8-vgZiMSNNQi5fQ5Ub_SMnUQwDnDkAApQ@mail.gmail.com>
	<1005f228-578a-ab5d-9f0f-8df0cabdcfc2@forestfield.org>
Message-ID: <CAPweEDzA9t9mN-hsR0Wcb4GuxZstwpzabjs0LsW+-i1sTpLhSQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Sat, Sep 19, 2020 at 1:39 AM J.B. Nicholson <jbn at forestfield.org> wrote:
>
> Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> > i'm pinging mike to find out where he's at.  will let you know.
>
> I appreciate the update Luke, thanks.
>
> As a friendly reminder: please let us know what we can do to help both with technical
> issues, time on some work that differently technical people can help with, or money.

thanks JB.

> If there's already a document listing this which I need to read, please give me the
> URL and I'll read that.

the main thing right now i think is developing and thinking through
the DTB overlay fragments, continuing the conversation that paul
started.  also one thing that's essential is that library function
which needs to be submitted upstream to the linux kernel and u-boot to
get the I2C EEPROM ID at address 0x51 and use that to decide which
overlay to read.

so the data format for the I2C data also needs to be defined.  that
could be as simple as the USB (and PCIe) IDs.

l.


From lkcl at lkcl.net  Mon Sep 21 21:45:48 2020
From: lkcl at lkcl.net (Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton)
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2020 21:45:48 +0100
Subject: [Arm-netbook] OpenPOWER virtual coffee continues every Tuesday UTC
	22:00
Message-ID: <CAPweEDywPZq20eR08phfboY20ud8Tf=krsWFM51hXWshFXkK0w@mail.gmail.com>

with many thanks to Hugh Blemings the Virtual Coffee calls were a lot
of fun.  in LibreSOC we liked them so much that it would be a shame to
stop.

the time and day is the same: every tuesday, UTC 22:00 hrs.  this
turns out to be a reasonably sane time for both US and AU, a little
late for EU though.

it is on jitsi meet, if you would like the URL (which does not have a
password set) please email me and i will privately provide the link.

if you cannot use jitsi meet directly (web, android) there is a dialup
number available as well.

discussion is, as usual, eclectic and entirely informal.  even
OpenPOWER can be a topic for discussion.

l.


From richard.wilbur at gmail.com  Tue Sep 22 00:29:42 2020
From: richard.wilbur at gmail.com (Richard Wilbur)
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2020 17:29:42 -0600
Subject: [Arm-netbook] OpenPOWER virtual coffee continues every Tuesday
	UTC 22:00
In-Reply-To: <CAPweEDywPZq20eR08phfboY20ud8Tf=krsWFM51hXWshFXkK0w@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAPweEDywPZq20eR08phfboY20ud8Tf=krsWFM51hXWshFXkK0w@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <2B0C4E39-9C70-4C21-9B6E-DCB55A7D00A4@gmail.com>

Sounds like a neat group.  What should I study up on to get the most out of the discussion?

From lkcl at lkcl.net  Tue Sep 22 09:04:55 2020
From: lkcl at lkcl.net (Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton)
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2020 09:04:55 +0100
Subject: [Arm-netbook] OpenPOWER virtual coffee continues every Tuesday
 UTC 22:00
In-Reply-To: <2B0C4E39-9C70-4C21-9B6E-DCB55A7D00A4@gmail.com>
References: <CAPweEDywPZq20eR08phfboY20ud8Tf=krsWFM51hXWshFXkK0w@mail.gmail.com>
	<2B0C4E39-9C70-4C21-9B6E-DCB55A7D00A4@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAPweEDwE21Wu5-Q9tPMa2nBtXOUp8_fsvN91n55C2-uQ-VaGhA@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 12:30 AM Richard Wilbur
<richard.wilbur at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Sounds like a neat group.  What should I study up on to get the most out of the discussion?

computers, time keeping (using atomic clocks), radio astronomy, 6-hole
whistles, cubesat satellites, err... nothing at all that's predictable
:)  it's not that kind of formal discussion, it's intended as more of
an informal social thing.

l.


