[Info-vax] [OT] Raspberry Pi, was: Re: Intel junk...Kernel-memory-leaking Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Den 2018-01-11 kl. 14:29, skrev Simon Clubley:
> On 2018-01-11, johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk <johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> The Raspberry Pi exists because one of the founders,
>> Eben Upton, who at the time was teaching at Cambridge
>> University, got seriously concerned about the lack of
>> understanding shown by his undergraduate intake. This
>> too is widely documented, e.g. Eben Upton's IET Young
>> Professionals lecture from 2012 (around 45 minutes):
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P46sRDDONI
>>
> 
> The Raspberry Pi is ok if you just want to use a supplied version
> of Linux and run applications on top of Linux but it is an absolute
> disaster area if you want to use it at a lower level with bare metal
> programming.
> 
> Here's a simple example: feel free to show me the freely downloadable
> location for the official datasheets and manuals for the Raspberry Pi's
> USB controller.
> 
> They are not available unless you are a customer of the vendor who
> supplied the USB controller for the Raspberry Pi.
> 
> This doesn't even cover all the historical problems with getting data
> on the Raspberry Pi's GPU and the last time I checked some of that
> information was still closed to the public.
> 
> For example, the initial boot sequence on the Raspberry Pi uses a couple
> of closed source files which you have to place on the SD card. This is
> because the initial boot sequence is controlled by the GPU and not the
> ARM MCU.
> 
> The ARM MCU is actually held in reset for the first part of the boot
> sequence until after the GPU has finished initialising the hardware
> and the last time I checked, this boot code was totally opaque; there
> was no public documentation available which would allow you to write
> your own initial boot code.
> 
> So much for the Raspberry Pi being an excellent hobbyist or learning
> platform.
> 
> Simon.
> 

The Raspberry-PI is an excellent platform for its intended use.
It is of course not that good if you try to use it outside of it
intended use. Like using VMS as your desktop/office platform.