Securing a SoC is Not Easy
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Securing a SoC is Not Easy
1–10 of 71 posts
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#2You know, if you feel the need to link to a post that is highly specific to a narrow field of technology, which uses a lot of unexplained terms, it would be polite to actually leave a comment to explain what the post is about.
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#3OK, following the comment below, the post is about the difficulties of sourcing a SoC (system-on-chip such as the ARM processors you find in most mobile devices out there) for a relatively small hardware project led by a small company. While we all get the impression that SoCs are so common that you can buy them from anywhere, the actual supply of these parts is an issue if you are not sourcing tons of them at the same time. And another intricacy is that the continuous supply of the very same chip is not a sure thing: suppliers move on to the next design year after year and it's another issue to resupply it over and over again over time.
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#4Woh-hold on now, I have a Pandora (though it got delivered too late for me to really use it)
Getting parts has always been a rough time!
Parallela board, the Pandora, the iControlPad2 from kick starter failed because of parts not being sourced on time.
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#5OK, following the comment below, the post is about the difficulties of sourcing a SoC (system-on-chip such as the ARM processors you find in most mobile devices out there) for a relatively small hardware project led by a small company. While we all get the impression that SoCs are so common that you can buy them from anywhere, the actual supply of these parts is an issue if you are not sourcing tons of them at the sa…
Cheers, thanks for the explanation. :)
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#6The situation for hobbyists getting SoCs is terrible - I've got a MiiPC at home that won't be getting much use because Marvell won't release any documentation on it without an NDA
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#7I've heard from a friend that for Asian companies like MediaTek, "going through the front door" is the wrong way to approach them, unless you are a very large and well-established company.
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#8I've heard from a friend that for Asian companies like MediaTek, "going through the front door" is the wrong way to approach them, unless you are a very large and well-established company. http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3040
So what is the recommended approach ? (sorry if the link you shared answers the question, i have not checked it yet)
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#9OK, following the comment below, the post is about the difficulties of sourcing a SoC (system-on-chip such as the ARM processors you find in most mobile devices out there) for a relatively small hardware project led by a small company. While we all get the impression that SoCs are so common that you can buy them from anywhere, the actual supply of these parts is an issue if you are not sourcing tons of them at the sa…
Sourcing is a better word than "securing" though the title is accurately quoted.
I thought it was going to be security related.
Re: Securing a SoC is Not Easy
#10I've heard from a friend that for Asian companies like MediaTek, "going through the front door" is the wrong way to approach them, unless you are a very large and well-established company. http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3040
So what is the recommended approach ? (sorry if the link you shared answers the question, i have not checked it yet)
The link, and indeed the whole blog, is worth reading. However, it doesn't directly answer the question. Bunnie suggests dealing with Chinese brokers who can source availability of 'cut tape', remnants from large production runs of the chip. It doesn't address consistency and reliable supply issues over a longer period of time but does allow for procurement of relatively small quantities of parts.
Bunnie also suggests learning enough Chinese to participate in what he terms the "gongkai" (公开), the quasi-open but legally murky design and production ecosystem producing much of our electronics, where documentation and specs are apparently available about as freely as torrented episodes of Game of Thrones.