From richard.wilbur at gmail.com  Tue Sep 22 17:12:31 2020
From: richard.wilbur at gmail.com (Richard Wilbur)
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2020 10:12:31 -0600
Subject: [Arm-netbook] Any progress?
In-Reply-To: <CAPweEDx506zBEZMN_8-vgZiMSNNQi5fQ5Ub_SMnUQwDnDkAApQ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAPweEDx506zBEZMN_8-vgZiMSNNQi5fQ5Ub_SMnUQwDnDkAApQ@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <2414CCE4-4306-402C-9B55-0025088BBA2E@gmail.com>

> On Sep 18, 2020, at 07:09, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:
> […]

> i got up and running on an FPGA a couple weeks ago
> (Versa ECP5)
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QmWro9BSE

Congratulations on the success of booting the libre SoC on FPGA.  Which processor instruction set architecture are you folks using?

Looks like the toolchain for that FPGA has a free/libré license?[*]  Did I misread the Lattice Semiconductor announcement?

If it’s really free/libré I might have to save my pennies for one of those boards!

Sincerely,
Richard

Reference:
[*]  http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndKits/ECP5VersaDevelopmentKit.aspx

From lkcl at lkcl.net  Tue Sep 22 18:04:55 2020
From: lkcl at lkcl.net (Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton)
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:04:55 +0100
Subject: [Arm-netbook] Any progress?
In-Reply-To: <2414CCE4-4306-402C-9B55-0025088BBA2E@gmail.com>
References: <CAPweEDx506zBEZMN_8-vgZiMSNNQi5fQ5Ub_SMnUQwDnDkAApQ@mail.gmail.com>
	<2414CCE4-4306-402C-9B55-0025088BBA2E@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAPweEDyO4hTVLZvgVYmWezznNJW3KcLGFC4PR8_WgG-LT++Stw@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 5:13 PM Richard Wilbur <richard.wilbur at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sep 18, 2020, at 07:09, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:
> > […]
>
> > i got up and running on an FPGA a couple weeks ago
> > (Versa ECP5)
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QmWro9BSE
>
> Congratulations on the success of booting the libre SoC on FPGA.  Which processor instruction set architecture are you folks using?

OpenPOWER ISA.

> Looks like the toolchain for that FPGA has a free/libré license?[*]

yes.  nextpnr5, developed by daveshah and others.  yosys talks to
that, through something called trellis.

>  Did I misread the Lattice Semiconductor announcement?

no - the *lattice* toolchain is proprietary.

> If it’s really free/libré I might have to save my pennies for one of those boards!

nextpnr5 is a bitch to compile because it uses python-boost by
default.  all you need do there is compile "--disable-boost
--disable-python" or something like that, you'll have to investigate,
and you get a non-GUI toolchain (you don't need or want the GUI
anyway).


i recommend getting both the ulx3s https://www.crowdsupply.com/radiona/ulx3s

*and* also the VERSA-ECP5
https://nl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Lattice/LFE5UM-45F-VERSA-EVN

the reason is because the VERSA-ECP5 has a 1 gigabit DDR3 IC on it,
plus some other stuff that the ULX3S doesn't have, *but* the ULX3S has
an SDRAM IC which is a lot simpler, is SDR, and so we can sort-of test
against that and then have reasonable confidence that the ASIC will
work.  ULX3S also has an SDcard slot on it.

l.


From lkcl at lkcl.net  Tue Sep 29 22:59:03 2020
From: lkcl at lkcl.net (Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 22:59:03 +0100
Subject: [Arm-netbook] OpenPOWER virtual coffee continues every Tuesday
	UTC 22:00
In-Reply-To: <CAPweEDywPZq20eR08phfboY20ud8Tf=krsWFM51hXWshFXkK0w@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAPweEDywPZq20eR08phfboY20ud8Tf=krsWFM51hXWshFXkK0w@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAPweEDyqcOVvRVJqxRq8qyA48hUoYmu+NqZ47KtDAp2yHxR4MA@mail.gmail.com>

is on, now...
l.