IMPORTANT WARNING: DO NOT INSTALL THIS ON A PHYSICAL CALC! YOU WILL LOSE USAGE OF YOUR CALC AND THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO INSTALL ANY OTHER SOFTWARE ON IT!!!

I have decided to make an open-source boot rom for the ez80 calcs. I'm calling it Noti, which can be pronounced many ways

This boot rom will use ZDS toolchain c standard functions, none of TI's code.
However, I am not the most knowledgable when it comes to the calc's hardware. I invite anyone with that know-how to contribute routines and optimizations. For helping you will be credited in the releases.
Noti still lacks a ton of routines at this time.
routines In-progress:
* USB
* RTC
* Timers
* Heap/Malloc
Completed:
* Flash writing, sector erasing
* spi writing
* turning the screen on

I have already begun manually converting the C functions from the ZDS toolchain into a usable format and including them in the GitHub repo.

The goal is to make a CE rom image that may be freely distributed. With this, developers will be able to freely distribute their games and softwares, without requiring the end user to have bought a compatible calculator. Essentially, we as a community would have our market back.

Another goal is to be able to use this on a physical calculator. Eventually.

Forseeably, there will not be a "test mode". However, this may change.

I much appreciate any comments, questions, suggestions, etc. Hopefully this can get off the ground and become as awesome as it could be

Eye candy:

This is a great idea.

However, I thought it was illegal to share or download rom images that are not your own?

If/when this project does get developed further though, is there any chance TI could actually learn some things from your security measures? I would think that even if they do, they'd still be especially leery on taking back what they've publicly announced.

Nonetheless, I am looking forward to seeing this project develop, though I have little knowledge in this area of coding.

That's only for TI's official ROM images. The goal here is to make our own, which can be distributed as we wish.

I'm also interested in exam mode security. It would be interesting, for example, to try and use the python coprocessor as some kind of continual verification. Unfortunately, the way it's hooked up now, it likely would not be so practical.

This is so dumb. There is absolutely no point to this whatsoever other than just a waste of time.

Well by that same logic, the entirety of calculator programming is pointless and dumb. So I'm gonna have to politely ask you to leave that pessimism out of this.
The whole point of this community is to "Make cool things, and teach cool stuff".
Calling something that will only benefit the community if done right a "Waste of time" and "Dumb" is petty. I for one am not giving up on calculator programming, and I know I'm not the only one still fighting for it. This community got me through a shitty time in my life and I sure as hell am not gonna leave because of some corporate entity that never gave a a. So again, I'm gonna have to ask you to stop trying to tear people down for projects you don't agree with.

It's not that I don't "agree" with it. It's that it doesn't serve any legitimate purpose! There is nothing to be gained from it, there is no point to contribute to it, and it doesn't make distributing ROMs any less illegal!

If it doesn't contain TI code longer than acceptable use defined by SCOTUS, it's perfectly legal and there's nothig TI can do about it. Also, there's only so much they can add to their EULA before their court fees add up higher than their profit margin.

What are you even talking about. I'm not saying it is useless because of something with TI, I'm saying that there is zero need for something like this! What is the point in recreating the entire bootcode? The bootcode already exists! We don't need to "make a new one".

Did you even read my initial post?

Maybe I'm crazy, but wouldn't having a custom bootloader allow you to load any OS that you wanted, if compiled for the correct processor, using compatible libs and other somesuch? As of right now, TI's rom forces you to install their software. This would allow you to install any software. Also, as far as illegality goes, you cannot enforce IPR on software you (1) didn't write and (2) publicly distribute source for. Having your own bootloader would eliminate parts of the ROM TI wishes to keep proprietary and combine that with TI's OS that is already open source to my knowledge, you get a ROM that you cannot legally enforce IPR on.

There's no real benefit to having an entirely custom bootcode over a slightly patched TI bootcode, at least in terms of custom OSes. It's like nine bytes difference to disable all OS validation checks. You also couldn't load any OS you wanted - most operating systems rely on processor features like virtual address spaces to run processes, so you could probably only run OSes specifically designed for embedded systems.

TI-OS is not open-source. It's available for download, but not the source. Additionally, it includes a license, and if you violate the ToS (basically, use it for something besides sending it to a calculator), TI can require you to destroy all copies of the OS.

Let the man write his bootcode! There all all sorts of projects I do for no other reason than it's something that looks interesting that I've never done before. Sometimes that thing is either dumb or impossible, but it doesn't stop me trying. If he's having a good time, and it falls under "cool stuff" it belongs here whether it's eminently useful or not.

I would love to see this!! I don't care if it's useless. I would love an OS strictly based on programming!! if it's useless make it look cool!

Ex.

Made a ton of progress today
All the ZDS toolchain routines used will now build without error.
OpenCE is still potentially a calc-bricker at this time.

Update on last night's progress:

Turning on the screen took a crazy amount of effort lol

Moar progress!
Added the ability to turn the calc off upon pressing the clear key from the boot menu, as well as a WIP hex editor, "status bar" , (top) and "spinner"! (top right)

Coming along nicely! I just might decide to buy another CE after all, especially if this works out.

This is a great idea, especially for the on-calc ASM programmers, and soon the whole asm calc community! I'd install this without a doubt with the TI-OS overlayed on top.

So how is usb going to work?

Ask the one who's doing the USB routines, which is not me