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riscv-basics.com
by David Boddie 30 Jul '18

30 Jul '18

This site popped up on the radar for me this morning. It's currently down - perhaps there was a public backlash, the server overheated, or something - but at least the Internet Archive still has a copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20180710130206/https://riscv-basics.com/ Time to start a riscv-netbook mailing list, perhaps? ;-) David

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Why Crytek certainly regrets releasing their source code..
by Jean Flamelle 29 Jul '18

29 Jul '18

In the coming reality where only ventures to extend hardware's usefulness support software development, programmers mostly fulfill roles as "hired guns" like accountants in the days of yester-era so then, seeking to join with Amazon and Microsoft and Google et cet in tasting their SaaSS intoxicated open source future, probably for a first in games history distributed macro-economically invested source code under a mutual promise not to sue license and without NDA. This means from the beginning, there was never any enforceable restriction not to reveal the source code. They marketed their support as hired guns, and sold their code to amazon to release as open source which amazon then co-opt'ed into their SaaSS fetish and initiated a complete rebranding effort unwittingly betraying Crytek. The games company which originally tipped the spear of Crytek's marketing themselves as hired guns, now also betrayed them by embracing amazon's rebranding effort. Crytek dreamed a future where they could customize free as in freedom software to suit whims specified by whatever company offered enough fiat to purchase the respected "hired guns": Crytek. Feeling the bitterness of betrayal they commence an inactionable lawsuit against who supported them the most and where the betrayal stings the most: their hope and their demise, their intimate friend Star Citizen. ... Obviously, this is a mixture of known fact and tongue-and-cheek inferences, which could be true. In case your not well 'versed' on what's happening, all facts mixed in the muddle authoritative sources should be trace-able through these links: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=star+citizen+leonard+french https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/star-citizen-re-built-in-amazons-lumbe…

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HDMI Player Stick as DRM-free Merch Alternative
by Jean Flamelle 28 Jul '18

28 Jul '18

So the thought is pretty simple. A monofunction PCB that when power is supplied from the HDMI, generates a private key signature, displays it as a QR code for a few moments, then plays whatever video is stored on nand. The QR code confirms the legitimacy or official-ness of the copy. Encourage copying, modifying, as well as redistributing the content. However build a culture of the 'Unpause-able Player Stick': Friends should still feel obligated to support the art through peer pressure to use one of these sticks that can prove its legitimacy, during ritualistic communal watchings. Airgapped for security and durability (viruses can still damage hardware after all)

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Fwd: Liberapay is in trouble
by lkcl 19 Jul '18

19 Jul '18

whoops... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Liberapay Support <support(a)liberapay.com> Date: Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 2:00 PM Subject: Liberapay is in trouble To: lkcl <luke.leighton(a)gmail.com> Our payment processor (Mangopay) is throwing us out, so we recommend that you evacuate the money from your account before July 26th. Clicking on the link above will bring you to a new page titled “Emptying your wallet” and ask you to choose between two options. If you use Liberapay as a donor the first choice is recommended, especially if you wish to continue using Liberapay. This first option distributes all the money from your wallet to the people who would have normally received it over time. The recipients will be able to see that this sudden burst of income corresponds to multiple weeks of donations. For example, if you’re donating $1 per week to 2 creators, and you have $40 in your wallet, then each creator will receive $20, and 20 weeks from now you’ll receive our usual email reminding you that it’s time to add money again. Please note that the disbursement may fail for various reasons. If you get an error message like “The attempt to distribute all the money in your wallet failed: XX.XX remains.” then the problem is probably on the recipient side, for example someone who hasn’t filled the identity form or a team that hasn’t defined how the income should be split between the members. The other option is to get your money back, if possible through a refund, otherwise by withdrawing it to your bank account. If you receive donations on Liberapay you may want to wait a week before withdrawing your income in order to give your patrons a chance to transfer the remaining of their donations from their wallets to yours. We’ll inform you as soon as the integration of a new payment processor is complete, and tell you if there’s anything you need to do to start receiving donations on Liberapay again. If you’re a member of a team, you should make sure that your take is set and up-to-date. You can do that from your “Receiving” page. You can find more information in this blog post, and as always you can reply to this email if you need help.

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Campaign Schedule and Future Sales/Products
by Paul Boddie 18 Jul '18

