[9fans] Building my own gadget with Plan 9

[9fans] Building my own gadget with Plan 9

[app]

I am toying with an idea of building my own MP3 player + general gadget
with Plan 9. Any suggestions for a budget HW platform? Can you make it
usable, with decent battery life? Audio out, USB2 in, some fancy input
device and a good display would be nice. Has to be small enough to fit
in a loose pocket.

Re: [9fans] Building my own gadget with Plan 9

[Micah Stetson]

> I am toying with an idea of building my own MP3 player + general gadget
> with Plan 9. Any suggestions for a budget HW platform? Can you make it
> usable, with decent battery life? Audio out, USB2 in, some fancy input
> device and a good display would be nice. Has to be small enough to fit
> in a loose pocket.

Not powerful enough to run Plan 9, methinks, but this looks sort of interesting:

http://makezine.com/daisy/

I've also thought a Plan 9 or Inferno port to the GP2X would be pretty
cool.  I've put mine in a loose pocket.

Micah

Re: [9fans] Building my own gadget with Plan 9

[Bruce Ellis]

shouldn't be a problem to port inferno - if the docs are good and a
compiler is in place.  i had a brief look at it just then but didn't
even see what processor it has.

the PS2 port of inferno took a week 'cause i had to modify the spim
compiler to cope with 128 bit registers and missing fp instructions.

the WRT took a day, as did the CE hosted port..

brucee

On 11/17/06, Micah Stetson <micah@stetsonnet.org> wrote:
> > I am toying with an idea of building my own MP3 player + general gadget
> > with Plan 9. Any suggestions for a budget HW platform? Can you make it
> > usable, with decent battery life? Audio out, USB2 in, some fancy input
> > device and a good display would be nice. Has to be small enough to fit
> > in a loose pocket.
>
> Not powerful enough to run Plan 9, methinks, but this looks sort of interesting:
>
> http://makezine.com/daisy/
>
> I've also thought a Plan 9 or Inferno port to the GP2X would be pretty
> cool.  I've put mine in a loose pocket.
>
> Micah
>

Re: [9fans] Building my own gadget with Plan 9

[Harri Haataja]

On Fri, Nov 17, 2006 at 06:42:53PM +1100, Bruce Ellis wrote:
> shouldn't be a problem to port inferno - if the docs are good and a
> compiler is in place.  i had a brief look at it just then but didn't
> even see what processor it has.
>
> the PS2 port of inferno took a week 'cause i had to modify the spim
> compiler to cope with 128 bit registers and missing fp instructions.
>
> the WRT took a day, as did the CE hosted port..

WRT? Does that mean there's a native port for some router platform?
I mean, those might even be available in the arctic waste here, so
it might be very interesting. :)

--
One does simply drawterm into Mordor.

Re: [9fans] Building my own gadget with Plan 9

[Micah Stetson]

> shouldn't be a problem to port inferno - if the docs are good and a
> compiler is in place.  i had a brief look at it just then but didn't
> even see what processor it has.

It's based around the MagicEyes MP2520F, which has an ARM920T and an
ARM940T onboard.  I think ARM compilers for Plan 9 and Inferno are
already up to the job, and the docs seem relatively complete.  I just
haven't had time to take a whack at it, yet.  I probably would start
with hosted Inferno, since the thing comes with Linux on it.

I'm quite pleased with mine.  It doesn't weigh much; the screen's nice
and bright; the battery life is pretty good, considering it just uses
2 AAs (I like my iC3 15-minute charger); and it was nice to be able to
pack the NES, Game Boy,  and Atari 2600 away permanently (although
Kaboom! isn't the same without a paddle).  On top of that, the
manufacturer actually encourages you to hack on it -- something that
certainly can't be said for the PSP or the DS.  I would rather the
'digital joystick' thing were a d-pad, but that's a small complaint.

Micah

Re: [9fans] Building my own gadget with Plan 9

[rog]

> I am toying with an idea of building my own MP3 player + general gadget
> with Plan 9. Any suggestions for a budget HW platform? Can you make it
> usable, with decent battery life? Audio out, USB2 in [...]

as far as i'm aware, plan 9 isn't be able to take advantage of USB2.