Raspberry Pi 4 - Hackdot

Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by ben_w on Monday June 24, 2019 @02:43AM (#20261049)

As a previous line manager one said to me “yes, and I want a pony”. That they want to be more open does not mean they are currently fully open – in fact, it requires them to not yet to be fully open. Their primary goal (last I checked) is to be cheap, being fully open is at the very best their secondary goal.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by hlandau on Monday June 24, 2019 @02:46AM (#20261066)

That doesn't follow. Firstly, I don't think I've seen any other SBC vendor fail to publish full schematics. This is a peculiarity of rpi's offering.

Secondly, nobody is forcing them to add DRM chips to anything. That's not something that can be written off on "a contractual obligation made me do it." They did it of their own will.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by ben_w on Monday June 24, 2019 @02:57AM (#20261118)

Counter hypothesis because I can’t be bothered to research it fully:

Pi: “Hello we wish to buy a $thing”

Vendor: “Certainly. We sell $thing for ten dollars per unit if it doesn’t have DRM, or five dollars per unit if it does.”

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by hlandau on Monday June 24, 2019 @03:12AM (#20261192)

The camera PCB was made by rpi for specific use with the rpi. The DRM chip is not part of the camera vendor's assembly. It is a separate chip placed on the PCB, therefore placed there by the PCB designer, i.e., by rpi.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by kingosticks on Monday June 24, 2019 @03:26AM (#20261272)

Ben Upton said:

> You can plug any CSI camera into the Raspberry Pi. There's even a kernel driver for the CSI receiver, which we paid for ((link: https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/9951525/) patchwork.kernel.org/patch/9951525/). What you can't do is clone the official v2 camera module and use the default ISP tuning, which we also paid for.

https://mobile.twitter.com/EbenUpton/status/1088440503622909...

Personally I have no problem at all with protecting the investments around add-ons like this module, if it means they continue to persue them.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by Qworg on Monday June 24, 2019 @04:47AM (#20261591)

I'd prefer if they gave us the full functionality of the device though - the imager is capable of global shutter but it is locked out.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by kingosticks on Monday June 24, 2019 @05:20AM (#20261739)

That's a fair point. Perhaps when camera v3 is released they'll have the option of updating start.elf and removing the restrictions on using this hardware.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by amelius on Monday June 24, 2019 @04:34AM (#20261538)

Isn't the use of the chip by the user entirely optional?

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by makomk on Monday June 24, 2019 @05:14AM (#20261713)

Well, it's optional in the sense that if you can find a way to use the camera with some board other than a Raspberry Pi then you don't have to use it. If you're doing the intended thing of connecting it to a Raspberry Pi, though? Not optional.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by cr0sh on Monday June 24, 2019 @10:03AM (#20263601)

> Vendor: “Certainly. We sell $thing for ten dollars per unit if it doesn’t have DRM, or five dollars per unit if it does.”

Hah - sounds like the "boneless vs bone-in steak" sales model - take the bone out of the steak, and suddenly it costs more per pound than it does with the bone left in. Somehow, less costs more - and people sadly pay for it.

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Re:Raspberry Pi 4 by mtgx on Monday June 24, 2019 @11:59AM (#20264889)

If they wanted to be open they'd probably transition to RISC_V.

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