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Freescale i.MX6 is a really nice platform. Shame it hasn't gotten broader traction, I think because it is moderately more expensive than its competition. Since

by angusgr 13y ago

Freescale i.MX6 is a really nice platform. Shame it hasn't gotten broader traction, I think because it is moderately more expensive than its competition. Since May I've been using an imx6 based gk802 ($70 quad core "Android TV" stick) as a personal server (email, RSS, VPN, etc.) Has worked really nicely considering. (Blog post about installing debian on it: http://projectgus.com/2013/05/debian-installer-for-zealz-gk802-android-tv-quad-core-arm-minipc/ http://projectgus.com/2013/05/debian-installer-for-zealz-gk8... )

voltagex_ 13y ago
Don't Freescale have a bad reputation for not being particularly open?
- plopper 13y ago
  They are far more open than BCM or Qualcomm.
- angusgr 13y ago
  I haven't tried any of their other products, but the iMX6 has a very large detailed technical manual (publicly available, not under NDA) and their Linux kernel trees are updated in public via git (presumably not everything is public but it's a lot more transparent than the occasional tarball source drop approach), plus they have people involved in yocto development. Better than many/most of the ARM SoC manufacturers. The only undocumented/secret squirrel business AFAIK is the Vivante GPU. And that's universal across ARM Soc GPUs, sadly.
  - joezydeco 13y ago
    Here's the i.MX6 documentation and file dump: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX6Q&nodeId=018rH3ZrDRB24A&fpsp=1&tab=Documentation_Tab http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?co... The TRM is also here: http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/ref_manual/IMX6DQRM.pdf?fpsp=1 http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/ref_manual/IMX6DQ... , all 7000+ pages of it. I've built the Linux kernel and Android AOSP/ICS directly from their git repos and it all runs just fine. You can ask support questions on http://imxcommunity.org http://imxcommunity.org but the response you get will be sporadic. Your best bet at getting answers is to be a real customer and get an FAE to help you out. But otherwise I've never had a problem with a lack of "openness" from Freescale.
    - voltagex_ 13y ago
      Thank you, this is fantastic!

by angusgr 13y ago

voltagex_ 13y ago

Don't Freescale have a bad reputation for not being particularly open?

plopper 13y ago
They are far more open than BCM or Qualcomm.
angusgr 13y ago
I haven't tried any of their other products, but the iMX6 has a very large detailed technical manual (publicly available, not under NDA) and their Linux kernel trees are updated in public via git (presumably not everything is public but it's a lot more transparent than the occasional tarball source drop approach), plus they have people involved in yocto development. Better than many/most of the ARM SoC manufacturers. The only undocumented/secret squirrel business AFAIK is the Vivante GPU. And that's universal across ARM Soc GPUs, sadly.
- joezydeco 13y ago
  Here's the i.MX6 documentation and file dump: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX6Q&nodeId=018rH3ZrDRB24A&fpsp=1&tab=Documentation_Tab http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?co... The TRM is also here: http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/ref_manual/IMX6DQRM.pdf?fpsp=1 http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/ref_manual/IMX6DQ... , all 7000+ pages of it. I've built the Linux kernel and Android AOSP/ICS directly from their git repos and it all runs just fine. You can ask support questions on http://imxcommunity.org http://imxcommunity.org but the response you get will be sporadic. Your best bet at getting answers is to be a real customer and get an FAE to help you out. But otherwise I've never had a problem with a lack of "openness" from Freescale.
  - voltagex_ 13y ago
    Thank you, this is fantastic!