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Anyone else find the lack of a MT3620 datasheet odd?

Fred27

Considering the effort and expense that is being put into promoting the Avnet Azure Sphere MT3620 starter kit, does anyone else find it odd that the MT3620 datasheet is not publicly available? Sure we have example code and you can infer a lot from that, but as far as I can tell any proper information on the MT3620 is available only under NDA. (The M4F core datasheet is at least.)

 

I can understand that maybe not everything is appropriate to be public. It must also be tricky when there are multilple companies involved - the board manufacturers (Avnet et al.), the silicon manufacturer (MediaTek) and the ecosystem provider (Microsoft). However, if you're trying to encourage people to use a device then the more clear information and documentation you can provide the better the uptake is likely to be.

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  • 0

    As discussed here: Re: Where do I find details on using the M4F cores on the Azure Sphere?

     

    The way to find out the information you're after is to sign the Non Disclosure Agreement for the hardware by counter-signing an NDA which is requested via Azure.Sphere@avnet.com

     

    The thing to remember is that the chip on the board is designed specifically for Microsoft, and any functionality/features are controlled/made available to the user as Microsoft want it to be, this is by design and to maintain security of what's accessible. To change this functionality would require an operating system rewrite on the chip, and I doubt (but don't hold me to it) this is possible on the received AzureSphere kits (and I am not convinced it's worthwhile).

     

    However, that being said, by all means get in touch with them, sign the NDA and it's pretty harmless finding out for personal or company use.

Reply
  • 0

    As discussed here: Re: Where do I find details on using the M4F cores on the Azure Sphere?

     

    The way to find out the information you're after is to sign the Non Disclosure Agreement for the hardware by counter-signing an NDA which is requested via Azure.Sphere@avnet.com

     

    The thing to remember is that the chip on the board is designed specifically for Microsoft, and any functionality/features are controlled/made available to the user as Microsoft want it to be, this is by design and to maintain security of what's accessible. To change this functionality would require an operating system rewrite on the chip, and I doubt (but don't hold me to it) this is possible on the received AzureSphere kits (and I am not convinced it's worthwhile).

     

    However, that being said, by all means get in touch with them, sign the NDA and it's pretty harmless finding out for personal or company use.

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  • 0 in reply to cstanton

    It didn't sound too onerous to sign the NDA. However, the main reason I want to look at it is to understand the device and potentially blog about it here, so it might be a bit counterproductive.

  • 0 in reply to cstanton

    It's a little more subtile for a blogger.

    If you sign the NDA as a company employee, it's no big deal because you use it internally.

     

    Blogging is out in the open. You now have to decide if what you blog is based on - or reveals - info from a NDA covered source.

    Can you post source code that uses registers or constructs that you learned about in the data sheet? Can you share your project in source code?

    If you can't and want to share the NDA covered part in binary, do you break licenses of other modules you are using?

     

    NDA is ok for companies. As a blogger or open source developer I'd steer away from them firmly.