Repurposing WinCE MIPS netbooks?
larwe
readily available in consumer quantities from Chinese vendors, e.g.
<http://tinyurl.com/yjzw5he> - there's also a $99 version on the same
site, with a slower CPU and half the RAM. Yes it's a "wholesale" price
but the MOQ is 1.
These have the usual specs; a few USB 2.0 ports, 7" 800x480 TFTLCD, SD
slot, 2 GB SSD, wired Ethernet and WiFi, and a MIPS processor
somewhere between 250 and 400MHz depending on the model.
Unfortunately all the cheap ones seem to be running WinCE [almost
certainly pirated - x86 products from the same vendor ship with "Trial
Windows XP - it is recommended to install a genuine copy"].
These would make great consoles, if they were running Linux. Has
anyone in cae experimented with a beast like this?
Mel
> I'm seeing a lot of very cheap (<$100 in some cases) netbooks becoming
> readily available in consumer quantities from Chinese vendors, e.g.
> <http://tinyurl.com/yjzw5he> - there's also a $99 version on the same
> site, with a slower CPU and half the RAM. Yes it's a "wholesale" price
> but the MOQ is 1.
>
> These have the usual specs; a few USB 2.0 ports, 7" 800x480 TFTLCD, SD
> slot, 2 GB SSD, wired Ethernet and WiFi, and a MIPS processor
> somewhere between 250 and 400MHz depending on the model.
How did you find out it was a MIPS processor? There are reports of people
running Linux and BSDs on the Loongson Dragon chips, but I can find nothing
about these Anky-7802's.
Mel.
Time to take those Chinese lessons.
Paul Gotch
> How did you find out it was a MIPS processor? There are reports of people
> running Linux and BSDs on the Loongson Dragon chips, but I can find nothing
> about these Anky-7802's.
I can't find those specific things but it's more likely to be ARM926
based. There seem to be quite a few very cheap WinCE things around
using 926's.
I wouldn't bother with them, due to the lack of information about them
they may not have a Linux port and even if they do it won't be well
maintained. Also if it is ARM 926 based that's two generations old now
and you are better of waiting for a Cortex-A8 based design with an
supported Linux port.
-p
--
Paul Gotch
--------------------------------------------------------------------
larwe
> > slot, 2 GB SSD, wired Ethernet and WiFi, and a MIPS processor
> > somewhere between 250 and 400MHz depending on the model.
>
> How did you find out it was a MIPS processor? There are reports of people
This particular one is MIPS, from looking at eBay auctions of the same
thing. All of the really cheap ones are MIPS, because there are third
party (presumably unlicensed) clone cores.
larwe
> I can't find those specific things but it's more likely to be ARM926
> based. There seem to be quite a few very cheap WinCE things around
> using 926's.
>
> I wouldn't bother with them, due to the lack of information about them
> they may not have a Linux port and even if they do it won't be well
They do have a Linux port, these machines are sold in either
configuration. It just happens that the cheapest flavor is the CE one,
for some odd reason. I've seen the same machine on eBay with the MIPS
Linux load but it's $180 to $250.
MIPS Linux has a *big* Chinese push. The Loongson chips (at least
earlier iterations; I don't know about the multicore 3rd gen chips)
were MIPS. You might recall reading in the news recently that the
Chinese government is trying to wean its IT infrastructure off x86
(because Intel and AMD are US-controlled) and Microsoft, and into open-
source home-controllable software running on entirely homegrown
hardware that pays no royalties to the US. (Much of the early MIPS IP,
up to everything in the R3000, is out of patent; I believe the R4000
is either fully out of patent or the last dregs are due for expiry in
2011-ish).
This is similar to the CBHD push, the difference being that several
pundits say (and I agree) that, unlike CBHD (which will have primarily
domestic media of little interest to the outside world), these cheap
Chinese architectures have a real chance of success outside their home
turf, particularly if the cloud computing fantasy becomes some kind of
reality.
Anyway, regardless of how old or new or well supported these specific
machines might be, as long as availability continues, a terminal
program and ability to write my own fbdev or X apps on the thing would
make it significantly useful.
