From: Bruce <ill...@gm...> - 2007-07-21 20:49:16
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I've been looking into returning to SharpOS, somewhat out of boredom with other pursuits, and also due to intrigue to a new possible pursuit. I'm wondering what it would take to simultaneously support SharpOS on the Nintendo DS as we develop it for PC. The homebrew niche for the Nintendo DS is practically exploding, but good software is still quite a ways off. There *is* Linux for the DS, but no GUI, as the DS has very little RAM and no MMU. Also, no GCC. Therefore, no cute Mono GUI apps are even remotely feasible. So I'm doing some research into the ARM architecture, and the DS specifically. I think it would be cool to try and write a DS-specific ARM backend to the AOT. There are other issues, like no keyboard. And emulating an MMU (for paging purposes, if nothing else) will be slow. But I think it will just challenge the way we look at designing OSes, and the potential is amazing. As far as emulating an MMU being slower for the GUI stuff, I think it will make SharpOS on the DS a horse of a different color, versus the same for another architecture. With limited RAM, and the storage medium (usually flash memory, ala Micro SD and the like, depending on the hardware pass-through being used), it would not be wise to keep too many seperate apps "resident" at the same time. Anywho, I'm still only trying to *think* about the details. But I'm definitely thinking that SharpOS is a better answer than trying to gut and rewrite the Linux kernel to handle the different paradigm. I don't want to suggest SharpOS go in a different direction because of fancy fantasy for a handheld that will be obselete in the next few years - BUT, I do think it presents healthy questions for SharpOS itself (especially in the way of hardware - the DS has no keyboard, two screens, one with touch sensitivity - which in the way of human interface devices, is practically a tablet PC with an extra screen). But there are lots of people with DSes that I think would like to be able to manage contacts and calender info, play music, watch videos, do instant messaging, web surfing, and (depending on the quality of that microphone) VOIP, from the convenience of their pocket, without paying outrageous prices on for next-gen phones. Not to mention the alturistic idea of the potential for extra feedback for SharpOS. ;-) Any thoughts, anyone? |