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decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) Nick Profile Was the amd New Internet Communicator. Rights were bought by DataEvolution. No shipping charge.. http://store.dataevolution.com/ 06-09-2007 02:42:30

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile Did anyone pull the trigger and get one? 06-27-2007 20:38:35

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) Svartalf Profile I haven't, but, keep in mind that these are a hopped up Geode system, using a GX2 version, which has a "real" FSB of 66 MHz (As opposed to the 33MHz one that seriously limits what the design can/can't do) so it's not QUITE as bad as other offerings. All in all, for $99, it can't be TOO bad and you can set up a bang-up AstLinux box for a PBX, set up a light-duty web server or file/print server with it with a little re-work of the box. In my case, budget precludes or I'd be buying up a couple for varying projects. Do remember, though, it's NOT a barn burner by any stretch of the imagination. 06-29-2007 11:43:35

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile I did. I Have an image that would allow any pic to be flashed for any os (you need to use ceflash.exe or flashce.exe {can't remember which} -- but I'm not sure if it'd be legal. Although when I boot up the dectop it looks exactly the same except it will boot off anything usb and any OS. I never signed anything saying that I couldn't distribute copies of flash. What do you think? 07-02-2007 04:32:40

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) yomero Profile bbsux: can you share the image?? i'm in mexico and i have a pic blocked. and i want to install linux on it. Thanks in advance jrochamtz - yahoo.com 07-15-2007 13:41:03

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) retoor Profile bbsux: Can you PLEASE share the firmware image? I've got a PIC that I want to unlock and I'd love to be a test-dummy for this. If it works, awesome. If not, no big loss. I'm not too interested in paying $30 to have this thing flashed at DEC (thats not including shipping to them and back). Be a bud, share the wealth :) 07-18-2007 16:17:53

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) lionaz Profile | Email I would be very interested as well. My pic is almost worthless to me as it is and I doubt I could sell it. Honestly I would be willing to pay dectop for the rom but the shipping thing etc. is silly. 11-29-2007 20:40:22

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) smogbound Profile Does anyone have a decTOP that's up and running Linux that would be willing to allow me to login? If so I think I can write a program to copy the BIOS image into a file. I have a bricked AMD PIC that I'd like to unbrick. It's not clear to me why this little thing attracts my interest, but it does. There's a jtag connector and pads for a serial port and the Linux BIOS supports the chipset. It would be really cool to build a version of the Linux BIOS we could legally share, but I'll bet a working unlocked BIOS to compare against would be *REAL* useful! 01-02-2008 18:09:14

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile http://rapidshare.com/files/81120521/amd_pic.rar.html I pulled this off my dectop its the modded boot-all version as opposed to the crippled wince only version. Keep me informed... BTW if you hex edit it -- it says hit del or ctrl + c to enter bios but it doesn't work... unless its because we are trying with usb keyboards that initialize after we would need to enter the keys? 01-04-2008 00:14:46

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile http://rapidshare.com/files/81123743/pic.rar.html correct file .. includes a ce flash and a dos flash program but I don't think the ce one works... also don't even bother trying uniflash. It just causes a immediate reboot. 01-04-2008 00:42:33

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) smogbound Profile Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I'll let you know how it goes. I need to chase down a friend that still has a HD with CE on it, I put Fedora Core on mine without backing up the original image hence the brick. I'm a bit confused about the flash utilities you provided. Is there someway to get to DOS from the CE image on the original HD? I thought I'd have to use flash utility for WinCE since I thought WinCE is a protected mode OS. I wouldn't think you could flash the BIOS from a WinCE command window using a DOS program. My plan was to follow the leads from here: http://mozy.org/amd-pic/ . He apparently found a flash utility sitting on the original HD. 01-04-2008 14:29:56

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile i think ceflash will work if ce will let it... I used one on the image already. the dos program is for later -- if we find a way to mod it... 01-05-2008 07:15:49

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) smogbound Profile I went wild with an ohm meter and scope last night. I had hoped the connector next to the flash might provide the ability to program the flash in circuit. No luck there but here's what I found: 20 pin unpopulated header next to flash chip appears to be an LPC (low pin count) expansion bus pinout as follows: 1 - vdd 2 - vdd 3 - gnd 4 - reset# (pin 2 of 49lf002) 5 - gnd 6 - r/c# / clk (pin 31 of 49lf002) 7 - gnd 8 - dq3/FWH3 (pin 17) 9 - gnd 10 - dq2/FWH2 (pin 15) 11 - gnd 12 - dq1/FWH1 (pin 14) 13 - gnd 14 - DQ0/FWH0 (pin 13) 15 - gnd 16 - we/FWH4 (pin 23) 17 - gnd 18 - rp3 pin 6 (near CS5335 row 1, U side) probably LPC_DRQ# or LPC_SERIRQ 19 - gnd 20 - rp3 pin 8 (near CS5335 row 1, A side) probably LPC_DRQ# or LPC_SERIRQ jumper j10 - A3 (id3) and VDD IC (pin 29) connected to VSS (pin 28), i.e. ground. i.e. firmware hub mode! J7: 14 pin Jtag connector! Pinout appears to be described here: http://www.fs2.com/geode_download/Geode-Getting-Started.pdf I only verified the power and ground connections. I haven't found any free jtag software that digs a Geode. 01-05-2008 11:51:22

