Which board..

I am a newbie and want to strip the linux kernel and cross compile
flash it to a device and boot this new kernel / boot using tftp..

If possible, I am also want to change the boot loader..
1. Can you suggest boards/ configuration for these boards.. My budget
is around $100 - $300..
I want to understand how cable tv box / dvd players work ultimately.

2. I want to learn building devices ground up.. any suggestion along
this line are also welcome..


--
--
Thanks and Regards
Ramya Krishnan

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent. It
takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite
direction
-- Albert Einstein

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

ramya wrote:
> I am a newbie and want to strip the linux kernel and cross compile
> flash it to a device and boot this new kernel / boot using tftp..
> 
> If possible, I am also want to change the boot loader..
> 1. Can you suggest boards/ configuration for these boards.. My budget
> is around $100 - $300..
> I want to understand how cable tv box / dvd players work ultimately.
> 
> 2. I want to learn building devices ground up.. any suggestion along
> this line are also welcome..

The obvious choice is a cheap x86 pc board. Indeed, many early DVD
players were just that!

If you want to get right down to the nitty gritty with access to GPIO and
ADCs I suggest looking at either one of the off the shelf DSL routers or
a Gumstix computer.

- --
Brendan Gillatt | GPG Key: 0xBF6A0D94
brendan {a} brendangillatt (dot) co (dot) uk
http://www.brendangillatt.co.uk
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFIFJSEuv4tpb9qDZQRAkO2AKCo9MW2JJqBgO46JVM2bLthkjk1lwCeMXJ0
oZO5HTFusn7Zz2src3kz1QQ=
=rHzx
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

On Apr 27, 4:43=A0pm, ramya <mail.ra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am a newbie and want to strip the linux kernel and cross compile
> flash it to a device and boot this new kernel / boot using tftp..
>
> If possible, I am also want to change the boot loader..
> 1. Can you suggest boards/ configuration for these boards.. My budget
> is around $100 - $300..
> I want to understand how cable tv box / dvd players work ultimately.
>
> 2. I want to learn building devices ground up.. any suggestion along
> this line are also welcome..
>
> --
> --
> Thanks and Regards
> Ramya Krishnan
>
> Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
> violent. It
> takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite
> direction
> -- Albert Einstein

Hi,
There are major chip vendors like ST,Connexant and Broadcom who can
provide you some reference boards to play around.All these vendors are
into the market of Set top box and DVD player related products.AFAIK
ST provides linux based development boards too.One problem with all
these vendors is you need to convince them that you are going to buy
in large quantities their chipsets.If you are working for a company
and thinking in those lines,this would be the best option.
All these vendors also provide some application with drivers and
bootloaders for you to learn and experience the capabilities of the
board.

Incase you are looking for some tech stuff related STB please mail me
to ssubba@gmail.com and I have few documents for you to understand
basic stuff.

Regards,
s.subbarayan