Posts by matt@toot.cafe
(DIR) Post #AxjadBln2LzPW7eSm0 by matt@toot.cafe
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BTW, I ended up not ordering a Raspberry Pi Pico-based microcontroller board like I was thinking about doing last weekend. A SAMA5 board, if I can get one with an audio DAC and headphone jack built-in or as an add-on, would split the difference between a microcontroller and an application processor, as the SAMA5 platform explicitly advertises bare-metal support with sample code.
(DIR) Post #AxjadDasFuRjAqYm2K by matt@toot.cafe
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I wish the creators of the Raspberry Pi had been working at Atmel rather than Broadcom. A wildly popular hobbyist SBC with built-in audio DAC and headphone jack based on the SAMA5 SoC family would have been perfect!Frustratingly, there _was_ a SAMA5 evaluation kit with built-in audio DAC and headphone jack, but it's now discontinued. Presumably not enough demand for that particular combination.
(DIR) Post #AxjadFBQLVHE6UfTe4 by matt@toot.cafe
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The bare-metal SDK for the SAMA5 family and some other SoC's (https://github.com/atmelcorp/atmel-software-package) even include audio examples, with configurations for the discontinued eval kit.
(DIR) Post #AxjadGn2N8xT5RH1ua by matt@toot.cafe
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I'm talking about this eval kit: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/development-tool/ATSAMA5D4-EK It basically had everything except WiFi, including audio codec, USB, Ethernet, and even HDMI. And apparently the SAMA5D4 SoC does have video decode (probably a proprietary driver for that). DigiKey knows about that eval kit, but lists it as obsolete, and provides a coipy of this document explaining why: https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus/918/WE152301.pdf But the newer, lower-cost SAMA5D4-Xplained board doesn't have audio!
(DIR) Post #Ay28N8qB3QRz5NVC52 by matt@toot.cafe
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@jgoerzen The bit about SD cards being slow at random reads is interesting. Lately I've been mulling over an idea for Raspberry Pi-like computers, where you use an initramfs as your root FS, have some kind of process for rebuilding it with new packages, and only selectively write to the SD card the things that you really need to be durable. Haven't really fleshed it out yet, though.
(DIR) Post #Ay28uYYQTLOgOL8H4q by matt@toot.cafe
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@jgoerzen That's a valid point about limited RAM. Of course, there are Pis these days with more RAM, so depending on how big the root FS is, it might not be practically an issue. On early personal computers we used to load the OS and current application fully into RAM up-front, especially so we could swap the floppy in our one floppy drive.
(DIR) Post #Ay29H7ZAykG5LnF7ya by matt@toot.cafe
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@jgoerzen Yeah, it's funny, on my family's first computer (an Apple IIGS), the thing I wanted most was a hard drive. And now I'm wanting to recreate the old experience of tinkering without worrying about wrecking the one OS install by switching between multiple bootable floppies, but now using SD cards.
(DIR) Post #Ay4IBxUcIBSsZ0dx0i by matt@toot.cafe
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@jgoerzen You might be interested in Collabora's Debian images for RK3588 boards including the Rock 5B: https://gitlab.collabora.com/hardware-enablement/rockchip-3588/debian-image-recipes Collabora has been doing a lot of work on getting RK3588 support into the mainline kernel and u-boot.
(DIR) Post #Ay4OEbRDLcPkkthDYu by matt@toot.cafe
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@jgoerzen I have a Rock 5B board here. Is there a quick way I can double check that it has accelerated AES?
(DIR) Post #AyF1nI0lPH4qQvSDDs by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn How is the mainline Linux and u-boot support for this Qualcomm SoC? The main thing I've heard about Qualcomm SoCs and the kernel is that, at least on Android devices, they tend to have their own kernel forks.Also, have you had a chance yet to write anything about this Qualcomm processor module and what distinguishes it from the others?
(DIR) Post #AyGeb1KbgfZGb3ptmC by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn @cliffle I've also been a spectator-fan of Oxide from the sidelines for a while, but what they sell is way bigger than what my company, let alone I personally, will probably ever buy. But I backed the MNT Reform Next crowdfunding project at the beginning of the year and am looking forward to getting mine. In the meantime I bought a Rock 5B SBC (also based on the RK3588 SoC) and have started playing with that.
(DIR) Post #AyJ8rlCEJfPOQ0jghM by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn What's going to make this module different, and better in some ways, than the others, including the rcore that's shipping in the Next? In other words, what makes this SoC worth adding? Not being skeptical, just curious. Regardless, I'm excited to see more work on the MNT Reform family.
(DIR) Post #AyZH8wgSlavh8FwR96 by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn Is there a specific reason you're interested in getting EDK2 *with display support* running on the Pocket Reform? Putting resources into that seems problematic to me, because a visual UI in the boot environment will probably not be accessible to blind users, unless one also adds audio drivers and a screen reader. I think it's better for the boot loader to boot into a real OS with a full UI stack as simply and reliably as possible, with no UI in the boot loader itself.
(DIR) Post #AyZHNWblzuJqbUhSLI by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn Prompted by the release of the Raspberry Pi 500+, I wonder if you've ever considered doing a Reform variant in that retro desktop form factor, i.e. the computer inside a keyboard with no pointing device or display. If it were battery-powered and had a built-in speaker like the Reform laptops, that would even be a complete usable and portable computer for blind people.
(DIR) Post #AyZIAMqh4TRGWcy7zU by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn You have a good point. For my main computer at my desk, I do prefer the keyboard to be a separate, replaceable component. So I guess I'm really only interested in a different product category than the Raspberry Pi 400/500: a smaller stand-alone portable computer with a keyboard but no pointing device or display. And I guess that's practically only attractive to blind people, so I understand if you don't consider it worth your time and resources.
(DIR) Post #AyZKnoTiTmVLQ09s80 by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn Sorry, I meant battery-powered, and a stand-alone device as opposed to a Pi with a keyboard connected. So, basically, a laptop without the pointing device or screen.
(DIR) Post #Az4sCMX6puwQNIoh0a by matt@toot.cafe
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@mntmn @cas What does the boot process look like on that SoC? If it was a generic Debian arm64 ISO, I'm guessing you used UEFI somehow.
(DIR) Post #Az4vQFtcbneXhvfAB6 by matt@toot.cafe
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@cas @mntmn Ugh, yeah, that's unfortunate. But could be worth it, if this SoC has much better power consumption than the RK3588. Or is there some other advantage you're hoping to get out of this SoC?
(DIR) Post #B0Lqd4tQjlQxo5Z90a by matt@toot.cafe
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@jgoerzen I think you did #11 twice here.
(DIR) Post #B0LrQhosnV60j26ScC by matt@toot.cafe
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@jgoerzen The Wichita airport is the only one I've been to very frequently, and yeah, the lack of food options is the one thing I can think of to gripe about. On the plus side, it's often quiet enough that one can clearly hear the music that's playing on low volume, and even run Shazam on unfamiliar songs. A nice way to pass the time when I get to the gate early, as I usually do.