Re: Device driver chip architcture dependencies

[Vitus Jensen <vjensen@xxxxxx>]

Am Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:11:47 -0700 schrieb Benjamin Tseng:

> Apologies if this is an incredibly newbie question as I have never
> programmed at the kernel/device driver level (and am new to this mailing
> list), but I'm very interested in the new flavors of netbooks which are
> coming out which will be powered by new ARM chips (e.g. snapdragon,
> sparrow, etc), and wanted to ask the experts if the device drivers that
> I currently have working on my x86-Linux notebook work with the new
> ARM-Linux netbooks?

This depends.  If the driver is included in the linux kernel it may be as 
simple as a recompile.  But are you sure those device you need drivers 
for are really the same?  Your current laptop may contain a device 
connected to the PCI bus, will those netbooks contain such a bus?  
Perhaps it will be connected through USB, I2C, SSP, SDIO instead?  
Different code to write...

> For my curiosity's sake, I'm also wondering if getting drivers to work
> across multiple architectures requires significant
> re-compiling/re-coding work -- e.g. will HP/Linux community decide its
> not worth the hassle of re-coding drivers to work on ARM-Linux?

If the driver has been accepted by the linux kernel guys it's probably 
done right and doesn't need recoding.  If it's an indepedent afford you 
don't know.  And if it's binary only (like nvidea's and ATI's drivers) 
you have to use a different driver (or beg those companies for a driver).

Bye,
   Vitus

-- 
BUFFERS=7 FILES=5 2nd down 4th quarter 5 yards to go

Vitus Jensen, Hannover, Germany, Earth, Milky Way, Universe (current)


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