On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 9:38 PM, Richard Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote: > > >> There's also the interesting question about who owns the EC firmware. If >> the manufacturer owns it and has full rights for it, the situation is >> different compared to the BIOS. For example, Quanta (OLPC manufacturer) >> holds some (if not all) rights to the OLPC XO EC code and not BIOS >> vendor was involved. >> > > The bulk of the Copyright is by EnE. There are a handful of files that are > Quanta only. I would not expect many of these in a mainstream > implementation as they deal with some of the extra stuff we did at OLPC. > Quanta has mentioned to me many times that they don't do anywhere near that > level of work for a normal laptop. > > EnE provides a framework and the OEM fills in the blanks. > > From what I have heard, I think the VIA processors are >>> the best bet right now for experimentation. Intel of course, is out, >>> and AMD processors aren't in any netbooks to speak of - and I'm sure >>> if we go to this effort, we would rather have it pay off for a netbook >>> rather then a dinosaur laptop. >>> >> >> If I'm right about EC code copyrights and usage rights, a cooperating >> manufacturer could easily tell us about the interface for their EC code. >> > > The interfaces themselves and the meanings are mostly described by ACPI. > There's an interesting thread on a while back lmkl about data sent to port > 80 actually being commands to the EC. > > But for the parts that are not if I tell you command 0xAA is a private > command and it toggles Port A IO bit n which controls xyx I may be telling > you information that only lives in a schematic covered by an NDA. Its > tricky. The legal clearance to release that info my fall back onto who owns > the design IP rather than who the mfg is and could be hard to get. Doesn't > hurt to ask though. > > I agree with Jordan however that coreboot may not even need to interact > with the EC at all. Just taking the stock stuff and embedding it in your > image at the right place might Just Work for the things coreboot needs. The > rest is all OS issues. > > Do any of those netbooks previously ship with Linux? Yes, the Sylvania G netbook ( http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3747065&CatId=4198) and Everex Cloudbook ( http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4171694&CatId=4185) both ship with gOS and sell for <$300. -Corey
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