[LinuxBIOS] OLPC hardware specification information

[Jim Gettys]

Is located here:

http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification

The board has started layout.
    		- Regards,
    			- Jim

[Bari Ari]

Jim,

What's the status of any legal agreements with AMD on using their BIOS 
or VSA source for the OLPC project?

-Bari

Jim Gettys wrote:
> Is located here:
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification
>
> The board has started layout.
>    		- Regards,
>    			- Jim

[Jim Gettys]

On a teleconference on March 2, AMD said that we can have/use any of
their code (e.g. VSA sources, as I understand it) that we need, and that
that code could be incorporated into LinuxBIOS.

What is more, they said that they had ensured that they owned all the IP
associated with this code since Geode's acquisition by AMD.

They also said that LinuxBIOS was now considered a peer of any
commercial BIOS and they would support the development. I know from
subsequent mail that AMD's expert on LinuxBIOS in the Opteron group has
spent a day with the Geode team to try to get them up to speed.

I don't know if AMD has a BIOS of their own; heretofore people have used
commercial BIOS's on Geode.  (says me the non-BIOS guy who usually
pushes packets and pixels around).

AMD, BTW, is one of the corporate sponsors of OLPC.  And I meet with
David Wahl of AMD later this week, who is in charge of the group in AMD
who support BIOS developers.
    			Regards,
    				- Jim Gettys
    				OLPC

On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 10:02 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> Jim,
>
> What's the status of any legal agreements with AMD on using their BIOS 
> or VSA source for the OLPC project?
>
> -Bari
>
> Jim Gettys wrote:
> > Is located here:
> >
> > http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification
> >
> > The board has started layout.
> >    		- Regards,
> >    			- Jim

[Ronald G Minnich]

Jim Gettys wrote:
> What is more, they said that they had ensured that they owned all the IP
> associated with this code since Geode's acquisition by AMD.

they really do need to fix things so that all the stuff is at AMD, not 
insyde. It's confusing everyone.

Or, we can host it at linuxbios.org, no problem there.

thanks

ron

[Jim Gettys]

Oh, and of course you know that AMD bought Geode from Nat. Semi...
    			- Jim

On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 10:02 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> Jim,
>
> What's the status of any legal agreements with AMD on using their BIOS 
> or VSA source for the OLPC project?
>
> -Bari
>
> Jim Gettys wrote:
> > Is located here:
> >
> > http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification
> >
> > The board has started layout.
> >    		- Regards,
> >    			- Jim

[Bari Ari]

Jim,

It's great that AMD stated that they have agreed to allow use of their 
VSA code during a teleconference.

Can you ask David Wahl with AMD to release all the source to the VSA 
including XpressGRAPHICS and XpressAUDIO under GPL or similar license?

-Bari

Jim Gettys wrote:
> On a teleconference on March 2, AMD said that we can have/use any of
> their code (e.g. VSA sources, as I understand it) that we need, and that
> that code could be incorporated into LinuxBIOS.
>
> What is more, they said that they had ensured that they owned all the IP
> associated with this code since Geode's acquisition by AMD.
>
> They also said that LinuxBIOS was now considered a peer of any
> commercial BIOS and they would support the development. I know from
> subsequent mail that AMD's expert on LinuxBIOS in the Opteron group has
> spent a day with the Geode team to try to get them up to speed.
>
> I don't know if AMD has a BIOS of their own; heretofore people have used
> commercial BIOS's on Geode.  (says me the non-BIOS guy who usually
> pushes packets and pixels around).
>
> AMD, BTW, is one of the corporate sponsors of OLPC.  And I meet with
> David Wahl of AMD later this week, who is in charge of the group in AMD
> who support BIOS developers.
>    			Regards,
>    				- Jim Gettys
>    				OLPC
>
> On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 10:02 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> > Jim,
> >
> > What's the status of any legal agreements with AMD on using their BIOS 
> > or VSA source for the OLPC project?
> >
> > -Bari
> >
> > Jim Gettys wrote:
> > > Is located here:
> > >
> > > http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification
> > >
> > > The board has started layout.
> > >    		- Regards,
> > >    			- Jim

[Jim Gettys]

On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 15:43 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> Jim,
>
> It's great that AMD stated that they have agreed to allow use of their 
> VSA code during a teleconference.
>
> Can you ask David Wahl with AMD to release all the source to the VSA 
> including XpressGRAPHICS and XpressAUDIO under GPL or similar license?

