

Homebrew device with iPhone aspirations (based on an 8-bit AVR microcontroller) - cesare
http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/8-bit-device-quenches-iphone-envy/

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cesare
Schematics and software are available here:

<http://sourceforge.net/projects/microtouch/>

Here's the author's blog post with more infos:

[http://rossum.posterous.com/avr-homebrew-device-with-
iphone-...](http://rossum.posterous.com/avr-homebrew-device-with-iphone-
aspirations)

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teuobk
So it doesn't work as a phone? Yup, sounds like the iPhone. Zing!

Seriously though, it seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to hook in a GSM
radio and make it into a true phone. Looks like there's a kit at SparkFun
(using an ATMega chip, no less) that could be a starting point:
[http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_i...](http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8700)

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bcl
This looks like a pretty amazing accomplishment, I'm somewhat skeptical of it,
especially since the source blog only has 2 posts on it. The technical details
are fairly detailed, but I really want to get a look at the code and
schematics.

Ok, I've done a quick skim of the schematics and code, and it certainly
doesn't look like a hoax. I'd have to upgrade my opinion to 'pretty damn
impressive!' Good work Peter!

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limmeau
Fascinating. But... would we call the aspirations "iPod Touch aspirations"?
After all, there's no phone involved.

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aarongough
It's pretty crazy the grunt that some people can squeeze out of tiny, slow
chips like that...

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
It occurred to me a few weeks ago that I could simulate a PC ISA bus using one
of those "tiny, slow chips!" Yup, all those bags of old ISA bus peripherals I
have in the closet could be run by one of these little CPUs.

Still never got used to the fact that the "tiny, slow chips" (I like that
expression) littering my desktop are faster than the first three PC's I owned.
Seriously, an AVR microcontroller I paid $2 for runs at 20MHz -- roughly the
speed of a PC AT.

~~~
aarongough
Yeah, we're definitely spoilt by yesterday's standards. I'm lucky in that
while I'm young (24) I got into programming/computers early enough that I
remember what it was like back in the Atari/Apple II/Mac Classic/286/386
days...

I still remember the day my Dad bought a Macintosh Centris 650. The best
computer on the market at the time for use in sound mixing. 25Mhz of pure
grunt. And it only cost a cool $10k!