Paul Gotch
> (because Intel and AMD are US-controlled) and Microsoft, and into open-
> source home-controllable software running on entirely homegrown
> hardware that pays no royalties to the US.
Actually MIPS Technologies legitimised the Chinese effort by licensing
ST (who actually make the chips) back in 2007. This year ICT licensed
the MIPS32 and MIPS64 architectures from MIPS. I can't imagine that
these deals don't come with some kind of royalty agreement.
The latest designs have hardware support for accelerating x86 emulation
via QEMU. It remains to be seen how far Intel will let that go before
they start getting sniffy.
larwe
> larwe <zwsdot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > (because Intel and AMD are US-controlled) and Microsoft, and into open-
> > source home-controllable software running on entirely homegrown
> > hardware that pays no royalties to the US.
>
> Actually MIPS Technologies legitimised the Chinese effort by licensing
> ST (who actually make the chips) back in 2007. This year ICT licensed
> the MIPS32 and MIPS64 architectures from MIPS. I can't imagine that
> these deals don't come with some kind of royalty agreement.
I had read that, but it doesn't quite gel with the explicit statement
from all [Chinese] parties concerned that the goal is to stop paying
royalties to the US. They said this, in those words. I would assume
that China has a lot of smart VLSI guys who are experts in designing
around patents where necessary...
> The latest designs have hardware support for accelerating x86 emulation
> via QEMU. It remains to be seen how far Intel will let that go before
> they start getting sniffy.
What sanctions, exactly, would Intel ask the US government to
apply? :)
Michael Engel
> How did you find out it was a MIPS processor? There are reports of people
> running Linux and BSDs on the Loongson Dragon chips, but I can find nothing
> about these Anky-7802's.
The "Anky" is most probably the Anyka AK7802 CPU, an ARM926 variant.
Not much
information is available on that chip, however (I have one of these
netbooks
here) you can try to reverse engineer some stuff using HaRET
(http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HaRET). There are similar
netbooks
available using another ARM926 variant, the Jade Z228.
-- Michael
larwe
> On 30 Dez., 17:15, Mel <mwil...@the-wire.com> wrote:
>
> > How did you find out it was a MIPS processor? There are reports of people
> > running Linux and BSDs on the Loongson Dragon chips, but I can find nothing
> > about these Anky-7802's.
>
> The "Anky" is most probably the Anyka AK7802 CPU, an ARM926 variant.
> Not much
BIZARRE. They must sell the same form factor plastic with a different
motherboard containing a MIPS core.
Paul Gotch
> I had read that, but it doesn't quite gel with the explicit statement
> from all [Chinese] parties concerned that the goal is to stop paying
> royalties to the US. They said this, in those words. I would assume
> that China has a lot of smart VLSI guys who are experts in designing
> around patents where necessary...
China is a member of the WTO and therefore has to abide by rules around
IP. It's smart to license the patents now if they only run for a few
years and entirely meshes with eventually not wanting to pay royalties.
China has been attempting to do the same thing (having a different
standard with no royalties) with wireless standards hence TD-SCDMA.
However there are also WCDMA and CDMA-2000 networks in China.
Being different is a double edged sword it means you don't have to pay
royalties to anyone but it also limits your export market because no
one else uses the standard you've developed.
> What sanctions, exactly, would Intel ask the US government to
> apply? :)
Import ban, and it wouldn't be the US it would be WTO and all member
countries where the patents exist. Obviously this doesn't hurt the sale
in the domestic market. Similar things have already come close to
happening with IP disputes between US companies. However Intel have
their own troubles with the FTC at the moment...
Paul Gotch
> BIZARRE. They must sell the same form factor plastic with a different
> motherboard containing a MIPS core.
There are a large number of these things based on Ingenic Semiconductor
chips. They have a MIPS32 chip running at between 240 and 360MHz which
they brand "XBurst" architecture. This appears to be unrelated to the
Godson/Longsoon chips.
However interestingly many of the later products by OEMs are using
Marvell XScale (ARMv5TE) chips. This may be because the Marvell have a
XScale based TD-SCDMA SoC which could be used to add mobile data
capabilities to such things.