[clug] Vaguely off topic: iPeds and other Android tablets - availability and comparisons to that Apple one

[Angus Gratton]

On Wed, 2010-08-04 at 14:49 +1000, Andrew Boyd wrote:
> ...and this is an interesting point. I think that it is fair to say
> that some hackery is not only possible but necessary with Android
> iThings
>
> <snip>
>
> In this, I guess, it is like every other Linux-y thing.

Well, it is and it isn't. For example, Rockchip (the SoC manufacturer
who aren't porting Android 2.1 to the APad's chipset) haven't released
any source code to manufacturers or to the public. This means there is
no Linux BSP (board support package) so no existing kernel will boot,
let alone access the peripherals integrated in the SoC (video, bus
controllers, etc.)

AFAIK, this is true for every manufacturer except VIA (who are in the
process of releasing sources for WM8505) and the TI OMAP-based devices.
See my blog post, linked in the other post in this thread, for gory
details.

Worse, in my experience with the WM8505, manufacturers often put some of
the hardware-specific functionality into the Android layers, so porting
a new version of Android running on the original binary-only kernel is
not always possible.

So "some hackery" can easily end up meaning "porting Linux and then
Android to the platform from scratch".

- Angus