[Community] Welcome to new Project: Neo900

[NeilBrown]

On Thu, 31 Oct 2013 08:23:29 +0100 "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller"
<hns at goldelico.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> the new Neo900 (GTA04b7) project has been started within the OpenPhoenux community!
> 
> It is now open for collecting donations to finance the initial development.
> 
> For all details, please refer to the project home page: http://www.neo900.org/
> 
> Let the Phoenux fly :)
> 
> Nikolaus

Hi,
 I've been reading through the web site and have a couple of comments.

1/  From the 3x3 table on the front page:

           IrDA and Consumer IR

     Use your phone as a universal TV remote or...
     connect the serial console via IrDA link. Low
     level debugging couldn't be made easier.

unless you know something I don't, it isn't possible to do low-level debugging
over a serial console on the IrDA link.  Certainly not possible to capture
early-boot messages.
For low-level kernel debugging I find a serial cable indispensable.

Also the "Feature Overview" in neo900-feasibility.pdf has an 'x' next to
'IrDA' for both Neo900 possibilities.  I guess 'x' must mean "yes".  I
usually find "x" to me "no" and a "tick" to mean yes.  Maybe it's a cultural
thing :-)
Also the table doesn't list any Bluetooth for the GTA04.  Not even an 'x'.


2/ In neo900-feasibility.pdf
 section 14 - Dual/Quad-core

 -  OMAP4: yes, Jorjin OMAP4 module, same CPU as PandaBoard; but we donʻt know
    all hardware details and/or software (power management)

 This seems to imply that we do know all the detail of power management for
 the omap3.  But we do not.
 The power usage on the GTA04 is still woeful.  This may not be directly
 related to the OMAP3 software, but I suspect it is partly related.

 In general the issue of power-management is largely missing from the
 feasibility study.  It should really state how power (in)efficient the GTA04
 is and advise that there is no guarantee that the Neo900 will be any better.
 (Anyone know how power-efficient the N900 is?).

 Also: what are the details that we don't know?  I managed to find a TRM for
 the OMAP4430 without much effort.

Thanks,
NeilBrown
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