HH / SDK2X etc. etc.
SDK2X (or as Squidge called it HH
) is basically is a raw hardware ARM-ELF environment for the GP2X with NAND, SD, LCD, Sound, Dual CPU, File System, etc. etc. drivers, a formal executable format (for icons, dual CPU code loading etc.), functions and an SDK that supports the underlying hardware much like the GP32 SDK's did.
It’s largely (well, almost
) the result of Rob Browns unique brand of Kiwi ingenuity and desire to learn how to hack the hardware in interesting ways, with input from a number of other developers (Mr Spiv with the MMU stuff, Ryleh with display code and Squidge with docs and all the general "how does this work then" stuff
esp. spring to mind)
It supports the hardware in any way a developer wants to use it (within reason) and removes the restrictions on hardware access imposed by the Linux by virtue of being a multi task environment (you can use all 64MB ram for the 1st CPU core for example or give 16MB over to the second core to run something and use all that’s left on the 1st CPU core). It may be harder to code for initially by virtue of it being much closer to the hardware the Linux but I think it should be a catalyst for awesome things
.
You can build code for it using the same GCC builds you use for the GP32 (i.e. DevKitARM for example) with minimal tweaks.
It also provides means to drop out of Linux via an executable (GPE) that bootstraps an ARM-ELF executable (or most lightly a launcher).
For people who would like to speed up the boot time getting into a raw hardware environment work is being done to offer a quick-load raw hardware launcher in the boot loader and/or NAND/SD for those that may wish to use it (whilst maintaining 100% compatibility with Linux on the GP2X).
Nothing in SDK2X is designed to undermine Linux or remove it but rather to give developers (and users) another choice to play with if they want to avail themselves.
On the Linux point, there is a lot of scope to improve the Linux environment on the GP2X and offer some similar functionality to SDK2X/HH given time (one of the drivers behind Open2x along with improving libraries was just that) but the Linux environment is taking GPH a while to stabilise and there is still work to be done with GPH in the GPL arena before Open2x Linux is viable IMHO
.
I understand from Rob Brown (and looking at the latest code) that a release of SDK2X/HH will not be that far away (i.e. “when it’s done (tm)”).
SDK2X/HH = ARM-ELF raw hardware SDK that lets you get right down into the guts of the hardware and play
.
Open2x = Linux related stuff, kernel (eventually), libs (SDL hardware opts for example) and maybe some user-space stuff.
