Maybe it’s almost time for cheap, non-x86, subnotebooks to hit the mainstream. I just read about the ARM-based Pegatron at Endgadget. I wager this won’t be as difficult to compile software for as the MIPS subnotebook is turning out to be.
Meanwhile, those Gdium people recently announced a program that they affectionately refer to as One Laptop Per Hacker (OLPH). The idea is to allow interested hackers to obtain pre-release access to Gdium units. I signed up for the program but never bothered to announce it here; hey, anything to reduce potential competition.
Anyway, I got an email tonight notifying me that I am accepted into the program. I’m getting cold feet, though, especially over the legal agreement I am expected to sign in order to procure the pre-release unit. If I wasn’t already in possession of my other MIPS subnotebook, I would jump right on top of this.
OTOH, this unit will undoubtedly be easier to develop for, since it’s partially designed for that purpose. Plus, it’s 64-bit (though I don’t know if that really means anything in the grand scheme of MIPS chips).
What do you think? Should I go for it, for the sake of FATE and the greater FFmpeg project?
It would be nice to have that in FATE.
And you can always donate it to me or Ukrainian custom office :) I like underpowered (by modern standards) and non-x86 hardware.
It depends on the legal wrangling. What’s so horrific about the agreement?
I guess that the text of that legal agreement is not public?
Personally, I would only sign it if it is something I can agree with when read literally, if necessary asking for clarification.
Unfortunately, in my experience there is little chance to get the changed, even typos, grammar and other obvious errors in such agreements are not fixed when you complain about them – it is an unfortunate fact that really almost nobody takes these things seriously, which gives you a hard time if you do.
Actually, the legal agreement isn’t so ominous. Really, I think it’s just there to explain to potential adopters (though the contract calls them “providers”) that they will be getting proprietary bits to play Flash and other media types (though they keep incorrectly referring to Flash Lite as FlashLight) and says that by accepting the agreement, the provider agrees to be cool with that and to, pretty please, not try to reverse engineer the binaries. Heh.
Plus, it’s 64-bit (though I don’t know if that really means anything in the grand scheme of MIPS chips).
And it got better documentation that the other one : check http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Godson .
Note this processor has MMX like SIMD.