Funding Global Domination Mk II "The Console"

Stroller stroller at stellar.eclipse.co.uk
Tue Dec 9 23:49:50 CET 2008


On 9 Dec 2008, at 16:12, Al Johnson wrote:
>> ...
>> So what I think would be idea would be for OpenMoko - or someone like
>> them - to produce a low-power media box with hardware decoding, and
>> open-source drivers for the video-accelerator chip. The Popcorn
>> devices have such an accelerator, but did I mention they're closed-
>> source?  (VIA used to do CPUs c 1ghz with extra MPEG decoders, but
>> they have been very late to the game with their open-source "chrome"
>> drivers).
>
> The Neuros OSD2 is more or less what you're describing. It uses the  
> Ti DaVinci
> which is closely related to the OMAP on the beagleboard. Development  
> is in
> the open using OE, and the codecs can use the onboard DSP. The  
> problem with
> it from my point of view is that it's not powerful enough to output  
> 1080p.
> http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/OSD2.0_Development

Is it released yet? I seem to remember the original Neuros (??) looked  
really inviting until I realised it offered only composite output.

Apparently CPU of the Popcorn Hour is only 290mhz (MIPS) but it uses  
the Sigma Designs SMP8635 chipset for graphics acceleration, as does  
the DuneHD player. As you'll have guessed from the name of the latter  
they both do HD - 1080p. Apparently the same accelerator is used in  
some Blu-Ray players.

If the Neuros OSD2 doesn't do HD then there's clearly room for  
competition - to be better than it. But it may not, of course, be  
possible to get the Sigma Designs chips - or any other suitable ones -  
without NDA.

For me, personally, a fully open-source ADSL router would be more  
compelling. Whilst you can do just about anything you want with  
iptables, most of us need a separate ADSL box of some sort [1]. Given  
any arbitrary ADSL router I'm sure I could find something about it I  
don't quite like, for some certain obscure configuration. The Wanadoo  
Livebox has, for instance, a USB port, which would allow you to run a  
print server on it or BitTorrent to an external hard-drive (like the  
Asus WL-700gE). But you can't because it's bleedin' closed.

Stroller.



[1] ADSL2 being unsupported by Sangoma's 518, and it makes for kinda a  
large, power-hungry box if you need a PCI slot in it anyway. 




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