Board.KolibriOS.org

Jacky Tsai (RDC Semiconductor) wrote:Dear Yogev,

Actually, we are considering your suggestion. Could you let me know
, in you system w/t KolibriOS, it skipped BIOS and used Boot Loader or
still used BIOS ?!

Our RD are very interested in your solution. Whether it is possible
to provide a Binary code for us to test it on our platform ?! We also
have some proposals to support you on GPU :

1. you visit RDC, our RD could give you a face-to-face training.
2. Provide Linux reference source code
3. Provide a data sheet— it will need some time to prepare because it was not a product.


For item2, 3, we will provide a RD contact window for consult.
Which one you prefer, or if you have any comment, please feel free to let me know.
Have a nice day !

yogev_ezra wrote:Dear Jacky,

Right now KolibriOS still needs to use BIOS. But we can work to add CoreBoot support to KolibriOS (this is a freeware open-source BIOS that replaces the standard BIOS), and then KolibriOS can be loaded directly from CoreBoot, and reside inside the BIOS Flash ROM chip, so you do not even need to provide external storage. This can lower your BOM cost very much, because you do not need to pay for AMI BIOS / Award BIOS and can install KolibriOS without any storage.

If you are willing to provide us 2-3 free samples of development board using RDC IAD100 PD or IAD 100 PE, and can supply us your NDA datasheet for this system, then we can make CoreBoot support for your platform, and make KolibriOS boot from inside Coreboot without need for factory BIOS.

You can try KolibriOS now, please follow these instructions to boot it from SD card or USB memory stick:
http://www.deviceonchip.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=85
Those are instructions for DMP Vortex86MX CPU, but since a lot is similar between DMP and RDC, I think it will work.
If you engineer is having difficulty to install KolibriOS, then you can pass him my e-mail address and he can contact me directly.

Regarding your suggestions:

1) Is not possible, we have about 30 active developers, and each of them is located in other place of the World (Russia, Ukraine, England, Israel, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan etc.) so it's not feasible for us to visit your offices

2) We have the old Linux M2010 reference source code, provided to us by DMP, so if you have newer source code, we would appreciate to receive it, but this is not enough for us, as we need to have the registers map with the description of bit fields - to make the most processing power out of your GPU. Because as I mentioned earlier, we use Assembly language to write the OS (FASM), so we talk directly to the hardware, without any abstraction layers, this is why we need more information that Linux would need.

3) The datasheet seems like the best option in our case, but I think you have the R3308 + C6037 datasheet ready, because companies like Timespad are already starting to make notebooks based on your platform, so they got to have the datasheet from you? I was in contact with Timespad CEO a few months ago regarding your IAD 100PE platform, and they have the documentation from you but they cannot send it to me because of the NDA. So if I sign the same NDA as them, can I receive the same documents as them?

Best regards,
Yogev Ezra
Green Gadgets Ltd

Jacky Tsai (RDC Semiconductor) wrote:Dear Yogev,

Thanks for your effort to explain for us in detail.
Our Engineers are following your comment to try the OS, please
Give us more time to double confirm it. Any update, I will let you
know.

About the data sheet, we still have more concerns. As we know
no GFX card company will provide detail GPU register data sheet
for customer, no matter nVidia, ATI or VIA, because it is easy to be
spread.

Another issue is, maybe it could not help you anything after you
get it. We have ever released once before. But the customer was not
familiar with our HW architecture, so they didn’t have any idea even
if they got it. It is why we asked a face-to-face training.

Maybe you could told me which portions you concerns, and we could
Based on your questions has Q&A. How do you think ?

Any question, please feel free to let me know. Thanks a lot !

yogev_ezra wrote:Dear Jacky,

Following our phone call, please check this issue internally and let me know.
We are not asking any money to port our OS to your platform - just a datasheet.

BTW, AMD (owner of ATI) are already cooperating with us, they have provided us all the required information.
So we have ATI driver working in the system already, and it's much better than VESA driver.

Yogev

Jacky Tsai (RDC Semiconductor) wrote:Dear Yogev,

We very appreciate to your passion on our platform.
After internal discussion, I will feedback to you as soon as possible.
Have a nice day !

yogev_ezra wrote:Dear Jacky,

Can you please update me regarding your decision? Will you release the datasheet under NDA?
Also, did your engineers manage to install KolibriOS on your system, and how is your experience so far?

Many thanks in advance,
Yogev

Jacky Tsai (RDC Semiconductor) wrote:Dear Yogev,

Our engineer has installed the OS on our platform successfully.
It is very impress, on boot time and small size. But it is still lack of
popular AP. I think it is suitable to special and turnkey applications
but not to general customers.

Now, we are asking a comment from DMP because they are our
ASIC customer, they have a right on GPU IP. Any update, I will
let you know. If you have any comment, please feel free to let me
know. Thanks a lot !

art_zh, полгода назад wrote:Пожалуйста не принимайте мою прямоту за резкость,
но мне кажется,
что выбранная Вами платформа является малоперспективным и очень маргинальным сектором в мире х86-систем.

Serge wrote:Спасибо, посмотрел доки. И чего им так шифроваться ? Ничего сверхсекретного там нет.

Serge wrote:Попробую для начала сделать курсор. Какой чип на eBox ?

Serge wrote:У второго больше возможностей по выводу видео. Значит нужен драйвер на оба чипа ?

CleverMouse wrote:SVN r4444: speedup software blitter for 32bpp modes
SVN r4453: hardware cursors for RDC M2010/M2012

Filled Rectangle, 100x250 px: увеличение скорости в 2 раза
Picture for Blitter, 90x123 px: увеличение скорости в 4.5 раза
Single pixel: очень незначительное уменьшение скорости
Get a piece of screen GS, 90x123 px: без изменения
В остальных тестах - прирост на 10%-40%