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2Flower writes:

Here's my project for December: turning my Dreamcast into a sweet arcade cabinet.

From linuxdevices.com: The Dreamcast sports a Hitachi SH7750 CPU running at 200 MHz, with 16MB of memory.

Okay, MAME, under Win98SE, needs over a 300 Mhz K6-2 for some games (KOF, etc). Any early arcade games, or anything up to and including the SNES generation consoles should run fast enough on a dreamcast (although this is an educated guess that assumes the Dreamcast performs at about the same rate as a P200).

However, I'm tempted to turn a Dreamcast into an emulated gaming machine as well. I like the idea of of a desktop omni-console. However, I don't think the dreamcast is fast enough for some arcade games, although I'd be happy if I was wrong.

That link points to part 2 of the article.

You might want to start at the beginning
( http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7466555948. html)

That link points to part 2 of the article.

You might want to start at the beginning
( http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7466555948. html)

Here's a related article at LinuxDevices.com. It's not a review, but it has links to more information.

If it's similar to the handheld Linux's like Familiar, they probably use JFFS2, the journaling flash file system. It does compression and intelligently minimizes writes to flash devices. Another one is CRAMFS, a popular choice for embedded 2.4 systems .

Regards,
Reid

Just-in New Buy.com Coupons [garlanger.com] .

This poster has a really good point -- usability is what really counts to the consumer. Does your mom really care what processor her cell phone uses? Does she care it can run Java? No. She cares that she can afford it, and it does what she requires. Therefore it is a successful product.

Now, please mod the parent as insightful or something.

Please type "Yes I understand that this is a very bad idea" to continue. -- apt

Rob Malda, the wannabe hacker and latecomer otaku, will soon be out on the streets, begging for spare change by the traffic light. He will spend his nights in a local shopping center, rubbing his ass against the shopping carts for kicks.

Jeff Bates, the wannabe scientist, will be forced to pimp out his little wifey -- amusing, because she's been an amateur whore for so many years already. Bates's primary customer will be Malda, whose Quarter Cartel shall make him one of the most prosperous bums in shopping center.

Gay Nik, although never really part of the Slashdork crew, will join this merry gang of homeless beggers, too, because what questionable BSD "skills" he many have are worthless in this day and age, a day and age in which *BSD is dying. (OpenBSD will never lose any users, though, because the only users it ever had were Theo "The Rat" De Raadt and his canine lover, Farmer.)

Jon Katz, a man who couldn't write an interesting article to save his life but whose knowledge of Microsoft Word's "spell check" facilities makes him a twerp among lamers at the Geek Compound, will make his living by designing the Slashdork crew's "Homeless, five children, please help, godbless" signage. Interestingly enough, the signs prove more of a challenge to Katz than any of the meaningless drivel that he ever spewed while leeching off of Slashdot.

CowboyNeal would be able to subsist on his own fat stores for approximately fifty years, if he weren't destined to be harpooned and eaten by a gang of minority squirrels.

Timothy Gaybone, Michael "Censorship NAZI" Himmler, Jamie "Gay Nights Online" McCarthy, Emmett "Stupid" Galacticon, and Krow the Wannabe DBA will also reside in the shopping center, and provide blowjobs on demand to the local "nerdcore" [geocities.com] fetish group.

Fuck you.

Troll Tuesday 2001. [geocities.com]

--The Messenger

• FUCKING AC -- Wrong!! (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:01PM (#2565634)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) lol lol lol lol lol lol lol ROFL lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol hehe ROTFLMFAO lol lol lol
  
  Shut the fuck up, bitch!
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

• Nate, come to the dark side... (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:05PM (#2565661)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) You know you want to.
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

I couldn't purchase anything with a name like "Yopy". It reminds me of the Doctor Seuss book, "Horton Hears a Who."

YOP! YOP! Yop! yop! ...

spookyworld.dnsalias.com [dnsalias.com]

Just-in New Buy.com Coupons [garlanger.com] .

This poster has a really good point -- usability is what really counts to the consumer. Does your mom really care what processor her cell phone uses? Does she care it can run Java? No. She cares that she can afford it, and it does what she requires. Therefore it is a successful product.

