Crowdfunding the Novena Open Laptop • Hacker News Board

Re: Crowdfunding the Novena Open Laptop

#71

Post by npsimons » Thu, Apr 03, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #58

storborg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct, the 4GB SD card is mostly about having a quick start ready-to-roll image.

Bootstrapping SoCs gets really tricky when you don't have a JTAG device. The newer chips that let you boot directly from SD have been a great leap forward in development speed.

So wish I could upvote you multiple times. People these days are spoiled with their precompiled ROMs and precompiled software that runs on mainstream desktops to load those ROMs over universal standards (USB). Even with JTAG embedded programming was a PITA.

Re: Crowdfunding the Novena Open Laptop

#72

Post by joezydeco » Thu, Apr 03, 2014, 4:11 PM UTC

npsimons wrote: post #71

joezydeco wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bootstrapping SoCs gets really tricky when you don't have a JTAG device. The newer chips that let you boot directly from SD have been a great leap forward in development speed.

So wish I could upvote you multiple times. People these days are spoiled with their precompiled ROMs and precompiled software that runs on mainstream desktops to load those ROMs over universal standards (USB). Even with JTAG embedded programming was a PITA.

You want to talk about the days of erasing EPROMS in a UV oven and waiting 15 minutes for a 27C512 to burn? =) Because that sucked.

Re: Crowdfunding the Novena Open Laptop

#73

Post by akkartik » Thu, Apr 03, 2014, 4:34 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #66

Sanddancer wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first paper is not complaining about FreeBSD, it's complaining about open source software in general, using the FreeBSD ports tree as an example. All of the software examples given are equally valid for Linux -- libtool and all its ugliness is still required, a lot of intermediary libraries are thrown out in the end result -- and the lessons are still unlearned. The mess of OSS begat ALSA, obstinate kernel develo…

Software architecture is harder than it looks. Where's your alternative tidier solution? I agree that libtool is ugly, but it lets you build on different systems with different management that are immune to harmonisation. The sound mess is similar: people refusing to give up their own ideas on what constitutes a good solution. We don't have a magic wand to make people reach consensus. The best we've managed is Jobsia…

I'm working on a very radical but very speculative answer: replace compatibility guarantees with tests, try to be harmonious by making it much easier to make changes to code one didn't write. More info: http://akkartik.name/about. But it's likely to be wrong, and even if it isn't, it'll take the rest of my life to convince myself and maybe others.

Re: Crowdfunding the Novena Open Laptop

#74

Post by zmanian » Thu, Apr 03, 2014, 5:41 PM UTC

storborg wrote: post #61

zmanian wrote: post #59

What are the use cases for the FPGA realistically? Then only piece of easily downloaded and installed code is a SHA based crytocoin miner.

Just to toss out a few ideas: software defined radio, high-throughput DSP (like audio processing or machine vision), MITMing of fast protocols, packet inspection, CPU emulation.

I found http://opencores.org/projects nothing is a killer app right now.

At work I use an FPGA as async real time controller. Not sure what utility that would have if not connected to specialized hardware.

Re: Crowdfunding the Novena Open Laptop

#75

Post by smorrow » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 8:07 PM UTC

kogir wrote: post #23

akkartik wrote: post #21

It is totally understandable -- and totally disappointing -- that this custom work of art in hardware comes with regular, bloated, unhackable linux. One can dream..

I feel like you must have (accidentally?) withheld context. Since everything is open, you can presumably produce drivers for QNX, FreeBSD, or another OS of your choice. I'm sure you can also boot bare-metal into embedded firmware of your own design.

Linux can not be completely understood by one man or even a team of them, and by the time you do figure out what you need to edit, the whole thing will have churned.

Linux is a complex operating system, and it takes a genius to understand the complexity.