My guess to as a dev. One of the pins on the 3 pin wire is going to be ground. Use a multimeter to test for continuity to battery minus. The other two are going to be Rx and Tx. I would probably try a 3.3V UART first. I just checked the datasheet of a similar samsung CPU (S3C44B0x) and it has 3.3V IO.
You don't think the grey wires with the header soldered on contain the backdoor? I've seen a lot of products that use a serial interface to put the device in different states or display startup information.
Intel actually is not scared of Arm. They took over the STRONGARM line from dec which eventually evolved into the intel pxa series of Arm cpus for low power devices like pda's and a jamma board for arcades and more and now they even have Arm cores in their fpga's
Special thanks to Alex for loaning us this rare unit! My Rode mics did me in Saturday, so I learned how to create a narrated 15 minute video in one afternoon (thank you Blue Yeti X). Also trying to convince ex-Intel CEO Craig Barrett's agent that "Chatpad Jam" could be a 1 billion stream hit on Spotify (09:37) :P
small request wrt narration, can u please add a high pass filter? there's random thumps of sub frequencies and i kept thinking someone was behdind me because of it haha
@5:49 This is a sammy s3c box cpu, lmao. it will run rockbox firmware(same cpu in ipod nano) , the pins leaving the cpu at C19(pins 42 to 46 for jtag) going upto to the text r17 (two pins left, two right) are jtag pins so you can dump the firmware and share it. any arduino will work (3v3 or 5v is fine) the wifi is a sammy SPI module and this "board " is supported by uC Linux , J10 looks like the jatg connector so if your trace the otherside you will see. once you backup the firmware we can reverse it.
I think the Tech Time Traveler should definitely dump the firmware! BTW The RF protocol these things used wasn’t WiFi as far as I know, since that would have used more power than you could get out of a few AA batteries.
Yeah but reverse engineer it for what? What's the end goal? If there are, say only 100 it would pretty much do nobody any good. it's not like these are just littered all over the planet looking for a job.
@@pikadroo no you are quite right, theres a documented 1 kinda working model , but what if we crowd sourced a 2024 update for fun ? 'maybe' it will draw out some other units, maybe it will just make this one even more unique and usable, tbh from the one back shot of the board I could already write a rockbox os patch that would boot, not that hard, but when the device was new it would have been harder. Thats more why i want a dump, to see how early intel "did it/wrote it" , what libs did they use? did they use the open source code for the sammy b0x cpu ?
You mentioned something about being a small channel, and then I checked your subscriber count and was surprised. I enjoy your channel very much and immediately watch your videos when they appear. I thought your channel was already huge. It should be!
Many thanks. I think the algorithm just doesn't know how to handle things like 'TV Typewriter' - ie how to find the audience it's intended for. I've tried adding the names of a few 'retro' channels to my tags to help it out, that seems to have improved things a bit. I think it mainly looks for general interest stuff, which is why the Miniscribe video blew up (corporate fraud is always a popular topic), and why videos about more modern stuff like this Chatpad or FUBAR are also doing well. I wish I could find more Miniscribe-like topics - stuff that has crossover appeal. Thankfully there aren't that many stories I guess about shipping bricks in place of hard drives. We wouldn't be living in a very good world if there were lots of those situations, lol!
I think it's fair to call this a prototype, there are many stages of what is considered a "prototype" such as EVT, DVT, and PVT, (engineering, design, and production validation testing) and while these would likely be considered later units in testing, they are still very much prototypes. Great video! I'm glad to see a complete one of these demonstrated and torn down!
The hardware looks pretty straight forward, a 16/32bit RISC microprocessor (ARM), 8Mbit flash, 1Mbit SRAM. If memory serves, these CPU's had an embedded LCD controller (likely what is driving the screen) and 2 UARTS along with a bunch of other peripherals you'd expect. The 3 pin cable that appears to go nowhere would likely be attached to one of those serial ports. Trace where the headers of J10 and J11 go to and you'll quickly find the serial ports. The firmware likely outputs to one of those. A datasheet for the main CPU should be easy enough to find. The serial ports will use standard 5v logic (possibly but unlikely 3v logic), double check in the CPU datasheet. You can throw a cheap logic analyser on the headers to see what is coming out of them although its a bit unnecessary with all of the chips being marked. Once you have found what pins connect to the serial ports (RXD0/TXD0 and RXD1/TXD1) you can connect a standard USB serial adapter to it. Then connect a terminal at 9600, 8, 1, None (FC None). Keep in mind there is no DCE to DTE electronics on the board so don't connect an RS232 serial adapter onto it, there logic levels will be wrong and could damage the CPU's UART. Use a USB serial adapter that has TXD/RXD headers on it. Something like Prolific serial USB/ CH340, that kind of thing. Doing that is harmless to the board, even if you get TXD/RXD around the wrong way. I'm guessing at the connections settings but embedded developers like myself tend to be robots and do the same things over and over again ;) All in all it won't be hard to get some debug output from it. It would make sense for that cable that goes nowhere to be connected to a serial port so dev's can get into the software under what the user is seeing on the screen. As the device was still in development at the time a quick way to connect your dev tools would be needed. I'd leave a simple cable in there that I could quickly connect to. Have fun :)
Missed opportunity for the Cathode Ray Dude "Two of them" bit The question is does this one work? Don't sell yourself short on RUclips, you're a lot bigger than most of us, even those who have tried before. You make quality content on unusual subjects and that drives people in your direction. Give it time! I would definitely call this a prototype. Unfinished and for internal use only.
