Marcin Juszkiewicz - openmokohttps://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2014-05-07T13:53:00+02:0010 years ago I got write access to OpenEmbedded2014-05-07T13:53:00+02:002014-05-07T13:53:00+02:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2014-05-07:/2014/05/07/10-years-ago-i-got-write-access-to-openembedded/<p>It was 8th May of 2004 when I did first push to OpenEmbedded repository. It was BitKeeper at that time but if someone wants to look then <a href="http://git.openembedded.org/openembedded/commit/?id=458b45b23e99f1b0a5549d3cb3ec082b5007d4ca">commit can be seen in git</a>.</p>
<p>I will not write about my <span class="caps">OE</span> history as there are several posts about it on my …</p><p>It was 8th May of 2004 when I did first push to OpenEmbedded repository. It was BitKeeper at that time but if someone wants to look then <a href="http://git.openembedded.org/openembedded/commit/?id=458b45b23e99f1b0a5549d3cb3ec082b5007d4ca">commit can be seen in git</a>.</p>
<p>I will not write about my <span class="caps">OE</span> history as there are several posts about it on my blog already:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/2014/02/11/it-is-10-years-of-linux-on-arm-for-me/">It is 10 years of Linux on <span class="caps">ARM</span> for me</a></li>
<li><a href="/2009/03/18/five-years-with-openembedded/">Five years with OpenEmbedded</a></li>
<li><a href="/2007/04/04/3-years-of-openembedded-and-me/">3 years of OpenEmbedded and me</a></li>
<li><a href="/2006/10/31/30-months-of-openembedded-and-me/">30 months of OpenEmbedded and me</a></li>
<li><a href="/2005/05/08/year-with-openembedded/">Year with OpenEmbedded</a></li>
</ul>
<p>It was nice to be there through all those years to see how it grows. From a tool used by bunch of open source lovers who wanted to build stuff for own toys/devices, to a tool used by more and more companies. First ones like OpenedHand, Vernier. Then SoC vendors started to appear: Atmel, Texas Instruments and more. New architectures were added. New rewrites, updates (tons of those).</p>
<p>Speaking of updates… According to statistics from Ohloh.net I am still in top 5 contributors in OpenEmbedded and Yocto project ;)</p>
<p>There were commercial devices on a market with OpenEmbedded derived distributions running on them. I wonder how many Palm Pre users knew that they can build extra packages with <span class="caps">OE</span>. And that work was not lost — <span class="caps">LG</span> Electronics uses WebOS on their current <span class="caps">TV</span> sets and switched whole development team to use OpenEmbedded.</p>
<p>Since 2006 we got annual meetings and this year we have two of them: European as usual and North America one for first time (there was one few years ago during <span class="caps">ELC</span> but I do not remember was it official).</p>
<p>There is OpenEmbedded e.V. which is non-profit organization to take care of <span class="caps">OE</span> finances and infrastructure. I was one step from being one of its founders but birth of my daughter was more important ;)</p>
<p>And of course there is the Yocto project. Born from OpenedHand’s Poky helped to bring order into OpenEmbedded. Layers (which were discussed since 2006 at least) were created and enforced so recipes are better organized than it was before. It also helped with visibility. Note that when I write OpenEmbedded I mean OpenEmbedded and Yocto project as they are connected.</p>
<p>I remember days when Montavista was seen as kind of competitor (“kind of” because they were big and expensive while we were just a bunch of guys). Then they moved to OpenEmbedded and dropped own tools. Other company with such switch was Denx. 3 years ago they released <abbr title="Embedded Linux Development Kit"><span class="caps">ELDK</span></abbr> 5.0 which was <span class="caps">OE</span> based and made several releases since then.</p>
<p>What future will bring? No idea but it will be bright. And I will still be somewhere nearby.</p>It is 10 years of Linux on ARM for me2014-02-11T22:19:00+01:002014-02-11T22:19:00+01:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2014-02-11:/2014/02/11/it-is-10-years-of-linux-on-arm-for-me/<p>It was somewhere between 7th and 11th February 2004 when I got package with my first Linux/<span class="caps">ARM</span> device. It was Sharp Zaurus <span class="caps">SL</span>-5500 (also named “collie”) and all started…</p>
<p>At that time I had Palm M105 (still own) and Sony <span class="caps">CLIE</span> <span class="caps">SJ30</span> (both running PalmOS/m68k) but wanted …</p><p>It was somewhere between 7th and 11th February 2004 when I got package with my first Linux/<span class="caps">ARM</span> device. It was Sharp Zaurus <span class="caps">SL</span>-5500 (also named “collie”) and all started…</p>
<p>At that time I had Palm M105 (still own) and Sony <span class="caps">CLIE</span> <span class="caps">SJ30</span> (both running PalmOS/m68k) but wanted hackable device. But I did not have idea what this device will do with my life.</p>
<p>Took me about three years to get to the point where I could abandon my daily work as <span class="caps">PHP</span> programmer and move to a bit risky business of embedded Linux consulting. But it was worth it. Not only from financial perspective (I paid more tax in first year then earned in previous) but also from my development. I met a lot of great hackers, people with knowledge which I did not have and I worked hard to be a part of that group.</p>
<p>I was a developer in multiple distributions: OpenZaurus, Poky Linux, Ångström, Debian, Maemo, Ubuntu. My patches landed also in many other embedded and “normal” ones. I patched uncountable amount of software packages to get them built and working. Sure, not all of those changes were sent upstream, some were just ugly hacks but this started to change one day.</p>
<p>Worked as distribution leader in OpenZaurus. My duties (still in free time only) were user support, maintaining repositories and images. I organized testing of pre-release images with over one hundred users — we had all supported devices covered. There was “updates” repository where we provided security fixes, kernel updates and other improvements. I also officially ended development of this distribution when we merged into Ångström.</p>
<p>I worked as one of main developers of Poky Linux which later became Yocto Linux. Learnt about build automation, <span class="caps">QA</span> control, build-after-commit workflow and many other things. During my work with OpenedHand I also spent some time on learning differences between British and American versions of English.</p>
