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Android was explicitly designed to make it easy for component manufacturers to keep their drivers closed. Now that Qualcomm essentially has a monopoly on Androi

by swiley 6y ago

Android was explicitly designed to make it easy for component manufacturers to keep their drivers closed. Now that Qualcomm essentially has a monopoly on Android SoCs you can't really build a modern phone that will have up to date software in 3 years. This is why projects like the Pinephone and lebrem5 use such weird SoCs. Open source drivers are absolutely the only way to know that the phone manufacturer will even have the ability to maintain up to date software.

dec0dedab0de 6y ago
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the only reason you need a SoC is if you're trying to make the phone small. If you don't care about size you can have discreet components. There are millions of people with big enough pockets (literally and metaphorically) , who wouldn't notice the extra weight of their phone. edit: discreet might be the wrong word because they would all be ICs but not quite a SoC.
- opencl 6y ago
  The other issue is that none of the SoCs on the market with open source drivers available are remotely competitive in performance with today's Qualcomm/Exynos/Kirin. The Pinephone and Librem 5 are both using chips that are competitive with low end Snapdragons from 5 years ago. I think the RK3399 paired with an external modem is about as good as you can do today without needing blobs, and while it performs a whole lot better than the current Pinephone/Librem 5 it is still quite far behind today's SoCs. In most cases the open source drivers for these mobile SoCs are reverse engineered rather than released by the vendor, which is why they typically only exist for chips that are at least a few years old.
- swiley 6y ago
  Find me a low power discrete CPU and we can draw the board for another open source phone together.
  - operator-name 6y ago
    RISC-V is not only looking interesting but promising.
    - swiley 6y ago
      Arm looks promising too but it's about parts not ISAs.

by swiley 6y ago

dec0dedab0de 6y ago

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the only reason you need a SoC is if you're trying to make the phone small. If you don't care about size you can have discreet components. There are millions of people with big enough pockets (literally and metaphorically) , who wouldn't notice the extra weight of their phone. edit: discreet might be the wrong word because they would all be ICs but not quite a SoC.

opencl 6y ago
The other issue is that none of the SoCs on the market with open source drivers available are remotely competitive in performance with today's Qualcomm/Exynos/Kirin. The Pinephone and Librem 5 are both using chips that are competitive with low end Snapdragons from 5 years ago. I think the RK3399 paired with an external modem is about as good as you can do today without needing blobs, and while it performs a whole lot better than the current Pinephone/Librem 5 it is still quite far behind today's SoCs. In most cases the open source drivers for these mobile SoCs are reverse engineered rather than released by the vendor, which is why they typically only exist for chips that are at least a few years old.
swiley 6y ago
Find me a low power discrete CPU and we can draw the board for another open source phone together.
- operator-name 6y ago
  RISC-V is not only looking interesting but promising.
  - swiley 6y ago
    Arm looks promising too but it's about parts not ISAs.