I meet with David Thursday.  For my own education, what exactly is
XpressGraphics and XpressAudio?
    		- Jim
> -Bari
>
> Jim Gettys wrote:
> > On a teleconference on March 2, AMD said that we can have/use any of
> > their code (e.g. VSA sources, as I understand it) that we need, and that
> > that code could be incorporated into LinuxBIOS.
> >
> > What is more, they said that they had ensured that they owned all the IP
> > associated with this code since Geode's acquisition by AMD.
> >
> > They also said that LinuxBIOS was now considered a peer of any
> > commercial BIOS and they would support the development. I know from
> > subsequent mail that AMD's expert on LinuxBIOS in the Opteron group has
> > spent a day with the Geode team to try to get them up to speed.
> >
> > I don't know if AMD has a BIOS of their own; heretofore people have used
> > commercial BIOS's on Geode.  (says me the non-BIOS guy who usually
> > pushes packets and pixels around).
> >
> > AMD, BTW, is one of the corporate sponsors of OLPC.  And I meet with
> > David Wahl of AMD later this week, who is in charge of the group in AMD
> > who support BIOS developers.
> >    			Regards,
> >    				- Jim Gettys
> >    				OLPC
> >
> > On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 10:02 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> > > Jim,
> > >
> > > What's the status of any legal agreements with AMD on using their BIOS 
> > > or VSA source for the OLPC project?
> > >
> > > -Bari
> > >
> > > Jim Gettys wrote:
> > > > Is located here:
> > > >
> > > > http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification
> > > >
> > > > The board has started layout.
> > > >    		- Regards,
> > > >    			- Jim

[Li-Ta Lo]

On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 17:03 -0500, Jim Gettys wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 15:43 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> > Jim,
> >
> > It's great that AMD stated that they have agreed to allow use of their 
> > VSA code during a teleconference.
> >
> > Can you ask David Wahl with AMD to release all the source to the VSA 
> > including XpressGRAPHICS and XpressAUDIO under GPL or similar license?
>
> I meet with David Thursday.  For my own education, what exactly is
> XpressGraphics and XpressAudio?
>    		- Jim

It for compatibility with the legacy VGA and Sound Blaster interface.
Probably we don't need them since we will use the so called "native
drivers".

We do need the VSA source for other stuff.

Dear Sir,

If you permit me answer,

VSA (Virtual System Architecture) is an AMD technology that grants the
compatibility of AMD GEODE with i386 systems. VSA is composed of
various VSMs (Virtual Support Modules). XpressGRAPHICS and XpressAUDIO
are VSMs. The following VSMs are described in the document VSA
ADAPTATION GUIDE of AMD:

AUDIO VSM (XpressAUDIO)
LEGACY VSM
PM CORE VSM
APM VSM
ACPI VSM
RTC VSM
SOGTVGA VSM  (XpressGRAPHICS)
KEYBOARD VSM
OHCI VSM
UART VSM

Thanks.