<p>Worked with some companies based in <span class="caps">USA</span>. This allowed me to learn how to organize teamwork with people from quite far timezones (Vernier was based in Portland so 9 hours difference). It was useful then and still is as most of Red Hat <span class="caps">ARM</span> team is <span class="caps">US</span> based.</p>
<p>I remember moments when I had to explain what I am doing at work to some people (<a href="/2008/08/12/what-do-i-do-for-living/">including my mom</a>). For last 1.5 year I used to say “building software for computers which do not exist” but this is slowly changing as AArch64 hardware exists but is not on a mass market yet.</p>
<p>Now I got to a point when I am recognized at conferences by some random people when at <span class="caps">FOSDEM</span> 2007 I knew just few guys from OpenEmbedded (but connected many faces with names/nicknames there).</p>
<p>Played with more hardware then wanted. I still have some devices which I never booted (<span class="caps">FRI2</span> for example). There are boards/devices which I would like to get rid of but most of them is so outdated that may go to electronic trash only.</p>
<p>But if I would have an option to move back that 10 years and think again about buying Sharp Zaurus <span class="caps">SL</span>-5500 I would not change it as it was one of the best things I did.</p>ARMology2013-06-08T17:30:00+02:002013-06-08T17:30:00+02:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2013-06-08:/2013/06/08/armology/<p>When last time I was in Cambridge we had a discussion about <span class="caps">ARM</span> processors. Paweł used term “ARMology” then. And with recent announcement of Cortex-A12 cpu core I thought that it may be a good idea to write a blog post about it.</p>
<p>Please note that my knowledge of <span class="caps">ARM …</span></p><p>When last time I was in Cambridge we had a discussion about <span class="caps">ARM</span> processors. Paweł used term “ARMology” then. And with recent announcement of Cortex-A12 cpu core I thought that it may be a good idea to write a blog post about it.</p>
<p>Please note that my knowledge of <span class="caps">ARM</span> processors started in 2003 so I can make mistakes in everything older. Tried to understand articles about old times but sometimes they do not keep one version of story.</p>
<h3>Ancient times</h3>
<p><span class="caps">ARM1</span> got released in 1985 as <span class="caps">CPU</span> add-on to <span class="caps">BBC</span> Micro manufactured by Acorn Computers Ltd. as result of few years of research work. They wanted to have new processor to replace ageing 6502 used in <span class="caps">BBC</span> Micro and Acorn Electron and none of existing ones did not fit their requirements. Note that it was not market product but rather development tool made available for selected users.</p>
<p>But it was <span class="caps">ARM2</span> which landed in new computers — Acorn Archimedes (1987 year). Had multiply instructions added so new version of instruction set was created: ARMv2. Just 8MHz clock but remember that it was first computer with new <span class="caps">CPU</span>…</p>
<p>Then <span class="caps">ARM3</span> came — with cache controller integrated and 25MHz clock. <span class="caps">ISA</span> was bumped to ARMv2a due to <span class="caps">SWP</span> instruction added. And it was released in another Acorn computer: A5000. This was also used in Acorn A4 which was first <span class="caps">ARM</span> powered laptop (but term “<span class="caps">ARM</span> Powered” was created few years later). I hope that one day I will be able to play with all those old machines…</p>
<p>There was also <span class="caps">ARM250</span> processor with ARMv2a instruction set like in <span class="caps">ARM3</span> but no cache controller. But it is worth mentioning as it can be seen as first SoC due to <span class="caps">ARM</span>, <span class="caps">MEMC</span>, <span class="caps">VIDC</span>, <span class="caps">IOC</span> chips integrated in one piece of silicon. This allowed to create budget versions of computers.</p>
<h3><span class="caps">ARM</span> Ltd.</h3>
<p>In 1990 Acorn, Apple and <span class="caps">VLSI</span> co-founded Advanced <span class="caps">RISC</span> Machines Ltd. company which took over research and development of <span class="caps">ARM</span> processors. Their business model was simple: “we work on cpu cores and other companies pay us license costs to make chips”.</p>
<p>Their first cpu was <span class="caps">ARM60</span> with new instruction set: ARMv3. It had 32bit address space (compared to 26bit in older versions), was endian agnostic (so both big and little endian was possible) and there were other improvements.</p>
<p>Please note lack of <span class="caps">ARM4</span> and <span class="caps">ARM5</span> processors. I heard some rumours about that but will not repeat them here as some of them just do not fit when compared against facts.</p>
<p><span class="caps">ARM610</span> was powering Apple Newton <span class="caps">PDA</span> and first Acorn RiscPC machines where it was replaced by <span class="caps">ARM710</span> (still ARMv3 instruction set but ~30% faster).</p>
<h3>First licensees</h3>
<p>You can create new processor cores but someone has to buy them and manufacture… In 1992 <span class="caps">GEC</span> Plessey and Sharp licensed <span class="caps">ARM</span> technology, next year added Cirrus Logic and Texas Instruments, then <span class="caps">AKM</span> (Asahi Kasei Microsystems) and Samsung joined in 1994 and then others…</p>
<p>From that list I recognize only Cirrus Logic (used their crazy EP93xx family), <span class="caps">TI</span> and Samsung as vendors of processors ;D</p>
<h3>Thumb</h3>
<p>One of next cpu cores was <span class="caps">ARM7TDMI</span> (Thumb+Debug+Multiplier+<span class="caps">ICE</span>) which added new instruction set: Thumb.</p>
<p>The Thumb instructions were not only to improve code density, but also to bring the power of the <span class="caps">ARM</span> into cheaper devices which may primarily only have a 16 bit datapath on the circuit board (for 32 bit paths are costlier). When in Thumb mode, the processor executes Thumb instructions. While most of these instructions directly map onto normal <span class="caps">ARM</span> instructions, the space saving is by reducing the number of options and possibilities available — for example, conditional execution is lost, only branches can be conditional. Fewer registers can be directly accessed in many instructions, etc. However, given all of this, good Thumb code can perform extremely well in a 16 bit world (as each instruction is a 16 bit entity and can be loaded directly).</p>