Many thanks. I tend to be a little self-deprecating by nature - 34k subscribers isn't insignificant by any means, it's insanely huge to me. But of course relative to RUclips generally we're quite small. And that's okay.. I like the 'homey' feel I've stumbled onto here. And all the nice comments like yours!
correct, J10 is usual Altera JTAG style plug, pins 57/58 for uart are used by the lcd in this device , however the "default uart" is set by uboot on the flash
I always love when a viewer swoops in with a second "one-off" type of item from a box in their attic they'd forgotten about until seeing a video on it. This isn't really a *useful* item (esp without the base station talking to it) but considering the backstory it's a pretty cool piece of tech history. What a weird distraction for Intel.
I think Intel got caught up in the 'internet appliance' hype of the late 90s like a lot of companies, didn't want to miss the bandwagon, then after few toilet seat-shaped peripherals and lots of complaints from their main customers unhappy at having to compete with a supplier, they got the heck out. :)
@@TechTimeTravellerI agree with that assessment. The ChatPad itself also was dependent on AOL and other big ISPs developing for it, if they had a change in strategy or fortune that would also put it at risk. For all I know it could in fact have been killed more by AOL than Intel for whatever reasons, and that decision became just another nail in the coffin for Intel’s consumer products division overall.
I've seen new Samsung prototypes, even owned a few, and they look just like the regular device they release except the physical dimensions of the device are very square unlike the rounded edges of the released phone. Even older prototypes of other brands look just like what they released. A prototype is whatever the company says is their prototype really even if it looks just like what gets released.
There are three buttons on the left side. Try holding down the back two at the same time during power up. You showed a 3 pin header on a cable inside the unit which I suspect could be a TTL level serial port. Find out which pin is ground. Connect a scope to one of the other two pins, turn the unit on, and look for signs of activity.
I can't help but wonder if that mystery 3-wire cable is using some kind of serial communication (maybe RS-232? Rx, Tx, and Gnd?) You might try figuring out which of those pins is ground using a multimeter and hooking the others to an oscilloscope. It might be sending debug info on boot!
The three wire cable is very likely a serial port for debugging. Use a meter to determine which of the three wires is ground, then use the other two for Transmit and Receive. They can only go two ways, and the wrong way won't cause any problems. I'd wager 9600 BPS, 8 bits, no parity. PuTTY is your friend.
Fun quip about the up up down down joke someone sent to you in social media. Apparently access to some Konami PC based arcade machine bios/configuration is hidden behind the konami code that you need to input during startup with a USB keyboard. This at this point is legend, with me being fifth in possible chain of broken telephone, but someone apparently got their hands on one of the Konami rhythm game arcade PC's. He posted on a forum asking how he could access bios to get use out of the machine for his personal use to which someone responded "input the konami code in startup with a keyboard" to which the user replied with "haha, funny joke". The guy then answers back with "did you try it?" and next response from the original user was "holy s***" So, while a funny joke, in certain field of machines (MAYBE), it is a joke that turns out to be true.
The "random" wire, is likely a jtag or serial out, the latter being more likely. Using Putty, or any other TTY tool available to you, and a serial to USB adapter, it SHOULD give you more information on the device itself during bootup, and likely offer commands to skip past this pairing stage, assuming it has any software on it to begin with.
0:56 those people dont know that theres several types of prototypes theres design drafts all the way up to a device that almost looks like the final product, with some differences
Linguistically/etymologically the word "prototype" is pretty broad, so it fits in quite nicely, from Greek it expands to synonyms like "first model" or "initial writeup" or "beginning form" or "earliest design", so technically even the Falcon mentioned as an example would also qualify.
I can't find exact datasheets for that chip, but it definitely should have JTAG on one of the corners of the chip. (Allegedly the right edge on the bottom for similar chips) It's very likely that the header pins on the left side of the board are JTAG regardless.
