Raspberry Pi 2 - does it hit the mark?

"It's a MALI GPU.  There's an open-source project called LIMA that's trying to produce open-source documentation and drivers.  I don't know how far they've gotten.  I'm delighted that RasPi opened up the VideoCore 4 last year and hope that starts a trend toward open documentation.  I've read that it's mostly USA patent law that preventing Progress in Science and Useful Arts in the GPU arena."

Yes I am aware of this project and trying is exactly the right way to put it. GPUs are very complicated devices and open documentation is really the only way to get it right . Like you I hope the others follow suit however I would not hold my breath,

there have been rumors but they are at least a couple of years old now and nothing has changed.

"We're still waiting for the RasPi B+ schematics.  The RasPi page only has a single-pager with interfaces:"

Yes I know, I have brought up my displeasure with this several times in these forums. As far as I can tell the one page details all of the changes made between the B and B+ EXCEPT the new USB IC  and USB interface circuits. I have no idea why they

have suddenly gotten secretive about this and it does not sit well with me that they have. Plus my attempts to get this changed have to date been ignored. I may wait until the schematics are(?) published before buying a Pi 2.

"The ODROID schematics are a bit hard to follow since they're hierarchical instead of flat.  There is only one page 21 and one page 22 in the design, but the printout has two instances of each with different component names.  You have to go back to the root schematic

on page 1 to make sense of it and see how the signal names map.  It's a pain: I far prefer flat schematics for a board this size, but schematic styles vary."

My explanation pretty much describes exactly what they are. The part of page one you describe is just a block description that does not give any details that are useful when trying to trace a problem back to the source (pins). Not differentiating

between which circuits on the schematics are for USB ports 1/2 and which are for USB ports 3/4 is just not the right "style" period. In my 30+ years in electronics I have never seen another schematic (other than maybe a bad preliminary one) that

used this "style".

I agree about win 10 support. A free version I understand, will they admit that very few people are going to have touch screens for the Pi?

The main disappointment for me is that it still seems to use the same brain dead Ethernet via SMC usb chip arrangement. And of course the Ethernet is only 10/100.

Withe the better processor they really should have managed 1G Ethernet and some kind of high speed low latency IO port (PCIE would be ideal but even proprietary would be an advance.)

The PI is still terribly limited by lack of general purpose IO with performance to match the processor.

Despite these gripes the big plus is the possibility of Windows - now if Microsoft could only bring themselves to munch a tiny bit of humble pie and offer VB6 (or better still VB7  - ie VB6 updated but NOT vb.net) on it - then you would have a 21st century computer that anyone could code.

And while I'm on a rant roll - I can run a VB6 exe (ie binary file) on Windows2k, XP, Vista, 7 and 8 (and 10 promised)  - spanning 15+ years of OS offerings - try that on Linux ! (substitute any language you like for VB6).

(BTW I know that the RPi can't be binary compatible with VB6 on windows)

(Way off thread here  - can't think what was in the breakfast coffee.)

MK

Gary Stewart wrote:

 

"We're still waiting for the RasPi B+ schematics.  The RasPi page only has a single-pager with interfaces:"

 

I have no idea why they have suddenly gotten secretive about this and it does not sit well with me that they have. Plus my attempts to get this changed have to date been ignored. I may wait until the schematics are(?) published before buying a Pi 2.

My experience is that RasPi has always been slow about releasing schematics.  Speculating why is not particularly useful IMO -- it is what it is.  I don't think they've ever released Gerbers, which can be useful for understanding power distribution.

RasPi is not open-source hardware.  This hasn't affected sales volume, so they have no incentive to change from proprietary.  For people who want OSHW, there are plenty of alternatives like BeagleBoard/Bone.  For people who just need schematics, there are even more alternatives.

Does anyone know if my B+ case works with Pi2?

Felix Chiu wrote:

 

Does anyone know if my B+ case works with Pi2?

Yes it does.  The external connectors are identical and in the same positions, according to this: http://www.element14.com/community/community/raspberry-pi/raspberrypi2

Yes it has the same layout like John B says ...Should get mine this week, then I can confirm!

Thanks!

cpc.co.uk is where I ordered mine from, its an Element14 sister company if I remember correctly, got mine this morning so they are about, perhaps out of stock? Did order mine very quickly.

"My experience is that RasPi has always been slow about releasing schematics."

I said nothing about slow, I said secretive. It only took about two weeks to release the original schematics.

Slow maybe, but not unreasonably so. The semi-useful B+ single page was released in about the same time

frame, maybe a little longer. I haven't tried to download schematics for the model A, so I have no idea about

them and I don't own an A+. It did take too long to get the BCM2835 specification published and even though

it took much longer to get the GPU specification released, they are the first and only boards with an ARM SoC

that has done so.

"Speculating why is not particularly useful IMO -- it is what it is."

No speculation about it in my post, I don't really care. As I said, I just want them to publish the full schematics

of the B+ (all the Pi boards actually). I don't care if, for whatever reason, it takes them a month or two to do it.

JUST DO IT.

"RasPi is not open-source hardware"

There is no ARM SoC open-source hardware, yet. Other than the Raspberry Pi, all ARM SoCs including the

BeagleBone/Black use proprietary GPUs. Argue all you want, and you have before, you can't have open-

source hardware with a large chunk of fully, undeniably, unarguably proprietary hardware.