<p><span class="caps">ARM7TDMI</span> landed nearly everywhere - <span class="caps">MP3</span> players, cell phones, microwaves and any place where microcontroller could be used. I heard that few years ago half of <span class="caps">ARM</span> Ltd. income was from license costs of this cpu core…</p>
<h3><span class="caps">ARM7</span></h3>
<p>But <span class="caps">ARM7</span> did not ended at <span class="caps">ARM7TDMI</span>… There was <span class="caps">ARM7EJ</span>-S core which used ARMv5TE instruction set and also <span class="caps">ARM720T</span> and <span class="caps">ARM740T</span> with ARMv4T. You can run Linux on Cirrus Logic CLPS711x/EP721x/EP731x ones ;)</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.arm.com/products/processors/classic/arm7/index.php"><span class="caps">ARM</span> Ltd. page about <span class="caps">ARM7</span></a> the <span class="caps">ARM7</span> family is the world’s most widely used 32-bit embedded processor family, with more than 170 silicon licensees and over 10 Billion units shipped since its introduction in 1994.</p>
<h3><span class="caps">ARM8</span></h3>
<p>I heard that <span class="caps">ARM8</span> is one of those things you should not ask <span class="caps">ARM</span> Ltd. people about. Nothing strange when you look at history…</p>
<p><span class="caps">ARM810</span> processor made use of ARMv4 instruction set and had 72MHz clock. At same time <span class="caps">DEC</span> released StrongARM with 200MHz clock… 1996 was definitively year of StrongARM.</p>
<p>In 2004 I bought my first Linux/<span class="caps">ARM</span> powered device: Sharp Zaurus <span class="caps">SL</span>-5500.</p>
<h3><span class="caps">ARM9</span></h3>
<p>Ah <span class="caps">ARM9</span>… this was huge family of processor cores…</p>
<p><span class="caps">ARM</span> moved from a von Neumann architecture (Princeton architecture) to a Harvard architecture with separate instruction and data buses (and caches), significantly increasing its potential speed.</p>
<p>There were two different instruction sets used in this family: ARMv4T and ARMv5TE. Also some kind of Java support was added in the latter one but who knows how to use it — <span class="caps">ARM</span> keeps details of Jazelle behind doors which can be open only with huge amount of money.</p>
<h4>ARMv4T</h4>
<p>Here we have <span class="caps">ARM9TDMI</span>, <span class="caps">ARM920T</span>, <span class="caps">ARM922T</span>, <span class="caps">ARM925T</span> and <span class="caps">ARM940T</span> cores. I mostly saw 920T one in far too many chips.</p>
<p>My collection includes:</p>
<ul>
<li>ep93xx from Cirrus Logic (with their sick <abbr title="Vector Floating Point"><span class="caps">VFP</span></abbr> unit)</li>
<li>omap1510 from Texas Instruments</li>
<li>s3c2410 from Samsung (note that some s3c2xxx processors are ARMv5T)</li>
</ul>
<h4>ARMv5T</h4>
<p>Note: by ARMv5T I mean every cpu never mind which extensions it has built-in (<strong>E</strong>nhanced <span class="caps">DSP</span>, <strong>J</strong>azelle etc).</p>
<p>I consider this one to be most popular one (probably after <span class="caps">ARM7TDMI</span>). Countless companies had own processors based on those cores (mostly on <span class="caps">ARM926EJ</span>-S one). You can get them even in <span class="caps">QFP</span> form so hand soldering is possible. <span class="caps">CPU</span> frequency goes over 1GHz with Kirkwood cores from Marvell.</p>
<p>In my collection I have:</p>
<ul>
<li>at91sam9263 from Atmel</li>
<li>pxa255 from Intel</li>
<li>st88n15 from <span class="caps">ST</span> Microelectronics</li>
</ul>
<p>Had also at91sam9m10, Kirkwood based Sheevaplug and ixp425 based <span class="caps">NSLU2</span> but they found new home.</p>
<h3><span class="caps">ARM10</span></h3>
<p>Another quiet moment in <span class="caps">ARM</span> history. <span class="caps">ARM1020E</span>, <span class="caps">ARM1022E</span>, <span class="caps">ARM1026EJ</span>-S cores existed but did not looked popular.</p>
<p><strong><span class="caps">UPDATE</span>:</strong> Conexant uses <span class="caps">ARM10</span> core in their next generation <span class="caps">DSL</span> <span class="caps">CPE</span> systems such as bridge/routers, wireless <span class="caps">DSL</span> routers and <span class="caps">DSL</span> VoIP IADs.</p>
<h3><span class="caps">ARM11</span></h3>
<p>Released in 2002 as four new cores: <span class="caps">ARM1136J</span>, <span class="caps">ARM1156T2</span>, <span class="caps">ARM1176JZ</span> and <span class="caps">ARM11</span> MPCore. Several improvements over <span class="caps">ARM9</span> family including optional <abbr title="Vector Floating Point"><span class="caps">VFP</span></abbr> unit. New instruction set: ARMv6 (and ARMv6K extensions). There was also Thumb2 support in arm1156 core (but I do not know did someone made chips with it). arm1176 core got TrustZone support.</p>
<p>I have:</p>
<ul>
<li>omap2430 from Texas Instruments</li>
<li>i.mx35 from Freescale</li>
</ul>
<p>Currently most popular chip with this family is <span class="caps">BCM2835</span> <span class="caps">GPU</span> which got arm1136 cpu core on die because there was some space left and none of Cortex-A processor core fit there.</p>
<h3>Cortex</h3>
<p>New family of processor cores was announced in 2004 with Cortex-M3 as first cpu. There are three branches:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>A</strong>plication</li>
<li><strong>R</strong>ealtime</li>
<li><strong>M</strong>icrocontroller</li>
</ul>
<p>All of them (with exception of Cortex-M0 which is ARMv6) use new instruction sets: ARMv7 and Thumb-2 (some from R/M lines are Thumb-2 only). Several cpu modules were announced (some with newer cores):</p>
<ul>
<li><span class="caps">NEON</span> for <span class="caps">SIMD</span> operations</li>
<li><span class="caps">VFP3</span> and <span class="caps">VFP4</span></li>
<li>Jazelle <span class="caps">RCT</span> (aka ThumbEE).</li>
<li><abbr title="Large Physical Address Extensions"><span class="caps">LPAE</span></abbr> for more then <span class="caps">4GB</span> ram support (Cortex A7/12/15)</li>
<li>virtualization support (A7/12/15)</li>
<li>big.<span class="caps">LITTLE</span></li>
<li>TrustZone</li>
</ul>
<p>I will not cover R/M lines as did not played with them.</p>
<h4>Cortex-A8</h4>
<p>Announced in 2006 single core ARMv7a processor core. Released in chips by Texas Instruments, Samsung, Allwinner, Apple, Freescale, Rockchip and probably few others.</p>
<p>Has higher clocks than <span class="caps">ARM11</span> cores and achieves roughly twice the instructions executed per clock cycle due to dual-issue superscalar design.</p>
