FPGA? [scanned]

[Atlasz]

Hi All,

well, these ideas sounds nice, but having a working open phone without
next generation FPGA, fast programmable DSP and special gravitometric
capabilities would probably better fit the today's market and still be a
big change to somethig much better than we have now. Of course having
some interface to attach some of these things would be nice. FIC
probably needs to sell more than some development boards in nice case to
get back the investment:-)
Anyway, AFAIK there are no strict regulations in 2.4GHz band. (Not sure,
how in US...) I belive, you can freely hack around in that band as long
as you don't exceed the transmission power limits and don't interfere
with users already using the band. You can have 802.11, bluetooth, and a
couple of other proprietary protocols there (rc radios for rc models,
wireless keyboards, etc..). No reason to outlaw a hacked version of
bluetooth with some non-standard or buggy functions. You can even use
encryption as it is already there:-) The question is if a phone is the
right place to do that kind of research on? You can always design your
own simple HW for that and even attach it to a phone like Neo1973 with
usb or other interface if you like to. :-)
Of course I wouldn't mind to have some free space with extension
connector inside the case. Somebody would use it for accelerometer,
somebody for DSP or special radio board and the average user as an
additional space for his oversized battery or second SIM reader:-)

Atlasz


Paul Bohme wrote:
> Ole Tange wrote:
>>
>> That is exactly what the software radio is about.
>>
>
> My original question remains: Why do this with a _phone_?  There are
> more than likely plenty of other kits out there for this, why burden
> something that's otherwise a dedicated device (granted one with quite
> a bit of flexibility, but still) with lots of what has nothing to do
> with its mainline function?
>
> If it had the ability to still be a phone _and_ drive other devices,
> perhaps there would be more merit.  While I'm looking forward to
> getting one of these for my own hacking and projects, there's no
> denying that it would be much 'cooler' if it had bluetooth or wifi. 
> Guess I'll look forward to buying one of those models at some point in
> the future.. ;-)
>
> Making the main radio unit that accessible would also more than likely
> get the phone into all kinds of regulatory issues, not to mention a
> serious nightmare for carriers.  Have gone through bits of the testing
> required to get a cell product on the market in the States, and it's
> not easy (or cheap!) - nor do they look favorably on changes.
>
>  -P
>
>
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