OpenWrt One / project update

[Paul D]

On 2024-04-11 10:52, Bjørn Mork wrote:
> Ivan Ivanov <qmastery16 at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>>> SOC: MediaTek MT7981B , Wi-Fi: MediaTek MT7976C
>>
>> Are these Mediateks capable of working without any binary blobs, at
>> least in theory?
> 
> A simple question back to you: Could you please list the wifi chips you
> know of which ether have
> a) completely open source firmware, or
> b) no firmware at all (neither loaded in ram, nor in internal flash)?
> 
> And of those, do any of them support 802.11g? 802.11a? 802.11ac?
> 802.11ax?
> 
> No need to list more than a couple of examples of each If your lists are
> very long.  I'm just curious what you are asking.  Or whether you are
> aware what you are asking, TBH
> 
> 

This seems part of a much larger debate: finding a company who would produce a spec compliant SoC which does or does not contain IP, and gives it away freely. With the right licensing it's possible, but it doesn't prevent China from copying the hell out of it.

Today it's already *really* difficult to tell fake chips and components apart from real ones, which is part of the battle. This 'numbers game' means any well intentioned open source Soc initiative could drown. It's not impossible, however. In the next decade, perhaps, with new chip foundries in the EU and USA.

Things like RPi and its analogues seem evidence that people want to hack and tinker.