Now, please mod the parent as insightful or something.

Please type "Yes I understand that this is a very bad idea" to continue. -- apt

Rob Malda, the wannabe hacker and latecomer otaku, will soon be out on the streets, begging for spare change by the traffic light. He will spend his nights in a local shopping center, rubbing his ass against the shopping carts for kicks.

Jeff Bates, the wannabe scientist, will be forced to pimp out his little wifey -- amusing, because she's been an amateur whore for so many years already. Bates's primary customer will be Malda, whose Quarter Cartel shall make him one of the most prosperous bums in shopping center.

Gay Nik, although never really part of the Slashdork crew, will join this merry gang of homeless beggers, too, because what questionable BSD "skills" he many have are worthless in this day and age, a day and age in which *BSD is dying. (OpenBSD will never lose any users, though, because the only users it ever had were Theo "The Rat" De Raadt and his canine lover, Farmer.)

Jon Katz, a man who couldn't write an interesting article to save his life but whose knowledge of Microsoft Word's "spell check" facilities makes him a twerp among lamers at the Geek Compound, will make his living by designing the Slashdork crew's "Homeless, five children, please help, godbless" signage. Interestingly enough, the signs prove more of a challenge to Katz than any of the meaningless drivel that he ever spewed while leeching off of Slashdot.

CowboyNeal would be able to subsist on his own fat stores for approximately fifty years, if he weren't destined to be harpooned and eaten by a gang of minority squirrels.

Timothy Gaybone, Michael "Censorship NAZI" Himmler, Jamie "Gay Nights Online" McCarthy, Emmett "Stupid" Galacticon, and Krow the Wannabe DBA will also reside in the shopping center, and provide blowjobs on demand to the local "nerdcore" [geocities.com] fetish group.

Fuck you.

Troll Tuesday 2001. [geocities.com]

--The Messenger

• FUCKING AC -- Wrong!! (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:01PM (#2565634)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) lol lol lol lol lol lol lol ROFL lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol hehe ROTFLMFAO lol lol lol
  
  Shut the fuck up, bitch!
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

• Nate, come to the dark side... (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:05PM (#2565661)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) You know you want to.
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

Can it run Mozilla there is an intersestin article on about that project at Linuxdevices.com

The humanoid Isamu robot is powered by RTLinux. Does anyone know if this is also true for Honda's Asimo? What's the relation between the two projects?

Handhelds are getting betta. That new Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D has a keyboard, too! Read up on it here.

I suggest you start by looking here LinuxDevices.com's SBC reference, it is a terrific resource.

Im not sure the PC itself is your problem, simply getting a proper LCD driver and VidCard is your real issue.

As Ive seen/thought many times before, even recently mentioned here @ /., is the trouble you have driving a standard LCD. Dead laptops with very cool and useful LCD displays probably litter the parts pile of every slashdot user(!) - geeks are really unable to give up that LCD. Outside of buying a terribly expensive driver card from someone like Earth LCD. Also you may want to have a look at this reference.

This is an excellent question, an excellent topic and a very worthwhile idea. Basically, how do we hobble together some cheap, general purpose computers... not too much power - not much more than a network connection... these could be terminals in the home, "tablet-pcs", a DIY "ConnectedTouchpad/IOpener/Audrey", portable MP3 players... all cry out for *EXACTLY* the hardware this question is asking for.

A modular "embedded" PC. Just like our desktops... expandable, extensible and versatile. Why dont we have a solution like this for PDAs? Without straying OT too far, it would be *EXCELLENT* to see a DIY laptop for a lot of reasons.

I was originally going to post something negative here, but as I read the article, I came across this article on what Century Software has done working with the distro from handhelds.org. And other open software, like FLTK. FLTK is a neat tool kit that uses OpenGL as its window renderer, and pretty much works on any os that has OpenGL libraries.

I was impressed enough to revise my original opinion of Linux on a PDA. Which was the thought that it is neat to run Linux on a PDA, but why bother? I use a PDA to sync my calendar and emails. Everytime msoft changes express or whatever, the linux equivelants are broken, so why fight it?