The word "prototype", to my knowledge, can apply to anything up to, and perhaps including, the earliest production samples. Basically anything that isn't final enough to end up on a retail shelf can be called a prototype.
I am impressed that the device at least managed to connect to the base station (even if nothing further happened). I have not reviewed all of the comments, but is there an "easy" way to dump the ROM? Obviously desoldering the chip is not an option...
If it helps, based on my previous experience with embedded devices that J10 connector looks like JTAG, it should be able to take control of the functions on the Samsung ARM SoC and do stuff like inject code, read pin signals, alter run states, etc if you have the right debugger dongle and software development kit that is specific to that series of component from Samsung. What might be more helpful is that J11 is almost guaranteed a standard UART running in CMOS or TTL level, that is to say that it is serial communication similar to RS232 but instead of +12V for high and -12V for low, it is +3.3V (or +5V, but that is rare on ARM chips, +5V could fry it) for high and 0V for low. A common pin-out would be RX, TX, Ground and +5V, you never use the +5V unless you need to power the board from your USB to serial converter, so if you check continuity you should find which is ground, and checking voltage with an oscilloscope or multimeter TX should sporadically give some voltage and RX should be 0V all the time. P.S. If the engineers were from the old guard, you might have to send the special BREAK command (any serial monitor or terminal emulator will have that as a key sequence somewhere) before the serial port starts communicating.
I wonder how the "it _must_ be unfinished bare PCB-levels of early to count as a prototype" people must feel about those who use "beta" to refer to literally any point of a video game's development before the final build, even calling any kind of unused content "beta content".
I'm sure you are already aware, but Escargot exists as a reimplemented server for AIM,, MSN and ICQ in 2024. No telling if any software would work, but in theory, it would just have been a plugin by Intel to drop onto Outlook Express or MSN Messenger.
Those jumpers are probably for debugging (speculation of course), the button is probably to power on, agreed. Board testing would (again probably) be done outside of the case most of the time...
Any of F numerical keys (or F+0-9) could work, but i doubt that they've put an ibteractible BIOS on a prototype: if you have wires for flashing it, don't expect you'll get a full BIOS.
Yeah, I have my doubts there is any bios or extra ability in it, without interfacing to development tools. There just wasn't enough space for a lot of stuff like that back then.
im curious why intel would use a samsung arm chip, if my memory is correct their strongARM/XScale line of arm chips shouldve still been in production at this time
the random jumpers look to be a jtag port which is often use to read and write firmware to a device and also read diagnostic info depending from the CPU depending on how it was buildt
Intel produces a lot of prototype processors at once for testing. It is the nature of the way processors are created you don't just create one at minimal you create an wafer full of them usually a tray or several trays of wafers.
I would maybe try to trace out the connections on the unused header on the board, maybe JTAG or a serial connection? If its prototypes its bound to have something like a JTAG interface.
if you didn’t notice samsung actually made the entire board and most of the components on it lol, i imagine intel was only really involved with software/UX and the outer design of the device (essentially an early form of ODM manufacturing which is really common nowadays) edit: technically more in line with contract manufacturing as samsung made the product specifically to intel’s specifications but i hope you get my point anyway
i think the wireless antenna being in a different place was temporary and probably to allow for the mainboard to be removed and/or swapped more easily. I also imagine that if it were released, someone would've attempted to ‘stream’ a Windows CE or an embedded Linux distro image over instead of the original Intel software, but I imagined so because I remember there were custom ROMs for Zipit Wireless Messenger devices which were based on some version of embedded Linux.
I still have my old Zipit Z2 that I flashed an OpenWRT-based firmware on. It's a neat little device! I remember reading that someone had tried to mine bitcoin on one for fun. Even back then, it wasn't able solve any blocks (or however it works)
my guess for J11 might be a JTAG interface, especially since a very similar chip to the cpu (S3C44B0x) list a jtag interface. also, if the datasheet is anything to go on, this has a arm7tdmi, which is very similar to the GBA!
I went to excitedly click on this video.. only to have it not play. YT broke and wont let me click videos to play, but shorts still work. Great job YT, failing that hard is impressive even for you.
Wow I'm one of the 6 or 7 people that watched it. Was it released to the public no not really so it still falls under prototype in my view, it's a version of a prototype that is slightly finished but of the not yet variety.
Would holding down the big blue navigation keys that sit below the screen at boot do anything? Perhaps one, or a combination of them? I could see that possibly leading to something
I tried that on/off camera. This video was actually a re-shoot after my microphones bombed while I was chatting away trying different things; unfortunately the bit of me trying the function keys didn't make it into the recut.
