OSDev.org

all those pingvins...

No z80 for me, I am looking for a processor that is cheap simple, but could have some kind of OS other than what would be in a washing machine.

how would I acquire an ARM ?

The GBA uses an ARM.

getting it out is the problem, also finding it.

bloodhound23 wrote:getting it out is the problem, also finding it.

Well, I meant that you could just program the GBA and get essentially the same effect as if you were to make your own ARM system.

nah, I may just make a custom cpu like the magic-1.

Maybe I'll go with GBA, but I don't want to just have a game cartridge in the thing that looks like linux. I'm sure there's some rom in there that does everything upon startup. I'll look it up.

Did no one read?

*COUGH*

http://www.buglabs.net/

It has an ARM chip, with JTAG support. Open specs, etc...

Yes I read, but I don't think I like the idea, as I'm more interested in old school computers, things that have processors that would be in embedded systems and such. I don't like the idea of just connecting a bunch of devices together and not knowing exactly how and why it works.

They publish the full schematics to the board - the hardware is completely open and hackable. That's the whole idea behind the company. An ARM development board with JTAG can be very pricey - the dev boards at the office can run several thousand. If you are looking for an embedded system dev board at a reasonable price, that's about right. What you get in buglabs is a lot more hackable and open than what you'll be able to do on the GBA.

Most embedded systems are moving to similar level of platform.

Anything smaller usually doesn't have an OS per se - just ROM code to do a very specific task. Which, if you want to do, that's cool, but you aren't talking about embedded OS dev here. I don't really know, if you can call most embedded systems OS dev at all really.

Do you want to do something like control a robot ARM? What is your goal? Do you want to have an MMU? preemptive multitasking? Do you want to do any sort of graphics? Internet/ethernet? USB?

Here's some more links of varying ranges of ability:

http://microcontrollershop.com/product_ ... cts_id=677

http://www.kwikbyte.com/KB9202.html

http://www.littlechips.com/products.htm

http://www.coridiumcorp.com/ARMmite.php ... FQodIjMjfA

For old school:

http://www.brielcomputers.com/replica1.html

Have fun!

Theres a arm port of my OS that runs on GBA or DS
http://www.dex4u.com/images/gbademo.jpg

But my OS is closed source, unless you code something usefull for it.

I'm just wondering how I could aquire an a standalone ARM.

Cool DexOS on DS. Where could I find technical docs on the GBA internals?

@bloodhound, A resource has "already" been posted a page back...

Personally, I think you're wasting everyones time here... break out of your mental for loop and search google!