chip: "the world's first $9 computer"
TRANSCRIPT
Chicago Open Source,Open Mic Night
2015-11-05
Drew Fustini@pdp7
http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Open-Source-Open-Mic/events/225858615/
● http://nextthing.co/● Oakland, CA● 2014 Haxlr8r team:
http://www.hax.co/companies/Next-Thing-Co/
HAX Accelerator (formerly Haxlr8r)
● http://www.hax.co/
● 111 days in Shenzhen● Office space, workshop, staff resources● 25K for 6% equity or $100k for 9% equity● up to $200K in matching funds● Shenzhen: strategy, prototyping, sourcing,
supply chain management● San Francisco: crowdfunding, fundraising,
demo day with media and investors
OTTO: http://nextthing.co/otto.html
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computer
● 39,560 backers
● $2,071,927
pledged
PocketC.H.I.P. makes C.H.I.P. portable!https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computer/posts/1245278● 3,000 mAH battery (5 hours)
● 4.3" 470px x 272px screen w/ resistive touch
● Full Super-Clicky QWERTY keyboard
● Rugged Injection Molded Shell
● Fully open source
● GPIO breakouts
● C.H.I.P. is removable via hatch
http://nextthing.co/#target-content
CHIP is Open Source Hardware
● CC-BY-SA license for design files
http://docs.nextthing.co/
CHIP Hardware repo
https://github.com/NextThingCo/CHIP-Hardware● Schematics● PCB Layout● Bill of Materials (BOM)● Datasheets for BOM:
https://github.com/NextThingCo/CHIP-Hardware/tree/master/CHIPv0_21-BOM-Datasheets
CHIP Hardware repo
Mainline C.H.I.P. Kernel Changes● Kickstarter update post: “All about Open Source”
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computer/posts/1247188
● Goal: C.H.I.P. to be a happy and healthy member of the Linux open source community
● Run official and current version of Linux kernel● Make changes to the Linux kernel● Build new drivers for onboard hardware● Merge changes into Linus Torvald's tree in a process
called "Mainlining"
Mainline C.H.I.P. Kernel Changes● Mainlining the kernel changes necessary for
C.H.I.P. is no small task● Takes huge and ongoing community effort● Amazing Linux-Sun-Xi community has made
great progress on kernel support for Allwinner SoCs:
https://linux-sunxi.org
Allwinner
● fabless SoC developer in China● low cost chips for low cost tablets● sunxi represents their family of ARM SoCs:
– A10 (sun4i)
– A13 (sun5i)
– A20 (sun7i)
– and more...
● more info: https://linux-sunxi.org/Main_Page
Free Electrons for the win!
● Expert ARM Linux kernel developers● Contracted by Next Thing Co to support the
CHIP in mainline Linux kernel!● Blog post: “Free Electrons working on the $9
C.H.I.P. computer”
http://free-electrons.com/blog/free-electrons-chip-nextthing/
● Free Electrons has been supporting Allwinner processors in the mainline Linux kernel for several years
● Free Electrons engineer Maxime Ripard is the maintainer of the Allwinner SoC support in the mainline Linux kernel
● Check out Free Electrons progress on G+:– https://plus.google.com/+FreeElectronsDevelopers/posts/g9Pjvw8P4Pt
CHIP Mainline example: audio support
● Maxime Ripard finished the initial work done by Emilio Lopez during a Google Summer of Code on supporting the audio codec built into the Allwinner A10 processor.
● Maxime sent the patch series to the ASoC maintainers: https://lwn.net/Articles/657200/
● v1 got merged directly by Mark Brown, one of the two ASoC maintainers!
● “For a completely new driver, it is quite an achievement to get it merged without having to do additional iterations”
● CHIP now has audio support in mainline!
Maxime Ripard update
● “Debian 8 and XFCE running on the CHIP, on top of the DRM / KMS driver!”https://plus.google.com/107357811086496166266/posts/Bu4VSsKSPuC
CHIP Linux kernel repo
My CHIP Alpha arrived with Linux 4.2 kernel installed!
Getting Startedhttps://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
● Getting Started with C.H.I.P. – https://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/201702957-
Getting-Started-with-C-H-I-P-● Flying Blind with C.H.I.P. -- SSH, Serial, and USB OTG
– https://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/210492377-Flying-Blind-with-C-H-I-P-SSH-Serial-and-USB-OTG
● Install X-windows (debian) – https://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213022837-
Install-X-windows-debian-● Answers to frequently asked questions about C.H.I.P.
– https://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/201948878-Just-the-FAQs-
Next Thing Co. BBS
● CHIP category– https://bbs.nextthing.co/c/CHIP
● Debian on C.H.I.P– https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/debian-on-c-h-i-p/789
● NextThingCo/sunxi-tools– https://github.com/NextThingCo/sunxi-tools
● CHIP Engineering / Programming Links & Photos – https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/chip-engineering-programming-l
inks-photos/270/1
CHIP-SDK● Everything needed to develop for CHIP:
– https://github.com/NextThingCo/CHIP-SDK
● Easy to run inside VirtualBox VM via Vagrant● MAKE blog post
– http://makezine.com/2015/07/22/with-linux-and-creative-commons-the-9-chip-computer-reveals-its-open-source-details/
GPIO
● Simple GPIO Experiments– https://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/212269688-Simple-GPIO-Experimen
ts– “CHIP has several General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins available for you to build
around. If you want to access them in a very primitive way, just to confirm their existence, here's some things to try”
● Muxing CHIP GPIO’s – https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/muxing-chip-gpios/300
– “There are eight (8) GPIO pins always available for connecting CHIP to the sense-able world. These are in the middle of the right header, U14, Pins 13-20, labeled XIO-P0 to P7”
● Some extra pinout docs – https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/some-extra-pinout-docs/219
– “Assuming you don't want to use the camera or LCD ports it looks like you get 1 UART, 2 I2C, 1 SPI, 1 PWM & 32 I/O (some with interrupt)”
Pinout