18 Jul '18

I saw the recent response to my enquiry ("EOMA68-A20 Prototype Status") which was augmented by a campaign update: "It’s going to take about a month to have the 8 Gbit 1600 MHz DDR3 x8 RAM ICs manufactured: we’re on the way. [...] All in all, it will likely take three months after getting the cards back from assembly before shipping begins. That puts actual delivery of the first units in late October." https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/2-7-5-samples- received-dram-is-ok-micro-hdmi-to-confirm This new information is much appreciated, and I hope that everything continues going to plan. Meanwhile, I noticed that the matter of future sales and products arose in another thread, with the intention being expressed that others will be producing and selling boards in future. Now, there may have been some confusion in that other thread because I seem to recall talk of follow-up campaigns (although these may have been related to other hardware projects, not computer cards). Indeed, the August 2016 campaign update about the product roadmap had the following to say: "We need your backing for this project and the current Computer Card before we can be in an established financial position to properly evaluate and bring you these faster Computer Cards." https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/product-roadmap The crucial question in the context of the above is therefore the following: who exactly is "we"? If not any of the parties behind the current campaign, who might it be? Here, I can understand some confusion or a mismatch in expectations. But in any case, this discussion of future sales and products reminded me of a number of things, the first of which being the board designs: "The only exception to this rule to release everything in advance is the PCB CAD files for the Computer Card. We’re planning to release the PCB CAD files for the Computer card once sufficient units are hit that ensures any third party manufacturing runs will not undermine the project’s development or stability." https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/crowdfunding Although "the point about the A20 running out of time" [1] has been made repeatedly since the start of the campaign (this quote being from March 2017 in the context of suitable NAND ICs), might it be envisaged that the design files be released for the A20 card to perhaps *stimulate* the project's development and stability after this campaign concludes? Has there been any constructive interest from anyone to produce more boards using this design? I see that Olimex have recently introduced a variant of one of their A20-based products using the compatible T2 SoC [2]. So, the A20 still has an audience and a commercial life, apparently. Another thing I found myself considering is the matter of the other cards mentioned during the course of the campaign. If they are not going to be offered via future campaigns, will they be offered by existing partners or collaborators? For instance: http://rhombus-tech.net/ingenic/jz4775/ http://rhombus-tech.net/rock_chips/rk3288/ http://rhombus-tech.net/nexell/s5p6818/ The first two of these had been prototyped, as I recall (and has been documented), and so I imagine that there is some value in seeing them become products, subject to economic and technical viability, the latter of which reminding me of the following remarks: "The rk3288 is not a low-power chip, and the heat sink supplied (pictured above), is not adequate for any CPU-intensive activity, quickly throttling performance when it gets too hot." https://forum.armbian.com/topic/4614-asus-tinker-board/ (The above is just an acknowledgement of the difficulties of selecting products, not an invitation to discuss the details.) Finally, I realised that the current campaign began almost two years ago. I think the second anniversary of its launch will be on Friday this coming week. It would be interesting to hear any reflections on the position of this initiative two years on, whether (and how) the roadmap might change, and what still needs to be done to bring this modular computing vision to fruition. Apologies if I missed various updates or announcements that happen to answer some of my questions! Paul [1] https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/complexities-of- hardware-progress-and-travel [2] https://olimex.wordpress.com/2018/06/20/a20-olinuxino-lime-revision-h-is- now-in-stock-the-oshw-linux-computer-now-support-emmc-and-can-be-produced- with-industrial-grade-temperature-4085c/

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kuala lumpur airport on way chennai
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 16 Jul '18

16 Jul '18

On way to 9th RISCV workshop in chennai, preliminary slides here http://hands.com/~lkcl/libre_riscv_chennai_2018.pdf Contains links to other talks but not accepted ones. Paul Boddie i still owe you a reply to your message. New crowdfunding campaign being discussed, help raise awareness. Also included would like to do a Libre 3D GPU. Actually GPGPU so using gallium3d-llvm with minor acceleration and adequate vectorisation. -- --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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low cost pcb wifi antenna
by Bill Kontos 14 Jul '18

14 Jul '18

This just came into my attention: https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/pi-zero-w-wireless-antenna-design/ Very interesting and potentially useful in the future. Note that the antenna design is available for licensing.

1 0

Nokia's heavy reliance to Intel might make them to fail once again
by Wean Irdeh 13 Jul '18

13 Jul '18

https://www.semiaccurate.com/2018/07/02/intel-custom-foundrys-10nm-meltdown… Who's your guess on the article? Before Nokia merged with Alcatel-Lucent, Reefshark was produced by Alcatel-Lucent and manufactured in TSMC. Now that Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent are one, the ReefShark is using Intel's 10nm technology for no apparent reason and we all know Intel's 10nm is a disaster right now. I'm not surprised if Nokia is actually the one who get mentioned on the article

2 2

Nokia Documentary
by Alexander Ross 13 Jul '18

13 Jul '18

Watched tonight the doc which was shown on bbc4 about nokias beginning, middle and downfall. this riscv stuff is kinda sounding a little like it... :/ doc name: The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Nokia Nokia main problems seam to be: Swapped with many manipulative managers that came in as it grew. The west (aka yet again America) using monopoly to crush/control competition. Nokia stopped being a open, idea sharing company after that. I didn’t know there was a time when they didn’t patent! That was a surprise. I had always assumed they where a evilcorp.

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EOMA68-A20 Prototype Status
by Paul Boddie 02 Jul '18

02 Jul '18

Hello, I don't want to intrude with questions whose answers are already known, but back in January there were estimates of "five to seven months" with regard to "shipping", by which I presume that the final hardware was meant: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/eoma68-a20-2-7-5- gerbers-off-to-factory-thank-you-to-everyone-for-the-sponsorship However, there was also the matter of prototypes being made. This was covered in the February update: "We might get lucky and have the PCBs back, if so I will post photographs." https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/fosdem-2018-shakti- project-tape-out-nearly-done-2-7-5-eoma68-a20-pcbs The March update suggests that the prototypes were still waiting for RAM: "Mike is following up on pricing for Samsung DDR3 RAM, which appears to be available. I want one other guaranteed supply of a completely different RAM IC and I will tell him to go ahead with the 10 samples… but not until we have an absolute guarantee of availability. Then once the samples are done we have a clear and extremely simple and straightforward production schedule to follow." https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/fosdem-recap-risc-… update-and-certification-marks The April update made a mention of another source of RAM, but nothing new about the prototype schedule: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/ddr3-ram-and-a-lib… risc-v-soc Are there any further updates on this situation? I imagine that the production schedule is more or less "when it is ready", as I have always understood it, but I did wonder whether there had been further progress with the prototypes. Paul

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