Embedded chip question

[Dave]

I hear a lot about embedded ARM chips running at wow speeds. Are these
chips programmed by ARM or the phone / equipment manufacturers? If
they are programmed by the end user, then why can't they be programmed
to run inside a RISC OS computer doing whatever application instructed
by the RISC OS?

--
D
In the interests of product improvement,I reserve the right to foul it
up at any time.

[Peter Naulls]

Dave wrote:
> I hear a lot about embedded ARM chips running at wow speeds. Are these
> chips programmed by ARM or the phone / equipment manufacturers?

Er, yes? All of the above. Perhaps an example will help:

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_GTA02_Hardware

Your question belies a misunderstanding of how things work together,
I think. The ARM processor runs the code - that code could come
from any under of places, although of course with certain products
(iPhone, etc) there are attempts to place restrictions on this.

> If
> they are programmed by the end user, then why can't they be programmed
> to run inside a RISC OS computer doing whatever application instructed
> by the RISC OS?

They can. Most ARM processors could in principle run RISC OS, given
the additional of chip-specific support. But putting RISC OS on
arbitrary hardware is hard work - driver support, testing and lots
of time. And you can't just magically change the processor with
existing RISC OS hardware.

I think there's some additional question you haven't asked yet.

[Dave]

In message <g4tnpi$o0a$1...@aioe.org>
Peter Naulls <pe...@chocky.org> wrote:

Would that be cost, or permission?

--
D

[Peter Naulls]

Dave wrote:

>>
>> I think there's some additional question you haven't asked yet.
>>
> Would that be cost, or permission?
>

I have no idea. It was your query, made presumably with some
specific end goal in mind. Everything is going to cost
one way or another, and I'm not sure where permission comes
into it.