Christine Lemmer-Webber <cweb...@dustycloud.org> writes: > Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <gnu...@cyberdimension.org> writes: > >> Christine Lemmer-Webber <cweb...@dustycloud.org> wrote: >> >>> I had thought looking at the manual of the MNT Reform that only the >>> HDMI port required a blob. This will be disappoiting if we can't get >>> the Reform into Guix proper soon. There are of course channels, and >>> maybe the work here might have to move to one of those locations >>> rather than getting committed to the main guix repo, but I hope not. >> >> In their "Re-Introducing Reform" blog post[3], MNT Research states the >> following: >> >>> Unfortunately, during the boot process, i.MX8M requires a >>> closed-source firmware for an embedded ARCompact processor in the >>> Synopsys DDR4 PHY. This firmware, which is only a few kilobytes in >>> size, is responsible for regulating the physical connection to the >>> DDR chips in the face of changing temperatures. We are in contact >>> with reverse engineers with the goal of analyzing what the >>> capabilities of this so called PHY Utility Block (PUB) are, and to >>> find out if we have a chance to replace this firmware at some point >>> in the future. > > So, that is disappointing, but also a space for optimism I guess? I > would be curious to know more about this reverse engineering effort. > >> So it would also be a good idea to remind them about that and >> potentially look for other declarations from MNT Research about the >> DDR4 firmware. > > Yeah.
I talked with them a bit today btw. There hasn't been progress, and the conversation might have reignited some interest, but it was made clear that this was not a current focus at the moment.
