Re:OpenBSD 7.1 on PINE64 RockPro64
by marktangotango on Friday June 10, 2022 @10:42AM
(#31694885)
I read this as confirmation that "hardware is hard". Ie most of these premade SBCs have issues of this sort. The exception being the raspberry pi's generally. The alternative is designing and laying out the PCB yourself and with DDR3/4, that's a huge job (my understanding at least I've never done it myself).
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It's not the PCB that is hard. It is interfacing with all the interface ICs, each having their own quirks and proprietary drivers, etc. At a certain point, reading data sheets becomes like filling out tax forms, extremely boring work.
That assumes you can even get access to the documentation. Some vendors are very bad about not giving up the necessary documentation to develop drivers, especially if you don't speak Chinese. Or they demand you sign a NDA before you can read the docs, and aren't interested in even talking with you if you aren't about to buy at least 150k chips in your initial order.