maemo.org - Talk - View Single Post - The new QWERTY device project

	wicket	2017-07-22 , 14:38
	Posts: 634 \| Thanked: 3,266 times \| Joined on May 2010 @ Colombia	#17

Originally Posted by chenliangchen

Now that we are getting closer to finish the Moto Keyboard Mod and Youyota Tablet, I have started to work on the next excitement - reviving the N950/Lauta concept with a modern SoC and hardware.

The first choice has been made: SoC will be Qualcomm 64-bit. There are a few choices but Qualcomm's is the best in overall performance and support.

Qualcomm (Chosen): Solution extremely expensive. Components are hard to get. But support is great (in terms of drivers). Performance at top tier, power management is great.
Intel: They exit mobile chipset business and atom range is not as power efficiency as Qualcomm.
MTK: Cheaper than Qualcomm, performance is OK. But drivers often being the issue. Components often out of stock...
Allwinner: Lower end cheap SoC with unknown support other than Android
Rockchip: Strength on Media but not a mainstream chipset.

Then here comes the question: Which OS we can use? I have a few in mind but the community's opinion will play a great rule.

AOSP: Can be shipped as a default choice, for warranty purpose, at least every basic function is working. But as Wicket mentioned in here, it seems to be causing barriers porting proper GNU releases?

The advantage for AOSP is mainly cost-free and lawsuit free, I can't sell something under other OS that might have broken functions...

Sailfish OS: A proper OS that I want to ship with default OS. But to obtain official adaptation costs a lot of time and money. On the other hand, we can leave it to a community port only. The question will be is it worth the cost adding Android layer.

Nemo: Any opinion on advantage/disadvantage on that? On official wiki page looks like the development ceased 4 years ago... If this can be achieved in terms of open UI and community/developer friendly in a latest release/kernel that will be a great choice.

Ubuntu Mobile: Is it cancelled? Is it worth developing?

GMS Android: To make this project successful and have funds improving HW/SW in the future, selling it to general public in a GMS version seem to be a good choice. Although I hated Android...

Lineage OS: As an alternative to GMS Andoid, but is it possible shipping as the default OS?

Any suggestions/ideas/loves/hates please post here.

Hi Chen,

First of all, congratulations on your successful tablet campaign! I hope my post that you linked to didn't come across too negative. I'm glad you've created this thread to seek input from the whole community.

I'm less concerned about what OS is bundled with the device and more concerned about what can be installed afterwards, and for that, the choice of SoC is critical. For me the most important thing would be that you choose a SoC which already has decent mainline Linux support. The main point being that we are not forced to use an Android kernel because nothing else is available. Android kernels generally go unsupported after the SoC vendor has stopped manufacturing each chip, thus the device would be forced into obsolescence after maybe only a couple of years.

You say you've already chosen Qualcomm (which isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on your target audience) but I've a few comments on your summary of SoCs which you may want to take into consideration.

Intel have indeed exited the mobile chipset business however China-based mobile chip vendor Spreadtrum have partnered with Intel and have been making new x86-based SoCs for smartphones.

Allwinner is quite the opposite of what you describe. They are actually one of the best vendors for non-Android support and use Mali GPUs which are compatible with the Lima free/open drivers.

You didn't mention OMAP, perhaps because TI are no longer developing new chips, but OMAP has great mainline Linux support. The main disadvantage with OMAP is the PowerVR GPU for which there are no free/open drivers.

Qualcomm has traditionally been a bad choice for privacy reasons. Their SoCs are known to have bad hardware design where the modem controls GPS, audio (including mic), RAM, NAND. If you choose a Qualcomm SoC without a built-in modem, it might be okay. Mainline Linux support for certain Qualcomm SoCs has improved in recent years and Freedreno (along with Lima) is one of the more advanced projects for free/open GPU drivers.

Have a look at my thread on mainline Linux devices which provides some info on which SoCs are currently best supported by mainline Linux. There are currently two 64-bit Qualcomm phones with some support: the LG Nexus 5X (MSM8992) and the Huawei Nexus 6P (MSM8994). Other 64-bit Qualcomm chips with mainline support can be found here.

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Last edited by wicket; 2017-07-22 at 15:46.

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