Messages in this thread | | | From | Ian Stirling <> | Subject | USB host controller implementation | Date | Sun, 12 Dec 1999 12:43:24 +0000 (GMT) |
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<soprano penguin>I want to teach the world to sing....</soprano penguin>
But, as I need some money, while doing this, I'm trying to design a USB host interface for a portable device, so it can use all those neat USB devices that are coming out.
The HCI is not, [OU]hci compliant.
Unfortunately, it won't be running linux, but I'd hope to do a large portion of the hardware development under linux, on a PC, with some similar hardware to the eventual host controller.
AIUI I can 'simply' copy large chunks of the kernel code, add my own HCI driver, add something that looks like the kernel, to the USB code, burn it into flash, and start shipping.
(after quite a large amount of effort, I'll be doing this single handed, and have not had as much experience as I'd like at this sort of thing)
I could not consider this project, if there was not the large body of code, contributed by many people, that is the USB layer, as my budget is very, very limited, and having to buy the IP required would vastly exceed it. (At least from what I've seen)
This of course brings up the issue of licensing.
The hardware is likely to be relatively straight-forward, the complex bit being the firm/software.
As any competitor could as easily take a binary copy of the rom, the only protection I have is from those that at least pay some attention to the law.
Can I add terms to my code saying "this may not be used in a similar product, without prior authorisation", even though it's largely under the GPL, and could, for example be used to implement USB over the paralell port?
If this project is successfull, this would of course result in me wanting more devices supported, as the current list is rather short, to increase sales of my adaptor.
These would be basically linux drivers, that I'd help with the writing of (hardware loans, or giveaways, etc) that I'd edit into a useable form to work with my fake kernel layer, that would of course be submitted for use in the kernel.
Any comments, or recommendations of books and such?
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