Group: Hardware/TODO/TO SORT/Smartphones

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Revision as of 17:31, 16 January 2011 by Gnutoo2 (talk | contribs) (Introduction)
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Introduction

First let's define a smartphone,

A smartphone is a phone with at least 2 processors:

  • one where runs the operating system(like Android,GNU/Linux etc...), it is usually called the Application processor
  • another that interface with the GSM network(for instance it reads the sim card,interface with the GSM tower etc...). It is usually called the baseband.

Historically both processors talked to each other trough AT commands(also known as Hayes command set.

While freedom is possible on the GSM processor too,we will focus on freedom on the Application processor(because it's illegal to run modified GSM processors on carrier networks and also very dangerous)

Possible Free SmartPhones target comparison

Hardware freedom

Openmoko Freerunner Nokia N900 HTC Dream Nexus one Palm pre(normal,plus or version 2)
Non free firmwares No Yes:
  • Wifi(wl1251_spi)
  • Bluetooth(broadcom)
  • camera(many components)
  • DSP(note that the CPU and mplayer do a better job than the DSP but consume more battery)
Yes:
  • Wifi(wl1251_sdio)
  • bluetooth(broadcom)
Yes:
  • Microphone
  • Sound card
  • WIFI(bcm4329)
  • Maybe others?
Yes:
  • Wifi(libertas_sdio)
  • Maybe others?
Modem can be flashed Yes ? Yes Yes
Modem can be unpowered Yes Yes ? ?
Audio path under modem's control? No No Yes Yes
GPS under modem's control No Yes Yes Yes
Free Bootloader Yes No ? ? Some work has been done(must check status,not complete)

Hardware capabilities

Openmoko Freerunner Nokia N900 HTC Dream Nexus one Palm pre(normal,plus or version 2)
USB host Yes (not strictly needed since no firmwares are needed),limited to ? mA Yes(with 2.6.28 power kernel), limited to ? mA ? possible, untested, unpowered ?

References

Operating System/distribution support