Jardel.
> On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 15:43 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> > Jim,
> >
> > It's great that AMD stated that they have agreed to allow use of their
> > VSA code during a teleconference.
> >
> > Can you ask David Wahl with AMD to release all the source to the VSA
> > including XpressGRAPHICS and XpressAUDIO under GPL or similar license?
>
> I meet with David Thursday.  For my own education, what exactly is
> XpressGraphics and XpressAudio?
>    		- Jim
> > -Bari
> >
> > Jim Gettys wrote:
> > > On a teleconference on March 2, AMD said that we can have/use any of
> > > their code (e.g. VSA sources, as I understand it) that we need, and
> >
> > that
> > > that code could be incorporated into LinuxBIOS.
> > >
> > > What is more, they said that they had ensured that they owned all the
> >
> > IP
> > > associated with this code since Geode's acquisition by AMD.
> > >
> > > They also said that LinuxBIOS was now considered a peer of any
> > > commercial BIOS and they would support the development. I know from
> > > subsequent mail that AMD's expert on LinuxBIOS in the Opteron group
> >
> > has
> > > spent a day with the Geode team to try to get them up to speed.
> > >
> > > I don't know if AMD has a BIOS of their own; heretofore people have
> >
> > used
> > > commercial BIOS's on Geode.  (says me the non-BIOS guy who usually
> > > pushes packets and pixels around).
> > >
> > > AMD, BTW, is one of the corporate sponsors of OLPC.  And I meet with
> > > David Wahl of AMD later this week, who is in charge of the group in
> >
> > AMD
> > > who support BIOS developers.
> > >    			Regards,
> > >    				- Jim Gettys
> > >    				OLPC
> > >
> > > On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 10:02 -0600, Bari Ari wrote:
> > > > Jim,
> > > >
> > > > What's the status of any legal agreements with AMD on using their BIOS
> > > > or VSA source for the OLPC project?
> > > >
> > > > -Bari
> > > >
> > > > Jim Gettys wrote:
> > > > > Is located here:
> > > > >
> > > > > http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification
> > > > >
> > > > > The board has started layout.
> > > > >    		- Regards,
> > > > >    			- Jim

[Jim Gettys]

On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 15:24 -0700, Li-Ta Lo wrote:
> >
>
> It for compatibility with the legacy VGA and Sound Blaster interface.
> Probably we don't need them since we will use the so called "native
> drivers".

Thanks.

We will certainly use an fbdev driver on the OLPC system in production
(we plan various magic which requires it); unfortunately, while there is
a fbdev driver for GX1 and LX, there isn't one yet for GX2 (ironic,
isn't it; we have a driver for the older chip and the newer chip;
sigh...).  It is on the "must implement" list.

This instant we need to find someone to hack the two drivers into one...

Anyone familiar with hacking fbdev drivers?
> We do need the VSA source for other stuff.

Yup.  That I understand.
    		- Jim

[Ronald G Minnich]

Jim Gettys wrote:
> Anyone familiar with hacking fbdev drivers?

Ollie Lo. He wrote the sis-fbdev and many other sis video drivers.

ron

[Jim Gettys]

On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 16:24 -0700, Ronald G Minnich wrote:
> Jim Gettys wrote:
> > Anyone familiar with hacking fbdev drivers?
>
> Ollie Lo. He wrote the sis-fbdev and many other sis video drivers.
>
> ron

OK, the GX1 code is in the main Linux kernel.

The LX code I gather is on the AMD web site, or so my memory is from one
of the copies pieces of mail of the last week.

- Jim

[Peter Stuge]

On Mon, Mar 13, 2006 at 06:21:11PM -0500, Jim Gettys wrote:
> while there is a fbdev driver for GX1 and LX, there isn't one yet
> for GX2 (ironic, isn't it; we have a driver for the older chip and
> the newer chip; sigh...).  It is on the "must implement" list.

A small word of warning, the durango codebase that NSC's GX1 fbdev
driver uses is some 100kb of code IIRC. It's unneccessary complicated
and should be avoided if at all possible.

//Peter

[Richard Smith]

> (we plan various magic which requires it); unfortunately, while there is
> a fbdev driver for GX1 and LX, there isn't one yet for GX2 (ironic,
> isn't it; we have a driver for the older chip and the newer chip;
> sigh...).  It is on the "must implement" list.

Jim,

A fb patch for the GX allready exists...  See below and check the
fbdev archives for the patch.  Looks like it depends on some VSA magic
though.

============================
A framebuffer driver for the display controller in AMD Geode GX
processors (Geode GX533, Geode GX500 etc.).  Tested at 640x480, 800x600,
1024x768 and 1280x1024 at 8, 16, and 24 bpp with both CRT and TFT.  No
accelerated features currently implemented and compression remains disabled.

This driver requires that the BIOS (or the SoftVG/Firmbase code in the
BIOS) has created an appropriate virtual PCI header.

Signed-off-by: David Vrabel 
===========================