Nice looking device, would be a perfect terminal for my various Arduino trinkets etc. Just add a serial port, both true RS232 with +-12V signalling and a TTL version of the same. Heck. anyone have a 3D printer - please.....
Hmm, if you were able to track that down even though your channel is small then maybe I should just make a short video about my orange Steam Link. There's no evidence online (aside from someone else who also got one at Goodwill) that anything other than black ever existed, so I may have a special edition that was never released to the public. I tweeted Valve, and I'm a little surprised that they ignored me, since it's unlikely that it's in their best interest to do so (that would be strange that it would be worth giving up a free news article or two of publicity... what are they hiding?).
I'm not sure what to really talk about with it. A lot of others have covered it.. I think one guy even added like, every sidecar available or something? I've been on the hunt for expansion units and had thought about a video struggling to get the 3.5" drive from PC Enterprises working. I love that machine. It's the only one I don't rotate into storage.
@@TechTimeTraveller true, however, I have seen little coverage of older expansion options such as the Rapport/Racore/PC enterprises and similar. Specifically, I have the Racore expansion but do not have the floppy controller, that came with it, which I think supported DMA but I do have an original floppy controller. I also have an old two drive mod (I think was created based on a magazine article) and was hoping to jerry rig it together. Regardless, I love your content.
A second Intel Chat Pad has hit the feed
100% a prototype. I'm with you on this.
My guess is the pin header is a JTAG and the 3 pin wire that doesn't go anywhere is a UART.
My guess to as a dev. One of the pins on the 3 pin wire is going to be ground. Use a multimeter to test for continuity to battery minus. The other two are going to be Rx and Tx. I would probably try a 3.3V UART first. I just checked the datasheet of a similar samsung CPU (S3C44B0x) and it has 3.3V IO.
I was literally screaming at the screen, "that 14 pin header is jtag" lol
@@ParabolicLabs Same here, lol
You don't think the grey wires with the header soldered on contain the backdoor? I've seen a lot of products that use a serial interface to put the device in different states or display startup information.
Same here i insta thought uart on the 3pin one
An ARM in an Intel device, now that's something
Surprised it didn't have a strongarm chip considering it was around the time they bought out DEC's foundry.
i mean intel’s cyclone fpgas have arm cpus
The Intel XScale ARM5 SoCs were released a couple years after this device in 2002 and saw wide deployment in smartphones around that time
Intel actually is not scared of Arm. They took over the STRONGARM line from dec which eventually evolved into the intel pxa series of Arm cpus for low power devices like pda's and a jamma board for arcades and more and now they even have Arm cores in their fpga's
@@309electronics5 Intel is only scared of Itanium
Special thanks to Alex for loaning us this rare unit! My Rode mics did me in Saturday, so I learned how to create a narrated 15 minute video in one afternoon (thank you Blue Yeti X). Also trying to convince ex-Intel CEO Craig Barrett's agent that "Chatpad Jam" could be a 1 billion stream hit on Spotify (09:37) :P
small request wrt narration, can u please add a high pass filter? there's random thumps of sub frequencies and i kept thinking someone was behdind me because of it haha
The ribbon cable with a 3 pin connector really feels like Rx, Tx and ground for UART.
@5:49 This is a sammy s3c box cpu, lmao. it will run rockbox firmware(same cpu in ipod nano) , the pins leaving the cpu at C19(pins 42 to 46 for jtag) going upto to the text r17 (two pins left, two right) are jtag pins so you can dump the firmware and share it. any arduino will work (3v3 or 5v is fine) the wifi is a sammy SPI module and this "board " is supported by uC Linux , J10 looks like the jatg connector so if your trace the otherside you will see. once you backup the firmware we can reverse it.
I think the Tech Time Traveler should definitely dump the firmware! BTW The RF protocol these things used wasn’t WiFi as far as I know, since that would have used more power than you could get out of a few AA batteries.
Yeah but reverse engineer it for what? What's the end goal? If there are, say only 100 it would pretty much do nobody any good. it's not like these are just littered all over the planet looking for a job.
@@pikadroo no you are quite right, theres a documented 1 kinda working model , but what if we crowd sourced a 2024 update for fun ? 'maybe' it will draw out some other units, maybe it will just make this one even more unique and usable, tbh from the one back shot of the board I could already write a rockbox os patch that would boot, not that hard, but when the device was new it would have been harder. Thats more why i want a dump, to see how early intel "did it/wrote it" , what libs did they use? did they use the open source code for the sammy b0x cpu ?
You mentioned something about being a small channel, and then I checked your subscriber count and was surprised. I enjoy your channel very much and immediately watch your videos when they appear. I thought your channel was already huge. It should be!