But in reading what Century has done, well, it hasn't changed that opinion, but their package is cool enough that it makes me want to install it on my Ipaq anyway.

There's no MMU, so it can't do virtual memory, and Intel never added an MMU in later versions. On the other hand, prices start at $7. There's a ucLinux port.

So it's a real CPU, first offered about ten years ago and still sold. But it's a niche product.

The development version is $399. The regular version is supposed to be in the $500+ range. Sorry, Linux or no Linux, that's too much for a PDA. I can buy a used laptop for that price. I'll stick with my Handspring Visor. PalmOS is still not an MS OS, so either way I'm supporting variety in the marketplace.
Go to www.linuxdevices.com - they've got pictures. Try this: http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2134869242. html

This robot has been on LinuxDevices.com since July. http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9048148355. html

I am sure you'll find a lot of useful information and device listings at http://www.linuxdevices.com/, http://www.linuxdevices.com/products/index.html.

I am sure you'll find a lot of useful information and device listings at http://www.linuxdevices.com/, http://www.linuxdevices.com/products/index.html.

this discussion is sorely lacking in details. The new device is a highly integrated
system-on-chip based on a TM5000 core plus north & south bridges and a 2D graphics controller, along with some other assorted interfaces (serial ports, IDE controller, audio interface, USB, ...). This news item at linuxdevices.com has the details.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4185744181. html

Goofed that up.

Nice discussion, from Sept 6, with related links

[sigh]

hey, there's a fact sheet about the Citizen/IBM WatchPad prototype over at linuxdevices.com -- the device has a 32-bit CPU (not specified), 8MB DRAM and 16MB flash, and uses Linux kernel version 2.4 and Microwindows for the GUI.

Linux Devices has the prototype of this watch on their cool embedded linux devices list.

You can check out the link here..

**Karma Killing Whine Alert**

BTW: I reported on this three days ago, and the article was rejected.

**End of Karma Killing Whine Alert**

Linux Devices has the prototype of this watch on their cool embedded linux devices list.

You can check out the link here..

**Karma Killing Whine Alert**

BTW: I reported on this three days ago, and the article was rejected.

**End of Karma Killing Whine Alert**

Linux Devices has the prototype of this watch on their cool embedded linux devices list.

You can check out the link here..

**Karma Killing Whine Alert**

BTW: I reported on this three days ago, and the article was rejected.

**End of Karma Killing Whine Alert**

I think you've got some of the details wrong. First, changing the hertz timer wouldn't help anything. When people say that Linux is not preemptible, it means that when a process is running in kernel mode (as the result of a system call), the scheduler will not preempt it. It runs until it voluntarily blocks. Even if the scheduler is called more often, all that would happen is that it would allow the process to continue running more often. The result of this is that the maximum scheduling latency is dependant on the length of the system call paths. Long paths (such as disk access calls) cause spikes in latency. What the preempt patches do is they change SMP spinlocks into preemption locks. Each time a spinlock is taken, a preemption count is incremented. When it is released, the preemption count is decremented. Whenever the preemption count is zero, a context switch is allowed to happen. There is a good article here.

Some people have been asking, why Java? What's the point? The Dreamcast is dead!. In answer: lots of people still use their DC, so the more support, the better. More generally though, the DC is still a nice piece of kit.

As a gaming platform of course, the Dreamcast's days are numbered - it won't be long before the rate of release of new games declines to a trickle. Not that that should stop anyone from enjoying the many fine games already released of course!

Yet with the very low cost of the DC now, if you can find one, and the very wide distribution of information on the console, it has become a perfect, cheap platform for experimenting with embedded programming, or console game development, or even for trying out non-x86 based Unixes. Remeber that there is a version of BSD and Linux available.

The so-called 'coders cable' can provide connectivity for development, but for high speed access there is the official broadband adapter (hard to find and pricey). If you're feeling brave there has been some talk about the viability of a USB-Controller port adapter. The Maple Bus (used to connect the controllers) has been well documented.

An earlier slashdot story has already talked about a nice step-by-step for Linux on Dreamcast.

