Firmware to add - Dreamcast AICA

Firmware to add - Dreamcast AICA

[Adrian McMenamin]

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Please add this to the firmware repo

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Re: Firmware to add - Dreamcast AICA

[Takashi Iwai]

At Fri, 18 May 2007 23:41:08 +0100,
Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> 
> Please add this to the firmware repo

Any notes on copyright and license?  Where to be installed?
A brief document would be appreciated, too.


thanks,

Takashi

Re: Firmware to add - Dreamcast AICA

[Adrian McMenamin]

The code it is built with is BSD licenced - it comes (originally) from
Kallistios (a game devel system - here:
http://gamedev.allusion.net/svn/snapshots/

A copy of the source is also here:
http://linuxdc.cvs.sourceforge.net/linuxdc/linux-sh-dc/sound/oss/aica/firmware/

The firmware module should be in the standard directory (/lib/firmware/)

For a document:

The Dreamcast comes with an ARM7 processor that handles sound
processing and has its own 2MB of RAM. The firmware is a short piece
of code that starts/resets the ARM7 and establishes buffers for a left
and a right hand channel and proceeds to 'play' the data in them. Most
of the main (SH4) driver code is concerned with managing the transfer
of data into those two buffers.

The C code for the firmware is taken from the Kallistios game
development system and is licenced under BSD terms. It is copyright
2000 to Dan Potter and can be reviewed at
http://linuxdc.cvs.sourceforge.net/linuxdc/linux-sh-dc/sound/oss/aica/firmware/

To ensure this works with your Dreamcast please ensure the file
aica_firmware.bin is placed in the /lib/firmware/ directory.


On 19/05/07, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> wrote:
> At Fri, 18 May 2007 23:41:08 +0100,
> Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> >
> > Please add this to the firmware repo
>
> Any notes on copyright and license?  Where to be installed?
> A brief document would be appreciated, too.
>
>
> thanks,
>
> Takashi
>

Re: Firmware to add - Dreamcast AICA

[Takashi Iwai]

At Sat, 19 May 2007 20:52:50 +0100,
Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> 
> The code it is built with is BSD licenced - it comes (originally) from
> Kallistios (a game devel system - here:
> http://gamedev.allusion.net/svn/snapshots/
> 
> A copy of the source is also here:
> http://linuxdc.cvs.sourceforge.net/linuxdc/linux-sh-dc/sound/oss/aica/firmware/
> 
> The firmware module should be in the standard directory (/lib/firmware/)
> 
> For a document:
> 
> The Dreamcast comes with an ARM7 processor that handles sound
> processing and has its own 2MB of RAM. The firmware is a short piece
> of code that starts/resets the ARM7 and establishes buffers for a left
> and a right hand channel and proceeds to 'play' the data in them. Most
> of the main (SH4) driver code is concerned with managing the transfer
> of data into those two buffers.
> 
> The C code for the firmware is taken from the Kallistios game
> development system and is licenced under BSD terms. It is copyright
> 2000 to Dan Potter and can be reviewed at
> http://linuxdc.cvs.sourceforge.net/linuxdc/linux-sh-dc/sound/oss/aica/firmware/
> 
> To ensure this works with your Dreamcast please ensure the file
> aica_firmware.bin is placed in the /lib/firmware/ directory.

Well, I meant a document "file", which should be distributed together
with the firmware binary.  Could you attach a file?

I'll be able to cut and paste the texts above, but I'd like to make
sure.


thanks,

Takashi

> On 19/05/07, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> wrote:
> > At Fri, 18 May 2007 23:41:08 +0100,
> > Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> > >
> > > Please add this to the firmware repo
> >
> > Any notes on copyright and license?  Where to be installed?
> > A brief document would be appreciated, too.
> >
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > Takashi
> >
> 

Re: Firmware to add - Dreamcast AICA

[Adrian McMenamin]

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On 21/05/07, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> wrote:

> Well, I meant a document "file", which should be distributed together
> with the firmware binary.  Could you attach a file?
>
> I'll be able to cut and paste the texts above, but I'd like to make
> sure.
>

[-- Attachment #2: Dreamcast_sound.txt --]
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SOUND ON THE SEGA DREAMCAST

The Sega Dreamcast includes a ARM7 processor that seperately handles sound
playback. The ARM7 processor has its own address space which is only partially
accessible to the main SH4 processor.

The ALSA driver loads data to the ARM7 address space using DMA (which will
run at a good speed). The old OSS driver did not use DMA and so showed
very poor performance at high bit rates.

The driver also loads some simple firmware (seperately licenced under a 
modified BSD licence) which controls the ARM7 processor. Without the 
firmware the driver would merely fill the ARM7's address space and would 
not playback any sound.

The firmware, by default, should be loaded to /lib/firmware/ and should
be named aica_firmware.bin.

[-- Attachment #3: licence.txt --]
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This firmware is licenced under the KOS licence - a modified form of the BSD licence
(for details see http://gamedev.allusion.net/softprj/kos/faq.php).

It is fully and freely distributable provided the following notice is preserved somewhere
in the code: Copyright (c) Dan Potter 2000.

The code this firmware was built with is part of the KOS distribution and can also be
reviewed here: http://linuxdc.cvs.sourceforge.net/linuxdc/linux-sh-dc/sound/oss/aica/firmware/

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