<p>So far collected:</p>
<ul>
<li>am3358 from Texas Instruments</li>
<li>i.mx515 from Freescale</li>
<li>omap3530 from Texas Instruments</li>
</ul>
<h4>Cortex-A9</h4>
<p>First multiple core design in Cortex family. Allows up to 4 cores in one processor. Announced in 2007. Looks like most of companies which had previous cores licensed also this one but there were also new vendors.</p>
<p>There are also single core Cortex-A9 processors on a market.</p>
<p>I have products based on omap4430 from Texas Instruments and Tegra3 from NVidia.</p>
<h4>Cortex-A5</h4>
<p>Announced around the end of 2009 (I remember discussion about something new from <span class="caps">ARM</span> with someone at <span class="caps">ELC</span>/E). Up to 4 cores, mostly for use in all designs where <span class="caps">ARM9</span> and <span class="caps">ARM11</span> cores were used. In other words new low-end cpu with modern instruction set.</p>
<h4>Cortex-A15</h4>
<p>The fastest (so far) core in ARMv7a part of Cortex family. Up to 4 cores. Announced in 2010 and expanded <span class="caps">ARM</span> line with several new things:</p>
<ul>
<li>40-bit <abbr title="Large Physical Address Extensions"><span class="caps">LPAE</span></abbr> which extends address range to <span class="caps">1TB</span> (but 32-bit per process)</li>
<li>VFPv4</li>
<li>Hardware virtualization support</li>
<li>TrustZone security extensions</li>
</ul>
<p>I have Chromebook with Exynos5250 cpu and have to admit that it is best device for <span class="caps">ARM</span> software development. Fast, portable and hackable.</p>
<h4>Cortex-A7</h4>
<p>Announced in 2011. Younger brother of Cortex-A15 design. Slower but eats much less power.</p>
<h4>Cortex-A12</h4>
<p>Announced in 2013 as modern replacement for Cortex-A9 designs. Has everything from Cortex-A15/A7 and is ~40% faster than Cortex-A9 at same clock frequency. No chips on a market yet.</p>
<h4>big.<span class="caps">LITTLE</span></h4>
<p>That’s interesting part which was announced in 2011. It is not new core but combination of them. Vendor can mix Cortex-A7/12/15 cores to have kind of dual-multicore processor which runs different cores for different needs. For example normal operation on A7 to save energy but go up for A15 when more processing power is needed. And amount of cores in each of them does not even have to match.</p>
<p>It is also possible to make use of all cores all together which may result in 8-core <span class="caps">ARM</span> processor scheduling tasks on different cpu cores.</p>
<p>There are few implementations already: <span class="caps">ARM</span> <span class="caps">TC2</span> testing platform, HiSilicon <span class="caps">K3V3</span>, Samsung Exynos 5 Octa and Renesas Mobile <span class="caps">MP6530</span> were announced. They differ in amount of cores but all (except <span class="caps">TC2</span>) use the same amount of A7/A15 cores.</p>
<h3>ARMv8</h3>
<p>In 2011 <span class="caps">ARM</span> announced new 64-bit architecture called AArch64. There will be two cores: Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 and big.<span class="caps">LITTLE</span> combination will be possible as well.</p>
<p>Lot of things got changed here. <abbr title="Vector Floating Point"><span class="caps">VFP</span></abbr> and <span class="caps">NEON</span> are parts of standard. Lot of work went into making sure that all designs will not be so fragmented like 32-bit architecture is.</p>
<p>I worked on AArch64 bootstrapping in OpenEmbedded build system and did also porting of several applications.</p>
<p>Hope to see hardware in 2014 with possibility to play with it to check how it will play compared to current systems.</p>
<h3>Other designs</h3>
<p><span class="caps">ARM</span> Ltd. is not the only company which releases new cpu cores. That’s due to fact that there are few types of license you can buy. Most vendors just buy licence for existing core and make use of it in their designs. But some companies (Intel, Marvell, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Apple, Faraday and others) paid for ‘architectural license’ which allows to design own cores.</p>
<h4>XScale</h4>
<p>Probably oldest one was StrongARM made by <span class="caps">DEC</span>, later sold to Intel where it was used as a base for XScale family with ARMv5TEJ instruction set. Later <abbr title="Intel Wireless MMX Technology"><span class="caps">IWMMXT</span></abbr> got added in PXA27x line.</p>
<p>In 2006 Intel sold whole <span class="caps">ARM</span> line to Marvell which released newer processor lines and later moved to own designs.</p>
<p>There were few lines in this family:</p>
<ul>
<li>Application Processors (with the prefix <span class="caps">PXA</span>).</li>
<li>I/O Processors (with the prefix <span class="caps">IOP</span>)</li>
<li>Network Processors (with the prefix <span class="caps">IXP</span>)</li>
<li>Control Plane Processors (with the prefix <span class="caps">IXC</span>).</li>
<li>Consumer Electronics Processors (with the prefix <span class="caps">CE</span>).</li>
</ul>
<p>One day I will undust my Sharp Zaurus c760 just to check how recent kernels work on <span class="caps">PXA255</span> ;D</p>
<h4>Marvell</h4>
<p>Their Feroceon/<span class="caps">PJ1</span>/<span class="caps">PJ4</span> cores were independent ARMv5TE implementations. Feroceon was Marvell’s own <span class="caps">ARM9</span> compatible <span class="caps">CPU</span> in Kirkwood and others, while <span class="caps">PJ1</span> was based on that and replaced XScale in later <span class="caps">PXA</span> chips. <span class="caps">PJ4</span> is the ARMv7 compatible version used in all modern Marvell designs, both the embedded and the <span class="caps">PXA</span> side.</p>
<h4>Qualcomm</h4>
<p>Company known mostly from wireless networks (<span class="caps">GSM</span>/<span class="caps">CDMA</span>/3G) released first <span class="caps">ARM</span> based processors in 2007. First ones were based on <span class="caps">ARM11</span> core (ARMv6 instruction set) and in next year also ARMv7a were available. Their high-end designs (Scorpion and Krait) are similar to Cortex family but have different performance. Company also has Cortex-A5 and A7 in low-end products.</p>
<p>Nexus 4 uses Snapdragon S4 Pro and I also have S4 Plus based Snapdragon development board.</p>
<h4>Faraday</h4>
<p>Faraday Technology Corporation released own processors which used ARMv4 instruction set (ARMv5TE in newer cores). They were <span class="caps">FA510</span>, <span class="caps">FA526</span>, <span class="caps">FA626</span> for v4 and <span class="caps">FA606TE</span>, <span class="caps">FA626TE</span>, <span class="caps">FMP626TE</span> and <span class="caps">FA726TE</span> for v5te. Note that <span class="caps">FMP626TE</span> is dual core!</p>