With the recent developments in robotics, we could send in Linux-based ground troops, in addition to using our smart bombs and missiles.

Really though, it would be nice to have at least one nation in the middle-east that truely like us.

"personal satellite assistant", a must have. If only it could fly on earth. :-)

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8416393595.html

For those who don't live in the Washington D.C. area, we recently had the Digital Edge Expo at the Convention Center. Among other cool things (such as a virtual-reality rollercoaster and Nascar racing), they had the ActiveMedia robot running around on the floor next to the ComCast booths! I spent more time playing with it than asking questions about how to ran; had I known it was running Linux I would have definitely been more interested in what's under the hood.

If you're interested in building a similair robot but don't have the money for an embedded-x86 architechture, take a look at the Basic Stamp from Jameco. It's a great way to get started with your own embedded projects.

For cryin out loud, they have the DC-Linux Howto artical linked in the sidebar, but Dreamcast isn't even in their list of Linux devices! Oh the humanity.

That Isamu Robot is just absolutely amazing.

If there are any Japanese readers out there, please consider coordinating with slashdot to do a interview/review with the staff that created this machine.

This is a very timely and enjoyable article for me--it seems like all I've seen in the papers and magazines is MS FUD lately...even the embedded journals are getting swamped with WinCE and other MS embedded strategy ads. Seems like anywhere a dollar is changing hands, MS wants to reach in and snatch it way from the two parties.

But, I digress. It's nice to see such a rich set of Engineering accomplishments using the Linux platform--I had no idea that much was happening. Very informative and well-written article.

I especially like Isamu , the humanoid robot =)
He would probably like to play with my stuffed Tux.

Wow, when can I get my hands on a cheap embedded Transmeta system to play around with?
try here:
Crusoe-based PC/104-expandable single board computer

Better would be to get an SBC that supports Linux, throw on a microdrive, add an 802.11b card, and then write a set of scripts that rsync to your home MP3 DB when you get in range of the access point (and after you exchange some cryptographic keys, of course). You can then use the apmd stuff to sleep your machine after the transfer.

I planned on using an old Palm IIIx and a serial cable for the GUI. PalmAMP works really well (for my purposes, anyway). Of course, it doesn't beat the Empeg's really fancy display. It's very nice. But worth an extra $500? Probably not.

Bad to see them go. Hopefully, they'll keep their software on the Net so others can play with it still.

-B

Well, it's just above your stated price range, but the net4501 from Soekris Engineering might also be worth considering (http://www.soekris.com/net4501.htm) - it's $230 plus whatever you want to pay for what you put in the CompactFlash slot. It's based around an AMD 486 clone, comes with 64 MB SDRAM and three ethernet ports, and has stated power consumption of 10 Watts. They did begin shipping earlier this year, but supplies are a bit low at the moment - the websites says they were expecting another production run at the end of September.

I found this device, by the way, by searching the search engine at LinuxDevices.com for "firewall".

206 MHz StrongARM SA-1110

32MB DRAM

32MB Flash

240 x 320 pixel, 4096-color

USB, serial, Ethernet

Linux

More info in HP's Linux/Java platform can be found here, and here.

It goes some way to addressing the doubts of cynics (like me) about the real-world usefulness of Java for anything other than a CS-graduate-existence-justification tool.

> Quite right. I'll be getting an XBox first thing on Nov. 8, and
> next thing I'll do is crack it open and get Linux running on it.

Then, stop feeding Microsoft and buy a real computer.

Want some nice platforms to hack on? Look here,
here, here, here, here and here.

Some are expensive, some are cheap, but I bet that all
of them will be way more interesting that any Microsoft
crap. And there are plenty of these around.

But, please, stop giving more money to Microsoft.

Have you seen a photograph of a Concorde cockpit? It looks like something straight out of a 707, it's ancient. There's not an LCD, CRT, or even an LED to be seen. The typical "flight computer" is usually the pilot's own handheld PDA, ditto for GPS. If I were going to pay $big for private use of a Concorde, it by gosh better have some real avionics.

