Rockbox

Rockbox is a GPL-compliant open source operating system for portable digital audio players (DAPs). The Rockbox Project began in 2002 and was first implemented on the Archos Studio DAP because of owner frustration with severe limitations in the manufacturer-supplied user interface and device operations.

Rockbox can completely replace the host device's operating system firmware and has matured to become an extensible, flexible platform that provides a plug-in architecture for adding PDA functionality, applications, utilities, and games, and has also managed to retrofit video playback functionality onto DAPs first released in mid-2000. Recently, Rockbox now includes a voice-driven user-interface suitable for operation by blind and visually impaired users.

Although Rockbox's official title is "Rockbox: Open Source Jukebox Firmware", in many instances it is not actually installed to (or run from) flash memory. Instead a minimal bootloader is installed in the supported device's flash which is capable of either loading Rockbox from the hard disk or, alternately, the original factory firmware.

Archos devices

Rockbox was first designed for the Archos series of MP3 players and player/recorders. These devices have relatively weak main CPUs and instead offload music playback to dedicated hardware MP3 decoding chips. Rockbox, therefore, was unable to significantly alter playback capabilities. Instead, it offered a greatly improved user interface and added plugin functionality not present in the factory firmware.

Rockbox is capable of being permanently flashed into flash memory on the Archos devices, making it a literal firmware replacement.

iRiver devices

H1xx/H3xx

Beginning in late 2004, an effort began to port Rockbox to the Motorola ColdFire-powered devices manufactured by iRiver, focusing on the H1xx series of hard drive players (H110/H120/H140). These devices perform audio decoding in software, allowing Rockbox to potentially support many more audio codecs than the original firmware as well as bringing the extensibility and increased functionality already present in the Archos ports. Rockbox is run from the hard disk on these devices, after being started with a custom bootloader.

As of February 2006, the iRiver port is in pre-release advanced testing. Most major functions are fully supported including gapless playback, ReplayGain, "on the fly" (OTF) playlists, FM radio, remote control, custom UI themes and WAV recording (including FM recording). Supported playback codecs include: MPEG audio (MP3/MP2), Ogg Vorbis, Musepack, AC3, AAC (experimental, not yet real-time), FLAC, Shorten, Apple Lossless, WavPack and uncompressed WAV audio. Plugins include a colour JPEG viewer, the Rockboy Game Boy emulator (not yet real-time) and several games.

A port is underway for the IRiver H3xx series which is similar to the H1xx except for the addition of a color screen, USB host capability and the removal of the H1xx digital optical in/out jacks. As of January 2006, the port is in public testing. Most basic functions work (including playback). Support for a color UI is currently in active development.

iFP-xxx

A port to the iFP-xxx flash-based devices (starting with the iFP-790) is underway. When completed it will be the first pure flash device to be supported by Rockbox. The port is currently suitable for developers only.

H10

It has been recently discovered that the iRiver H10 uses the same main CPU as the iPod, meaning that it may be possible to port Rockbox using much of the code developed for the iPod port. It is not yet known whether an H10 port will ever officially be started.

iAudio devices

A port to the iAudio X5 hard drive player (also powered by the Motorola ColdFire chip) is underway. The port is currently suitable for developers only.

Apple devices

In November 2005, work began on a port of Rockbox to Apple iPod portable players. As of January 2006, support is available for the the iPod photo and nano with work to support greyscale models (e.g. iPod mini) currently underway.

Neuros III devices

Joe Born the leader developer of the Neuros open-source project for a time showed consideration towards allowing Rockbox firmware to be used in a future release of the Neuros III, whether or not it will be possible to run the Rockbox firmware under or within DM320 platform is still up for debate between both groups of developers. The Neuros III is designated to run on Linux kernel currently.

External links

• The Rockbox Project

~ Text taken from Wikipedia entry for Rockbox