<p>They also have license for Cortex-A5 and A9 cores.</p>
<h4>Project Denver</h4>
<p>Quoting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Denver">Wikipedia article about Project Denver</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Project Denver is an <span class="caps">ARM</span> architecture <span class="caps">CPU</span> being designed by Nvidia, targeted at personal computers, servers, and supercomputers. The <span class="caps">CPU</span> package will include an Nvidia <span class="caps">GPU</span> on-chip.</p>
<p>The existence of Project Denver was revealed at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. In a March 4, 2011 Q&A article <span class="caps">CEO</span> Jen-Hsun Huang revealed that Project Denver is a five year 64-bit <span class="caps">ARM</span> architecture <span class="caps">CPU</span> development on which hundreds of engineers had already worked for three and half years and which also has 32-bit <span class="caps">ARM</span> architecture backward compatibility.</p>
<p>The Project Denver <span class="caps">CPU</span> may internally translate the <span class="caps">ARM</span> instructions to an internal instruction set, using firmware in the <span class="caps">CPU</span>.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4>X-Gene</h4>
<p>AppliedMicro announced that they will release AArch64 processors based on own cores.</p>
<h3>Final note</h3>
<p>If you spotted any mistakes please write in comments and I will do my best to fix them. If you have something interesting to add also please do a comment.</p>
<p>I used several sources to collect data for this post. Wikipedia articles helped me with details about Acorn products and <span class="caps">ARM</span> listings. <a href="http://infocenter.arm.com/"><span class="caps">ARM</span> infocenter</a> provided other information. Dates were taken from Wikipedia or <a href="http://www.arm.com/about/company-profile/milestones.php"><span class="caps">ARM</span> Company Milestones</a> page. Ancient times part based on <a href="http://www.heyrick.co.uk/armwiki/The_ARM_family">The <span class="caps">ARM</span> Family</a> and <a href="http://www.ot1.com/arm/armchap1.html">The history of the <span class="caps">ARM</span> <span class="caps">CPU</span></a> articles. <a href="http://www.reds.ch/share/cours/ReCo/documents/TheHistoryOfTheArmArchitecture.pdf">The history of the <span class="caps">ARM</span> architecture</a> was interesting and helpful as well.</p>
<p>Please do not copy this article without providing author information. Took me quite long time to finish it.</p>
<h3>Changelog</h3>
<h4>8 June evening</h4>
<p>Thanks to notes from Arnd Bergmann I did some changes:</p>
<ul>
<li>added <span class="caps">ARM7</span>, Marvell, Faraday, Project Denver, X-Gene sections</li>
<li>fixed Cortex-A5 to be up to 4 cores instead of single.</li>
<li>mentioned Conexant in <span class="caps">ARM10</span> section.</li>
<li>improved Qualcomm section to mention which cores are original <span class="caps">ARM</span> ones, which are modified.</li>
</ul>
<p>David Alan Gilbert mentioned that <span class="caps">ARM1</span> was not freely available on a market. Added note about it.</p>Cookies blabla…2013-03-22T22:25:00+01:002013-03-22T22:25:00+01:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2013-03-22:/2013/03/22/cookies-blabla/<p>This site is using cookies. Some of them are to track you as I use Google Analytics. Other may keep your name/email/website when you write comments on my blog.</p>
<p>We have new law here in European Union that visitors should get notification when website is using cookies. You …</p><p>This site is using cookies. Some of them are to track you as I use Google Analytics. Other may keep your name/email/website when you write comments on my blog.</p>
<p>We have new law here in European Union that visitors should get notification when website is using cookies. You know — privacy stuff etc. Lot of people does not even have any idea what this whole noise is about. There are websites for them with all that not even needed information — your search engine will point you there (and use few cookies in meantime).</p>
<p>I do not plan to add any of those annoying popups which will tell that there are cookies in use. Once you see such one you get cookie — cause website needs a way to remember that you clicked “yes, I know, get off my screen” button. You will not see such one here.</p>
<p>There is a text box in right column about cookies — go, read, decide would you read my blog or not. It is your choice and always was.</p>
<p><span class="caps">PS</span>. I added tags into post just to get this post shown on each <span class="caps">RSS</span> aggregator I am/was listed.</p>
<p><strong><span class="caps">UPDATE</span>:</strong> added small header.</p>What interest me in ARM world2012-09-29T21:04:00+02:002012-09-29T21:04:00+02:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2012-09-29:/2012/09/29/what-interest-me-in-arm-world/<p>When I published <a href="/2012/09/28/lets-take-a-look-at-arm-boards-again/">my last post about <span class="caps">ARM</span> boards</a> there were many questions and suggestions with interesting devices. Thank You all for it.</p>
<p>But there were also suggestions about <span class="caps">ARM9</span> or <span class="caps">ARM11</span> based devices. So I decided that it is good time to write what interest me now in <span class="caps">ARM …</span></p><p>When I published <a href="/2012/09/28/lets-take-a-look-at-arm-boards-again/">my last post about <span class="caps">ARM</span> boards</a> there were many questions and suggestions with interesting devices. Thank You all for it.</p>
<p>But there were also suggestions about <span class="caps">ARM9</span> or <span class="caps">ARM11</span> based devices. So I decided that it is good time to write what interest me now in <span class="caps">ARM</span> world.</p>
<p>But first some inventory. I had/used/have several devices with <span class="caps">ARM</span> cpu:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>StrongARM (armv4) one:</p>
<ul>
<li>Sharp Zaurus <span class="caps">SL</span>-5500 (which took me to <span class="caps">ARM</span> world)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="caps">ARM920</span> (armv4t) ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>Openmoko <span class="caps">GTA01</span> bv3, bv4 (s3c2410)</li>
<li><span class="caps">EDB9301</span> (<span class="caps">EP9301</span> cpu)</li>
