Idea of the day
-
Simple enough: Do something really evil to the
Gameboy and transform
it into something it was never intended to be. The seed of this idea came from the
Itsy project which is basically
a handheld, touch screen based machine with a
StrongARM
200MHz processor and Linux at it's core. Sooo...to me the hard and expensive
parts are a decent case and a suitable screen, respectively - both of which and more
are supplied by a Gameboy...
The idea is to design a cartridge that plugs into the Gameboy containing a 32 bit uP of
some kind, a small rom containing the relevant host code for the GB, sufficient RAM
to run Linux and something unusual like USB for
interfacing to a keyboard, mouse, HDD, host computer, modem or whatever tickles your
fancy.
Specifics:
-
The uP could be either a RISC StrongARM or if I'm feeling less keen something using
an AMD embedded PC..
Further information on the ARM core is available from ARM
- I chose Linux as the OS due to it's wide feature set, the
software available and the
range of processors it supports. The port of Linux to ARM is
here.
- USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a
fast, serial based bus that supports up to 127 devices and transfer rates of up to
12Mb per second. The StrongARM chip has USB support built into the hardware, and the
Intel 80930
micro controller could be used as a host controller on, say, a small HDD. The buss
also has the advantage that the connectors are small.
Justification:
- I can't justify it. I currently can't think of any use for such a
beasty, hand-held machine. But you must admit, it would be cool...
Time line:
- Assuming that I'm still interested at the time, this project would start in December 1998
when I should have both the time and resources to attempt it.
Contact information:
Michael Hope
michaelh@juju.net.nz
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