[ale] hacking an android tablet to single function device

[mike at trausch.us]

On 05/04/2012 11:42 AM, Steven A. DuChene wrote:
> Since Andriod tablets have become so cheap lately (Pandigital for
> $29.99 plus $4.99 shipping) I would like to see if it is possible to
> re-purpose one to do server as sort of a single function display
> device. Does anyone know if it would be possible to reconfig an
> Android tablet to NOT have a full desktop interface with icons and
> things and instead have it boot up to the display of a single
> application?

If the device is rootable, then yes, you can reconfigure and/or
customize the Android stack in any way you want on the device.  You may
need to modify source code for what you want, I don't know enough of the
particulars of the Android platform to be able to say for sure.

> Also I noticed some of these tablets use a ARM926EJ-S CPU that is
> supposed to enable the direct execution of 8-bit Java bytecode in
> hardware and has an MMU on the chip (not always a given for ARM
> CPUs). Does that mean it would be possible to run a standard Java
> application without the load of a full JVM? Is all compiled Java code
> end up being 8-bit bytecode that could be directly run on this CPU?

That functionality, as I understand it, requires some level of support
from the OS running on the CPU.  Since Android does not execute any JVM
bytecode at all, this feature is unlikely to be used, enabled or even
have any supporting code available for it.  But I could be wrong.

You would still, of course, need to provide a class library.

	--- Mike

-- 
A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
                                   --- Carveth Read, “Logic”

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