<li>Sim-One (<span class="caps">EP9307</span>)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="caps">ARM926</span> (armv5te) ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>Sharp Zaurus sl-5600 (pxa250)</li>
<li>Sharp Zaurus c760/sl-6000 (pxa255)</li>
<li>Sharp Zaurus sl-c3000 (pxa272)</li>
<li>Sheevaplug (kirkwood)</li>
<li>Atmel devboards (at91sam9263, at91sam9m10)</li>
<li><span class="caps">ST</span>-Microelectronics/<span class="caps">ST</span>-Ericsson <span class="caps">NDK</span>-15, <span class="caps">NHK</span>-15 (st88n15)</li>
<li>Nokia 770 (omap1710)</li>
<li>Linksys <span class="caps">NSLU2</span> (ixp425 iirc)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="caps">ARM1136</span> (armv6) ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>Nokia N810 (omap2430)</li>
<li>Bug r1.0, r1.2 (i.mx31)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cortex-A8 (armv7a) ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>Beagleboard B7, B7, C3 (omap3430)</li>
<li>Nokia N900 (omap3430)</li>
<li>Nexus S (exynos3)</li>
<li>Genesi Efika <span class="caps">MX</span> Smartbook (i.mx51)</li>
<li>Freescale Quickstart (i.mx53)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cortex-A9 (armv7a) ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pandaboard <span class="caps">EA1</span>, A1 (omap4430)</li>
<li>Archos G9 80 (omap4430)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>All of that during last 8 years. Most of my <span class="caps">ARM</span> live so far was around <span class="caps">ARM926</span> based devices (some of them still can not be listed here) and I do not want to go there again. Kirkwood core was fastest one with 1.2GHz clock and <span class="caps">512MB</span> of <span class="caps">RAM</span> it was really fast machine. I only missed Serial <span class="caps">ATA</span> in my Sheevaplug (rev 1.0) but even with hard drive on <span class="caps">USB</span> it was nice improvement.</p>
<p>Then I played a bit with <span class="caps">ARM11</span> processors. Ok, they were faster than most of <span class="caps">ARM9</span> cpus but I already had experience with Sheevaplug. And after few months first Cortex-a8 board landed on my desk — I got Beagleboard B7 from Bug labs as test platform for their new device. This was improvement!</p>
<p>I still remember my reaction when connected it to normal <span class="caps">LCD</span> monitor and saw it used at 720p resolution (1680x1050 was a bit hard for omap3). Moved to Nokia N900 few months later and found that fast cpu means nothing when paired with slow storage and not enough memory for system.</p>
<p>So today I prefer to not look below Cortex-A9 (or comparable cores like ones from Qualcomm or Marvell). Hope to play one day with Cortex-A5 (which should replace <span class="caps">ARM926</span> one day) just to see how low-end armv7a cpu behave.</p>
<p>And wait for ARMv8 to hit market.</p>Bought Archos 80 G9 Turbo tablet2012-02-20T14:19:00+01:002012-02-20T14:19:00+01:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2012-02-20:/2012/02/20/bought-archos-80-g9-turbo-tablet/<p>During last Linaro Connect I bought myself an Android tablet. <a href="/2012/01/13/want-to-buy-android-tablet-again/">After checking what is on market</a> decided to buy Archos 80 G9 Turbo. According to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Archos-80-G9-16GB-Turbo/dp/B005MECBIS">Amazon product page</a> it had to have 1.5GHz <span class="caps">OMAP4460</span> cpu and <span class="caps">1GB</span> of memory. But it did not…</p>
<p>Marketing droids from Archos company should …</p><p>During last Linaro Connect I bought myself an Android tablet. <a href="/2012/01/13/want-to-buy-android-tablet-again/">After checking what is on market</a> decided to buy Archos 80 G9 Turbo. According to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Archos-80-G9-16GB-Turbo/dp/B005MECBIS">Amazon product page</a> it had to have 1.5GHz <span class="caps">OMAP4460</span> cpu and <span class="caps">1GB</span> of memory. But it did not…</p>
<p>Marketing droids from Archos company should be … and … then … and again … — after that … or … and finally … (put any ways of doing deadly harm into … and repeat any amount of times). Why? There is no such thing as “Archos 80 G9 Turbo” — nevermind that I have one of them on my desk. So far there are at least three models with this name:</p>
<ul>
<li><span class="caps">OMAP4430</span> 1.2GHz <span class="caps">512MB</span> ram</li>
<li><span class="caps">OMAP4460</span> 1.5GHz <span class="caps">512MB</span> ram</li>
<li><span class="caps">OMAP4460</span> 1.5GHz <span class="caps">1GB</span> ram</li>
</ul>
<p>You can easily buy first model. Best Buy has it, Adorama has it, J&R has it, Amazon sells it. Second model was expected to land on shelves in December 2011. According to <span class="caps">XDA</span> developers forum few of them were even sold as people have them. Last model is listed on Amazon (but first one is what you get) and according to one sources it will be released in March 2012, other says that there will not be such thing. Marketing mess is lightest description which I can write without swearing.</p>
<p>So I got first one. First though was “<span class="caps">WTF</span>?!?!!?!?!?!!!” as I got slowest option. Even started returning procedure but as all <span class="caps">US</span> shops had only this version I gave up and decided that even with this technical specification it is better tablet then I had before (<a href="/2011/09/30/my-opinion-about-hannspree-hannspad-sn10t1/">which was Hannspad <span class="caps">SN10T1</span></a>). Fast cpu, 4:3 screen with 1024x768 resolution, quite good build quality, video output.</p>
<p>Tablet runs Android 3.2 ‘honeycomb’ and does it nicely. Upgrade to 4.0 ‘ice cream sandwich’ was announced to be done in this month. So from software perspective it is done properly. I had some problems with <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1456875">rooting procedure from <span class="caps">XDA</span> developers</a> but once you do it in order (and take files from other thread to get 3.2.80 firmware) device will work just fine. Have to admit that system layout on device looks overcomplicated (<span class="caps">175MB</span> squashfs as / for example) but it works. Anyway I am waiting for developer firmware (I was told that they will be available ‘soon’ (for any definition of ‘soon’)).</p>
<p>During first days of using I noticed that some applications refuse to work properly on <span class="caps">XGA</span> screen, some are resized/rescaled but problems usually are with games or poorly written apps (like Facebook one). But it is visible that keeping Honeycomb under stone (aka ‘closed source’) resulted in many applications not ready to be used on tablets. Even Google+ looks like it does on a phone…</p>
