[DEV] Hardware observations

pokey9000 · Dec 2, 2010

Post here about anything you might have found out about the internal NookColor hardware.

Here's one to start with:

Look at dmesg under Android. The wireless driver is TIWLAN, and a little Googling correlates the line "Chip ID is 0x4030111" with a WL1271, a TI part with 802.11b/g/n, bluetooth, and FM. However, as far as I can tell Bluetooth isn't anywhere to be seen in the Nook ROM.

This document shows the typical setup for the WL1271, which is for WiFi to connect to the host through SDIO (one of the SD/SDIO/MMC interfaces) and Bluetooth and FM to go through a UART.

staulkor · Dec 2, 2010

There may not be antennae for BT and FM, but we should definitely look into this

pokey9000 · Dec 2, 2010

staulkor said:
There may not be antennae for BT and FM, but we should definitely look into this

Maybe not FM, but that document I linked shows a "WiLink 6.0 Solution" that uses an antenna switch so only one 2.4GHz antenna is needed for BT and WiFi.

txskeets · Dec 2, 2010

Ohhhh, this has some interesting potential!

I got Flash 10.1 to install, but cannot get the B&N Browser to Dolphin to recognize that its installed when I try to do something with Flash (tells me I need to install it)

pokey9000 · Dec 2, 2010

txskeets said:
Ohhhh, this has some interesting potential!

I got Flash 10.1 to install, but cannot get the B&N Browser to Dolphin to recognize that its installed when I try to do something with Flash (tells me I need to install it)

Interesting, but let's keep this thread on the topic of hardware.

marcus905 · Dec 2, 2010

Have you tried checking the ttys? Or even just trying to put a bluez stack + firmware taken from another device on it?

Jsorvik · Dec 2, 2010

BlueTooth

Please, Oh Please, tell me that this device can do BlueTooth. The ability to add a wireless keyboard would make this device Perfect for me!!!!

mattpall · Dec 2, 2010

Agreed, Bluetooth FTW. We could be one kernal injection away from BT!

pokey9000 · Dec 2, 2010

marcus905 said:
Have you tried checking the ttys? Or even just trying to put a bluez stack + firmware taken from another device on it?

I didn't bother; from that doc I posted there's a GPIO enable for bluetooth, and unless the BN developers were complete bozos they've turned it off and left it off in this kernel. We could go searching for it, but it would get tedious. I am willing to bet that it's referenced in the BN u-boot and kernel sources though.

The TI WLAN/BT/FM driver and firmware can be found here: http://gforge.ti.com/gf/project/wilink_drivers/

th3c1am · Dec 2, 2010

This might not be the right section. But what are the possibilities of overclocking to possibly run the tablet version of android "3.0" which is said to require 1ghz or faster processor??

devis · Dec 2, 2010

This is an interesting find. My guess is that it would have been too much of a hassle for BN to get a WIFI only chip so they opted for the ready made one and disabled the rest of the functionality.
But I think until we have a cooked ROM for the Nook we won't be able to see BT any time soon. This is too stripped down an OS.

pokey9000 · Dec 2, 2010

devis said:
This is an interesting find. My guess is that it would have been too much of a hassle for BN to get a WIFI only chip so they opted for the ready made one and disabled the rest of the functionality.
But I think until we have a cooked ROM for the Nook we won't be able to see BT any time soon. This is too stripped down an OS.

It's clear that the NC is based on TI's ebook reference platform. Given the amount of TI silicon in there I wouldn't be surprised if TI cut them a deal on this WiFi module such that it was cheaper than another company's WiFi-only one. It's not clear what's inside the module, and for all we know there is no BT/WiFi switch, which would make it impossible to run anything but WiFi.