Many thanks. I think the algorithm just doesn't know how to handle things like 'TV Typewriter' - ie how to find the audience it's intended for. I've tried adding the names of a few 'retro' channels to my tags to help it out, that seems to have improved things a bit. I think it mainly looks for general interest stuff, which is why the Miniscribe video blew up (corporate fraud is always a popular topic), and why videos about more modern stuff like this Chatpad or FUBAR are also doing well. I wish I could find more Miniscribe-like topics - stuff that has crossover appeal. Thankfully there aren't that many stories I guess about shipping bricks in place of hard drives. We wouldn't be living in a very good world if there were lots of those situations, lol!
That base station reminds me of Day of the Tentacle.
Dude! I kept thinking.. this looks familiar.. but couldn't place it. Now I can't unsee it haha
@@TechTimeTraveller I hope it brings back fun memories.
And it can't finish taking over the world...
I think it's fair to call this a prototype, there are many stages of what is considered a "prototype" such as EVT, DVT, and PVT, (engineering, design, and production validation testing) and while these would likely be considered later units in testing, they are still very much prototypes. Great video! I'm glad to see a complete one of these demonstrated and torn down!
The hardware looks pretty straight forward, a 16/32bit RISC microprocessor (ARM), 8Mbit flash, 1Mbit SRAM. If memory serves, these CPU's had an embedded LCD controller (likely what is driving the screen) and 2 UARTS along with a bunch of other peripherals you'd expect.
The 3 pin cable that appears to go nowhere would likely be attached to one of those serial ports. Trace where the headers of J10 and J11 go to and you'll quickly find the serial ports. The firmware likely outputs to one of those. A datasheet for the main CPU should be easy enough to find. The serial ports will use standard 5v logic (possibly but unlikely 3v logic), double check in the CPU datasheet.
You can throw a cheap logic analyser on the headers to see what is coming out of them although its a bit unnecessary with all of the chips being marked. Once you have found what pins connect to the serial ports (RXD0/TXD0 and RXD1/TXD1) you can connect a standard USB serial adapter to it. Then connect a terminal at 9600, 8, 1, None (FC None).
Keep in mind there is no DCE to DTE electronics on the board so don't connect an RS232 serial adapter onto it, there logic levels will be wrong and could damage the CPU's UART. Use a USB serial adapter that has TXD/RXD headers on it. Something like Prolific serial USB/ CH340, that kind of thing. Doing that is harmless to the board, even if you get TXD/RXD around the wrong way.
I'm guessing at the connections settings but embedded developers like myself tend to be robots and do the same things over and over again ;) All in all it won't be hard to get some debug output from it. It would make sense for that cable that goes nowhere to be connected to a serial port so dev's can get into the software under what the user is seeing on the screen. As the device was still in development at the time a quick way to connect your dev tools would be needed. I'd leave a simple cable in there that I could quickly connect to.
Have fun :)
Missed opportunity for the Cathode Ray Dude "Two of them" bit
The question is does this one work?
Don't sell yourself short on RUclips, you're a lot bigger than most of us, even those who have tried before. You make quality content on unusual subjects and that drives people in your direction. Give it time!
I would definitely call this a prototype. Unfinished and for internal use only.
not CRD, but technology connections. lol.
@@TheObsesedAnimeFreaks CRD also has a "two of them" bit in his videos, albeit a different one (google "two of them cats")
Both. There are two of them doing two of them. Lol indeed. @@TheObsesedAnimeFreaks
Two of them is more of a meme from a picture with two kittens. I see it a lot there and here :D
Many thanks. I tend to be a little self-deprecating by nature - 34k subscribers isn't insignificant by any means, it's insanely huge to me. But of course relative to RUclips generally we're quite small. And that's okay.. I like the 'homey' feel I've stumbled onto here. And all the nice comments like yours!
At 11:38 I wonder if the J11 is some sort of serial interface (UART) which might be accessed with a USB TTY dongle
That's what it looks like to me.
Okay but what's the pinout?
@@jackmcslay One will be ground, that is easy to find with a multimeter. The other two are send and receive.
@@zeos386sx Yep that how I usually guess the pinout get the ground correct if there is nothing showing up switch the TX / RX around
probably the jumper cable is ttl serial, and j10 JTAG?
correct, J10 is usual Altera JTAG style plug, pins 57/58 for uart are used by the lcd in this device , however the "default uart" is set by uboot on the flash
Wasn't Expecting to see vwestlife pop up here. Love his channel.
Vwestlife's channel is my go-to for relax and learn stuff mode.
I forgot how prevalent rebate offers were for all computers and peripherals in the 90s
Heh.. I did plenty of box clipping myself back then. It made a difference!
