Re: Free Linux Driver Development!

[Kumar Gala <galak@kernel.crashing.org>]

On Jan 31, 2007, at 12:26 AM, Greg KH wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 06:27:29PM -0800, Michael K. Edwards wrote:
> > On 1/29/07, Greg KH <greg@kroah.com> wrote:
> > > Free Linux Driver Development!
> > >
> > > Yes, that's right, the Linux kernel community is offering all  
> > > companies
> > > free Linux driver development.  ...
> > [snip]
> > > [1] for the CPUs that support the bus types that your device  
> > > works on.
> >
> > Bravo!  Now, is there a message in the same spirit that can be
> > tailored to embedded space, especially to SoC vendors and (even more
> > importantly) their customers?  Something along the lines of:
> >
> > "We understand that embedded hardware is frequently buggy and that  
> > SoC
> > vendors are doing well if their own internal software people can get
> > enough help from the chip guys to bring up enough customer-driven use
> > cases to win a few design-ins.
> >
> > We sympathize with embedded developers who stay up nights with an
> > O-scope and a JTAG emulator reverse-engineering the hardware  
> > behavior,
> > trying to figure out which this order of operations works and this
> > other one doesn't.
> >
> > We have the software tools and the competence to quantify the
> > potential gains from current toolchains and kernels, aggressive
> > compilation options, and in-tree power/latency management strategies,
> > so that you can build a business case against "fire and forget" SDKs
> > based on ancient compilers, obsolete kernels, and unmaintained
> > out-of-tree patches.
> >
> > We will help platform integrators bridge the gap between the chip
> > architects' claims about device performance and the condition in  
> > which
> > the BSP guys toss drivers over the fence.
> >
> > You can hang onto the hardware and profit from coaching and code
> > review, or you can send us a board and whatever doco you've got, and
> > we'll figure it out.
> >
> > All we ask is that 1) SoC vendors authorize customers to do an NDA
> > with OSDL and pass vendor NDA material along to us; 2) when the
> > product ships, all participants are free to exercise GPL rights with
> > respect to the chip support and driver code produced; and 3) platform
> > integrators cooperate with the rework usually needed as code merges
> > towards Linus's tree."
> >
> > Or is this a pipe dream?
>
> Oh, I would love to see something like that happen :)
>
> As I come from an embedded background, I love to see Linux running in
> tiny systems.  So anything I can do to help out with that I'd love to
> offer.
>
> But being able to read the minds of SOC hardwre engineers and  
> decode all
> of the documentation errors they produce is enough to drive one crazy,
> my condolences go out to everyone in that situation...
>
> good luck,
>
> greg k-h

Thanks.  It gets even better when they change things between  
revisions of the same HW block.

Out of interest are you was this geared to any particular SoC's/ 
architectures?

- k
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