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Subject: RE: The future

RE: The future

From: VanBaren, Gerald (AGRE) <"VanBaren,>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:14:25 -0700

vxWorks is the WindRiver embedded operating system and it has a significant share of the embedded market. They bought EST (the company) about a year ago. EST makes, among other things, a JTAG debugger... the debugger loads a semi-propriatary binary file. Odds are real high that the "signature" on the binary format file is "estfbinr" (I don't have time to look that up right now).

The tool you ask for doesn't totally exist. Typically, you run a disassembler on the binary and look at it. ASCII strings are really easy to pick out (you don't even need the disassember to see that). Constants come out in the disassembled listing as strings of nonsensical instructions.

The entry point to the program is going to be set by the CPU architecture (coldfire which is a stripped down 68K). You start there and start figuring out what is going on in the various subroutines. You don't need a whole lot of hacker experience, but by the time you are done, you will be an experienced hacker ;-).

gvb
P.S. And that is hacker in the pure sense, not in the media-hype sense.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se [mailto:owner-rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se]On
> Behalf Of roland
> Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 9:22 AM
> To: rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se
> Subject: Re: The future
>
>
> hey this looks really nice!
>
> maybe this is easy to hack?
> i downloaded firmware-file (~3.5mb-ouch!) of hd500 and it
> seems somewhat
> unscrambled. at least there is readable clear-text at adress
> hex#00153820.
> maybe they run a proprietary embedded OS on that ? the header
> of the .bin
> has a string "estfbinr" which seems to be "EST flat binary
> file format" (two
> hits on google groups pointing to comp.os.vxworks)
>
> btw: is there a program which can analyze a binary in depht
> and tell me, what
> kind of code (platform, maybe even programming language) is inside?
> i know unix "file" but does "file" do a comprehensive
> analysis of the whole file?
> i think you need a lot of hacker experience to distinguish
> between "data" "code"
> "scrambled shit" inside a file when just using a hex editor.
> is there such a
> "reverse engineer`s best friend" ?
>
> > Microcontroller: Motorola MCF5249, with a ColdFire CPU
> clocked at 120 MHz.
> so this mp3 player probably should be able to run linux!?
> (see http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5265530840.html)
> pretty powerful device!
>
> > This indeed looks like a device we could have fun some with!
> and it makes me probably drop my intention to buy another
> archos jbr 20(old model)
> for future usage.
> :)
>
> > (Xclef also makes an 1.8"-disk model called HD-800. Those
> of you who value size over
> >capacity may want to have a look at that.)
> my favourite mp3 player now :) WHEN and WHERE available in EUROPE?
> btw: their "consumer website entry" seems to be at:
http://www.multichannel-labs.com/

> I found some info in a dutch forum:
> http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/811305
can someone translate that to english or make that guys TALK english? most of the dutch people speak
perfect english so i wonder why such geektalk must be done in dutch ;)

regards
roland




----- Original Message -----
From: "Björn Stenberg" <bjorn_at_haxx.se>
To: <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: The future


> ajf_at_midmaine.com wrote:
> > Here's another one to consider. These folks have been making flash memory
> > mp3 player/recorders for quite a while, and have just announced a hard
> > drive model.
> >
> > http://www.pogoproducts.com/
>
> This appears to be a rebranded XClef HD-500, which indeed looks like a pretty nice device: http://www.xclef.com/pro03_e.htm
>
> I found some info in a dutch forum:
> http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/811305
>
> Photo of internals:
> http://www.emmeau.com/xclef/xclef-print.jpg
>
> Microcontroller: Motorola MCF5249, with a ColdFire CPU clocked at 120 MHz.
> USB controller: Our old friend the In-System ISD300
> Flash: AM 29LV160DB-EC90
>
> Motorola sample block schematic:
> http://www.emmeau.com/xclef/layoutbig.gif
>
> Motorola MCF5249 product page, with plenty of documentation:
> http://e-www.motorola.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MCF5249L
>
> The display resolution is 160x105 and uses EL backlight.
>
> This indeed looks like a device we could have fun some with!
>
> (Xclef also makes an 1.8"-disk model called HD-800. Those of you who value size over capacity may want to have a look at that.)
>
> --
> Björn
>


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Received on 2003-12-19

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