Everyone I knew got dozens of free AOL junk mail CDs.
I always love when a viewer swoops in with a second "one-off" type of item from a box in their attic they'd forgotten about until seeing a video on it. This isn't really a *useful* item (esp without the base station talking to it) but considering the backstory it's a pretty cool piece of tech history. What a weird distraction for Intel.
I think Intel got caught up in the 'internet appliance' hype of the late 90s like a lot of companies, didn't want to miss the bandwagon, then after few toilet seat-shaped peripherals and lots of complaints from their main customers unhappy at having to compete with a supplier, they got the heck out. :)
@@TechTimeTravellerI agree with that assessment. The ChatPad itself also was dependent on AOL and other big ISPs developing for it, if they had a change in strategy or fortune that would also put it at risk. For all I know it could in fact have been killed more by AOL than Intel for whatever reasons, and that decision became just another nail in the coffin for Intel’s consumer products division overall.
I've seen new Samsung prototypes, even owned a few, and they look just like the regular device they release except the physical dimensions of the device are very square unlike the rounded edges of the released phone. Even older prototypes of other brands look just like what they released. A prototype is whatever the company says is their prototype really even if it looks just like what gets released.
I enjoyed the Max Headroom-inspired remix of the Intel CEO's announcement as an interlude.
There are three buttons on the left side. Try holding down the back two at the same time during power up. You showed a 3 pin header on a cable inside the unit which I suspect could be a TTL level serial port. Find out which pin is ground. Connect a scope to one of the other two pins, turn the unit on, and look for signs of activity.
9:55 That truly made my day! It would be awesome to see this device finally running, but I think this is not possible.
I can't help but wonder if that mystery 3-wire cable is using some kind of serial communication (maybe RS-232? Rx, Tx, and Gnd?) You might try figuring out which of those pins is ground using a multimeter and hooking the others to an oscilloscope. It might be sending debug info on boot!
The three wire cable is very likely a serial port for debugging. Use a meter to determine which of the three wires is ground, then use the other two for Transmit and Receive. They can only go two ways, and the wrong way won't cause any problems. I'd wager 9600 BPS, 8 bits, no parity. PuTTY is your friend.
Yes CompUSA had a rebate for the base station and a bunch of the peripherals
That 3-wire cable that's soldered on looks like a serial connector. Hook it up and have a listen!
Fun quip about the up up down down joke someone sent to you in social media.
Apparently access to some Konami PC based arcade machine bios/configuration is hidden behind the konami code that you need to input during startup with a USB keyboard.
This at this point is legend, with me being fifth in possible chain of broken telephone, but someone apparently got their hands on one of the Konami rhythm game arcade PC's. He posted on a forum asking how he could access bios to get use out of the machine for his personal use to which someone responded "input the konami code in startup with a keyboard" to which the user replied with "haha, funny joke". The guy then answers back with "did you try it?" and next response from the original user was "holy s***"
So, while a funny joke, in certain field of machines (MAYBE), it is a joke that turns out to be true.
IIRC it's also a code to access hidden menus on some Roku devices (substituting or skipping A/B/Start with what's on the remote)
Samsung S3C440 ARM chip, did more than a few bring-ups of that chip on boards that no one will ever see...
The "random" wire, is likely a jtag or serial out, the latter being more likely. Using Putty, or any other TTY tool available to you, and a serial to USB adapter, it SHOULD give you more information on the device itself during bootup, and likely offer commands to skip past this pairing stage, assuming it has any software on it to begin with.
Still an interesting device that could have only existed like that in the 90s up to mid 2000s.
0:56 those people dont know that theres several types of prototypes
theres design drafts all the way up to a device that almost looks like the final product, with some differences
The loose cable on the inside with 3 pins is potentially a serial cable might be able to connect to teraterm
we need full version of the the chatpad to the pc to the isp
Linguistically/etymologically the word "prototype" is pretty broad, so it fits in quite nicely, from Greek it expands to synonyms like "first model" or "initial writeup" or "beginning form" or "earliest design", so technically even the Falcon mentioned as an example would also qualify.
I can't find exact datasheets for that chip, but it definitely should have JTAG on one of the corners of the chip. (Allegedly the right edge on the bottom for similar chips)
It's very likely that the header pins on the left side of the board are JTAG regardless.
The word "prototype", to my knowledge, can apply to anything up to, and perhaps including, the earliest production samples. Basically anything that isn't final enough to end up on a retail shelf can be called a prototype.
I would say keep your eye open for another chatpad. might have software with it
Surely those wires with the header on them are a serial interface. Put a scope on them, you should see activity.
I am impressed that the device at least managed to connect to the base station (even if nothing further happened).
