From 80500bcacc3612afea6dc0934beec368bed953ed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 21:07:23 +0000
Subject: docs/release.html Add new candidate vortex86ex machines

These are embedded systems, some of which coreboot supports.
It looks like they might be able to run without blobs,
and they are still available at the time of writing.
---
 docs/release.html | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

(limited to 'docs')

diff --git a/docs/release.html b/docs/release.html
index a4cb785..a4113b0 100644
--- a/docs/release.html
+++ b/docs/release.html
@@ -138,6 +138,14 @@
 				Critical tasks for future release
 			</h2>
 				<ul>
+					<li>
+						Look into these machines (based on discussions from IRC):
+						&lt;pehjota&gt; After the conversation yesterday about KolibriOS, I stumbled upon some hardware that community seems to like: the Vortex86 series of i586-compatible SoCs and the DMP EBOX nettops that use those SoCs.  coreboot supports one computer by DMP (src/mainboard/dmp/vortex86ex/) which appears to be the EBOX-3100 (the only EBOX nettop AFAICT without VGA).  Three years ago someone ported coreboot to the<br/>
+						&lt;pehjota&gt; EBOX-3300MX but apparently never upstreamed that work.  These Vortex86 SoCs look pretty good, freedom-wise: I think there's no microcode at all, the VGA cores don't seem to need option ROMs, and there are no blobs for things like ME/MRC/AGESA.  They have relatively low CPU clock rates (most at 600 or 933 MHz), so they aren't great for compiling or gaming.  But they're sold as nettops, thin clients,<br/>
+						&lt;pehjota&gt; and embedded systems, and the prices ($95–$269 from the US distributor) aren't bad.<br/>
+						&lt;pehjota&gt; DMP EBOX computers: <http://www.compactpc.com.tw/en/index.html>.  EBOX-3300MX coreboot port: <https://github.com/XVilka/coreboot> (last six commits).  Basic (and incomplete) information on the Vortex86 SoCs: <http://www.vortex86.com/>.  Some technical overviews and resources: <http://www.dmp.com.tw/tech/>.  DMP's BusyBox/Linux distribution (with a Linux config file but apparently no source code):<br/>
+						&lt;pehjota&gt; <http://www.dmp.com.tw/tech/os-xlinux/>.
+					</li>
 					<li>
 						Fix remaining incompatible LCD panels in native graphics on T60. 
 						See <a href="future/index.html#lcd_i945_incompatibility">future/index.html#lcd_i945_incompatibility</a>.
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