From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 29 15:23:52 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A57E21065672 for ; Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:23:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from brucem@mail.cruzio.com) Received: from cruzio.com (dsl-63-249-85-132.cruzio.com [63.249.85.132]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57CE98FC18 for ; Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:23:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from brucem@mail.cruzio.com) Received: from mail.cruzio.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by cruzio.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id mAT8MFk2000304; Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:22:16 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brucem@mail.cruzio.com) Received: (from brucem@localhost) by mail.cruzio.com (8.12.10/8.12.10/Submit) id mAT8MFtl000303; Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:22:15 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brucem) Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:22:15 -0800 (PST) From: "Bruce R. Montague" Message-Id: <200811290822.mAT8MFtl000303@mail.cruzio.com> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Cc: unixmania@gmail.com, ancelgray@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Hardware support for AMD Geode CS5536 audio? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:23:52 -0000 Hi, re Carlos A. M. dos Santos comment: > The amd5536.c informs that it is "derived from Bruce R. Montegue's AMD > CS5530 audio driver and the Linux CS5535 ALSA driver". I did not find > the original source files, but supposing that they are licensed under > GPL you will need a written permission from the owners to redistribute > the code under a different licensing terms. For orignal source: http://63.249.85.132/gx_audio/Makefile http://63.249.85.132/gx_audio/ns_geode.h http://63.249.85.132/gx_audio/ns_geode.c Doc: http://63.249.85.132/gx_audio/index.html I wrote the CS5530 audio driver referenced around 2001, it was always a FreeBSD driver under a modern BSD-license. The driver was never GPL-licensed. The audio driver was developed on FreeBSD during a contract for NatSemi (who owned the Geode at the time, they had just brought Cyrix). The driver was part of an effort to "undo" drivers that had been put into the Geode's "hypervisor" (sort of an extended ACPI that provided device emulators ("device models"); it turned out that was considered reverse engineering hardware and so was a no-no). The driver was done from scratch, from the manuals, with occasional help from Cyrix engineers. As I recall, FreeBSD helped a little with the final debugging of the Geode hardware, booting a picobsd floppy became part of the standard test suite. At the time, I found it convenient to email floppy-sized picobsd systems that demonstrated a hardware bug to remote hardware engineers. -bruce