Re: [Make-wifi-fast] [bufferbloat-fcc-discuss] arstechnica confirms tp-link router lockdown

[David Lang <david@lang.hm>]

On Sat, 12 Mar 2016, Wayne Workman wrote:

> @David lang,
>
> Dude, Help make it happen.
>
> I don't know all the details. I don't even pretend to know anything about
> IC design and manufacturing.
>
> Look if we want a platform that is open, then it'll be an open source
> chipset. Yes, the first of its kind.
>
> We need someone who is willing to do this in their free time(as you said),
> or a company that is willing to be paid to do it.
>
> We can be pioneers.
>
> We CAN be pioneers.
>
> All we have to do is figure this out. It's been done before, with the Linux
> kernel. It can be done again. The person who has made a chipset in their
> free time is out there. Let's find them!

I'll be happy to support anyone who tackles this. But your question was if 
something like this was a good use of 'our money'. If you are talking the 
bufferbloat team, make-wifi-fast team, or even team trying to convince teh FCC 
nto to outlaw OpenWRT, then no, funding the development of a chipset from 
scratch is not a good use of 'our money', it will have no effect for several 
years (by which time we may be looking at the next chipset), and we don't have 
anywhere close to the funding needed to pull it off.

I would do us no good to create a fully open chip if the FCC mandates that the 
firmware must be locked down.

Would I like someone to do this, Sure. I'll contribute towards a kickstarter, 
even if it's $100 for a mini-pci card that is the equivalent of what we can get 
today for $30, but it would take tens of thousands of people doing that to fund 
the project, and I have serious doubts if you can get that much funding for 
something with such a long lead time.

If someone does the research and puts together a FPGA version that works and is 
looking for funding to convert it to a ASIC, I think you could get funding. But 
that's not the question in front of us now.

David Lang