[asterisk-users] building a phone

[Paul Chambers]

Michael Graves wrote:
> Witness the fact that the old Pingtel phones ran Java, and they were 
> incredibly lame.
>
> I think part of what this thread misses is that DSP is a god chunk of 
> what SIP phones need. A general purpose CPU is not the right tool for 
> the task. A cheap DSP is better suited to compression, transcoding, etc.
>
> OTOH, presuming that the snom phones are Linux on a suitable platform 
> soomeone could develop a custom software load for them and OEM the 
> hardware.
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Astfin. Basically uClinux and 
asterisk running on an Analog Devices Blackfin DSP. There's also some 
'open source' hardware that's available - the IP04 and friends. I'm 
using an Edgepbx FX08, and they also have a two-port version (FX02). 
Atcom has a single-port one, the IP01.

Though if I were going to prototype an 'open' SIP phone, I'd probably 
start with a beagle board (TI OMAP3530 - dual-core ARM+DSP). It's a 
pretty powerful SOC - its brother (3430) powers the Palm Pre.

Just another datapoint :)

Paul

Some related links, if anyone's curious:
http://beagleboard.org/
http://www.astfin.org/
http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/
http://www.atcom.cn/En_products_IP01.htm
http://www.edgepbx.com/