<p>I am slowly moving to use Archos as a morning news device (<a href="https://twitter.com/haerwu">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://facebook.com/marcin.juszkiewicz">Facebook</a>, Google+ and Google Reader) — it is perfect for it. Reading webpages in landscape or portrait modes is pleasure as device is easy to hold and screen is wide enough in any of them (which was my main complain with Hannspad).</p>
<p>Had to order miniHDMI -> <span class="caps">HDMI</span> adapter (normal size connector would even fit but it is too big for this form factor) cause they do not add it in a box. When it will arrive I will check how good movies are played after connecting to 42” plasma capable of 1080p. <span class="caps">OMAP4</span> cpu should decode any video at this resolution without problems but I wonder how device deals with 4:3 internal screen and 16:9 external one. Would be nice to watch Youtube videos fullscreen.</p>
<p>Playing games is fun. Fieldrunners finally does not need scrolling, Great Little War Game is also better than on my Nexus S. From “racing” games so far I tried Asphalt6 (<a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=20931534#post20931534">available at <span class="caps">XDA</span> developers forum</a>), Shine Runner and Reckless Getaway — all run and look cute but accelerometr based steering is not comfortable with tablet size. Also games like Mahjongg or Solitaire are possible (I consider such games unplayable on phone).</p>
<p>Battery life is better than on my Nexus S. Partially because lack of <span class="caps">GSM</span> and bigger battery, but I think that due to power management done better.</p>
<p>I will not tell how good it is when it comes to read e-books because I have Kindle for it already.</p>
<p>Back to hardware. There is <span class="caps">USB</span> socket for optional 3G stick. Plugged dongle from wireless keyboard/trackball combo there — not recognized due to not be <span class="caps">USB</span> 2.0 device. Plugged thumbdrive and got it recognized (first time I got some kernel oops and no access to storage, had to reboot tablet). Did not tried other devices.</p>
<p>There is just one speaker at back of device. Definitelly too small and lonely. Nokia N800 which was released 5 years ago had stereo speakers… So for gaming I strongly suggest headphones.</p>
<p>Ugly thing is that when you push back of case with left hand fingers screen will react to it — looks like something is pushing screen. It does not look professional…</p>
<p>Ending summary: so far I am satisfied. Maybe one day will try one of those crazy builds like Ubuntu ;D</p>I got interviewed during Linaro Connect2011-11-04T11:36:00+01:002011-11-04T11:36:00+01:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2011-11-04:/2011/11/04/i-got-interviewed-during-linaro-connect/<p>Half year ago at <span class="caps">UDS</span>-O in Budapest <a href="http://opdenacker.org/">Michael Opdenacker</a> interviewed some people from Linaro. I remember that at the end of event Kiko asked him did he talked with me cause he thought that it could be interesting for someone.</p>
<p>Then we had another Linaro Connect (in Cambourne) and …</p><p>Half year ago at <span class="caps">UDS</span>-O in Budapest <a href="http://opdenacker.org/">Michael Opdenacker</a> interviewed some people from Linaro. I remember that at the end of event Kiko asked him did he talked with me cause he thought that it could be interesting for someone.</p>
<p>Then we had another Linaro Connect (in Cambourne) and nothing happened. But in previous week I got an email that there will be interview with me in Orlando and that I should choose time slot for it. So I did and here is the result:</p>
<p><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajNSrQfFcPA"
class="youtube_video" alt="YouTube Video"
title="Click to view on YouTube"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">
<img width="1280" height="720"
src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/ajNSrQfFcPA/maxresdefault.jpg">
</a></p>
<p>What we were talking about? Check it yourself. And please comment did you enjoyed.</p>UDS-O2011-05-13T16:42:00+02:002011-05-13T16:42:00+02:00Marcin Juszkiewicztag:marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl,2011-05-13:/2011/05/13/uds-o/<p>This week I am in Budapest, Hungary attending Ubuntu Developer Summit for 11.10 ‘oneiric’ release discussions. But this is not only Ubuntu — there is huge amount of Linaro people discussing what to do next cycle.</p>
<h3>Sunday</h3>
<p>Travel, travel, travel… Usual way — bus from home to Berlin airport (<span class="caps">SXF</span> this …</p><p>This week I am in Budapest, Hungary attending Ubuntu Developer Summit for 11.10 ‘oneiric’ release discussions. But this is not only Ubuntu — there is huge amount of Linaro people discussing what to do next cycle.</p>
<h3>Sunday</h3>
<p>Travel, travel, travel… Usual way — bus from home to Berlin airport (<span class="caps">SXF</span> this time) where I met with Henning ‘woglinde’ Heinold to donate my old <a href="/2005/06/07/i-got-wrt54gs/">Linksys <span class="caps">WRT54</span></a> which I got donated few years ago to be able to use my Zauruses wireless. Router had to be in use on OpenEmbedded stand at <a href="/tag/linuxtag/">LinuxTag</a>, Berlin — go there and visit them at booth 7.2b 112.</p>
<p>Again flight was with Easyjet. It is cheap airline but with speedy boarding it is good enough to go with. Bad side is that it lands at old terminal 1 in Budapest so I had to go to hotel by my own.</p>
<p>Evening was Canonical only meeting where there was a presentation of some things which will go into 11.10 Ubuntu release (nearly same to next day keynote). After food, discussions and finally sleep ;D</p>
<h3>Monday</h3>
<p>Sessions started — I attended few:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ubuntu <abbr title="Linaro Evalution Build"><span class="caps">LEB</span></abbr> documentation</li>
<li>cross toolchain user stories — my own session where most of time Micheal Hope was telling us about requests which Toolchain <span class="caps">WG</span> got</li>
<li>user stories for nano image</li>
<li><abbr title="Ubuntu Developer Maintainers Board"><span class="caps">DMB</span></abbr> regular meeting — I became Ubuntu developer during it!</li>
</ul>
<p>During evening was ‘Meet <span class="amp">&</span> Greet’ social event sponsored by Openstack and Freescale. Nice way to catch with people. Especially when you meet old friends which you never met in person ;D I met Marek Szyprowski which whom I was writing to Polish Amiga paper magazine named ‘eXec’ (but website with similar name does not have nothing in common now). We talked for quite long time about misc things. Also met some other folks, refreshed faces memory etc.</p>
