

The $9 CHIP Computer Reveals Its Open Source Details - dcschelt
http://makezine.com/2015/07/22/with-linux-and-creative-commons-the-9-chip-computer-reveals-its-open-source-details/

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buserror
Olimex deconstructed that $9 computer story a while back.

[https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-
ne...](https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-news-tell-
people-that-you-will-make-and-sell-something-which-cost-you-20-for-9/)

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IshKebab
TL;DR: It's going to be $39 after the Kickstarter.

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mmetzger
For what it's worth, there's some debate about that. The creators have
specifically said "C.H.I.P. will still be $9" -

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-
wor...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-
first-9-computer/posts/1286187)

Of course, time will tell...

~~~
buserror
Well, seems they might make margin on accessory and postage etc, however, the
math seems pretty clear -- they /can't/ sell it at $9 and break even, so there
has to be a trick...

Personally, I'd rather give my money to guys like Olimex anyway -- a notch
more expensive, however these guys are /spotless/ at making everything as open
as they can, and in fact, they probably 'suffer' for it as many companies seem
to use their (open) designs commercially...

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aceperry
I'm glad to have helped fund the kickstarter. It was advertised to come with a
linux distro but at the time but they didn't have many details about that.
Glad to see that they're becoming part of the mainline kernel. Developments
like this are going to increase the popularity of linux and smaller computing
devices.

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tdicola
Wow that's awesome that they want everything in the mainline Linux kernel.
Here's hoping they pull it off!

~~~
acqq
If I understand, that would be their major advantage to Raspberry Pi? But is
the graphics of CHIP comparable to the one on Raspberry Pi?

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wolfgke
> But is the graphics of CHIP comparable to the one on Raspberry Pi?

The CHIP uses an Allwinner R8 SoC, which uses a Mali400 GPU (source:
[http://www.cnx-
software.com/2015/06/07/allwinner-r8-module-d...](http://www.cnx-
software.com/2015/06/07/allwinner-r8-module-datasheet-and-price-is-the-9-c-h-
i-p-computer-selling-at-a-loss/)). RPi uses a VideoCore IV GPU.

While there is no open source driver for Mali400 available, it has been
partially reverse-engineered (lima). For the VideoCore IV there is an open
source driver available, but the SoC on the RPi is special in the sense that
when booting the VideoCore IV is the core to start, which later in the boot
process starts the ARM core(s). On the VideoCore IV there runs a proprietary
OS (probably RTOS) that is based on ThreadX. So most things the open source
driver does are simply calls to this RTOS via a mailbox.

Nevertheless the RPI developers market the VideoCore IV GPU as the most open
embedded GPU available. Indeed it is the only one, where an official open
source driver is available and thus it is more friendly towards bare-metal
programmers that want to write their own OS. On the other hand, the RTOS
running on the VideoCore IV is a large blob in an instruction set that has not
yet been deciphered.

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makomk
That's not quite accurate anymore - there's an open-source OpenGL ES driver
for the Pi that isn't just a wrapper around the binary blob on the VPU.
However, you still need the proprietary blob in order to boot the Pi and
actually enable the display outputs, and for accelerated video decoding. (Oh,
and it has an interesting license that forbids you from using it on non-
Raspberry Pi hardware.) On the Allwinner chips, it's the other way around -
you can boot them, enable the display outputs and do modesetting and I think
even hardware video decoding with open-source code, but OpenGL ES requires a
proprietary blob. Though I think the Allwinner 2D graphics overlay hardware is
fully documented, which may be enough for some applications.

~~~
phkahler
>> Oh, and it has an interesting license that forbids you from using it on
non-Raspberry Pi hardware.

Does that mean you can't use the Pi as a dev board for the SoC and then build
a product based on that? Or I suppose you'd license the video driver when you
go to buy the SoC for production?

~~~
makomk
It does, but chances are Broadcom won't sell you the SoC either so it matters
less than you think. I expect it's mostly just aimed at anyone who attempts to
re-purpose existing hardware based on the same Broadcom SoC.

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voltagex_
An embedded shop released u-boot source. I never thought I'd see the day -
this is great news.

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imrehg
Most embedded shops release u-boot source, just not in a very usable state,
eg. based on old versions, zip package instead of version control, not
following any of the development practices or internal organization of the
original project... Same thing with the kernel. Excited to see mainline
support!

Source: working in embedded, trying to fix how we release exactly these
things.

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Quequau
I think the first time I started pushing for real version control and semi-
reproducible builds in embedded device development was in 1991, when I was
working on medical diagnostic devices. I really can not believe that in 2015
there are still places the still don't adhere to simple practises like
that...many places unfortunately.

I mean it's like wearing pants. It's fine if you do not want to wear pants at
home but once you're at work and doing something in a professional context it
seems like a reasonable minimum bar to expect everyone to live up to.

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imrehg
Haha, the pants is a great example, thanks! If I may, I'll use that example
internally, hopefully to good (and hilarious) effect!

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catern
Kind of amusing that the article explains how to set up the development
environment using VirtualBox. I doubt many Linux kernel hackers use or want to
use VirtualBox. At least, many ones working with mainline.

~~~
trengrj
I'd imagine a lot of kernel developers use virtualisation during development
so that they can still boot their machine (though they probably aren't running
Macs).

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buserror
Not ARM developers; my workstation reboots every few months, my ARM boards
every few minutes :-) That is, unless you have a qemu port for the SoC in
question.

That's also why my host /sbin/reboot is "echo Wrong terminal, you idiot"

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trengrj
Haha I generally try to colour my terminals differently to get around this
same issue.

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TD-Linux
Awesome! I would have funded the campaign had I known this information at the
time.