I have not reviewed all of the comments, but is there an "easy" way to dump the ROM? Obviously desoldering the chip is not an option...
If it helps, based on my previous experience with embedded devices that J10 connector looks like JTAG, it should be able to take control of the functions on the Samsung ARM SoC and do stuff like inject code, read pin signals, alter run states, etc if you have the right debugger dongle and software development kit that is specific to that series of component from Samsung.
What might be more helpful is that J11 is almost guaranteed a standard UART running in CMOS or TTL level, that is to say that it is serial communication similar to RS232 but instead of +12V for high and -12V for low, it is +3.3V (or +5V, but that is rare on ARM chips, +5V could fry it) for high and 0V for low. A common pin-out would be RX, TX, Ground and +5V, you never use the +5V unless you need to power the board from your USB to serial converter, so if you check continuity you should find which is ground, and checking voltage with an oscilloscope or multimeter TX should sporadically give some voltage and RX should be 0V all the time.
P.S. If the engineers were from the old guard, you might have to send the special BREAK command (any serial monitor or terminal emulator will have that as a key sequence somewhere) before the serial port starts communicating.
thanks alex!
You’re welcome!
I wonder how the "it _must_ be unfinished bare PCB-levels of early to count as a prototype" people must feel about those who use "beta" to refer to literally any point of a video game's development before the final build, even calling any kind of unused content "beta content".
that button may be the reset button as there ius a reset on the back of the plastic housing
the base station can connect to toilet seats ... according to the images in the sw window...?!
That was the future!!!!!! Back in 1999-2000
Looking back, the future was kinda disappointing lol
@@TechTimeTraveller xD, oh well there were cool things back then, like the PDAs, specially the handspringvisor Palm and the Gameboy Color, good times.
Anything else think he actually; kind of, pulls off sounding so hip? Internet exposure: the real equalizer?
a prototype is a proof of concept. pre production. so yes.. you have a prototype
It's not a prototype, it's an engineering sample. Intel said so.
I see these as prototype. Anything made for testing before production are prototypes in my eyes.
Just try to hold down as many as possible keys during startup
I'm sure you are already aware, but Escargot exists as a reimplemented server for AIM,, MSN and ICQ in 2024. No telling if any software would work, but in theory, it would just have been a plugin by Intel to drop onto Outlook Express or MSN Messenger.
I would had bought that. I had a 3COM Palm then a Handspring pda.
Those jumpers are probably for debugging (speculation of course), the button is probably to power on, agreed. Board testing would (again probably) be done outside of the case most of the time...
Maybe press and hold power for ~20 seconds, either on power up or after it’s on?
the random button may be a switch for the wi-fi card on or off. or for another part.
The three-pin cable is most likely TTL-level UART GND, TX, RX.
Any of F numerical keys (or F+0-9) could work, but i doubt that they've put an ibteractible BIOS on a prototype: if you have wires for flashing it, don't expect you'll get a full BIOS.
Yeah, I have my doubts there is any bios or extra ability in it, without interfacing to development tools. There just wasn't enough space for a lot of stuff like that back then.
im curious why intel would use a samsung arm chip, if my memory is correct their strongARM/XScale line of arm chips shouldve still been in production at this time
Intel probably started with a even more prototype version than this one.
I honestly think Prototype was more fun than inFamous but it felt like there was less to do.
4:30 Everyone got their seat belts on?
the random jumpers look to be a jtag port which is often use to read and write firmware to a device and also read diagnostic info depending from the CPU depending on how it was buildt
Intel produces a lot of prototype processors at once for testing. It is the nature of the way processors are created you don't just create one at minimal you create an wafer full of them usually a tray or several trays of wafers.
Copy the win98 folder from disk to hdd and when youre asked for the disc point it to the copied folder and it will never ask for the cd again
Welp, I guess we can only prototype with one unit at a time. And we can't prototype with their cases, since they need to be exposed PCB
isn't the unknown button on the PCB the reset button you use often to restart it?
I would maybe try to trace out the connections on the unused header on the board, maybe JTAG or a serial connection? If its prototypes its bound to have something like a JTAG interface.
Well stands to reason there has to be at least one other chatpad, or who would you chat to?
Is there a hole on the back of the device? If yes maybe you can press the hidden button by injecting a pin into that hole
Such a neat deal kind of like apple emate
the chat pad to the PC to your ISP.
the chat pad to the pc to your isp
Revers engineer it and make your own. It is abandoned-ware.
I wonder if its possible to see what the Chatpad is looking for?
If there's any specific requests being sent to the host PC.
There is no BIOS, Use the Jtag header to load new firmware with the xilinks software.
You can at least dump the firmware from that SPI flash, let's reverse engineer it.
