Opening the Glamo

[Alex Kavanagh]

Aaron Sowry wrote, On 07/08/08 13:03:
>>> So, I think, making pessure to the firm that produce Glamo, is the only
>>> possibility to get very open our hardware.
>>>
>>>     
>>>       
>> Given the legal situation, I agree. Let's pester them with a ton of emails! :)
>> Maybe we could get the FSF and GNU into this as well? We might as well  
>> use all the armies at once, for greater impact... ;)
>> Maybe we could collect information about good examples of HW firms who  
>> have opened their specs and are gaining market share because of this,  
>> and present that data to SMedia.
>> I'm just throwing up ideas, I don't have the time to actually execute  
>> them... but someone with GNU/FSF connections could.
>>
>>   
>>     
> I'm happy to press the case with SMedia as best I can but not 
> unilaterally. Before we start doing anything though I think we need an 
> official rundown on the Glamo state of affairs from the relevant people 
> within Openmoko privy to the NDA and past dialogue with SMedia on the 
> subject. Things like:
>
> - What impact will opening the Glamo 3362 chip have outside of the Neo? 
> i.e. how many other devices use this chip and how might this affect 
> SMedia's decision to open it up?
> - Has anything in the graphic department been finalised for the GTA03? 
> Could we use the possibility of not using SMedia in future and the 
> apparent popularity of the Openmoko project as leverage?
> - What were the primary considerations in choosing Glamo? Has SMedia 
> stood by any obligations they made in this regard or were they misleading?
> - Have you discussed binary divers? (yeah, I know, but it's better than 
> nothing...)
> - What is the status of the "Harald Welte" driver?
> - etc...
>
> Over to you....
>   

I'd agree to this.  We are users of the equipment, and not getting full
value from the chip (or so it appears).  However, in the graphics
market, nVidia haven't released their info, but Intel and ATI have. 
Clearly S.Media believes they have to protect something, and it may well
be somebody else's IP that they are protecting.  Would be good to get a
position statement on this.  OpenMoko?

-- 
Alex.