Even the B-52H has a nice modernized cockpit with screens galore. If that old clunker can be up to date, there's no reason why a Concorde can't.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6581413126.html

at linuxdevices.com, which gives an overview of the linux4.tv project and which provides a whole bunch of links to other projects such as the tvlinuxalliance.org and tvlinuxtv.org, products such as the linux-based sylvania internet/tv and nokia's linux-based set-top media terminal, ..., and lots more.

However, it still looks like MontaVista provides hard realtime with millisecond scheduluer latencies, while RTLinux is faster, in the range of 10 sec latency.

We have a new ability for real-time signal handlers in user tasks, where the user process makes an rtlinux_sigaction which will work like the POSIX sigaction, except the signal handlers run in realtime and there's an extension to allow us to catch periodic interrupts. As a result, the user process can designate a function to operate within hard real-time deadlines. And those functions run in the address space of that process, so they can share data with the process, and call functions libraries of the process.

That'll be very useful for high-bandwidth multimedia playback, which currently seems to be a problem for some UNIX-based systems such as Mac OS X. Is anyone looking at a Darwin port?

Tim

Actually, the Npower Server comes with a 600MHz or 733MHz Intel XScale RISC CPU. That ought to be fast enough for ya, but I shudder to think of the cost. There's also the briQ with a PowerPC G3 or G4 processor. Although I don't know the PPC chips well enough to tell you the speed from the model number, it's probably a wee bit faster than 350MHz... ;) This one has a price tag, though...'bout $2,500 for starters. Kinda pricey for a DivX ;-) player... ;)

DennyK

Actually, the Npower Server comes with a 600MHz or 733MHz Intel XScale RISC CPU. That ought to be fast enough for ya, but I shudder to think of the cost. There's also the briQ with a PowerPC G3 or G4 processor. Although I don't know the PPC chips well enough to tell you the speed from the model number, it's probably a wee bit faster than 350MHz... ;) This one has a price tag, though...'bout $2,500 for starters. Kinda pricey for a DivX ;-) player... ;)

DennyK

Is an SBC with NTSC outputs, plus Audio and Ethernet. It would make it alot easier to start up or maintain a homebrew TiVo project.....

What about this GCT-Allwell system? You know, the one mentioned in the article posted for this story?

Or were you really looking for just the board? If it were me I'd go for the whole system anyway, and scavenge the board if I had too. Only $299 for the whole unit makes it awfully tempting.

At work, we've been searching for a product that we can use as an IPSEC-enabled router.

So far, we've just been giving out PC's with FreeS/WAN. But this gets a little bit expensive, so we've been trying to find an embedded solution. Any such product would have to meet the following requirements:

* Cheap
* Small
* Reasonably powerful (At least 200MHz for x86 processors)
* And hopefully, sleek looking.

LinuxDevices Mentions a product called the STBMX1030, which meets all of these requirements, and much much more. But it seems as though the company that makes them, Allwell, has stopped making them. Anyone know of anything else that fits the bill?

At work, we've been searching for a product that we can use as an IPSEC-enabled router.

So far, we've just been giving out PC's with FreeS/WAN. But this gets a little bit expensive, so we've been trying to find an embedded solution. Any such product would have to meet the following requirements:

* Cheap
* Small
* Reasonably powerful (At least 200MHz for x86 processors)
* And hopefully, sleek looking.

LinuxDevices Mentions a product called the STBMX1030, which meets all of these requirements, and much much more. But it seems as though the company that makes them, Allwell, has stopped making them. Anyone know of anything else that fits the bill?

Surely there must be some real development going on in the free software world that could be covered instead. A Linux-powered robot that recognizes human faces or Sun's study of Gnome usability?

Unsettling MOTD at my ISP.

I've submit this cool-looking, Debian GNU/Linux powered battlebot TuxBot but got rejected by /. Gods.

Now this rugged oranges box got spotlighted?

What's wrong with you guys?

"Despite the plentiful extra space inside the cube, the unit is powered by a rather large external wall-mount power supply." (Quote from this page, in the middle above the larger image.)

So much for a 2.2 x 2.4 inch CerfBoard in a 3x3x3 inch box! Anybody know how big the power supply is? They imply it's huge by not mentioning anything about it's size other than what I quoted above.