Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752072AbXAaC1c (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:27:32 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752123AbXAaC1c (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:27:32 -0500 Received: from nf-out-0910.google.com ([64.233.182.185]:41032 "EHLO nf-out-0910.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752072AbXAaC1b (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:27:31 -0500 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=rxKjK5xDXtu9BrKPNK8tEfGJcToOKeNLCDtlsiJmn5P/OzPEwq6BA22+7Kenx/VhQR3coYl7pUvjusSmKFV8Q1Bdnrpzlg/QbjGmXoJ9mY97UVROD1fNhWrGGFcBfDS2wvD0lW7on+TvI2BhWL6Po396Nqvkr+mylMY0lIBFJ3c= Message-ID: Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:27:29 -0800 From: "Michael K. Edwards" To: "Greg KH" Subject: Re: Free Linux Driver Development! Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <20070130012904.GA9617@kroah.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20070130012904.GA9617@kroah.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2268 Lines: 53 On 1/29/07, Greg KH 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? Cheers, - Michael - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/