Re: Repurposing the HP Prime? Message #3 Posted by debrouxl on 21 Sept 2013, 2:41 a.m., in response to message #2 by Tim Wessman
It would be great if we could collectively achieve arbitrary code execution - and subsequently e.g. Linux, which already has support for most relevant S3C2416 subsystems - on the Prime by, say, the end of 2013 :)
Several weeks or months is the usual average timeframe for Linux becoming available on any given platform.
Every contribution helps, whether producing files and reverse-engineering their format (which might be partially derived from standard xcas/giac data representations, I'm not aware anybody checked), reverse-engineering linking protocols (both for firmware upgrades, and for two-way file transfer; unlike TI graphing calculators and the SilverLink cable, the Prime uses standard USB device classes and won't require extra drivers), reverse-engineering the firmware, making an emulator (there are outdated forks of QEMU with support for the S3C2410 and S3C2440 chips, so it's not even necessary to write everything from scratch), etc.
Needless to say, most of the items I've just listed fall under the "reverse-engineering for interoperability purposes" category, as they could be used for developing third-party software equivalent to HP's, and are therefore legal in most countries - so we can nearly openly talk about them :)
The (initial, at least) interest of some traditionally TI-oriented tinkerers for the Prime is clearly partially a consequence of TI Education Technology's continued mishandling of the Nspire series, which makes the calculator less useful for users and increases the likelihood of attacks on TI's business model (thereby prompting more boneheadedness from TI EdTech management, it's a negative spiral).
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