[ltp] MWave-Linux-Petition

[Paul Rubin]

	Maybe, but I believe the rest of your post makes an excellent
	point in favor of Mwave support for Linux.

No.  See below.

	> It's financially great for Intel if you use a $500
	> Pentium-VII to run that DSL modem in software, but it's
	> simply more cost effective and bug resistant to use a $5
	> embedded DSP.

	Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just what "Mwave" is -- an
	embedded DSP board, based on MDSP 3780. The load on the main CPU using
	a Mwave modem is about the same as with a conventional modem.

The issue isn't just CPU load.  The Mwave is a separate cpu whose
firmware has to be loaded from the main cpu, which is exactly the
wrong thing in this situation.  Otherwise, why stop with the Mwave?
Why not ask for more hair in the Linux kernel to load firmware into
the keyboard controller, the battery controller, the different
processors on the disk drive, etc.--all of these things using
different special Thinkpad specific interfaces that all had to be
programmed?  Nobody would ever have bothered to get Linux working on
Thinkpads if that was all required.  Generic PC's have been enormously
successful because all the different subsystems have standardized
interfaces to the software.  In the case of modems, that means the AT
command set, not some crazy machine specific Mwave weirdness whether
the weirdness is documented or not.  The same goes for the
soundblaster functions, which also should not be done on the mwave.
They should use standard modem and sound chips that respond properly
to the normal AT commands etc. without needing any special nonstandard
kernel attention at initialization or at any other time.

Yes, I agree that winmodems are another travesty.  Those should also
be abolished.