MP900 mobo slots unused

Had a question about a set of two unused connectors on the main board. They are on the underside of the motherboard labeled PIC, third time I've taken it apart and I have never noticed them before, they are white and side by side, 12 pin and mini in size but relative to everything else on the board they are huge. PIC makes me think they are an extension of the modem? or something like it? IDK! Also if anyone has tips on connecting the keyboard ribbons in a simple way, Im all ears. those ribbons are cool to look at, but ridiculous to re-connect.

Yep...reconnection is a skill that is partly steady hands and partly luck. A real pain in the butt to be sure.

Do you know about the pins and what they aren't used for?? Could this allow for some expansion? I havent seen anything about it through searches. Nothing even related.

And yea I've borrowed a friend all 3 times, easier that way so you can have it lowered down, who knows why they made it that way.

Edited by Grasshopper 2013-03-09 12:51 AM

Like you, I have no idea what was intended to go there...

That wouldn't be the JTAG connector, would it?

JTAG slot, thats a good one, it looks like a little mini-me IDE slot which would have been just as good.

Kind of little different, but speaking of JTAG and NEC, I found this.

NEC Solution Gear 2-Vr5500 Development Kit Supported Features (Windows CE 5.0)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms902339.aspx

Maybe there was some proprietory kit that can use JTAG on the MP900? Don't know.

That was for the MIPS based smartphones and pocketpcs I believe Stingraze...

Sorry about that.

http://www.tokudenkairo.co.jp/jtag/jtagpin.html

Provides an image of ARM JTAG. (Japanese site)

Old thread about MP900/900C JTAG here:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=9529&start=1

Edited by stingraze 2013-03-14 3:25 PM

http://www.tokudenkairo.co.jp/jtag/images/jtagpin_arm.png

That picture of that white connector is what I was talking about.. I think. And yea it would be cool to have 5.0 or 6.0 or even embedded 7 (idk about that last one), it has the hardware to run windows 98/2000 too if it only had a way of booting from usb or cf instead of having to use a small portion of its flash memory to hold it, instead of having a hard drive for that like anything else.. thats why my eyes lit up when I saw that white connector thinking why aren't you for mass storage or something we can use to expand these things.

I have an mp900 that I've gutted out entirely leaving just the shell and plan to redo all the hardware and screen with modern parts, trickiest thing is finding a motherboard that fits, shares the same connection as the screen, tough parts to find. Not to mention fitting it all without having to expand on the original case parts. I made a backplate and 2.5" ssd bay/ divider in the main bay ready for action. But like I said the trick is finding a mobo that fits in the existing space and doesnt cost me 500 dollars and works with the screen that fits in the existing space without too much modification. Then all I have to worry about is how I'm going to power it all (re-chargeable battery pack and a tiny PSU most likely) Then figure out what to do about the keyboard.. it either has to be converted to USB which I have no idea how to do or replaced entirely which may be a long search. Hopefully when I'm done it will all be updated, but true to the original layout/form factor except it will no longer be fanless, running windows CE.

http://www.advantech.com/products/MIO-2260/mod_9FF2B0F4-AA29-417A-8...

This board is sort of like what I'm talking about, it is about the size of a playing card and has sata/video/usb out, also has a CF slot which is kind of ironic.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/pico-SAM9G45-SBC-w-7-LCD-Touchscreen-ARM9-2...

Found this, it can run android and ubuntu but windows xp or 7??? Idk... Lot of things I dont like about it though, its exactly as fast as the original cpu, the screen could work too but it looks kind of cheap. And the USB ports are oddly placed like its made for a case exactly the size of the board which is kind of stupid.. I wish they had more stuff like this on ebay its actually pretty hard to find otherwise.

Edited by Grasshopper 2013-03-16 6:23 AM

From my point of view, it doesn't look cheap I think it looks pretty decent.

But yeah, it is a good price point to try it out!

How does a board with an ARM CPU run XP?

Good question. It can't right, even with XP Embedded

I think the only possible way is to use Qemu, but that is kind of sidetracking.

Here's XP on ARM 1176(Video)



Edited by stingraze 2013-03-16 8:04 AM

Yea I will most definitely be going another route that was just an example of a greatly packaged kit for exactly what I was talking about. Most good small boards are Intel Atom or even VIA makes some nice ones. But what I really want to find or even see is a pico itx board with an AMD APU, and I haven't seen anything smaller than mini itx, not even nano itx, which kind of surprised me with all their talk about mobile computing/tablets. Either way I'm not biased but I wouldn't go the ARM route. I would use a desktop OS, I would even use windows 2000 I have an updated 2011 professional version of it that runs smoother than anything and commands/requires nothing of the hardware compared to XP and especially 7, not my first choice but it would work and I would take it over CE/Android/MAC/Linux any day of the week.