Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 21:55:42 -0700 From: John Oram <norami@unlimited.net> To: "Duncan, John" <jddst19@srg.psych.pitt.edu> Cc: "'freebsd-small@freebsd.org'" <freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FreeBSD for PalmPilot/Palm III Message-ID: <3580B4CE.3AD23113@unlimited.net> References: <B57B47656446D111BDCE0060B01A8CAE05D123@srg.psych.pitt.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
<http://www.research.digital.com/wrl/itsy/talk/index.html>; "Abstract The Itsy Pocket Computer is a small handheld computer based on the low-power, high-performance StrongARM SA-1100 microprocessor. Our current prototype runs at 200MHz on a pair of AAA batteries, and sports a tiny, high-resolution LCD touchscreen, a high-quality audio codec, and up to 64MB of memory. Itsy is designed to be an open platform for research projects ranging from OS power management to novel gesture and speech-based user interfaces. The base Itsy hardware provides a flexible interface for adding a custom daughtercard, enabling a wide range of hardware projects such as wireless networking and GPS. Itsy also supports the Linux OS and standard GNU tools, facilitating the development of both kernel and application software, as well as ports of existing packages such as Apache." This's could an interesting idea for FreeBSD too. John O Duncan, John wrote: > > Hi guys- > > Is anyone on this list interested in FreeBSD for handheld computers, > notably > the PalmPilot and the Palm III? If so, I'd like to join the discussion, > and if not, > it would be interesting to create it. > > If you haven't noticed, there is a Linux development team for the Pilot. > > I think it would be cool to see what are the truly necessary parts of > FreeBSD, and to what extent FreeBSD can be implemented on a small > machine like the Pilot. One thing is for sure: the Pilot version can > only > keep the "Spirit of FreeBSD" and not borrow too much of the actual > source--the chip is Motorola's Dragonball 68328 Integrated Microcomputer > which resembles a 68000 with lots of added hardware. All of it is > dissimilar > to anything FreeBSD runs on now. A major benefit of this project would > be > the ability to translate small source onto the large model and make > FreeBSD > Amiga, FreeBSD NeXT, etc. > > We could also go into versions for WindowsCE machines. After all, who > really wants WindowsCE? It's junk. What could be really cool would be to > create a FreeBSD EEPROM for some of those CE machines and let people > replace it. > > In the future, Palm machines will be Flash-upgradeable, which makes the > capacity to which an alternative OS can run much greater. For now, the > PalmPilot Professional and better have a TCP/IP stack, Serial, Graphics > and > Input libraries, and a number of hidden "features" that make hacking it > a bit > like hacking a Macintosh. Actually, a lot like hacking a Mac. In > addition, the > EEPROM is easy to get at, and thus can be replaced. 3Com is much nicer > to their owners than Apple used to be as far as tweaking these little > machines, so if this list were to talk to them we might find out a lot > about what > can be done. > > If people are interested, let's get this discussion going. > > One request: if you don't think that this is a worthwhile venture, > please don't > go off about how you think it's stupid, unreasonable, unfeasible. In a > way, the > PDA is all of these things, but there's no reason to keep UNIX off of > them. > Besides... Are we going to let Linux and Microsoft get the better of > this market? > > -John > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3580B4CE.3AD23113>