Field-programmability: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:24, 23 March 2011

Revision as of 22:39, 8 October 2011

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{{As of|2007}}, many consumer electronic devices (including [[MP3 player]]s, [[broadband router]]s, [[cell phone]]s, and digital cameras) contain embedded systems based on [[general-purpose computer|general-purpose]] [[microprocessor]]s and [[microcontroller]]s. Most of these devices contain field-programmable components which can be located and accessed by knowledgeable [[hardware hacker]]s. Field-programming allows hobbyists to replace a device's firmware with new code that can modify or extend its capabilities.

Numerous online communities have sprung up around devices found to be particularly conducive to such modification. For example, the [[iPodLinux]] and [[OpenWRTOpenWrt]] projects have enabled users to run full-featured Linux distributions on their MP3 players and wireless routers, respectively.

While hobbyist field-programming is theoretically possible in practically any embedded system today, in practice efforts to modify consumer devices are often hampered by lack of [[documentation]] for the [[hardware]].

== See also ==

* [[Firmware]]

* [[JTAG]]

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== External links ==

* [http://wiki.openwrt.org/UsbAudioHowtodoc/howto/usb.audio UsbAudioHowTo]: a guide to converting a [[wireless router]] into an [[Internet radio]] player, from the [http://www.openwrt.org OpenWRTOpenWrt] project

[[Category:Digital electronics]]