Recently, I decided to try something out. I had been reading all about this product called Rockbox, which is, for all intents and purposes, a temporary firmware upgrade for certain (usually older) MP3 players. I decided to try it out on my Sansa C250.
MP3 players are basically small computers. They have memory, a processor, input and output. Judging by their size and simple appearances, we tend to forget about the great deal of processing power they must possess in order to play an MP3 file. For example, you would need, at minimum, a relatively fast ’386 processor to play a simple MP3 file. A 40Mhz ’386 could do it; a 16 Mhz ’386 probably could not. That said, a computer with a ’386 processor is capable of doing a lot of other things. While I haven’t been able to find anything specific about the processor speed in the Sansa C250, I did find out that it’s a 32 bit ARM processor.
The Sansa C250 is representative of many MP3 players like it. Input controls includes a 4-directional pad, a select button, a menu/power button, volume control (both up and down), a record button, and a microphone. Outputs include a small colour LCD screen and stereo sound. Considering the inputs, processing, memory, and outputs, this MP3 player qualifies as a computer in the true sense of the word. Rockbox brings out the true computer nature of this device.
First and foremost, the intended purpose of this firmware replacement was to offer greater control and capability for audiophiles. This includes the ability to play FLAC files (considered higher fidelity than MP3 files), greater control over the shape of the sound output by way of a sophisticated graphic equalizer, finer control over the volume, and access to larger capacity memory cards. On these, Rockbox delivers, allowing me to squeeze out every ounce of sound quality possible. It doesn’t transform the sound quality into that of my Sansa Fuze, but it does make the best of what it is.
Where Rockbox becomes interesting is in the section entitled, “Plugins.” The sub-categories include games, applications, and demos. Under games is a perfectly playable Doom, a first person shooter which I had thought would be impossible. This further illustrates the processing power possible. Granted, it’s a small screen without a lot of resolution, but it’s very smooth and every bit as sophisticated as the original with sufficiently huge maps to explore. Then there’s the classics such as minesweeper, solitaire, sudoku, rockblox (a tetris clone), jewels (a bejeweled clone), and plenty of others. There are 32 games in total in the standard install, and I would expect one could install others. What is remarkable is how playable these games are, complete with many different gradients of colours and smooth animation.
There are 18 applications in the standard install. Some aren’t terribly impressive; one is called lamp which displays a white screen (presumably, to use the MP3 player as a source of light). There are applications which are more computer-like, such as a calendar that offers PDA scheduling functionality, a paint program called rockpaint which is similar in function to Windows Paint, a text editor, and a dictionary. One of the more unique applications, and one that’s very appropriate for this sort of device, is called pitch_detector. This program uses the Sansa C250′s built-in microphone, and displays the note of a sound it’s picking up. I tested it with my electronic piano keyboard, and found it to be very accurate. This would definitely come in handy for tuning a guitar.
The final category is the demos, which are 15 demos which show off the capabilities of Rockbox and the Sansa C250. There’s your standard screensaver-style demos, such as a rotating 3D cube, starfield, and fireworks. There’s a fairly impressive Mandelbrot set with a higher resolution than I was expecting. Notable are the VU meters and oscilloscope which works with whatever music may be playing at the time, in real time.
I’ll admit that certain functions are little more than novelties that serve only to demonstrate this device’s capabilities. However, other features are genuinely fun and even useful. Clearly, the only things that limit this device are the size and resolution of the screen, and the limitation of the input options.
You might be wondering what the significance is of all of this. The computer in the Sansa C250 is reasonably powerful, yet remarkably small. Add to this its extremely low price and its extremely low power consumption, and I start to imagine a vast array of possibilities. For example, consider autonomous robotics: The biggest hurdle is having a sufficiently powerful central computer to manage and account for endless possibilities. On its own, the computer in the C250 won’t do anything too impressive; but imagine having several of these little computers in a robotic arm. Each one would be responsible for a limited number of functions, but communicating with each other and coordinating efforts to permit an exponentially broader range of functions. The instructions given to the arm could then be very simple commands, such as “Pick up the glass.” Okay, maybe this example is a little far fetched. How about a low cost, solar powered computer? How about a space probe or satellite launched from something not much bigger than a model rocket kit?
Ah, who am I trying to kid. I just like having a unique new toy to play with. A Sansa C250 with Rockbox can provide hours of good time wasting. It’s a free toy for gadget geeks who figure themselves to have golden ears.
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