As long as the module has a switch, it wouldn't make any sense for BN to hard-disable the bluetooth. There aren't that many connections just to get BT data, and I'm pretty sure the OMAP doesn't use those connections (1 GPIO, 1 UART) for anything. It would only cost a few PCB traces and maybe a pullup resistor or two, less than a couple of cents at scale.

luistorres1027 · Dec 3, 2010

The nook is getting 3.0 Already confirmed.

molesaied88 · Dec 3, 2010

luistorres1027 said:
The nook is getting 3.0 Already confirmed.

where was this confirmed? never heard mention of it at all

bcpk · Dec 3, 2010

molesaied88 said:
where was this confirmed? never heard mention of it at all

It seems pretty unlikely, to be honest. The NC wasn't intended to run straight Android so can't see B&N being massively interested in supporting future Android versions.

Facegarden · Dec 3, 2010

luistorres1027 said:
The nook is getting 3.0 Already confirmed.

That's a fairy tale. The next version of android will be 2.3, and nothing about 3.0 could be confirmed as it's likely 6 months away at least. And no one has really even confirmed anything about 2.3. It's all been sightings and rumors.

But back on topic - has anyone had a look at the TI Ebook reference material? Maybe they have a vanilla version of android that is made to work with the processor? It's possible the Nook hardware is similar or identical to some TI reference design - it is the first product based on that chip after all, maybe B&N just let TI design the thing?

EDIT: At the bottom of the page for this processor it says: "This product is intended for high-volume wireless OEMs and ODMs and is not available through distributors. If your company meets this description, please contact your TI sales office."
So Grr, looks like they're not going to share much unless you're a big company. Sometimes these guys have lots of support material for their processors, but I guess this one is too specialized.

DebauchedSloth · Dec 3, 2010

has anyone had a look at the TI Ebook reference material?

I browsed through a bit. Looks like very well supported hardware - the driver for the WIFI chip is in the AOSP source tree, and the graphics chips is pretty common.

It would seem to me that a port of Cyanogen would be very straightforward. The missing buttons would need to be mapped to something - maybe an additional UI component which popped up for menu and back? - but other than that...doesn't look too bad. Simpler than a lot of others, maybe.

And damn, this device looks like it would be pretty quick. It's no slouch now, and with Froyo...and maybe a touch of overclocking... it would be faster than a Nexus one with absolutely killer battery life.

A very commonly available, high-quality Cyanogen tablet for $250?

Sick.

bcpk · Dec 3, 2010

You could copy the Archos on-screen buttons (which look really annoying but are better than nothing)

pokey9000 · Dec 3, 2010

Facegarden said:
That's a fairy tale. The next version of android will be 2.3, and nothing about 3.0 could be confirmed as it's likely 6 months away at least. And no one has really even confirmed anything about 2.3. It's all been sightings and rumors.

But back on topic - has anyone had a look at the TI Ebook reference material? Maybe they have a vanilla version of android that is made to work with the processor? It's possible the Nook hardware is similar or identical to some TI reference design - it is the first product based on that chip after all, maybe B&N just let TI design the thing?

EDIT: At the bottom of the page for this processor it says: "This product is intended for high-volume wireless OEMs and ODMs and is not available through distributors. If your company meets this description, please contact your TI sales office."
So Grr, looks like they're not going to share much unless you're a big company. Sometimes these guys have lots of support material for their processors, but I guess this one is too specialized.

Eh, as far as I can tell it's the same die as the 3630 but in a lower pin count package, without a package-on-package (DRAM/flash stacked on top) version, no camera interface, and only specced for 800MHz. The 3630 comes in 1200MHz versions, and as we've seen with the Nooter bootloader (by accident) it's possible to make this part run at least at 1GHz.

The datasheet for this part is the general 36xx series datasheet, and at 24MB isn't lacking at all (except for the DRM stuff).

DebauchedSloth · Dec 3, 2010

bcpk said:
You could copy the Archos on-screen buttons (which look really annoying but are better than nothing)

You could.

There's a thread in the general section right now about a button remapping app.

I just manually did what the app does, pulled the .kl files, changed VOLUME_UP to BACK and VOLUME_DOWN to MENU, pushed the files back and rebooted.

Et Voila, Bob's yer uncle, I now have menu and back keys...at the expense of losing a couple of volume control keys about which I care not at all.

Nice.

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