What is a System-on-Chip (SoC), and why do we care if they are open source?

Re:What is a System-on-Chip (SoC), and why do we care if the... by gentleman11 on Monday November 09, 2020 @04:34PM (#25040226)

Librem is expensive and has less features than an android, but a lot of that cost went into more open hardware. It’s not cheap to do that

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Re:What is a System-on-Chip (SoC), and why do we care if the... by snvzz on Monday November 09, 2020 @04:49PM (#25040372)

I don't think it's a good analogy.

Librem uses a very proprietary, very closed SoC.

The SoC has decent documentation, relative to the average of what passes for documentation these days, but that's about it.

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Re:What is a System-on-Chip (SoC), and why do we care if the... by blendergeek on Monday November 09, 2020 @07:04PM (#25041452)

> Librem uses a very proprietary, very closed SoC.

That is FUD. Yes, it is proprietary/closed. To say that it is _very_ proprietary and _very_ closed would imply that it is somehow _more_ proprietary and closed than normal. However, the higher quality documentation available for the i.MX series would make it any more closed. It is ever so slightly more open.

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Re:What is a System-on-Chip (SoC), and why do we care if the... by snvzz on Monday November 09, 2020 @10:02PM (#25042462)

>FUD

Very was meant to highlight the contrast with a SoC that has open RTL.

i.MX is indeed one of the better documented ARM SoC families.

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Re:What is a System-on-Chip (SoC), and why do we care if the... by fsflover on Monday November 09, 2020 @05:57PM (#25040986)

Is there any good source to read more about how closed it is?

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Re:What is a System-on-Chip (SoC), and why do we care if the... by octoberfranklin on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:32AM (#25043578)

Um, you have the burden backwards; closedness means a lack of documentation.

If you want to try, go here:

  https://www.nxp.com/products/processors-and-microcontrollers/arm-processors/i-mx-applications-processors/i-mx-8-processors/i-mx-8m-family-armcortex-a53-cortex-m4-audio-voice-video:i.MX8M?tab=Documentation_Tab

And try to download the "Security Reference Manual for i.MX 8M Dual/8M QuadLite/8M Quad". You can't. It's only available under NDA to extremely high-volume customers. And that manual is where all the goodies are.

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