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile What is j8? Serial? Do you need a ttl? I would assume so since it has 5v labeled... Its been a while -- refresh my memory of why having the bios chip in firmware hub mode is good... 01-05-2008 13:38:18

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) smogbound Profile I scoped j8 but didn't see any activity, I'm assuming it's a TTL (well CMOS) level serial port. I'd never heard of a firmware hub chip before, it's an Intel scheme to save pins. The interface is a 4 bit data bus with one control line and one clock. There clearly weren't enough lines on the 20 pin connector to bring out 8 data bits plus 18 address lines plus write, etc. When I saw it was a firmware hub I got excited thinking I could drive the 6 lines to program it. Not so much. The clock appears to be from an oscillator ... it runs even while the processor is held in reset. Since it doesn't go into tristate on reset I can't drive it externally. Just as well... that would have been a huge amount of work. The flash chip is an SST 49lf002a. Data sheet is here if you are interested: http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/46531/SST/49LF002.html 01-05-2008 14:30:43

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile we need to find someone who knows bios's and can look at this... There is a menu, its just been disabled or we can't get to it because the keyboard is initailized after we need to hit the button. 01-05-2008 14:44:03

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) smogbound Profile SUCCESS! bbsux, you rock! My bricked decTo is now a small quiet lower power Linux box. Steps from a virgin AMD PIC: 1. Download unlocked BIOS and copy it to a USB pen drive. 2. Boot up WinCE. 3. Open "My Device" on the desktop 4. Select View/Options and unclick everything (show hidden file, os files, etc) 5. Right click on "/Control Panel.lnk" and select properties. 6. Click on "shortcut" tab. 7. Change path to "/windows/cmd.exe". 8. Click Ok. 9. Double click "/Control Panel.lnk" 10. Command prompt! 11. cd /usb device 12. /windows/flashce 256 PICMOD.ROM 0x01dfd81a noreboot 13. (cross fingers ... wait... don't breath) 14. Flash successful! Your done! You can boot WinCE one final time to say goodbye and test the new unlocked BIOS. 15. Wipe Bill Gates off the drive and install an OS of your choice. I installed Fedora Core 5 because I had a CD image sitting near by. Thanks again for the help! 01-10-2008 21:20:05

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile Do you think that the PIC has a ps2 keyboard port? I bet we could get access to the bios if we could push "del" or "ctrl c" before the usb kb is initalized. (keystrokes listed in bios) Also ANYONE else who still has a old flashed PIC -- can you copy the old Bios before flashing to the new?' I'd like to compare them... Thanks 01-11-2008 06:14:32

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) smogbound Profile I certainly didn't see any obvious pads for a PS2 keyboard when I was ohm'ing things out. Fedora found a PS2 keyboard, but failed to find a keyboard. serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12 serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1 [many lines deleted] atkbd.c: Failed to enable keyboard on isa0060/serio0 The way I read the spec sheet this isn't a real keyboard interface, but an emulator. From the CS5535 spec sheet: "The PS2 Keyboard Emulation Logic (KEL) provides a virtual 8042 keyboard controller interface that may be used to map non-legacy keyboard and mouse sources to this traditional interface. Flexible keyboard emulation logic allows PS2 keyboard emulation traditionally used for USB legacy keyboard emulation. For example, USB sources may be ‘connected’ to this interface via SMM (System Management Mode) software. It also allows mixed environments with one LPC legacy device and one USB device." Since Fedora didn't find a keyboard attached to the emulated keyboard interface I'm guessing the SMM call wasn't made to enable the emulation. If you could get into the BIOS setup stuff what do you want to change? 01-11-2008 08:43:56

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) DMasier Profile I can confirm that the 15 step procedure above works. I flashed the BIOS and was able to boot a flash drive with DOS on it afterward. In the 15 step procedure I was confused by the use of flashce vs ceflash (which is included with the ROM image) and some of the directory changes, but this web page explains a lot. http://mozy.org/amd-pic/ I tried using ceflash to capture the PICs original BIOS ROM, but it could not read it. One thing (for me anyhow) that was different from the info on the web page I referenced above... I was able to boot back in to WinCE after flashing the BIOS. 01-11-2008 23:30:23

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile I just want to see what you can change, if anything... 01-12-2008 12:15:15

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) smogbound Profile Sorry about that it is ceflash not flashce. I used the same web page as a start, but I had no luck executing his batch file. There were enough clues to figure it out. Luckily the checksum matched! 01-13-2008 08:48:42

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) MissingYes Profile | Email Where can we get an image of a decTOP running Windows CE that will boot on a locked unit? Or does the decTOP ship with CE on it? 01-21-2008 11:17:52

