Calling all Econet (MIPS) SoC enthusiasts!

[Caleb James DeLisle]

Thank you Alex for bringing this up.


Initial support (interrupt controller, clocksource, read-only flash support)
is completed in https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/17928 and is awaiting
review.

Regarding the PCI and USB, I think it's realistic to expect them fairly soon,
as they seem to be standard devices with just some custom clock and reset
rituals to get them working.

The elephant in the room is Ethernet, but the work done on the airoha/AN7581
Ethernet has definitely changed it from a dream to a possibility.

Regarding XPON, the available GPL source is quite complete so I think it's
theoretically possible to port, but I'm not sure if we really care. The telcos
are all going to 10G or 40G GPON, and there just aren't that many applications
for PON that make sense.

For me, what's valuable is being able to turn outdated XPON hardware into
working wifi routers, and if somebody comes along and wants to do 1Gb PON
networks for something like hotels, they can finance the XPON driver port.

Thanks,

Caleb


On 14/02/2025 04:31, George-Alexandru Popa wrote:
> We're on a mission to create a new target for a completely new family of SoCs, namely Econet. This project will finally bring mass-adopted fiber routers to OpenWrt.
>
> The core switched hands several times, from Trendchip, to Ralink, bought then by Mediatek to form Econet as a spinoff then renamed Airoha. Several github toolchains and SDKs were floating around but were long deprecated so we are starting with a clean room design. We're starting with EN7526 since is the most widely deployed.
>
> The first challenge is to start developing the core platform (clocks, timers, PCI, toolchain...).
>
> Second is to crack open the XPON subsystem. Might have to deal with binary blobs and create our own OMCI and MBI implementation.
>
> So far me, Caleb James DeLisle cjd at cjdns.fr and Daniel Danzberger daniel at dd-wrt.com are the only ones knowledgable enough to tackle the platform but will require more so feel free to reach out.
>
> A great deal of research and work was done here: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-support-for-zyxel-pmg5617ga-first-gpon-support/144231
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>