[E3-hacking] E2 hackery & coding

[Dave Mills]

David Given wrote:
> Dave Mills wrote:
> [...]
> > I've been given an E2, it has never been connected to the 'phone line,
> > so is still running factory fresh software. Has anyone managed to get
> > their own code running on one of these beasts? Any pointers on where to
> > start?
>
> Yes, it's actually fairly straightforward, provided you have the special
> cable. I have some information here:
>
> http://www.cowlark.com/amstrad/index.html
>
> Once you have the cable, you can use pblq to upload code via the serial
> cable or to reflash it. 
Great stuff. I'd looked at your software before, but wasn't exactly sure
it would let
you up upload code and execute it, I thought it was just to upload &
download to the
Emailer.

> Be aware that pblq 0.2 is a bit old; I was in
> the process of working on it when I managed to fry my E2. I'll try and
> get 0.3 up on the website soon, along with some more technical stuff I
> figured out.
>
> You should be aware that the E2's processor has no MMU, which means you
> can't run normal Linux on it. Porting ucLinux is quite possible but most
> likely a horrible job. I was partway through porting Prex (a rather nice
> little Minix-like embedded OS) onto mine when I my UART esplode, but
> I'll I managed was the boot loader and the very basics of the kernel
> startup procedure; so while running custom code on an E2 isn't hard,
> there's not a lot of code to run...
>
Yep, I'm aware that linux on the E2 is a no-go unless you use the
MMU-less variants.
My main interest is really a cheap and well featured platform for
learning a bit about ARM.
I could go buy a proper dev board, but where is the fun in that?

cheers,
Dave