<h3>Tuesday</h3>
<p>Sessions:</p>
<ul>
<li>cross toolchain user stories (again) — we discussed notes from previous day, decided on some details and created work items so I can start working on it</li>
<li>Ubuntu <abbr title="Linaro Evalution Build"><span class="caps">LEB</span></abbr> documentation (also again)</li>
<li>Linaro Ubuntu <abbr title="Linaro Evalution Build"><span class="caps">LEB</span></abbr> process for 11.11</li>
<li><span class="caps">GDB</span> as cross debugger</li>
</ul>
<p>As you see <abbr title="Linaro Evalution Build"><span class="caps">LEB</span></abbr> was topic of a day. And it was not everything — next day was another session.</p>
<p>Evening was taken by <a href="https://wiki.linaro.org/Events/2011-05-LDS/Showcase">The Linaro Technical Showcase</a> sponsored by <span class="caps">IBM</span>. What was there? Many interesting things:</p>
<ul>
<li>Arnd Bergmann was talking why class4 <span class="caps">SD</span> card can be much better then class10 one</li>
<li>Freescale Landing Team was presenting <a href="http://www.linaro.org/linaro-blog/2011/03/01/new-low-cost-cortex-a8-board-from-freescale/">i.mx53 Quick Start</a> boards</li>
<li>Ash Charles from Gumstix was presenting their new miniboards with DM37xx cpus and few carrier boards</li>
<li>Paweł Moll from <span class="caps">ARM</span> was presenting Cortex A15 running from two biggest <span class="caps">FPGA</span> chips. It had just 11MHz clock but it was enough to show Doom game running on connected monitor.</li>
<li>Oxlab guys shown their work on Android and how you can hibernate BeagleBoard</li>
<li><span class="caps">ST</span>-Ericsson guys presented <a href="http://www.linaro.org/linaro-blog/2011/02/15/snowball-new-cortex-a9-community-board-from-st-ericsson/">Snowball</a> boards — we had a talk on some hardware details</li>
<li>Konstantinos Margaritis shown what kind of difference can be between armel and armhf ports on same hardware</li>
<li>Angus Ainslie presented Samsung developer board and we had interesting discussion about it</li>
</ul>
<p>I do not remember all presentations — those ones interested me most. <span class="caps">ARM</span> one was amazing — huge FPGAs which were able to emulate A15, A5, A9 just by booting with different MicroSD card… And it is not related only to <span class="caps">CPU</span> emulation cause there were two expansion slots on mainboard so FPGAs can became graphics card with Mali core flashed into. Second board was ‘simple’ A9 with Mali and some OpenGL(<span class="caps">ES</span>) demo was running there.</p>
<p>And again — new faces to join with names. Talked with Ash Charles about discussions in past when I helped Gumstix developers with OpenEmbedded, Angus Ainslie from <span class="caps">ST</span>-Ericsson was working for Openmoko at time when we had cooperation and so on…</p>
<h3>Wednesday</h3>
<p>Woke up early… What to do after 6:10? Go swimming! So I went to Royal <span class="caps">SPA</span> and spent some time in swimming pool and sauna so day started nicely.</p>
<p>Sessions:</p>
<ul>
<li>automated cross-buildd system/service</li>
<li>Ubuntu <abbr title="Linaro Evalution Build"><span class="caps">LEB</span></abbr> Star Rating documentation — my session again on how we want to rate level of support of member boards</li>
<li><span class="caps">ARM</span> Linus interface 3 — attended just to check how kernel developers are discussing how to improve arch/arm/ situation</li>
</ul>
<p>Met Mark Brown with whom I was working in OpenEmbedded project and after lunch I went to do some sight seeing with Paweł Moll. Budapest is nice city and I have to came back here one day.</p>
<p>Team dinner somewhere in the city was quite good. We had a fun going back to hotel when ~half of us used phones to navigate though city ;D</p>
<h3>Thursday</h3>
<p>Sessions:</p>
<ul>
<li>arm and other archs certification program — Canonical has <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/certification">certification program</a> of machines which came with Ubuntu pre-installed. I have to check at their tools.</li>
<li><span class="caps">ALIP</span> mini-distro and build system user/developer stories — interesting discussion</li>
<li>cross-toolchains for the <span class="caps">ARM</span> hard-float <span class="caps">ABI</span> — will have to provide them for Ubuntu and other but it is doable</li>
<li>next steps with multiarch in Ubuntu — where do we go and how</li>
</ul>
<p>Evening was sight seeing with local guides. We saw parlament building, chain bridge, castle area and ended in interesting pub.</p>
<h3>Friday</h3>
<p>Ending day and nearly no sessions today:</p>
<ul>
<li>port to the <span class="caps">ARM</span> hard-float <span class="caps">ABI</span> — Ubuntu armhf someone?</li>
<li>Linaro Review of <span class="caps">LDS</span> week</li>
<li>easier access to -dbgsym packages</li>
</ul>
<p>Some of people already packed and left, rest will go to have fun at <abbr title="Ubuntu Developer Summit"><span class="caps">UDS</span></abbr> party.</p>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<p>It was my third <abbr title="Ubuntu Developer Summit"><span class="caps">UDS</span></abbr> and I feel that it was best one. I had two blueprints to handle and both had great discussions which ended in many notes and work items. There was lot of people both from Ubuntu community and Linaro teams. I met many developers, some old friends, went to so many sessions that it took me most of time (I do not remember is list in post is complete).</p>
<p>It was nice to see amount of <span class="caps">ARM</span> netbooks at people hands — mostly <a href="/2010/10/29/i-got-efika-mx-smartbook-from-genesi/">Genesi Smartbooks</a> but also several Toshiba <span class="caps">AC100</span> ones. I think that it shows that times are changing and who knows… maybe at next event I will not use my <a href="/2010/06/09/new-laptop-asus-ul30a/"><span class="caps">ASUS</span> <span class="caps">UL30A</span></a> laptop.</p>
<p>And this is another <abbr title="Ubuntu Developer Summit"><span class="caps">UDS</span></abbr> with some added hardware. This time it is <a href="/tag/pandaboard/">Pandaboard</a> A1 which can replace my <span class="caps">EA1</span> at my work for Linaro. Probably will keep both running one to another but one (<span class="caps">EA1</span>) with Ubuntu and second (A1) will be used for misc tests.</p>
<p>Now it is a time to drop laptop in hotel room and go for party!!!</p>