Re: [iPAQ] Some other OS on iPAQ

On Wed, Sep 19, 2001 at 05:24:33AM -0400, Arvin Farahmand wrote:
> I've been working on my own basic OS for a while. I have gotten it to run on
> a x86 platform. As a matter of excerise I'd like to port this to a handheld
> device, namely the iPAQ.

I do encourage your OS experiments, but I don't think the Ipaq is the
right device for them. The problem is that no matter how careful you
are, you *will* screw up the contents of the flash in such a way that
even the bootloader doesn't work anymore (been there, done that). IOW:
it's easy to turn your Ipaq into a brick and you'll need special
hardware to rewrite the bootloader back into the flash.

I think you'd better use a more open SA11x0 design that allows you to
rewrite the flash through a JTAG interface. There are many commercial
and non-commercial boards available, but they are all quite expensive.
Luckily, right now the TuxScreen phone (www.tuxscreen.net) is available
for only 99 US$. No, it doesn't look as good as the Ipaq, but it's
almost the same design: SA1100 CPU, 640x480 LCD with touch screen
interface, 2 PCMCIA slots, etc. Most important is that it has a JTAG
interface that allows you to rewrite the flash in case of an emergency.

> I am wondering if there are any hardware documentations are floating
> out there that can help me in this porting effort. Things such as
> specs on the display system, how to write to the iPAQ EEPROM (to
> write the OS image), etc.

First of all you'll need the ARM Architecture Reference Manual,
available from your local ARM distribitor (or use the questions form on
the the www.arm.com website).

Next you'll need the "Intel StrongARM SA-1110 Microprocessor Developer's
Manual" (or the SA1100 variant in case of the TuxScreen) available from
http://developer.intel.com/ .

> I'd like to use this for my CS OS Programming class project.

Hey, a phone running your OS also looks cool, right? :)

Erik

-- 
J.A.K. (Erik) Mouw, Information and Communication Theory Group, Department
of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology and Systems,
Delft University of Technology, PO BOX 5031,  2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-15-2783635  Fax: +31-15-2781843  Email: J.A.K.Mouw@its.tudelft.nl
WWW: http://www-ict.its.tudelft.nl/~erik/