That Samsung chip is hilarious. I guess intel didn't have any spare chips laying around 😂
if you didn’t notice samsung actually made the entire board and most of the components on it lol, i imagine intel was only really involved with software/UX and the outer design of the device (essentially an early form of ODM manufacturing which is really common nowadays)
edit: technically more in line with contract manufacturing as samsung made the product specifically to intel’s specifications but i hope you get my point anyway
i think the wireless antenna being in a different place was temporary and probably to allow for the mainboard to be removed and/or swapped more easily.
I also imagine that if it were released, someone would've attempted to ‘stream’ a Windows CE or an embedded Linux distro image over instead of the original Intel software, but I imagined so because I remember there were custom ROMs for Zipit Wireless Messenger devices which were based on some version of embedded Linux.
I still have my old Zipit Z2 that I flashed an OpenWRT-based firmware on. It's a neat little device! I remember reading that someone had tried to mine bitcoin on one for fun. Even back then, it wasn't able solve any blocks (or however it works)
That antenna-looking thing poking up from the screen was there to make the product look wireless, but it wasn't the actual location of the antenna.
my guess for J11 might be a JTAG interface, especially since a very similar chip to the cpu (S3C44B0x) list a jtag interface. also, if the datasheet is anything to go on, this has a arm7tdmi, which is very similar to the GBA!
YOOOOOOOO dude found the THING LESS GOOOOOOO
I went to excitedly click on this video.. only to have it not play. YT broke and wont let me click videos to play, but shorts still work. Great job YT, failing that hard is impressive even for you.
I bet 3 pin is UART TX/RX/GND
U2 - 128Kx16 High-speed CMOS static RAM
U3- CMOS Multi-Purpose Flash (MPF)
the ribbon cable is some sort of serial port, if its easy its a TTL RS232, so RX, TX and ground but is it 3.3 volt or 5 volt? break out a scope
Wow I'm one of the 6 or 7 people that watched it.
Was it released to the public no not really so it still falls under prototype in my view, it's a version of a prototype that is slightly finished but of the not yet variety.
Very interesting stuff!
Would holding down the big blue navigation keys that sit below the screen at boot do anything? Perhaps one, or a combination of them? I could see that possibly leading to something
I tried that on/off camera. This video was actually a re-shoot after my microphones bombed while I was chatting away trying different things; unfortunately the bit of me trying the function keys didn't make it into the recut.
I’m thinking the breeze flapping cable is a JTAG interface. Try STM Cube??? Cheers 👍
Voodoo rituals of 1990's personal computers
Hello there. If you have merch, I do not see it. Where did you get the OSI (Ohio Scientific Tee-Shirt) that you sent Adrian?
Nice looking device, would be a perfect terminal for my various Arduino trinkets etc. Just add a serial port, both true RS232 with +-12V signalling and a TTL version of the same.
Heck. anyone have a 3D printer - please.....
No tapping on the 3 wire to a terminal software to check if it is a serial connection?
You sound so Canadian. "Ageenst it"
hehe
do a jerryrigeverything to it
They are litterally prototypes so dont feel bad about calling what it is
Hmm, if you were able to track that down even though your channel is small then maybe I should just make a short video about my orange Steam Link. There's no evidence online (aside from someone else who also got one at Goodwill) that anything other than black ever existed, so I may have a special edition that was never released to the public. I tweeted Valve, and I'm a little surprised that they ignored me, since it's unlikely that it's in their best interest to do so (that would be strange that it would be worth giving up a free news article or two of publicity... what are they hiding?).
Thanks for pronouncing my name right
Not that I didn't find this video interesting but I noticed the PCjr to the right. Plans for a PCjr video in the works?
I'm not sure what to really talk about with it. A lot of others have covered it.. I think one guy even added like, every sidecar available or something? I've been on the hunt for expansion units and had thought about a video struggling to get the 3.5" drive from PC Enterprises working. I love that machine. It's the only one I don't rotate into storage.
Really? hasn't it been done to death?
@@TechTimeTraveller true, however, I have seen little coverage of older expansion options such as the Rapport/Racore/PC enterprises and similar. Specifically, I have the Racore expansion but do not have the floppy controller, that came with it, which I think supported DMA but I do have an original floppy controller. I also have an old two drive mod (I think was created based on a magazine article) and was hoping to jerry rig it together. Regardless, I love your content.
no... yahoo is still in service and free
An Intel product with a CPU not made by Intel. Interesting.
Hows about installing a pi in the empty case?
why? for what?
@@pikadroo I have no idea, but it does have a keyboard and screen, so I'm sure someone will know how to use a pi in it
Thumbnail be like:
Prototype?
NO
wow