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile I think you'd have to make one. Mine didn't work after I flashed the bios. 01-22-2008 15:01:51

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) OLDER Profile I need you help. If someone can do it here. I have a document that i have locked.Unfortunately i have lost all the informations in my computer including the password for this document. It's a word document.I don't know what to do now to restore it.If some one can help me here please let me know. Thank you. 01-25-2008 08:21:10

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 1 times) bbsux Profile SmogBound, Can you e-mail me...?? bbsux at yahoo dot com I have a question... Or maybe someone else can help... I have a thin client that I need some help with... It has several unpopulated jumpers and headers and I'd like to know more about them and the board... I would send a unit if you help out... 01-28-2008 22:24:16

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) cell Profile | Email Hey guys, Well, I have managed to get my hands on an AMD PIC. I'd like to use it to build gentoo stages for my OLPC. However, I can't seem to get the bios to flash. For one thing, where did you guys get that crc32 value? I get 0xf2cafc9d for the PICMOD.ROM which is linked above... Anyway, flasce complains about not being able to load PICMOD.ROM, and mentions something about "error 2". I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. help? 07-25-2008 22:05:45

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) cell Profile | Email well, nevermind, I got it to work. for whatever reason, flashce.exe cannot open a file on a usb drive. you have to copy it over to the windows ce hard drive first. also, the checksum y'all listed above (0x01dfd81a) is in fact the one it wants. I guess it is using some algorithm other than crc32... 07-25-2008 22:33:07

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) joncamfield Profile I'm having the same problem even after copying it to the hard disk directory; it errors out as Command Line Checksum: 01DFD81A Error opening input file PICMOD.ROM! Error 2: Exiting... Done! using the command /windows/flashce 256 PICMOD.ROM 0x01dfd81a noreboot CEFlash doesn't like the rom either... Is the file I have corrupted (tried re-downloading and unarchiving already)? Is there a way to check? (file size on the PIC is reported as 262144). 09-25-2008 10:02:26

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) linux_junkie Profile Has anyone checked out this BIOS??? http://amd.insydetech.com/productcenter/amd/geodesite/index.cfm I'm using the XpressROM BIOS for the Geode GX Thin Client on my PIC. It works pretty well but you have to manually set your memory size. And it does have a BIOS setup :) They also have the software to build you own BIOS (XpressLoader) which I am looking into. The only thing I need to figure out is the GPIO settings.... anyone have any ideas??? 10-06-2008 05:22:34

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) joncamfield Profile With some help from cell (and gunzipping the file on a Linux box - perhaps my windows gunzip utility mangled the file and changed the checksum??), the flash worked and I'm booted (partially) into DSL. DSL detected the keyboard fine, but seems to be having problems with X. If you've encountered this yourself, please advise - I haven't even begun to look into it yet tho; it could be something simple (but with X, is it ever??) 10-14-2008 08:10:19

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) joncamfield Profile Heh - I'm an idiot; fixed thanks to the mozy.org guide :) 10-14-2008 08:17:55

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) joncamfield Profile Has anyone gotten audio working? I'm trying to get ALSA happy but not having much luck so far. 10-15-2008 12:03:58

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.nottoxic.com/wapcc/dectop/wiki/doku.php%3Fid%3Dhardware:dectop:entsperren&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DUNLOCK.ROM%2B%2B0x01DFD81A%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3D5Ez Here's a Google translation of a German wiki site for the decTOP 11-10-2008 14:34:13

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) m0l0c0 Profile Hello all I form Brazil (my english is bad) I see this mensage: ======================================================== I'm having the same problem even after copying it to the hard disk directory; it errors out as Command Line Checksum: 01DFD81A Error opening input file PICMOD.ROM! Error 2: Exiting... Done! using the command /windows/flashce 256 PICMOD.ROM 0x01dfd81a noreboot CEFlash doesn't like the rom either... Is the file I have corrupted (tried re-downloading and unarchiving already)? Is there a way to check? (file size on the PIC is reported as 262144). =================================================================== I have the same problem can you help me? How do you solve it? 11-23-2008 06:25:01

word doc password (modified 0 times) hatespawn4 Profile Why Bother? Use DOS<xp useres run CMD> goto dir with ???.word.. type "edit ???.doc" pass down the garbled machine language<for the password and font set ect> read the doc @ the bottom 12-13-2008 18:33:14

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) BoogerBear Profile Does anyone have a current link to the unlocked BIOS posted by BBsux???? Or if anyone could email it to me???? 12-15-2009 15:57:48

RE:decTOP $99 (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile I have got my hands on a early or development version on the PIC that has a ETHERNET port on it!!! It has a socketed bios BUT NON socketed RAM (128mb). Its labeled "pamela rev a" while the others Ive seen (with modem) are labeled "lucy rev c" The Ethernet chipset is RTL8100c. It is running a Denebian Linux that is password protected. It has a label that says "General Software, Inc. AMD PIC Demo" layout is pretty much the same... http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/3669/imag0005xx.jpg sorry about it being so blurry, but I don't have a good camera. 05-25-2011 12:35:26

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