On Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 5:28 PM, Erik Andrén<erik.andren@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Erik Andrén wrote: >> >> Dongsoo, Nathaniel Kim wrote: >>> Hello, >>> >>> It has been years I've working on linux multimedia drivers, but what a >>> shame I found that there were already sensor drivers that I've already >>> implemented. Precisely speaking, soc camera devices from Samsung named >>> s5k4aa* and s5k83a* were already in Linux kernel and even seems to >>> have been there for years. >>> But a thing that I'm curious is those drivers are totally mc602 and >>> gspca oriented. So some users who are intending to use those samsung >>> camera devices but not using gspca and mc5602 H/W have to figure out >>> another way. >>> As you know, the s5k* camera devices are actually ISP devices which >>> are made in SoC device and can be used independently with any kind of >>> ITU or MIPI supporting host devices. >>> However, I see that gspca and mc5602 have their own driver structure >>> so it seems to be tough to split out the sensor drivers from them. >>> So, how should we coordinate our drivers if a new s5k* driver is >>> getting adopted in the Linux kernel? different version of s5k* drivers >>> in gspca and subdev or gspca also is able to use subdev drivers? >>> I am very willing to contribute several drivers for s5k* soc camera >>> isp devices and in the middle of researching to prepare for >>> contribution those s5k* drivers popped up. >>> Please let me know whether it is arrangeable or not. >>> Cheers, >>> >> >> Hi Nathaniel, >> The sensor sharing question pops up now and then and I'm sure that >> if you search the mailing list archive you can find several threads >> discussing this. >> IIRC the main problem is that in an usb webcam consisting of a >> sensor and an usb bridge. The sensor is often configured in a very >> specific way tied to the particular usb bridge. It is also common >> that much of the initialization is reverse engineered and that we >> may have little or no understanding what we're actually doing. >> (Often just mimicing a windows webcam driver). >> I think the conclusion reached now is that it's not worth the effort >> considering that the sensors usually don't need that much setup to >> get working. Of course this may need to be reevaluated from time to >> time. If someone could device a clever solution I would be all for >> trying to create some kind of driver sharing. >> >> In the gspca-m5602-s5k* case everything is reverse-engineered, as I >> don't possess any datasheets of the ALi m5602 nor the s5k83a, >> s5k4aa. I would be much happy if you Samsung folks would be able to >> provide with me with datasheets for the s5k* sensors. >> >> Best regards, >> Erik >> > Resending due to UTF-8 fail. > Hi Erik, As a matter of fact I registered at samsungsemi website as a developer and could get access to restricted domain of devices of samsung system lsi. It might look odd, but I work in samsung electronics but not in the system lsi division therefor I am almost treated like other developers as well. But one thing might be differ is that I can ask the person in charge of the device I'm working on about what I'm curious. Sometimes I also do reverse engineering thing while making my driver ;-( But I think that I possess a better position than any other S/W engineers in developing camera drivers for samsung camera devices. I'll see what can I do for opensource community as far as I can do. Cheers Nate > >>> Nate >>> >> > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > -- = DongSoo, Nathaniel Kim Engineer Mobile S/W Platform Lab. Digital Media & Communications R&D Centre Samsung Electronics CO., LTD. e-mail : dongsoo.kim@xxxxxxxxx dongsoo45.kim@xxxxxxxxxxx -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
